Growing up in rural Zimbabwe – Part 2

The Journey to town continues…

Well like i said, this was a mighty long journey in my young mind and that made it it even sweeter. But maybe before we actually get into the bus, going back to the preparations which was just on its own a super-exciting exercise, i guess it set the tone for the journey. I couldn’t wait to get into bed and wake up when its time to go but funny enough i couldn’t even sleep. I would be alert to the slightest sound the whole night waiting for the early morning cockerel. That was the alarm of the time and very reliable it was.  Since the bus used to come early, by 3am we should be at the bus station. That was exciting enough, practically the whole family would wake up to walk us to the station (which was nothing really just a tree and some stones to sit on while you wait).  We would make our way quietly in the dark, our eye sight must have been real good because we never had a torch or anything except the moon if the sky was clear). The station was about 2km away next to the school and the shopping centre.

Getting there we would light a fire and sit around it and wait impatiently while the elders chatted away about this and that. I remember my grandmother would be giving last minute instructions to whoever was staying behind, not to forget to make sure all the chickens are in their enclosure every night and the goats and the sheep and the cattle…..and then just when you think there can’t possibly anymore, to make sure all the huts are locked before sleeping and to please remember to return that bowl of mealie-meal we had borrowed from a neighbour……. and the list went on and on. She would be inside the bus and she will be hanging out the window still giving instructions, if a pen and a paper weren’t so difficult to come by, i would think she should have just written a book of instructions once and for all.

Anyway, the bus would finally come, i loved the sight of it approaching, it was this big machine that was finally taking us to TOWN. The exhilaration! Sometimes it would be full then you must stand and let the elders sit, if it wasn’t full that was a bonus. But that was beside the point, there we were, we made it, we were inside. So the journey would begin slowly, constantly stopping to pick up more people in different pick up points on the way until it was finally too full to pick up anymore. I could see the disappointment in people’s eyes if the bus passed their station because it was full. Or sometimes it would stop and someone would try to get in with no success and they had to get out. That would probably be the lowest point especially considering the area was serviced by one bus per day. So if it leaves you, you just have to wait for tomorrow and that wasn’t nice at all.

So we would settle in the bus and almost immediately, the eating would start even though it would be as early as 5am, once in the bus the food must come out. It was a sort of a status thing, you just had to have something to eat.  Remember the chicken…..now it came out and everyone would get their piece, a big one which didn’t happen too often considering the size of the family.  So we will eat and finish before the next big stop where the bus would stop and give everyone an opportunity to go and relieve themselves and buy. Then my grandmother would get off and take our empty coke bottles (the 300ml) one for each of us. This was also a once off, for us to get a bottle of coke without having to share it, it only happened inside the bus. Then she would buy some goodies too, my favourite the pork pie,by the way i still get myself plenty of those everytime i am at home. Well in a nutshell, there were 4 of those shopping centres (growth points) where we would buy and each one was different. One was famous for cooked mealies, even though we had a field full of those back home, we still bought them. The other one was famous for what was called rock buns and egg and tomato sandwiches. Then there was one where the bus didnt stop for so long so we could buy stuff through the window and we always bought boiled eggs there. You can imagine the smell but i promise you it smelled like heaven at the time.

In Town

Its been about 6hrs in the bus, finally we are there. The rush, the bustle of the city can quite intimidating if you are not used to it, but i just loved it, even the signed seemed to shine better there. Everything was just beautiful there, the noise of the passing cars can be quite enthralling if all you are used is the sound of one bus from a distance per day.

Thembi

Thembi and her siblings set about on their way to school, she would have loved to wait for her friend but Mavis was notorious for being late, so she wasn’t going to get caught up in that.  There were many other kids on the way, chatting away as usual. Going to school was nothing more than routine for most of these children, there was no real excitement about it. So as far as they were concerned, they went to school to become students. This kind of mentality could really be blamed on the home environment for many of them. The parents themselves could hardly write their own names later on have an understanding of what school was about.

There was this one man in particular who would be a classical example of how society regarded school. He had a lot of cattle and he was very much involved in maize farming, he was probably the best in the whole village. This man didn’t want his children to go to school, in his view it was a complete waste of valuable time that could be spent in the fields or herding cattle. He boasted so much on how he was doing just fine without any formal education, so his children must follow his example, as far as he was concerned, the schools were making the kids lazy. So all of his children only went to school to learn to write a letter, which was the most common means of communication by then. The inspiration was simply not there for the children to become anything.

But Thembi was hopeful, that one day she will make it, at least to get her family out of the miserable life they were currently living. She looked up to her teachers, they seemed to be having a good life. She constantly worried though about how she was going to make it through school, its not like finances were abundantly available especially now that Mother couldn’t continue going to the market. They had a lot of relatives but most of them were struggling with their own families as well.

Her uncles from her father’s side were mean old bags in her eyes, she never saw them being helpful at all, they seemed to disappear on end only to show up when they needed her and he siblings to do some chores for them. This uncle in particular, the oldest in Father’s family had a brood of children all over the place, so much so that he even forgot their names. He would just call any name and the one closest to him would respond. Almost every second month another long lost child appeared and Thembi seriously thought this was beginning to interfere with his mind. He was now known for having a full blown conversation with himself. There were rumors that he had started sleep walking so much that he would milk a cow without even knowing it in the middle of the night……

So there wasn’t much hope for help from that side, her uncles were popular for all the wrong reasons, drinking, fighting amongst themselves and there were also stories going around about women. Mother’s side of the family was a little bit more sober but they truly weren’t in a position to offer any financial support. Thembi was fairly good at all her subjects, one of her teachers always said if she could more effort she’ll make it through her O Levels. Although it seemed so far fetched Thembi promised herself she would try.

This particular day was one of those that Thembi dreaded, the school fees was due and she and her siblings had fallen quite a few months behind. There was no way to pay, Mother had used up all their remaining assets trying to find a cure for Father and now she was sick herself. The Headmaster was doing his rounds, calling out the culprits to go and gather at the assembly point so they can go back home. Thembi just waited for her turn wondering how she was going to get around this one. Her teacher, Mr Dhliwayo had always negotiated on her behalf saying she has a lot of potential she shouldn’t be missing class. But today was different, the Head was having none of it, more than half of the school was in arrears.

Exactly an hour after getting to school, Thembi and her siblings were on their way back home, along with Mavis who was livid. ‘You see, I told you this is useless. I will just go off and get myself a job and start earning some money rather than going to school everyday only to come back an hour later!’, she fumed. Thembi was silent for a moment wondering if what her friend was saying was maybe a good idea after all. But she was scared, she couldn’t just go off to the city by herself, all the terrible stories she had heard of the city. ‘No my friend, I don’t think that is a good idea at all. The city is too big and we don’t know anyone there. What if we disappear like Lorraine, remember? Up to this day no one knows what happened to her!’, Thembi said to her friend stopping briefly to look her in the eye.

Mavis roared with laughter. ‘You know Thembi, I don’t even know what I am still doing here with you. You are so naive sometimes its beyond me!’, she said throwing up her hands as if in surrender. ‘Are you seriously telling me you believe that nonsense. I promise you that Lorraine is living it up in the city, you’ll see her one day she’ll show up here in a big car. And you’ll still be playing the ‘school game’, well my friend, not me’.

Thembi kept quiet, she knew better than to get into an argument with her friend, she decided they will talk it over another day when the mood was better.

‘Thembi let the kids go home while you accompany me to the shops. I have to get something’, that was Mavis already slowing down so they can take the way to the shop.

‘Oh, what do you want get? So if you have money why didn’t you put it towards your fees?’, asked Thembi surprised.

‘And sleep on an empty stomach?’, Mavis raised her eyebrows. Thembi shrugged and told the kids to go she will be with them soon. She knew she would probably get into trouble with Mother who didn’t like it when she wandered around the shops, so much so that she didn’t even send her there. She would much rather go herself. Thembi decided that just this once was not so bad. And so they took off……