UNDETERRED.

I was born in a beautiful village, deep down the valleys of central Kenya. Nguthuru is adored by beautiful trees, coffee plantations, rivers, indigenous shrubs, melodious birds and good-hearted people. I am the 8th born in a family of 9. Just like every other village girl, I enjoyed living in the village.. we played with mud, we sang in the rain, we climbed mango trees.. we lived. Fast forward, the joy and innocence of a 7 years little girl, was cut by an incident that saw me separate from both my parents. My mum and Dad had this ugly fight that had my dad pick what I later learned were important documents, like title deeds, insurance and others. My dad left. For 10 years we never heard or saw our dad, I was only 7 and my younger brother was 1. We were too young to explain to our older siblings what exactly transpired. All we knew, was our dad left. Fast forward, my mum had to fend for all of us and this forced her to move into a small shopping centre 2kms away from our home. At the time my older siblings were in boarding schools except for my big brother and my sister, slightly older than me. My mum, forced by the tough situations of raising the 9 children alone, left the 3 of us at home and relocated to the shopping centre to run a small business there. Life was hard, We suffered, we fend, washed and cooked for ourselves, our brother was helpful. We would visit our mum once in a while, she'd come to visit us too. We discovered, learned, prepared ourselves for school. I loved music, I learned and sang this song too many times " You left for the city, many years ago, promise to come back and take care of us." I loved this beautiful touching song by Lucky Dube. This song symbolises my life. This song made me teary, I missed my Dad. I missed being raised by a parent. I never learned love, never learned trust. Never believed. I learned to defend myself, a bad and good virtue I struggle with until today, I am told I am overly defensive. Fast forward, My brother was transferred to a boarding school, my sister too. My small brother was staying with our eldest sister. I remained alone. I couldn't stay in the village alone and I had to join my mum in the shopping centre. I was excited, never thought this would be the genesis of my problems.