Chapter 2
1096 Words
They were huddled together at the back of a truck. It was not only the participants who were going to Xanaga.
Katlo was able to identify one who had always been a loud mouthed girl throughout the orientation.
She remembered with a faint smiled that when the talkative girl’s name was called she stood up with an air of importance and hushed everyone so as to hear clearly her place of service. Her smugness changed into desolation upon hearing that she was going to Xanaga as well. She was crushed and it was evident from her sullenness in the truck.
To Katlo it was a blessing because she was not ready to entertain her rants let alone a conversation with her. She just wanted to keep to herself and be lost in misery.
There were around fifteen participants in the truck. The driver was to make several stops passing by other villages to drop off some participants.
The last village was Matsapo, approximately 70 kilometres after Xanaga, of that she was sure because earlier on she had made acquaintance with the driver.
He had seen a young girl who seemed completely lost and alone. She was standing by the truck with eyes glimmering with unshed tears. He could not help but feel sorry for her. He went up to her and they conversed.
“Sir, please be honest with me, is Xanaga as bad as they said it was?”
“Take it this way, if previous participants were able to serve and finish, in fact most actually enjoyed it. Why would you not?” He asked in a reassuring tone.
“Besides, I can tell that you are a tough one and you will do just fine” He smiled at her.”
He liked her mannerism and she seemed to be a polite girl, well raised by the way she was respectful when addressing him. He comforted her and told her the place she was going to, was not as bad as people made it to be.
From the conversation with the driver, she got to know a few things about the place: A primary school was the only Government facility available, other than a mobile clinic that comes once in 2 weeks.
When she enquired about transport, the driver had told her that there were no vehicles in the settlement save to say that that occasionally there were vehicles that would pass by to and from Matsapo, mostly it would be cattle owners or farmers going to check on their farms.
At that she felt her spirit dampen.
She was oblivious to the fact that they had arrived at the first village. She was brought to her senses by a burning sensation in her bladder. She jumped down with few others to go and relieve herself.
The journey had been smooth so far. The road was tarred all the way. It was evident from the flow of vehicles that this was a bigger village. Everything she hoped could be at Xanaga was in this village, they even had street lights!
She went up to the driver who was helping the boys to offload some things from the truck.
“The next village is Xanaga right?” It was more of an urge for the driver to answer in affirmative.
“How far is it from here?” She continued.
“Indeed it is” the driver answered with a smile.
He continued, “It should be twenty kilometres of tarred road and around fifteen more kilometres of gravel road, the rest of the road up until Matsapo is gravel.”
“Will you be going back to the district headquarters today?” She probed.
“I do not think so, my intention is to spend the night in Matsapo and return the next day.” He answered without a clue in the world as to why she asked the question.
For Katlo it was the best news she heard the entire week for her plan was taking shape.
Within an hour they were back on the road.
The twenty kilometre tarred road was the main road going north to the border. This was indeed a busy road. When the truck slowed down to take a right turn on to the gravel road, she glanced to see a board sign written ‘Xanaga 15 km’.
The terrain started to change. The supposedly gravel road was actually very sandy thus making the truck to skid from time to time. This compelled the driver to reduce speed. The fifteen kilometre road felt like hundreds of kilometres.
By the time they arrived. It was already dark. The truck stopped at a compound which had three scattered houses. In addition to the houses, there was a traditional house in the form of a thatched hut in the middle of the compound. Flickers of light could be seen in the other two houses but the one closer to the gate and the hut were dark.
The moon was a blessing that night, there was enough light to make out three people, two women and a chubby man to be precise. They came up to the truck where the four participants had jumped down from the truck and were offloading their belongings. They introduced the round man as the head teacher and the women as senior teachers.
After the introductions, they were shown to their quarters. The house had two rooms and participants were expected to share a room. With the two boys in one room Katlo was paired with the talkative girl. Her name was Mpho.
“It is just for this night” she consoled herself as she lit the candles that were earlier given to them by one of the teachers.
There were two small beds on either side of the room. Sleep was all she could think of as she covered her bed with the bedding she took out from her suitcase.
Her roommate was busy unpacking her stuff as well. She even had time to unpack her trunk which contained mostly food and canned items. When she took out the three burner cooker and connected the gas cylinder, Katlo shook her head in disbelief at her energy.
All she wanted was some peace and quiet. The girl was shifting things around making rattling and squeaking sound that was irritating her.
“Oh gosh, how am I going to cope with this” she thought to herself. “Just this night is all I need to get through, tomorrow will be a new day”.
After the mammoth task of making her bed, she murmured a polite “good night" and hit the sack. Within seconds, she was out like a light.
- Writer
