Through It All

The role Miss Opio in the family

It was a good and blessed morning when the rainy season had started. Miss Opio woke up very early and prepared breakfast for the family before they could start the daily chores. She prepared porridge and cassava for the family because they needed to gain more energy for the tough chores of the day.

Miss Opio and the daughters had to sort the seeds for planting while the boys and Mr.Opio were clearing the garden for planting.

They sorted maize, millet and beans for they were the commonly grown crops in the area. During the sorting Janet who had been in the city came with many gifts for siblings. They were very happy see her. The day was a busy one that the very exhausted.

The next day started with planting the seeds for they believed 'the earlier the planting, the more yields got . Days passed and time for weeding came when they had to w**d the gardens. Miss Opio had to lead her children during the weeding when the husband would be off for his construction work.

In the village, there was a very thick forest which the villagers refer to as the forest of monkeys. People in the area had to be aware of the monkeys which destroyed their planted crops. Children had

to organise in groups with the drums to make noise and scare away the monkeys from the maize plantations. It was a very enjoyable and interesting moment for the children. Children had a lot of fun and made new friends during this period. However, it was tiresome and exhausting when it came to dealing with the curious and stubborn monkeys. They climbed trees as the children ran after them. Some people used scare crows to guard their plantations against monkeys. Others trapped and killed the monkeys.

The forest was a major source of timber and firewood to village members. Firewood was used for cooking and the timber was used for roofing houses, making furniture and some times sold as an export product to earn foreign exchange.

After some months, time for harvesting came and the crops had yielded extremely well because of the good rains that were received in they rainy season during the planting. Miss Opio praised and thanked God. Saying, the Lord has blessed the work of our hands. This season was a blessing to the entire village because their crops had yielded well than the previous season. During the previous season , the sunshine had destroyed their planted crops at an early stage hence reduced the expected harvests and yields. So this time God had heard their prayers.

Men would harvest maize and beans during the harvesting of the crops because they had other jobs to do. Harvesting these needed less time. This was done to help the women with the harvesting of the crops. Millet picking was mainly work for women. Women were good in harvesting millet which needs a lot of time in harvesting.

During the harvesting of the crops, they discussed their family issues because they would work in groups to cope up with time for other activities like drying up the harvests. This activity brought many women together because there were noise other activities that would bring women together.

One day during the harvesting of the crops, Miss Opio brought the idea of forming associations among the women to help them save their money for taking their children to school. Everyone supported the idea for it was very difficult for a single person to raise school fees for a child. Because of this many people in the village were not educated. Miss Christine, a good friend to Miss Opio, was very pleased with the friend's idea. She supplemented that this was also going to bring unity among the women. It would act as a platform for the women's and children'saffairs . The women joined hands and saved money for funding their children's education. There would be a lot of stories among the women during the harvesting of the crops.

Miss Opio would store some of the harvests for the case of hunger outbreak. The dry season in the area always came with associated problems of famine. This affected many people who had not preserved part of their harvests.

Mr Opio's family was a honourable and respected family in the area. It was among the few families that had tried to their children to school.

Miss Opio kept some chicken which she fed on the maize bran and some fleshy leaves. She got eggs from her poultry project. She sold the eggs and some chicken whenever children were about to report back to school to cover up their shopping needs of the school.

Abel had started a grocery in the nearby trading centre during his high school vacation. He sold there tomatoes, beans , mangoes, apples and many other jobs to things which he bought from the mother at a low price and sold them at somehow a high price to make profits. He used his savings for shopping before joining college. Every boy in Mr Opio's family was very creative. They made and sold popcorns during school holidays. The girls had learnt basket weaving skills from the mother.