TALES OF AFRICA.

It was Oyoo's tendency to wake up early in the morning to attend to his plants in the farm.Things turned up when Jael,the last born daughter of Oyoo came shouting,"babaa,mama luongi" meaning,"dad,mom is calling you".Oyoo needed no further explanation for he knew that his wife was expecting a baby soon.Joyce,Oyoo's wife,was laid on a cart and taken to one of the renowned midwives. After a few hours,cry of a newborn baby was heard.Oyoo was curious to know of what gender his baby was."Congratulations,the delivery was successful and your wife has brought forth a baby boy",said the midwife.From Oyoo were the sighs of relief. That wasn't all it takes to be a parent.Conception and delivery are stages with less tasks.Those were the days when there was scarcity of baby shoals as well as napkins.The concept of used,abandoned and old clothes was common.Oluoch was the name of the new born baby.As days passed by,Joyce started sickling and during this period,Oluoch was a month old.Joyce's condition deteriorated drastically. The then herbalists tried through thick and thin but this was all in vain.This was the era when there were no hospitals equipped for diagnosis.The days when one could die of common treatable diseases.Thanks to evolution and civilization that made us to this state of today where one can access medication.Oyoo could do nothing apart from watching his wife die of a disease they refered to as strange.What a pity to Oluoch who was only six weeks old and dearly needed to be breast fed.Oyoo who stood agaze,was left with a single question,why his wife had to abandon their son so soon. Arrangement was made for the burial. Now the task was survival of the infant without the mother.The baby required close attention that couldn't be offered by the father,what a pity Jael who by then was still schooling,was left with no option but to quit schooling to look after her brother.This was the only option,killing one's dream for success of the other. Oyoo could milk two of his cattle, spare a better quadrant of it to sustain Oluoch.As days went by,the child grew to the stage of crawling.This is the most tiresome stage where the child has to be monitored closely.It's always so sad that unexpected do happen.Oluoch played till evening and nobody could notice sign of any ailment in him.Jael fed the baby and prepared him to sleep only to be woken up by cries of the baby at around midnight. She actually knew not what came over the baby to make him cry in that bitter manner.Oyoo on waking up,went out and brought some herbs with him.He prepared the herbs and administered it orally to the baby.It took less than hour for the baby to go to sleep. Thanks to Almighty this didn't happen as was thought. Days went by and then hooray,there was Oluoch standing on his two feet and ready to learn. Despite the hardship,he had to survive without the mother.Jael was a bit relieved for the brother hardly needed to be carried to every place. Oluoch,having the ability to move himself around,started learning verbal communication through Jael.Years passed and the little boy reached an age where he could be taken to school to start his new life as a pupil.These were the days when we had to cross our right hands over our heads to get hold of our left ears.This was the only test to confirm if you were ready enough to start learning.For success is fought for,Oluoch through thick and thin tried not dissapoint his success. Destiny sometimes,is somehow not fair to some of us.Destiny is the father to all sorrows.Destiny is an eraser to many dreams.What a pity destiny do make us feel.This was the most cheerful day,the day that everyone was celebrating their success but the famous champion,Oluoch,was not in the mood of accepting his results for the exams they sat for.I surely came to believe that we have a bond with our parents that triggers our senses whenever they are in serious danger.This to me,was an approval that blood is thicker than water. Oluoch whose day appeared to be hectic,longed that the day could end for their dispersal.Things turned upside down when Oluoch arrived home only to find Oyoo,his father,laid on a matt.Even though it's the parent that understands the pain of bringing up and naturing a child,Oluoch's pain was felt to be more.He couldn't understand why his only bread winner could be in such agony.Herbs couldn't heal him despite several trials.Oluoch blamed life for the unfairness for he departed for school leaving the healthy father behind,only to come and find him lying helplessly.The then treatment was majorly herbal medicine which had no proper prescription.Several doctors attempted through thick and thin to bring Oyoo back to his normal condition but with failure. Priests too gave it a try but there seemed to be no progress.The hopeless Oluoch stood by his father's bed talking to gods while hoping that his father could gain his normal condition once again.Oyoo on seeing that he couldn't survive,ordered his three children,Betty,Jael and Oluoch by the bedside.He instructed them to take care of one another.To Betty the first and eldest child among the three,he commanded her to take care of the siblings as if they were her own.Tears rolled down their cheeks as they reassured their father that all shall be well. Jael sang his father a song of motivation; " What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear! What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer! O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer. Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere? We should never be discouraged; take it to the Lord in prayer. Can we find a friend so faithful who will all our sorrows share? Jesus knows our every weakness; take it to the Lord in prayer. Are we weak and heavy laden, cumbered with a load of care? Precious Savior, still our refuge; take it to the Lord in prayer. Do thy friends despise, forsake thee? Take it to the Lord in prayer! In his arms he’ll take and shield thee; thou wilt find a solace there." The following morning,Oyoo was no more. Arrangements were made and a few days later,burial ceremony took place.Oyoo at a tender old age,was laid to rest. Left with mental t*****e were the three children.This marked the birth of their sorrows and death of their ambitions. The three had to start exposing themselves to the world of toil.They had to go through hardship to feed themselves.Betty had to mother her siblings regardless of what they were going through.There was little Oluoch,ready to give hand in every single area of his ability and capability. It reached a point where the ready to get married Betty had to leave her baby brother and sister since she needed to shift to her husband's home.Sorrow strikes me whenever I recall that destiny can't be changed. Poor Betty knew not that she was jumping out of the frying pan into the fire.A home where witchcraft was cooked.A home where no lady could could be married and live a peaceful life.A home where no lady could be allowed to conceive and give birth normally.There was lack of peace in the home.The unbroken vows tied Betty to this home.With no one to share the secrets behind this home with,Betty had sleepless nights and tiresome days.