The sun still rises

It was difficult to imagine that we would one day live a life like this. No one could fathom that six months down the road we would be sharing a single room, battling deprivation and on the brink of starvation. The future turned blink as if God had all of a sudden turned his back on us.

Six months earlier, we didn’t have everything and neither did we lack anything. Food was a routine which we became accustomed to, school a perennial entry on our calendar and we loathed its monotony. On all the ten minute rides in dad’s car to school each day, we (my sister and I ) had never wondered what it felt like for those classmates of ours we passed by as they trekked to school. Dad always returned from the market each Saturday, the car laden with food provisions for the week, now we wonder about the next meal before the food even settles in the stomach. We took for granted the fact that each of us slept in his own bed, had the chance to grow as kids worrying about nothing, that we had a flushing toilet (and a door on it) and a maid who did most of the chores

And then everything changed. Dad, the sole bread winner was diagnosed with cancer and quickly ailed away. Frantic measures to treat it were all in vain, too late as the cancer spread fast, faster than we could cope with. We were thrown out of the government house barely a week after his burial with a meagre sum of money to start us off in our new life-a life at the back of the stage, away from the spotlight. The car had already been taken, a week before he died. It belonged to the government too, just like everything else. Mum wailed and soon ran out of energy to go on wailing. I grew tired of the sombreness at home and found my solace in the comfort of the books and friends at school. This was only momentarily as that too was snatched away when mum failed to raise the school fees and we had to shift to the government school that offered free education-but of a lower standard.

Life has surely changed. And we thank God that each day the sun still rises, oblivious of the bright darkness in our lives. It’s not to imply that we’ve lost all hope, no. We are simply waiting for that bright light to shine upon us, like those rare days we studied in geography where the sun shines directly above the equator and the day is equal in length to the night. We are waiting for God to smile upon us again with a chance to change our fate.

photos by author himself