The poor man's hope: Education!
Wanyama Wafula
Marketing | Tech | Financial literacy "You are the reason why I do this" Boy from Bungoma
Two decades or so, I lived in a small village in the western province of Kenya. Many of a past like mine would share moments which to some are, dire to live with. However, such moments are the defining elements of who we are today. To summarize, there is some weight normally carried on a sentence like “ I know where I come from… .” Education can change lives forever.
Perhaps to make you understand, we delve into it. Let’s back track a little
Why education?
Five a.m. each morning, latest six a.m., a child has to wake up, shower with cold water from a basin, then get ready for school. Getting ready for school meant washing some utensils from dinner, if it was your turn to do so, making your bed, preparing breakfast and then start leaving for school. For some it was worse, because they had to till their land before going to school.
Bare feet, off you are to school. Get there early or probably late by around ten minutes. Sometimes I suspect the teachers were conning us on the minutes because we never had watches. If you did it was definitely a casio watch with a very loud alarm on your wrist. Some of us never really liked having one because you would keep checking for breaks and lunch.
I can keep typing on and on. The point is that we can share beautiful memories from back then. Times were harder, but definitely harder for some other families. All through the hardest of times, each family knew that the future is brighter because their children were going to school. So practically all you had to do is keep pushing your kids to be good in classes. Put aside the notion that the job market is flooded, all one needed to see is a neighbor’s son who has made and that was hope enough that education pays.
So, do not get surprised when the trucks get to the city full of the villagers during a graduation ceremony. It is the pride they hold for one of their sons or daughters having attained that level. As to whether the graduate still feels the same about education at the time of graduation is a subject for another day.