Reminding Me Of Where I Come From(phase two)

On a lousy working saturday,in front of our offices.Don't look at me,look at the legs!


My mum's sister(whom i'll call aunt even though she's older than my mum-should be grandma right?) is a very nice person.But her husband! Eish! i never complained though.Just decided to let things flow like that,because my mum was far far away.

In that family,two of my aunt's kids(the last two) where the only ones left who were still going to school,and then i included made it three.We had a maid,but she was not allowed to do some other things.I remember one time my aunt's husband saying he doesn't see any reason why a maid should be hired because i could do everything in the house.I made sure that all the three lunch boxes were ready before we went to bed.I ironed all the uniforms,i polished all the shoes everyday.If one of my cousins complained in the morning about anything,i was gonna recieve a thrashing of my life before boarding a bus to school.I had to make sure their hair was combed fine before we left,their socks brightly washed white.I did this everyday.God! I was only 11! When my classmates went for swimming lessons in the afternoons,i wouldn't go.(that orphan in the movie was not allowed to go for the dance thing at the palace).Luckily enough i was very smart in that i managed to grab things quick.I managed to know how to swim,better than the other students even though i never attended afternoon lessons.I represented my school in swimming galas every year-and i have three certificates to show for that-best in backstroke,fastest in freestyle,best in breathstroke,treading water for more than one minute,i even remember coming second in dolphin-we called it butterfly...

I didn't have time to watch cartoons.In those days,we used to talk about what we watched on t.v the folowing day at school and if you didn't take part in the discussion you were a nobody.Those days i remember the only soap we used to watch was Santa Barbara.Can you imagine..standard 5 pupils discussing Cruz and Genah?

That wasn't all.you had to have also watched The Chimpmunks,Rampazel,Sleeping Beauty,Snow White and the 7 Dwarves,The Poison Apple,The Smurfs..oh God!..and The Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles where my favourite was Michael-Angelo,Little Red Riding Hood,Rumpelstilskin,the list is endless.And the cartoons were in at 3pm to 5pm.By these time i'll either be doing the laundry,or maybe baking bread or scones to take to school in the morning.I'll be in the kitchen while my cousins will be watching in the living room.I became a stork of mockery at school because i never took part when my classmates talked about the last episode of Santa Barbara.

I can go on and on about how i was treated in my early years,but i also know that i can't undo what's been done.Oh! yes and i remember one time i wrote a letter to my mum.I dont quiet remember what happened with the letter.God! i was only 11! What did i understand about being ill-treated?..but i gues i understood something coz it stayed within me for all these years right?

I moved to Serowe when my mum got promoted to go head one of the Furn Mart branches that was to be opened there in 1995.I was 15 by that time,and i was all smiles when i realised that for the first time in so many years i'll be staying with my mum.Couldn't wait! But if i had known that she was gonna stay and marry her husband(i'm supposed to say my father right?),i wouldn't have moved from O/town,because that guy made life a living hell for my mum and i! God! When was this gonna end? But hey...that's a story for another day...