Friday, July 8, 2011

Son Of The Soil...part 3

when things get worse in this part of the world, it is really bad. we have natural disasters, monsoons, thunderstorm, hail the size of beach balls yet no body ever complains, so long as there was relative peace and prosperity... which touched every life no matter how small it was. the sitting president was an absolute peach... in later years, presidents and heads of state would honour and say that in all the leaders to had have ever been, she was the best man for the job.
And yes, she was a woman, a great woman... but a promiscuous, prostituting whore. She loved the power she had, it is said in her ten year term, she had bagged over 1000 able bodied young men... Insatiable cougar, they couldn't keep up with her... yet she knew how fragile it was... She knew how to play her cards right...until she met my grandfather and fell in love.
Now my grandmother's people were skilled in the act of covert killings...voodoo, weird assassinations, just plain ol' mischief. She found out her man was getting the eye from the president and got jealous. She was assured several times by my grandfather yet she just wouldn't listen (typical)... She got so petty, to the point that she went and asked...(well, spat in her face is a more accurate visual) the president if she was having an affair with her husband.
I hear my grandfather was many things but a cheat was not one of them... It was unheard of for a woman to ever confront her husband about his ways, be it infidelity to outright abuse and yet she was bold, if not mad, enough to do so...and ready for whatever consequences that came with it... Since there was no truth to the accusations, she was asked to leave her home and family, walk away from the life she had built and begin life as an outcast in the remotest parts of her hometown, in a place meant for cowards, witches and hags...

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Son Of The Soil...part 2

now this sounds so cliche that i didn't believe it when i was told the story as a child. i would go ahead to investigate these circumstance and i found them to be true. the year my father was born, there was a blood moon, a sort of lunar eclipse, very rare and to very superstitious people, it was either a great wonder or an evil omen of immense magnitude, they choose the latter...
my grandfather was the first born son of his father and therefore was to take over the family business, shrinking heads and casting spells, yet he choose to join a church and go to teacher training school. as hurt as his father was, there wasn't much he could do and the birth of my father was the only way to rid himself of a wayward son. so he banished his son and his family from the village...

times were hard and on elementary school teacher's salary, this new family were seemingly destined for doom. back in the village, there was always food, fresh produce from scared shitless pagans who believed that this would make their lives any better. now without a home and people, my grand father decided to go the city to find work, be it a laborer or a "tankas" because he needed to fend for his family. to this day, Grandpaa still tells the story of how just before he left home, he asked his infant son to wish him luck and that helped him find a dream job.
Grandpaa came across an old friend on the train to the city. as they talked and caught up with each others lives, this friend mentioned there was a job opening in his office and he would put in a good word for him should he pass the interview. he even went further to walk him through a few things that could help his application. needless to say, he got the job, clerk to the minister of defense. things could not get any better. the minister had them move into his guest house, gave him a car and helped my grand mom to get in to nursing school. the minister believed to that there was something special about my family and that he believed Grandpaa the brother he never had...

life was good for the family, great even. my grand parents had two other children after my father and they lived well, went to the best schools and rolled with the elite of our country. as i said earlier, nothing could be better, it didn't... it just got worse...