The story centres on a young teenage girl whose life turned upside down when she fell pregnant at the age of thirteen. Immaculate found herself stuck with her grandmother in a remote place where water and sanitation was foreign to the villagers and...
The morning light permeated in the hut through the window blinds as the cock gave a defeaning crow right outside the door waking me up with a start when I was finally catching my sleep after a night of tossing and turning. Grandma was nowhere near me as she was born an early bird. I could hear her sweeping outside humming softly with her melodious voice. In another place and time, she would have made it to American Idol, I thought to myself with a smile.
This was my first time, spending a night in Lydiate as we only used to come for short visits once or twice a year as grandma was the one that always came to Harare. As I stepped outside, the sun was too bright for my eyes and I had to look away. “Eee child you up now?” my granny said smiling.
“Good morning gogo,” I smiled back as I started walking towards a room with thatch walls that was used as the toilet.
“Good morning my child,” she responded.
I entered the toilet and stood stuck on the spot as I was welcomed with a heavy stench of urine and i wondered where I was going to relieve myself. There was a flat rock on one end where the soap case was and a bucket on the other end.
“Gogo, where is the toilet?’ I asked miserable.
“Aaaaa Maki why do you think I woke up early? If it’s not pee then we go to the bushes over there,” she said pointing at some thicket close by.
“But gogo(grandma)….aaaa” I ran out of words and she laughed and she was ready to escort me.
Before I knew it we were entering the forest, oak brown and primitive. The grasses we stepped on were crackly beneath our feet due to the dry spell at the time. I was in awe of the size and majesty of the trees as my grandma signalled me to go behind one of the trees.
I felt tears stinging in my eyes as I didn’t have a choice but to relieve myself which I did and then we had to go to the only water source available. We only walked a few feet from our “toilet” and in front of us, a turquoise blue stream wound its merry way through the forest. Grandma said the water levels were low at that time of the year because of the dry weather.
Pebbles whisked about in the under wash like pieces of glitter. I was disappointed to find women and girls taking their morning bath in there as they laughed and chatted when further down other women were fetching drinking water to take home. I wondered what would happen if it rained, and erosion happened on our little bush toilets. Where was the sanitation in that?... not only that but the health and safety too.
The weird part in it though was that no one got sick there and then but cholera and typhoid deaths were common. With my thirteen year old mind I could see the unsafety of it all and I only prayed that I’d survive.
“So we going to fetch water from the river, that’s why I carried these two,” grandma said as she handed me one bucket.
“I hope I’ll be able to carry it,” I said quietly and she just let out a laugh, “You laughing grandma but I mean it,” I cried, “ And why do you even drink this water grandma, the same river people bathe in, and they still step inside the river with their dirty feet to get the water, and I’m going to be washing my hands in there after using the toilet…is it even safe?
“haaa Maki you are overthinking these things…it has been like this since your dad was a kid and look at me…im still here and as fit as a fiddle, there is nothing you can tell us,” she laughed softly and I held my peace.
Fetching the water was manageable but carrying the water on my head was the struggle…I ended up getting wet as onlookers were amused. In the end I went with carrying half a bucket which was my only option at the time but my hands were left extremely sore.
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When we eventually got to our 4 hut home I was exhausted, I wanted to cry.
Grandma found it really funny as she went on to make breakfast and just when I was ready to eat, I felt nauseated and the next thing I knew I was vomiting in one of the buckets.
“Morning sickness or you really sick?” she asked worried.
“I’ve been like this for quite some time now…comes and goes,” I admitted feeling sick.
I then went to take a bath and brush my teeth instead, in the shanty bathroom before my stomach felt strong enough to eat.
