The Girl in the White Dress

Chapter 1 What I left Behind

This is a story my friend Martina (Tinuzza95 on wattpad) and I are co-authoring for our Global Issues class, we're writing about an important issue that affects girls our age, Fistula.  Its a medical condition where underage girls give birth but since they're so young, their uterus tears which means that they cannot control their urine.  They are often ostrasized and rejected by their own community.  This is a story that illustrates this issue.  Hope you enjoy.

This chapter is by: iguana95

Chapter 1 What I left Behind

My bare feet dragged on in the dusty road.  Stones skittered everywhere and dust was kicked up, suffocating me but I still continued.  I must go on.  Must go on.  The heat made my eyes tiny slits and the dust made my eyes water, adding on to the free flowing tears streaming down my face.  I must go on. 

Memories of my past flashed through my mind, instances that I wanted to forever forget.

The hot sun seemed to be teasing me and I longed for water but there would be none, not until I got to another village or a well.  The frustration got to me and I cried out in vain.  It didn't matter, there was no one there to hear me.  Nevertheless I still continued, my hands clutching the 50 Birr money that my mother had given to me at the last moment.  50 Birr.  That's chicken feed to the rich but to me it was so much more. 

Concealed among the rags that I called clothes was the remaining few possessions I had, a worn down plastic comb and some jewelry from my mother.  Thats all I carried with me as I left my village and walked on to the big city. 

Thinking about my mother reminded me of so many bad memories.  About a year ago, my father had decided to marry me off to some man who was older than him.  I was only fifteen at the time and dreaded being pulled out of school.  You see, I wanted to be a doctor to help the sick people.  But that was not to be.  Instead, I was doomed to marry a man three times my age.  I was told by my snitching younger sister that he had already had a wife who was younger than me that had died when conceiving his child.

I was scared.  When the time came for me to marry him, I reluctantly agreed.  I couldn't decline since my father needed the money and there would be one less mouth to feed in the house.  My future husband had a black beard and no hair on top of his head.  His belly also stuck out and he was very rude to my family. 

I shook my head trying to dispel the memory.  I didn't want to remember what happened after that.  Looking around, I saw tall Acacia trees that provided much needed shade from the wrath of the sun.  My bare feet were aching and I had a few blisters from walking on rocks.  I was tired and I thought that one hour of rest wouldn't kill me. 

So I veered off the dusty path to the road not traveled, going into the grass and coming to a stop under an acacia tree.  I took off some layers of rags and made a pillow out of it.  Laying my head down, I tried to sleep the hot day away so I could travel at night when its cooler, but all I could think about was the liquid that was seeping out of the soaked rags from in between my legs, gradually pooling around my body.

I cried myself to sleep assuring myself that tomorrow would bring a new day, and that eventually I would travel to the capital and get treatment, but assurances can only convince a person for so long...