So we spend Christmas happily with my family and it was all good. On Boxing Day my mama told me we go and visit one of my uncles who then lived in Makuyu and why would I say no? So we prepare and head for the visit. We stayed there for like 3 days and the night before we left my uncle gave me a really long talk on the kind of work I was doing. Recalling his exact words "Njoki, imagine when you're in a meeting gathering with your cousins and everyone introduces themselves saying the big jobs they’re doing and you're there saying 'I'm Njoki and I'm a housemaid’". Weh! I had never had such a long cry for feeling humiliated by a family member. I was so heartbroken. I cried all through the long talk. And he decided that I will not go back to do such a job. Instead, I will stay back with them and they will find something that I can help myself with. I agreed 'shingo upande' and my mama left without me.
I stayed for a while and then he decided that I need to teach myself salon work so I used to go on a daily basis at a salon nearby, stay there and watch as the lady is doing her thing and learn from her! Yes! Not forgetting that I used to do all house chores in the morning and in the evening too....but why wouldn't I do yet I was a housemaid at a stranger's house and I was okay with it.
So time passed by and things became worse as I found everything a burden and the fact that everyone was riding on my desperation. I used to get paid at the salon sometimes and the money would go to who? Yes, you guessed right. So I never had any money by myself. After I couldn't take it anymore, one day when my uncle went to recharge the TV battery to the shopping centre, I packed my clothes and went to another mama who I had befriended and explained my situation. I told her to give me fare (250) to take me home and I would send her back the money once I got home. She was generous enough to give me the cash without payback and I was the happiest coz finally I would escape from all the noise, nagging and mistreatment.
I went and boarded a matatu which charged me 100bob to Thika. Thank God I still had some cash for the remaining distance from Thika to home. I get home and I was so scared that my grandma would make so much noise to me that I had escaped but none of this happened. She saw me and I remember she smiled not knowing what had happened - I explained to her everything and she was more than willing to welcome me back home. She had my other uncle inform them that I was at home safe.
Stayed with my granny for a while until my uncle (who had taken me for house girl work) offered to pay for me a course and I chose hairdressing. He talked to my cousin (may the Almighty continue resting her soul in peace) who used to stay at Makadara along Jogoo road and he asked her if she can get for me a hairdressing college for me to learn how to plait and all those stuff. She found one at Rikana which is also along Jogoo road. So my uncle was to pay the college fees and I would stay at my cousin’s place for shelter and food. The college duration was 6 months.
So my uncle drops me at industrial area where my cousin used to work so that we could go home together. It was all okay and things went on well until the same was never okay.
She would make noise to me for coming home when it's dark, when I go to the rooftop to get clothes and have a breeze coming back to the house was just something else because she would say I’m meeting with some guy that is why I would get home when dark and still drag myself when going somewhere. I wish I had because I was still that naive village girl but one thing is that I really knew what I wanted that I would never allow any man close. Lol! Sometimes I would wear her shoes to college and come back home before she was home so she doesn't find out. One day it happened that she went to the house at lunch time and never went back to work: so this day I had her open shoes on my feet! Weh! My clothes were thrown outside with a paper bag :-) Bad gal huh?! My uncle would be called to come like it was a parents day and things would go back to normal and the long lecturing of course.
So after some time she started taking advantage of me as well. I would do all the chores. Cook for her and her husband. Wash their clothes. Go to the market. And come back to the same noise again....But I decided to chill and pray and hope that things would work out for me.
After finishing the 6 months at the hairdressing college, my cousin remembered that her brother's wife had a salon at Mlolongo and she needed someone to help. She asked me if I would be okay going there and you can guess my response. She came to pick me at my cousin's place and there I was at Mlolongo working at a salon, earning commission which sometimes wouldn't even amount to 1,500 a month. But it's a place I was happy and contented with as we never crossed each other's paths at all. Stayed there for some time until my breakthrough. So all through when I would go home I would tell my granny that no matter how much money I'm making I will save it for my high school education. Dreams! Because from 1,500 per month what would you eat or cloth or save? Really! But she used to brush it off and tell me to forget about school and make money. I held my dream so dear hoping one day it would come to pass.
We are sitting down with my cousin's wife at the salon and we are listening to a radio station whereby a lady who is all grown up approached the mother and demanded to know her biological dad. I had never known my biological dad so I said jokingly to my cousin's wife that when I go home over Easter holiday I will ask my mama who my biological dad was.
And just to encourage you that whatever dream or ambitions you have, do not let them go no matter what happens. Pray and stay loyal to them. One day they might just come true.
So we listen to the radio discussion and I decide boom! Easter my mama will have to answer me and show me my dad. TRUST me it wasn't even Easter when the breakthrough of my life happened.....you know what happened? You want to know? Can we please continue on Tuesday? See you :-)
I stayed for a while and then he decided that I need to teach myself salon work so I used to go on a daily basis at a salon nearby, stay there and watch as the lady is doing her thing and learn from her! Yes! Not forgetting that I used to do all house chores in the morning and in the evening too....but why wouldn't I do yet I was a housemaid at a stranger's house and I was okay with it.
So time passed by and things became worse as I found everything a burden and the fact that everyone was riding on my desperation. I used to get paid at the salon sometimes and the money would go to who? Yes, you guessed right. So I never had any money by myself. After I couldn't take it anymore, one day when my uncle went to recharge the TV battery to the shopping centre, I packed my clothes and went to another mama who I had befriended and explained my situation. I told her to give me fare (250) to take me home and I would send her back the money once I got home. She was generous enough to give me the cash without payback and I was the happiest coz finally I would escape from all the noise, nagging and mistreatment.
I went and boarded a matatu which charged me 100bob to Thika. Thank God I still had some cash for the remaining distance from Thika to home. I get home and I was so scared that my grandma would make so much noise to me that I had escaped but none of this happened. She saw me and I remember she smiled not knowing what had happened - I explained to her everything and she was more than willing to welcome me back home. She had my other uncle inform them that I was at home safe.
Stayed with my granny for a while until my uncle (who had taken me for house girl work) offered to pay for me a course and I chose hairdressing. He talked to my cousin (may the Almighty continue resting her soul in peace) who used to stay at Makadara along Jogoo road and he asked her if she can get for me a hairdressing college for me to learn how to plait and all those stuff. She found one at Rikana which is also along Jogoo road. So my uncle was to pay the college fees and I would stay at my cousin’s place for shelter and food. The college duration was 6 months.
So my uncle drops me at industrial area where my cousin used to work so that we could go home together. It was all okay and things went on well until the same was never okay.
She would make noise to me for coming home when it's dark, when I go to the rooftop to get clothes and have a breeze coming back to the house was just something else because she would say I’m meeting with some guy that is why I would get home when dark and still drag myself when going somewhere. I wish I had because I was still that naive village girl but one thing is that I really knew what I wanted that I would never allow any man close. Lol! Sometimes I would wear her shoes to college and come back home before she was home so she doesn't find out. One day it happened that she went to the house at lunch time and never went back to work: so this day I had her open shoes on my feet! Weh! My clothes were thrown outside with a paper bag :-) Bad gal huh?! My uncle would be called to come like it was a parents day and things would go back to normal and the long lecturing of course.
So after some time she started taking advantage of me as well. I would do all the chores. Cook for her and her husband. Wash their clothes. Go to the market. And come back to the same noise again....But I decided to chill and pray and hope that things would work out for me.
After finishing the 6 months at the hairdressing college, my cousin remembered that her brother's wife had a salon at Mlolongo and she needed someone to help. She asked me if I would be okay going there and you can guess my response. She came to pick me at my cousin's place and there I was at Mlolongo working at a salon, earning commission which sometimes wouldn't even amount to 1,500 a month. But it's a place I was happy and contented with as we never crossed each other's paths at all. Stayed there for some time until my breakthrough. So all through when I would go home I would tell my granny that no matter how much money I'm making I will save it for my high school education. Dreams! Because from 1,500 per month what would you eat or cloth or save? Really! But she used to brush it off and tell me to forget about school and make money. I held my dream so dear hoping one day it would come to pass.
We are sitting down with my cousin's wife at the salon and we are listening to a radio station whereby a lady who is all grown up approached the mother and demanded to know her biological dad. I had never known my biological dad so I said jokingly to my cousin's wife that when I go home over Easter holiday I will ask my mama who my biological dad was.
And just to encourage you that whatever dream or ambitions you have, do not let them go no matter what happens. Pray and stay loyal to them. One day they might just come true.
So we listen to the radio discussion and I decide boom! Easter my mama will have to answer me and show me my dad. TRUST me it wasn't even Easter when the breakthrough of my life happened.....you know what happened? You want to know? Can we please continue on Tuesday? See you :-)