If I had transport…
If I had transport, my life would be more comfortable.
My name is Faith, I am eleven years old and I live in a small village in Niger.
My everyday life is hard. I usually help my father and brothers to do the housework.
My mother died when I was only four years old. I have endearing memories of
her, singing to me beautiful songs. Even now, we haven’t got idea of the cause
of her illness. Maybe, she was attacked by an unusual disease, one of the many
that often carried the lives of our neighbors and acquaintances.
If I had transport, I would escape from this. I am
afraid, because soon I will be old enough to get married. In my country, girls
are married at an early age. My father said that I must marry with
someone before I am too old, because then maybe nobody will want me. I didn’t
have idea of the meaning of marriage
before it ended the life of one of my friends. Her name was Adeyemi, and she
was five years older than me. She was our neighbor, and I usually came to her
house when I was a child to play with her. We went to fetch water together, and
she always helped me. She was like a sister to me. Two years ago, I received
the news that she was going to get married with a man and moved to another
village with him. She was also forced to abandon their studies. I was so sad,
but my father said that she had found her path and I had to forget her. The day
before her departure, she visited me in secret. She hugged me between sobs.
“Sorry,” she said. I didn’t understand her. “We are victims of a cruel fate.
Try to avoid it. You'll never see me again. Try to live your life; despite what
others say, we have the same rights as men.” With these words, she left the
room. A few months later, my father was talking with my brothers, and I
realized that they were talking of Adeyemi. She had died in her house, a few
weeks ago. News travels fast between people of different populations. I asked
other women, and they said to me that she was badly treated by her husband. She
was found dead in her house, with several blows. However, nobody did anything
against her husband. I was indignant and unhappy, but I couldn’t do anything;
in fact, I couldn't even give my opinion.
If I had transport, like a simple bicycle, I would be
able to study. One of my dreams is learning to write and read. When I see
something written on a sheet or a placard, I can only see strange sings that I
cannot understand. One day, I said shyly to my father, “Can I go to school to
learn how to read?” He watched to me, missed. “You don’t need to read, you only
need to do your work to sustain this family,” he said. I begged him, and
finally he said, “If you have done all your work, you can walk to school after
go to fetch water. And you should bring water before go to school.” I was
happy, but not for much more time. I realized soon that I didn’t have
sufficient time to do everything, because school was so far from my house. But
with a bicycle, I would go to school every day or at least one or two days a
week, because I would be faster and I could return home after fetching water
for my family early. I wouldn’t be illiterate, and then I would have the
opportunity to travel.
If I had transport, I would move to a better place to rebuild
my life, where the water flows free and nature is above your head, where I
heard that there is the biggest extension of water you have never seen, the
sea. His water is not brown, it hasn’t got any color! I would sail in a boat
and catch fish for lunch. I would stay in a pretty house near to the sea. I
wouldn’t be poor anymore! I dream to visit once this place, one of the many
places that Kayode describes in her stories. Kayode is the oldest woman of my
village. The third night of every week, all the children surround her in her
house. We listen attentively to her. She talks about unknown lands and legends,
she told us stories that her forefathers already told to his children. Then, I am
transported to a fantastic place, where illness and suffering are the result of
forgetting.
If I had transport, I would go to a rich country to
see buildings that touch the clouds, boxes with images and sound and magic taps
with clean water. It would be fantastic. But, then, I would remember the bad
conditions in my country, the long walks to fetch water, the strange diseases,
as the ones that took my mother, the cruel fate of Adeyemi, the many obstacles,
especially for girls, to study… And then, I would realize that the stories that
Kayode told us in her house were only a fantasy, and that the injustices in
life are a reality. I would realize that the only ones that can do something
against this are them, the foreign men, because the main injustice is that I
haven’t got the necessary means to do something, and I am trapped in a prison. If I had transport…, I would tell everyone the
problems that we have. Maybe, they will listen to me and I will convince them
that we need help and they must help us.
