I was a in my final year in the university and was struggling. There was no money to do many things. No money for food or rent. I was struggling badly.

I had a roommate I squat with. He was a kind fellow. We share almost everything together and we're open with one another. He told me about his uncles project in the village and that they needed workers. I had never done concrete work in the past so I did not know what it was all about. But giving the reality of my situation, I agreed to follow him.

When we got there, we stayed at his family house. It was a old rusty apartment. I assumed it was build around the sixties. The paints were all washed up and it had many patch and leaking roof especially the rooms upstairs. We settle for one of the room down floor.

In the morning we made our way to the site. True to his word, my name was included as a worker at the site. It's was no means an easy job. Maybe because it was my first time. After every days work. I usually felt broken. Really tired. The village food was not what I was used to. I soon fell sick. A local nurse came to treat me. The little money I had save was gone. Although i got help from home. I was fustrated. Soon feeding became a problem.

We strolled around the village to visit uncles and relatives so we could technical ask for food and not spend much. It was crazy.

On this particular day, my friend suggested we should go see her aunt. ( a sister to his mother). It was in the evening and we had just finish working. We were also very hungry. Earlier he had told me about her. She was a widow who had also lost her only son.

She was now all alone. She goes to farm in the morning and spend all day there. We waited until around 7pm at her place. When she came she was very happy to see us. I guess she should be in her late sixties. We talked and my friend introduced me as a close friend from school. She was very warm and kind. She instinctively seem t I guess why we came. She told us she will look for something for us to eat.

It was a old apartment with two rooms..she told me if i wanted to lay down i should use one of the other rooms. I immediately went inside.I was really tired and hungry. She went into the other room and came back with a old black pot. Apparently her soup pot. From her handling of it I could tell there were not much left in it.

She showed us the inside of it. And I was right. She pleaded with us with the most compassionate of tone as if she had manage to fail us. "This is all I have she said" it was vegetable soup with no meat in it. She promise to add oil and water to boast it a little so we can manage. My friend thanked her with the warmest of smile. And told her not to worry that It will do. You could see the relieve on her face as She made her way through the back door straight to her kitchen. It was a zinc house ditached from the main building. She assemble the woods she collected from the farm and started making fire.

My friend volunteered to help but she calmly advice him to go inside. She came back about some hour later. I was already asleep when I receive a gentle tap. "Get up and come and eat".. I woke up and so did the hunger.

In the palour was a fire lamp. The only one in the house. She offered it to us to use first. I watched my hands quickly and started eating. She made her way back to the kitchen were she was processing fresh garri from the cassava she brought from the farm.

But as I was eating I started feeling a strange sensation all over me. I was silently gerking. My mind started going over the whole events..maybe as the hunger began to subside. I played back the story of the old woman as my friend had narrated it to me. Her husband, her late son. Her life of loneliness as I see it now and yet her capacity for honest care and affection.

It went against everything I have been made to know growing up. The village was a place of witches and their crafts and all old people should be avoided. Yet I had never felt so much warm and calm in my life. It was not the size of what she offered or the quality. It was the way and many she offered it and the way my spirit received it in humility. I wept!.

My friend notice me gerking and crying. He asked me what was wrong. I could not say. Suprisingly the tears kept pouring even harder. My hands by now was shaking uncontrllaby. I dropped the eba on my hand, ( it had been in my hands for minutes). I went outside. The tears poured even more. I sat at the varander for a while. My friend kept asking he "what is it"?...I could not say.

Slowly I started getting my self after some minutes had pass. I went back to the house and I eat with joy and happiness. When she came back, I thanked her with all my heart and with great joy. She too felt please and was happy. She ask us to come the next day and that she was going to prepare something better. We told her we will.

I left the house filed with a new life. My whole village experience took a new turn from there. I took lengthy walks in the evening and greeted everyone I saw. My heart was free. I no longer worry or fear for how much I was going to save for school. If this old woman who had been through much could still stay this calm and comfort others, then I have no reason to be sad and worry.

Wow...

Continue to grow in faith and grace bro!.

peteruuu:
Continue to grow in faith and grace bro!.

Thanks. You too.

Nice woman...., God is always with us bro

Thank you for this post. Always feel free to travel to your village to enjoy home love. You would definitely enjoy true love and care when you visit grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, nephews and neighbours especially the poor old ones over there. Don't allow the fear of witches and wizards' attack as preached by these modern preachers and home video producers scare you from travelling to your village. There is nothing like that. If you fear for your health just as we should always do, just avoid collecting food and drinks from everybody. Whenever I travel home, I make sure I spend at least 5 days to a week to be able to visit everybody as I really enjoy life over there.