Journey to the Northern sides
The bus is successfully booked, the boy takes the seat at far back near window side. The officer gives the driver all the details about the boy and goes back to the work station. The boy has a plastic bottle of coca cola soda with some pieces of Nuvita biscuits at hand. The mouth is wide open with wonders since the boy has seen a miracle owning a bottle of a drink alone. He was used to sharing a drink on the bottle top with the siblings. To add on, the boy was in a bus for the first time since he was very familiar with walking from place to place. The boy enjoys his drink and snacks as he waits for the bus to be filled up. As the only learned fellow in the village, he goes through the bus ticket as he take a sip. He struggles to understand the writings since he was used to direct translations.
Eventually, the bus is filled up and everyone puts on safety belts. Bus conductor helps the boy to tie the belt. The bus tickets are checked before the journey sets off. A man of God enters the bus and shares the word of God with powerful prayers before the bus sets off. Nothing comes on the silver plate, the man of God asked everyone to give offering to God. The boy had no other option than giving out his wealth of fifty cents given out to him after the officer bought him a Sweet. The gear, clutches and fuel accelerators becomes the business of the day. The driver who has experience in long distance travelling is stand still at the steering wheel from the Western side heading towards the Northern sides.
The boy at the back of the bus becomes the observer of the day's activities. Lovers talking love languages, doctors on medical topics and farmers on new farming techniques. The boy at the back seat is as silent as a graveyard waiting for the bus to reach the destination. The boy at the back is just enjoying the cool breeze and the colorful flowers of trees passing in a regular pattern. Large buildings being seen for the first time in the entire life.
On the way, the bus is moving over the speed limit. Passengers being picked on the way despite the vehicle being full. Kilometers moving on time intervals. During this journey, the bus encountered a traffic check. Matatizo knew the bus was to be arrested since it was over speeding and had carried excess passengers. On the contrary, the bus driver gave the traffic officer an envelope and the bus was left to go. Matatizo noticed that there was some corruption between the driver and the police officers. "Human problems are created by human but not Satan, the accidents on the roads can be controlled through traffic checks and if they are corrupt then they allow it to happen out of their will." Were the words generating from the boy. The bus is overcrowded and moving at supersonic speed. The boy is at the back with no power to stop the bus and move out. That is when the boy began realizing that even if the ministry of transport tries its level best to eradicate road accidents the workers will still pull it down through corruption.
The journey goes on, moving through the valley, plains and mountains. Just few kilometers, a traffic jam was encountered. Many questions could arise since a traffic jam must have a cause. As the bus moved nearer it was noticed that an accident had happened causing several deaths and injuries. Two seven- passengers public service vehicles were involved in an accident but to utter surprise, twenty five people were involved in an accident. This was a clear indication that the vehicles were overloaded. Traffic police officers sits back as they observe this evil happened because they are after bribes on the roads. The bus moved on since what had happened was not concerned with other vehicles using the same route.
Sometimes we blame Satan for all evils but in really sense some problems are created by human nature. The bus finally reached the destination safely. The boy was directed by the driver to the camel station to continue with the remaining journey. The boy was traveling using different unfamiliar means for the first time in life. During this time, the sun was going to rest slowly to the West. The blue rays of the sun formed silhouette images to the far west of dwarf mountains. Sun rays passing through the thonny scattered plants in the desert . The sun was saying goodbye to planet earth as it warmly welcomed the moon slowly.
"Heroo, go down" this is the camel driver giving out clear instructions for the camel to reduce it's height for Matatizo to sit on. The camel moved through the sand dunes and escarpments in the dry land. Within no time, the camel arrived at Chebarus. This is a place in the Northern sides. At the stage, there was one long man waiting to pick Matatizo. The boy is welcomed by traditional music played by each individual in the area. The boy was still wondering and observing the area with the mouth wide open. All in all, the boy accepts to adapt to the new environment.
The blue iron sheet gate was opened slowly not to wake the sleeping dogs. The boy entered and moved straight away towards the kitchen at least to have some water after a long tiresome journey. He quickly opened the door and started eating food remains as the worker in the compound was behind closing the gate. He took some water to quince his thirsty. No sooner had he finished eating than the worker entered to take the dogs' meal just to find out that it had been eaten by Matatizo. It forced the worker to change plans and took the food he had kept for Matatizo and gave the tireless barking dogs.
Matatizo was later given a key tied on a black handkerchief and was showed a small round grass thatched house. " This is where you will be sleeping after taking your meals," the boy was told. Matatizo entered the room and found a mattress made from grass with a blanket made from cow skin. The boy was happy since he was used to hard life. The officer called the worker and told him to take the boy at school the following day. In the new environment, Matatizo is forced to visit the fish house to take a cold shower. in the Northern sides, water was rare so the boy was taken to a certain place with stagnant water to refresh himself. The water was brown in colour which made the boy to be shocked. Being a little boy, he was taught in the society to respect the elderly so he had no other option than taking a shower with the same water.
Time had gone and it was in dark night when all this was being done in preparation for the boy to go to school at dawn.After a busy day, Matatizo went directly to rest in his room. Before he could go down deep in sleep he kneeled down to say thanks to God although he was not an expert in praying. Before he could sleep he realized that place was very hot since he was aready sweating despite him taking a shower a few minutes ago. He didn't see any need for him to cover his body with the so known expensive skin blanket. As usual he could not go deep in sleep since he was in a new environment.
Still thinking of what could happen the next day, he was welcome by night animals like mosquitoes and bedbugs. The noise from the hungry mosquitoes could not allow the boy to peacefully sleep. The hands were assigned many roles at that night; acting as a pillow, chasing away mosquitoes and killing bedbugs. Matatizo moved slowly to the table, switched on lights and opened a book to read because sleeping was not his portion. He left his beddings for the bedbugs to enjoy. As a hardworking boy, he just knew there could be an interview at the new school hence taking the night distance by mosquitoes and bedbugs as an advantage for him to familiarize himself with education. He had dropped out of school thus he couldn't remember everything. He tried going through his book and went back to sleep knowing that the night animals had slept too.
It could not take long before the boy went asleep. This could be due to long journey and time had gone too since it was around midnight. In the new environment, Matatizo could not let the mind sleep. It was only the body deep asleep. He was very ready as a soldier on the line of duty to encounter anything that could come to harm him. Staying alone in a room in the new environment was a big challenge to him.
"Kokoikoo" was a sound heard from the cock giving signals to people to wake up. This voice was followed by the barking of tired dogs in the village. This gave a clear indication that it was early in the morning. The birds were singing their melodies to welcome the new day in a style. Birds also sing to give thanks to God for life.