SEWAGE IN HERE

SEWAGE IN HERE

Even if am a young girl, I dream of going to the ministry of Housing. I want to present a list to them. The two issues in my list have made it more of a scroll, but I only have two requests to make to the ministry. First I will be humbled to know the requirements of getting my mortgage. Secondly I will request for the process used to report the dark green sewage inside our plot. These must done with courage not in coldness and in boldness not in bitterness.

I am glad that the receptionist did not ask me about my parents when I reported. Things changed when I wanted to tell him about the diseases that are catching up with us. He went inside and came out not in the suit he was in. Even before he got to me I knew that he had changed and he was not going to waste his time with my nonsense. May be he sent me away because my problem has been too big for him just like the cap he was putting on.  I am not sure if I was too small for my problems like his feet in the boots.

I picked a stick which was almost the same size as the rod he held. He looked like he was sure of the people he was going to beat while I was not sure of the people or even where to begin. I wanted to beat people. They were so many; agent, landlord, my parents, local health officer. Was it an officer in this ministry who never got the chance to even hear me out? It seems like I went there too early, it's just that my story kept him busy for the time he had before his shift started.

Security for my mortgage is the fact that I am in school. This is a good one because I will get a job once am done with school. Me being me, I am bound to get a well paying job and clear the mortgage. Without any doubt I am so delighted to report my agent not my landlord. At least am done with the delicate duty that will affect my life for a long duration. The one reason why I decided to do all these is that no else was doing it. Every other person got used to eat and they thought that I was proud because after all these years I felt like the situation of our plot could still change. Let's say I had not given up like them. On my side as much as I do not want to blame them, my argument is that they have allowed ignorance to take the best part of their life. I am just acting against ignorance.

In the morning I decided to walk in the dark green carpet because I expected to walk on a red carpet in the highest corridors of the ministry of housing. I bet they must be having the best of the carpets around as an example of carpets to be in the houses that the ministry covers. I wished to walk on these red carpets but I wished to walk on the blue carpet like the one Meryl Streep walked on  during the celebration of  her acting as Margaret Thatcher. I wanted to walk on a blue carpet at home too. May be some clean, nice smelling warm water reflecting the skies right at the centre of our plot and replace the odours dark green sewage.

I think I deserve to walk on a red carpet after this visit since am acting like a rich responsible grown up. But I have an idea of what I will get at home when I get back just a little bit of more problems. Lets say I will have to walk in the cold cold dark green carpet and it's going to be at a higher level because there was more rain. In addition, I know that there will be darkness since electricity goes away when the rains come in. I must survive this one too just like the others. I must continue being the iron girl not thriving on blood and fresh but on strong will.

One trouble leads to another so the toilet will join the league and block too and that will be more nasty on top of the dark green waters, but it will only turn to be coloured water. It is going to get more coloured when we start washing utensils and clothes. That makes me think it's better to stay without food. Either way the stomach is always full of bad smells. The next trouble that comes around is when the bathroom blocks. That means that you have to fully accept the sewage since you can't get if off your body using clean water. By any chance if you shower in the house it means that you want to extend the dark green carpet into the house before that trouble matures.

Our neighbours are forced to share our fate, although they don’t have the green carpet they don’t have fresh air anymore. We have extended the stench to them. In return, they reward us with all kinds of papers. Let's say the ten floors make our green carpet a dust bin and there is no way to empty the bin. Sometimes I think that they are doing us a favour by covering the dark green carpet.

I think that I can take an aerial picture of our plot in my mind; a thin line of stones that are separated from each other with all kinds of papers including sanitary pads and their colourful covers. This is the picture that those living up there see when they look at us. They don’t know that these stones are the bridge in these shallow waters of our plot. I got to know the importance of these stones when I missed the one at the entrance of our house. That day I went to bed as a sad iron girl because I was not only looking at the dark green sewage, I had felt it too on my feet. The smell, the look and the feeling of sewage on my feet was the last drive I needed in order to pay the Ministry a visit. This was the night before my visit to the Ministry of housing. I planned to wake up as early as five o’clock.

At this time the walkers would be many on the small footpath so I had to join the vehicles on the road to town. If I competed well with these road users and beat the traffic, I will get to town by seven o’clock just like the passengers. My spray was handy incase another stench caught up with me on top of the one I brought from home There is something that I had to do in order to look like I had alighted from a vehicle. I need to wipe my legs and oil them just to erase any evidence of walking. Uhuru park was a nice venue for freshening up it was nearer to the place I was going. Thus, I would get there before eight o’clock. After all that I was ready to be served without any bias. On the outside I had attained a common look that justifies me as a Nairobian but inside I lied a whole new person. As at this day it was only the ministry that had the right to interact with the real me without a cover up.

Eventually I woke up a bit, but I woke up like a person who had wet her bed. There were round punches of wetness on my back. they were clearly demarcated by  rings of dirt As I strained to open my eyes a cold drop of water. It was only after wiping my eye that I got to look up and clear mind. It was clear that I did not wet my bed, but there was a big hole on the roof. This particular hole allowed me to share my bed with the waters of the skies. I looked down and I dint understand what I saw. I was not able to see the floor. This made me develop certain fears. There was room for other possibilities and my fears were not real. These fears became reality when I stepped on the dark green carpet that had spread everywhere and accumulated large volumes under my bed. It was time to save the little that could be saved. It was not time to go and narrate my story again just to seek permission from the watchman. A better idea came into mind, it was better to do a Harambee and raise money to buy an apartment instead of  taking up a mortgage.

Even if I was not going to the ministry, I had to go out of the house. I was not emotionally stable to interact with the fieces that were knocking on my door too It was easy to clean the dark green sewage than it was to clean fieces from onces feet.