"You guys will not travel these year, let's leave it till next year,
I didn't make proper arrangements for you guys"
These are my father's words to us every single year.
As a child I always look forward to traveling to my maternal home but my Dad would never allow us no matter how much we plead
My maternal home is a very fun place to go to,
Every one is warm and welcoming and every day is filled with fun .
My maternal home is blessed with about six rivers and plenty of fruits.
Before my dad stopped us totally from going to my maternal home, I could remember going there with my mum and siblings one very good December,
Every morning before 5:30 I would wake up and join the other children to fetch water from the river (there is a different river for drinking water and another for bathing, the one for bathing is divided into two, one for the males or one for the female and there's another river for both gender ).
There are hills and valleys on the way to our village river and the water is usually very cold early in the morning, if you get to the river before everyone ,you would notice that the water is as cold of an ice water but these particular one is just for drinking,
I would join the many other children and run to the river wishing to be among the first five to put my legs on the cold water,
After fetching the water we would run down the hills and valleys carrying our different pot of water on our heads, If you fall down by mistake, you will have to run back to the river to fetch another one.
for me it was a fun experience.
After fetching the water, our parents would share the house chores among all the children while they prepare the breakfast together,
Every one will quickly perform their different house chores so we can all eat together.
The food will be dished with one big tray and all the children are expected to eat together from that big tray,
We would all eat very fast so as to eat the largest portion, everything was filled with fun.
After eating we would all run together to the other River (the one for bathing) with our soaps and sponges and that's where we would have our morning bath (we have bathroom at home but no one likes to bath there unless you're sick ).
We would bath and swim as much as we like, (I don't know how to swim , I would just hang around the places that are not too deep).
I would watch the other children dive into the river from a very high place and most of them will swim to the deepest side of the river and stay there for some times before they would come out but I wouldn't dare to try that, hell no.
One day I went to the highest place where other children were diving from, I just stood there imaging how they usually do it and suddenly one of my cousins pushed me from behind and the next thing I saw myself inside the deep side of the river,
The river dragged me down two good times and I drank as much water as possible before some other children came to help me,
My eyes turned red and I became scared at some point but then I felt the fun behind it though I would never try that again.
That is how our everyday routine in my maternal home used to be and that's why I always looked forward to traveling there every x-mas.
After that particular x-mas, I felt very sick and my dad who was a public health nurse tried everything he could but none helped my condition.
My dad then took me to a public hospital where some test was ran and it was confirmed that the bacterias from the river affected my liver , some medications were prescribed and my dad bought them all .
Since then my dad would never let us especially me to go there no matter how we beg or plead with him,
I know that he was just trying to protect us but I wouldn't listen.
I kept doing everything to please him so he can allow us go there during x-mas but all to no avail.
At some point we gave up and no one ever talked about it until my grandmother died,
He was left with no option than to let us attend her funeral but we didn't stay for a long period of time.
Thanks for reading till the end.
Yours faithfully: yummycruz1
Lots of love 😍😍😍
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