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I am a 29 years old man. And fourth born of five children, I was brought up in a very trying background. Both my parents were salaried, and one would rightly expect me to have led a good life, but the exact opposite is the truth.
When I was 3 years, my elder brother got a head injury while playing at school. What seemed to be a slight injury ended up to be a serious injury that would prompt surgical intervention. It took three years for him to stabilize.
In the year 1998, just as my brother had completed his specialist review clinics at the Kenyatta National Hospital, one of my elder sisters developed a bone infection known as Osteomyelitis, which took 6 six years for her to heal. This was in the year 2002 reached, and our home had morphed into a den of deprivation.
As my parents concentrated their efforts on clearing the incurred debts and paying high school fees for my elder siblings, I and my younger sister wore rags to school. Forgotten or foresaken, we had no good clothes to wear to church, let alone enough food to eat. My mother would at times project her agony on us. When things didn't work out right for her, she'd at times ascend on us with kicks. I really hated weekends because our stay at home wouldn't be easy. As we suffered in silence, deep down in my heart I believed that the best way out was working hard in school so that I'd be able to secure a good job and earn a living. Perhaps I'd have some peace in my own house. What I went through taught me how to pray. I started off with prayers for a means of livelihood even before I had finished school.
Due to the financial constraints in my family, as well as other mysterious occurrences in which see my parents would spend pretty good time and money in an unending cycle of problems, I never had the chance to school comfortably. In the year 2006 when I was in form two, due to sickness and also lack of fees, I had to stay at home for the whole of second term. Blessed enough, I was able to get back to school for end term exams, which I ably passed. Come 2007, in form three, I had to stay at home for the whole of first and second terms.
When I went back to school in third term, it was time for Form Three Mock Exams, and I was lucky enough to have teachers who'd understand what I was going through. Sitting in a examination department meeting, the teachers agreed to promote me to form four if I got a D+ (however the cut off mark for promotion to the next class was C-). He who created me was with me, I got a C plain, after having studied at home for the whole year, without the help of a teacher, let alone a guide.
I joined form four in the year that followed, registered for KCSE, and went back home. This time, my sister, who was then a third-year student at the University of Nairobi, School of Education, hosted me at her place - in a university hostel. With the help of her campus mates, I was taken through part of the form four syllabus, hasty though. It was mid second term when the school administration demanded me and I had to leave my sister's place. Back to school, I was able to a remarkable extent able to catch up with the rest of the class. I sat for my KSCE the same year, and in the see of the Most High God, I managed to get a C+.
With a C+, I could join a public university, but owing to the financial burden my parents had, and the sorry fact that I had no promise to claim that would make my life bearable campus, I opted to join the National Youth Service of Kenya, where I hoped to get the opportunity to serve my country as well as a sponsorship for vocational training. This was in the year 2011. Thanks to God's Love and Compassion, I got enlisted with the National Police Service the following year 2013 (the same year my mother underwent hysterectomy). A sigh of relieve that never was. Unfortunately, in the following year, 2014, I got injured in the line of duty. I suffered a brain contusion and a deep laceration on my tongue as well as lost some teeth. I couldn't feed for five months, and I couldn't speak properly for the 3½ years up to July of 2017 when I was blessed enough to meet a specialist doctor who got to understand my condition and therefore gave the right medical advice. Burdened with loans and debts (incurred in the course of treatment), I had become totally broke. Really stressed, I broke down in 2015. I was put on anti-anxiety and depression treatment. As soon as my speech recorded an improvement, I developed a lump/growth on my breasts, in which address I had to undergo mastectomy in May 2018.
In the following year, 2019, my mental issues escalated and I had to be put on antipsychotics for the whole year, after which I have recorded a steady improvement. Thanks to God.
During all this, I lost my friends and even my own brothers and sisters got tired with me. I was discriminated against and even my girlfriend deserted me.
The more I have had to suffer, the more reasons I have had to keep on going, the more I have been motivated to work even harder in all that I do. Life has taught me resilience. For sure it's really hard for a mental patient or someone with a known history of mental illness to get a spouse, but I thank God He has given me one who knows all about my wretched past and is still willing to stay with me - Thanks to God for my loving wife Damaris. But the problem, my dear brothers and sisters, is that I am not able to fend for my small family. I do some farming, but the first harvest is due April. Before then, I have nowhere to turn to for our daily bread. I am alone in a world that has a billion people.
Through experience, I have also come to realize that alleviation of human suffering is the my duty. Service for humanity is one thing I have always found to be nobler. As I struggle my dad farming to supplement my income and keep my family, I have a burning desire in my heart to start a children's home and a charity rehabilitation center that in my best interest serve to rehabilitate street children as well as need individuals who cannot afford conventional rehabilitation services. I have so far adopted a 10:10:20:60 spending rule in which 10 p.c. of my little earnings is God's Tithe, another 10 p.c. is for drawings, 20 p.c. for charity, and 60 p.c. for furthering my agribusiness pursuit. I look forward to the day I'll have enough to care for my family and also start my dream children's home and charity rehabilitation center.
Dear brother/sister, please find it in your heart to help me get up and stand.
I look forward to your generous offers.
My email address is: mail2seph@gmail.com
Thank you. God bless you.
Yours
JOSEPH
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