Thursday, August 10, 2017

You Remind Me of Something (A Love Story) - 1


In the busiest streets, in the heart of Dar es Salaam, Sabrina was hurrying heading to the famous market, Kariakoo to buy something. Despite her health condition being worse, she hurried to the place where vegetables and fruits were sold, her new born infant in her chest.
It was only two month since she gave birth, but as long as there was no one to take care of her and her baby, she decided to take full responsibilities.
“Sabrina! Sabrina!” a voice of a woman shouted her name, she turned back trying to concentrate where the voice was coming from. It took her few seconds to recognize who was calling her.
“Nasra!” she replied to a call in a hesitation.
“Sabrina! Ooh my old friend, long time no see!”
“Sure! It’s a very long time.”
“Are you having a baby? Since when?” Nasra told Sabrina in a very surprised tone.
“It is a very long and sad story Nasra, we shall talk next time we meet.”
“Ooh sorry! Can I have your phone number?”
“I have no phone my friend.”
“Where can I find you then?”
“I’m residing in Tandale, near police post! See you,” Sabrina said in a hasty manner and hurried into the market.
Nasra stood there, gazing as if she is not believing what she saw. Sabrina was her class mate, and a best friend too. They studied together at Magomeni Primary School and then Sinza Secondary School. Nasra shifted to Mtwara, Southern Tanzania when her parents, who was both health workers moved to another working station and they never met until that day.
“What happened to Sabrina,” Sabrina sighed in despair and continued to move to a next bureau de change as she wanted to convert her dollar bills into Tanzanian shillings.
“Give me ten bunches of ‘mchicha’, a kilo of onions, two of tomatoes and three bunches of figili. Don’t forget some carrots,” Sabrina ordered a seller, trying to unfold a knot of her khanga where she puts her money.
Few minutes later, Sabrina was moving, with a luggage, full of green vegetables and fruits in her head, and a newborn baby in her chest. The cruel sun showed no mercy to neither her, nor her baby. She walked for a while, in a very crowded streets and soon she stood in Msimbazi Bus Stand.
There comes a daladala and when it stopped, tens of passengers were pushing each other, in a struggle to occupy empty seats. Sabrina waited for few minutes and then entered a congested daladala with her luggage and a baby.
This has been her routine since she was pregnant. For long now, life has been very miserable to her, she was once selling ‘mataputapu’ in a local bar in Tandale to earn a living but things was not easy.
“Come and have a seat young mama,” a middle aged woman told Sabrina, touched by sense of humanity, as she saw other passengers paying no attention to her, despite her being carrying a young baby.
Soon a daladala driver ignited an engine and the journey back to his home place started. In a sweaty body, Sabrina started to breast feed her baby, paying no attention to other passengers, including a Good Samaritan woman who offered her a sit.
As the daladala moved, Sabrina was immersed into bitter thoughts. She looked at her baby’s face, it reminded her of Iqram, her handsome boyfriend who dumped her when she was carrying a two month fetus in her womb.
She remembered a moment where they lastly argued. She remembered how hardly Iqram punched her face, causing her to lose a tooth and left her with ruptured lips, just because she denied to abort as he wished.
“You are crying! Aren’t you?”
“Crying relieves my heart!” Sabrina replied in a tone that caused anyone near her to turn to her. She dried her tears with a palm and then concentrates in breast feeding her baby as if nothing has happened.”


To be continued. 

No comments:

Post a Comment

THE DARKEST HOURS (SAA ZA GIZA TOTORO)- 1

Mtunzi: Hashim Aziz (Hashpower) 0719401968 “Ngo! Ngo! Ngo! Fungua!” “Nanii?” “Fungua!” “Jitambulishe kwanza, wewe nani?” “Nimese...