My Aunty was raised in a small village in one of the country’s far flung provinces. She and her family lived primitively in rustic conditions with very limited facilities.
Throughout My Aunty’s early years of schooling, she proved to be bright, intelligent and industrious, always ready to help with family chores and assist with the marketing of items during festive occasions as well as attending school functions and church celebrations.
When Aunty graduated from high school it was impossible for her to continue studying as there were no funds available to send her to college, so she occupied herself with household duties and waited for the day that her future spouse would arrive. Previously, one of her Aunties, who lived overseas, had promised My Aunty that she would find a man for her to marry, so that she too could move overseas and enjoy a better lifestyle.
One of My Aunty’s brothers had three young children who lived with Aunty and her parents. Her brother lived in the city where he worked and the children’s Mom cared for the kids until she obtained a position as a domestic helper in an overseas country, so that she too could contribute to the support of the family. My Aunty then cared for the three young children and helped to raise them.
My Aunty humbly accepted this situation and dutifully cared for the kids, tended the plants and animals at home as well as helping her mother with the domestic chores. My Aunty lived a sheltered life, the only social life that she had was attending religious functions and festivals with the kids and members of her family.
Several years later, My Aunty’s future spouse arrived accompanied by her aunt, it was thirteen years after her promise to find a man for My Aunty. Formalities were performed, arrangements made and a wedding was planned. My Brave Aunty married this strange man who, after a couple of weeks returned to his home country. Life for my Aunty returned to the same boring routine, apart from a couple of trips to the embassy to apply for a visa to join her spouse.
Nearly a year had elapsed before a visa was granted to my Aunty, the strange man sent her a one-way plane ticket and accompanied by her Father, My Aunty travelled to the international airport where My Aunty entered the departure lounge alone and anxiously waited to board an airplane. My Brave Aunty had no television at home, she had never seen an airplane or been to a busy international airport before, she was very inexperienced and unaccustomed to big city living, yet here she was boarding this huge flying monster along with another two hundred people.
My Brave Aunty must have been absolutely terrified!
After surviving the take-off and landing, the flight was uneventful, even pleasant. My Brave Aunty must have been quite anxious as she entered the airport arrival lounge in her new home country. She had only a limited command of this foreign language, she carried no money, her only possessions were the clothes that she was wearing and a small handbag that contained her papers, a tooth brush and a spare pair of knickers. Would the strange man be here, would she know him? What would she do if she couldn’t find him?
Finally, My Aunty saw him standing alone at the meeting place, as it turned out, it was the strange man who did not recognise My Aunty until she spoke to him. They got reacquainted then went to the car and drove for a few hours to her Aunty’s place where they stayed for a couple of days.
The strange man then took My Aunty to his place, which was in a small farming community, far away from any city and a long way from her only relative in this strange country. No body else in her new home town spoke her language so My Aunty had to learn and use the strange language, and learn it she did. My aunty studied a language conversion dictionary, watched television game and quiz shows, spoke to the strange man as often as she could and other people to improve her language skills.
Soon, My Aunty got work in a vineyard thinning and picking grapes, once again she had to use the new language to take instructions and to communicate with fellow workers as nobody else spoke her native tongue. She studied relentlessly and looked after the strange man and continued to do so when she got work in a packing shed processing citrus fruit. This entailed her working twelve hour days, seven days a week.
The strange man eventually moved back to the city where they operated a restaurant, My Aunty now spoke the strange language fluently and it was time to put her culinary skills to work. When the strange man reached retirement age he and My Aunty moved again to another city where Aunty got work in a small fruit packing shed, and also in a fish factory.
My Aunty is now a citizen of this once strange country and has acquired so many new skills, she has obtained a licence to drive after a most stringent examination and expertly tools the strange mans car through high traffic areas of the city, making her entirely independent.
At Present, My Aunty still works in the fish factory with a group of women that come from her native country. The work is hard, smelly and demeaning, it is not work that everyone can do or would want to do, as most days she has sore hands, aching limbs and comes home absolutely exhausted.
The job at the fish factory is contract labour where an employee gets paid per piece rather than by the hour. My Aunty is the gun in the fish factory, that means that she is the fastest processor and the highest earner, and that is only because she drives herself hard and strives to be the best.
All of these things that I have spoken of are trials and tribulations that My Aunty has endured, in order to support her parents and help her family members to attain a higher education level so that they too, can avail themselves of the opportunity to enjoy a better lifestyle and not have to suffer the indignities of poverty.
How Brave Is My Aunty?
My Brave Aunty also publishes the website at: Erly Pro
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