_{photo by mika on unsplash, edited by teechizzy inspired by @dimimp}

Kunle regretted moving into uncle bayo’s house because it changed his life totally.
how?

Uncle bayo was the only known relation of kunle’s mother from the same town.
He was a very young man living alone in one room,
Because he was a drunkard, he was scarcely at home and generally broke.

Uncle bayo was in primary six when he got the daughter of a neighbour.
So he ran off and lodged in agamo village, briefly with kunle’s mother and father before he got his place a few years ago.

Because he would drink and drink always,
All his income was spent on weed,
He often lost his jobs.

Nobody could remember his real name but everyone nicknamed him as “Uncle drunkard…”
He would always put on one
Cap or the other, a T-shirt and baggy knickers and sandals.
All these affected kunle’s school.

He often went to school hungry with his uniform torn and dirty, no books, pencil nor biro.
Whenever he had to pay his school fee, it was always a great struggle as uncle drunkard never had money.

He would promise and promise with little or nothing happening.
After a while,
Kunle was forced to go out after school hours to sell tomatoes and pepper.

In the evening, he would go into the bush and hunt, he might catch a bush rat or snake and sell it and use the money to buy a textbook or pay part of his fees.

By the time kunle was in primary five,
He was almost twelve years old.
He had had to repeat classes two times; He failed woefully the first time and was very sick,
He could not go to school the second time-truly.

His uniform was badly torn and he couldn’t pay for the exams.
Uncle drunkard did not care or bother…
Nowadays, uncle drunkard had become a notorious and habitual criminal, and whenever he is enjoying or smoking weed,
If disturbed, he would bring out his belt to beat kunle
saying:

“Am I the one that killed your parents?, don't bother me oh or do you want to kill me?, little devil.”

Kunle would cry his eyes out,
He would cry and cry throughout that day and far into the night.
Life was so cruel and bad for him.

It got worst to the extent of taking his friend’s uniform on loan.
Bolu gave kunle his old shirt and for an amount to be paid every monday at school.
He would manage to keep it for the first term, then when they resumed in the second term, bolu had calculated the three weeks holiday asking for the total from kunle.

Kunle was surprised, he could not talk.
“we agreed that you should pay me every monday and three mondays have passed now, so where is my money?”
“I said, where is my money?”
He repeated shouting at him.

“but… but”

Kunle kept stammering.

“but, we didn’t include holidays, you know we don’t wear uniform during holidays…”
Kunle intoned finding his voice back.
“that is not my business”

Bolu said and slapped kunle two times.

“let me have my old uniform back now”
Bolu said trying to remove the cloth from his body.
Kunle started crying as bolu unbuttoned the shirt and untied the rope he used as belt and removed the knicker also.

Except for the torn under wear kunle wore, he would have gone totally naked.
In shame, kunle ran out of the school and went back home.
Never had he been disgraced
So much in his life,
He wished the ground could open and swallow him up.

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Read the first part of homeless Not Hopeless here

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When uncle Bayo woke him up the next morning to prepare for school, kunle told him what happened.

Uncle was not bothered while kunle cried.

“I can’t figure out the reason for your tears now, if I told you before that you shouldn’t go, you would think I was being wicked, now you can see by yourself:
Anyway, i am relieved that i have more money to play around and enjoy myself.”

Throughout the day kunle cried and to him him he felt this was the greatest disappointment in his life as he has always hoped that after his primary education, he would go to secondary school after which he would be able to cater very well for as many people as he might wish without any trouble.

During this period, teachers in school often went to teacher training colleges after their secondary school education.
Kunle was greatly depressed and had no friend to help him out of this problem.

Staying at home for about a week doing nothing with little or nothing to eat and drink,
Uncle Bayo called him
“young boy, we cannot survive this way. Now that you are no more going to school, it’s better you find something profitable to do”

He suggested him learning tailor, carpenter and other various good alternatives.
At this time he was working at a building site not far from the village so kunle started following him.

He would fetch water for them,
Later he carried cement, blocks with the wheelbarrow, then cement bags.
Being a labourer on site, he woke up very early,
He would lament.
In faith he kept hoping on for years, hoping and praying for things to improve.

TO BE CONTINUED…..

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