Despair not, it will Rain!
( A piece performed at the closure of a training institute at African Bible University organized by Teach for Uganda. Written and performed by Fred Sunday Mugisha, Robinah Kobuzare and Geoffrey Ojok in order of appearance)
Dear Child,
I am writing to you from light years away
I know you’re struggling, but I am certain
you will be okay.
I felt an endless bottomless bitterness
when I saw you the other day.
I wish I could tell you that it’s gonna be
different, but I just can’t.
What I can do though, is to share some
insights,
Insights that embracing, will see you to
posterity of joy, fulfillment and life,
Life of experiences crafted and allowed by
you – for you.
Dear Child,
Seasons will come when you’ll feel
betrayed, by almost everything roundabout
You’ll experience the grip of loneliness
and solitude as an eagle above the clouds
In a familiar crowd, yet so alone and
distant - locked in your own reality, finding solace from within but sometimes
it’s just unbearable
You can’t help but feel lost, -depressed,
-insufficient, -destitute, -angry and -hungry.
Evidence of adequacy yet the in-charges
don’t give a care about what matters most
It’s easier to go to a luncheon succeeded
by a party and blow a couple of millions, than support a needy child whose want
in entirety is to attend a 15,000shs public school.
Dear Child,
You will be pushed in all extremes by spitish
leaders whose need to embellish their personas seem VIP than to answer the call
of humanity
When resources assigned and availed for the
marginalized, -the vulnerable, -the undeserving and the -underserved is
swindled by a pregnant man in a 2 million shs tuxedo whose current account
balance is able feed generations and an entire community for years
When one cannot ably see the fruition of
leadership, civility, and public institutions
When one can no longer hold trust in
government
When one begins to think that the absence
of these institutions will bring the much-needed change
When accountability, responsibility and
morality to self and others is at its thinnest
You will hurt. You will curse. But above
all, a healing will come.
A healing will come, when you roll up your
sleeve and start to get things done.
Interlude
Part two
The Child
There's jubilee outside
I hear the trumpets blowing and voices
calling...
An invitation to party in the rain in the
midst of pain.
It rains privileges, leverages and
resources
Plenty of raindrops but there's none for me
Not a single one for me😢
I'm called to dance in the rain
And there's no space for my sways
They would rather a ballet and I would
rather a shoki.
Their music is just too slow for me and my
moves so fast.
At every invitation I'm constantly reminded
that life gets wasted, dancing in the slow rain.
Desolate, unentertained I gaze through the
window and all there's, is a bare backyard.
I'm walking out to it, breaking the bare ground,
fixing my own green, trying to make my own rain, but still the clouds won't
agree.
Interlude
Part
three
Dear child, despair not, don't be blue;
It will rain since I am here for you.
I heard your voice calling for me from afar
and here I am like Beowulf who saved the
Scyflings
from evil Grendel. That you are craving for
a master
like me, I learnt, so luck will hug you
tightly.
In your voice, I heard myself, who many
years ago,
met no willing doctors to fix the systemic
defects
that on the skin of this country, are so
visible.
Dear child, I have sacrificed my fun and
rest
so that your journey across this sea of
knowledge,
skills and values is not so rough. Your
school is a sinking vessel
that needs engineers like me to fix it but
this is just the threshold
of my journey with you and I cannot promise
you everything. I am compassionate, so I
will treat your mind,
I will treat your heart, and I will treat
your hands;
I will put a smile on your face since we
are now friends,
but please, do me a favor; exhibit zeal
that masters rarely find.
I won’t be with you forever but that way,
you will reminisce
the heaven that you enjoyed before my
unexpected leave.
If your parents and other citizens could
concert pains
with me, you would surely dance
rhythmically in the rain
like other kids who have privileges
and I would beam for ages.
End
Fred (left), Robinah (middle) and Geoffrey (right)
Geoffrey Ojok
You made us cry with tears. A poem that was written within a short time amidst congested days but it sounds so real and legit. Thanks for the piece. If there was any day that I have made myself so attentive, was the day I sat there in the field staring at the three of you and yet taken so far away into a land of sufferings for a child crying out for help.
ReplyDeleteDespite the fact that its still one of the longest poem I have read, I really enjoyed it. Such a wonderful piece, beautifully written and so emotionally. Continue touching lives thru your writings.
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