Meet Mike, a kid, ignorant about his age, who was ushered into the street after the death of his mother. He has been living in an abandoned vehicle on one of the main streets of Lusaka for close to two years now. Mike recollects the day when his brother, a friend and himself jumped onto a train headed for Lusaka from Livingstone town, which is about 472 kms away in search for solace.
Mikes mother had no formal employment and was only going around houses in the neighborhood trying to find jobs such as washing, gardening, and cleaning to earn a living. Her husband had left them when Mike’s young brother had not even started crawling yet. Up to now, his whereabouts are not known. She never introduced her kids to any relative apart from the man who Mike describes as having been her lover. The man usually went to their home and he could take them some food at times. He was the only person who was in the lives of the children and who was there when the mum died. He also disappeared later leaving them vulnerable with nowhere to go. Mike defends the man’s decision of leaving them saying that he too had a life to live or maybe a family to take care of and he thinks they were just going to be a burden for him.
Upon reaching Lusaka, Mike’s young brother was taken away by a man who claimed that he was taking him to a better place. Memories of his lost brother seem to trouble him a lot, as he does not know where he was taken. He hopes to see him again if something terrible has not happened to him for he can’t trust anyone and besides if he were around when the brother was being taken, he would have opted to stay with him.
Survival on the streets has not been easy for Mike. The utmost he makes in a favorable day is K 5,000.00, which he uses to buy some food, and going to the barber man on occasions to have his haircut. He further recounted that some days are tough such that he even fails to nurture money for a meal hence he has to go to bed on an empty stomach. In addition, by the time I was talking to him, he said that he had not had any food for the past two nights. Sometimes, after having worked hard during the day, those who can hardly defend themselves tend to loose their monies to bullies who come to terrorise them. They are usually threatened to be beaten or perhaps being killed if they retaliated.
Violence in the streets is another vice that Mike has partisipated in. He said apart from the bullies, we witness big boys beating young ones so badly and at times, they fight each other. In the recent scene he watched, he saw two big boys fighting and one ended up being stubbed in the neck. He did not die right there, but he might have died later. He went on to say that some sights are horrible and unbearable to watch thus he usually flees to his home when such is happening.
Inquired about how he and the three other friends sleep in the deserted vehicle turned home, he said that it does not at most bother them about how they sleep stating that they have many other things to worry about than sleep. “At most we sleep on empty stomachs, how can you worry about where to sleep, you can’t,” he lamented. In winter, which is the coldest season of the year, Mike alleged that they have no other option but to brave the cold. Since most of them only have one pair of clothing, they have nothing to keep them warm thus; they have no option but to get used to the cold. He further stated that for some, they usually sniff Bostik to keep them warm. Bostik is a mixture of petrol and cello particles, which tend to melt and form some sort of concentrated liquid that they inhale. This mixture is snuffled from the bottles.
Asked how the bostik is related to keeping warm, Mike echoed with a bit of doubt that he was not sure but he believed that when too much of that stuff is sniffed, one tends to get high and you simply don’t feel the hustles around you. Most guys have clung to it despite knowing that it was dangerous simply because it helps them forget about their problems. It has the very effects of alcohol.
Avoiding the temptation of smoking or taking part in the sniffing has been the greatest challenge Mike has been faced with from the time he was whisked into the hands of the streets especially when the going gets tough. He said that he has avoided those temptations because doing such will only end his short yet troubled life. He narrated that a certain man had warned him about the dangers of smoking and sniffing of bostik. The man told him that his lungs could be intoxicated if he were to take part in that and that he might die faster than hunger could kill him.
The other thing that has kept Mike away from indulging in such vices was his knowledge about God. Mike acknowledges God’s hand in all the things that he is going through. He says that God ordains all things and that one day he will rescue him. Each Sunday, he goes to a church near the railway, which happens to be the most church attended by street kids. The church preaches God’s word to them and thereafter they are given some food. ‘I will always learn to hope and trust upon my God’, he says.
Belief in God in the streets differs from person to person. Mike recalls the day when he sat with his friends trying to educate and convince them about the dangers of bostik as well as the love of God. “They couldn’t listen, they were as hard as rock. The discussion even became emotional such that one of them pushed me towards a moving car that passed on top of my leg. The man who was driving could not stop hence I just lay there crying and only my close friend Paul came to my aid. He dragged me off the road and tried to fix my dry wound.” He evoked. Asked how he treated his abrasion, Mike said that he was both physically and financially incapable of going to the hospital hence he just lay in his home, washed his feet by the nearby tap, cleaned it with a piece of cloth he had picked from the streets, applied Panadol onto the fresh parts of the wounds and slept. Panadol is one of the common painkillers that one can get from a dispensing pharmacist with no prescription.
Erroneous self-prescriptions are common on the streets and are the common way street kids dealt with their illness since most of them could not afford paying the enormous medical fees charged on them at the hospitals in our country where there is no medical scheme for the underprivileged and the old. Mike stated that at times you could get seriously ill and there is no one to help you, you go to the streets and sleep in the open such with hope that it may attract one’s attention but to no avail. “Rarely, good Samaritans can pick you up and take you to the clinic but even the medical care that side leaves nothing to be desired. You are just given panadol…I bet that is why most street kids use it because they know that when I go to the hospital, they will give me the same thing hence going to the hospital isn’t such a big bother to most of us…” bemoaned Mike. Other kids are reported to be dying in the streets due to the lack of proper or no medical care at all.
Flames of hope and dreams of making it one day still flare in the lives of many of these kids. Mike’s dream of great consequence is going to school in the days to come. He marvels at the kids who go to school, that makes him cry as he comprehends that he could have been in school by that time instead of the streets. “I want to know how to write, chiefly letters. I then can start working and become rich. In no time, I will be driving a car and in next to no time I will become president Mwanawasa one day. I want to be president one day and all that can come from school only.” He says.
Asked if the worst came to the worst whether he could get involved in theft and armed robbery, Mike said that he is scared of being jailed and that could be the last remedy. “I don’t think that I will stay in these streets for long, if you can take me with you to your place then I will not have to do that. Therefore, can I come with you, please? I promised to be good, you can trust me, and many people do that.” He stated with tears dwindling down his cheeks. “One day, a man went round with an intercom announcing that the police were going to come round and arrest all of us. They will take us to the state farms where we are going to be forced to work with no reward” he continued.
Solicited for words out to the public, Mike said that “ All I want is a proper home, food and love that are eternal, to go to school, own a car…overall I would say that I want a family and home…I also want to feel loved.”
« return.