The Life Of An Unemployed Graduate

I remember the smile on my mother’s face when I told her I got 40 points for my Grade 12. Despite all the trials and tribulations we had been through, even going some nights without food, I had never seen my mother cry until that day when she cried for the first time in front of me.

She had tears of joy as she continued to wrap me in her warm embrace. She was jumping for joy that one of her kids was finally going to university to make something out of their life.

My name is Ndina, I grew up with my mother and my three siblings in a shack behind Onguta complex. My father disappeared and remarried a woman who forced him to cut us off so it has always just been my mother, my siblings and I.

My younger brother Simon was born with a condition that leaves him unable to walk or talk, and because we had no money, he could never get the surgeries he needed. My elder brother Joshua dropped out of school when he was in Grade 5 to become a security guard at Fysal Mini Market. He was later arrested for robbing the store with his friends.

After he got out of jail, Joshua was introduced by some friends he made in jail to bigger gangs so he left for Windhoek in search of bigger jobs.

The night he left, he sent a child to come get me as my mother would not let him back in the house. He said ‘good bye’ and said he would send me money. That was the last I saw of him.

So it has just been us.

My mother works at Oluno Open Market where she sells various things and on school holidays and weekends I would go to the market with her to help out. That was my life for the 20 years until the day I passed my Grade 12 exams and went to Windhoek for my first year at the Polytechnic of Namibia (now the Namibia University of Science and Technology).

My mother could not afford to pay rent for me in a fancy room like most of my classmates but poverty was not foreign to me so I was not broken-hearted as I knew my reason for coming to Windhoek.

Go to school, graduate, get a job, build my mother a house and move her from that shack and take my brother to specialists. So when she told me I was going to stay at her best friend’s brother’s house, where I would be helping out at the bar before and after school as payment for staying in their house and eating their food, I was not discouraged. In fact, I took that challenge on like I did the Grade 12 exams that everyone told me were difficult.

I remember the day I left Ondangwa very well. I sat next to a man who was eating corn. My stomach was growling as I hadn’t eaten the previous night as the food had not been enough and I gave my share to my brother instead.

The man besides me must have heard my stomach growl or he noticed me salivating because he broke his corn and gave me half of it. I was embarrassed but thankful.

We took off and I looked at the mountains that looked like clouds for the first time in awe. I had never seen anything so beautiful in my whole life before. My mother had given me strict instructions not to sleep on the bus or talk to strangers and I did just that.

We arrived in Windhoek so late and were dropped at the Monte Christo bus station. The city lights were almost blinding and I wondered where in this big city my long lost brother was living. I took the paper with instructions from my mother and got a taxi driver who I told I was going to Okuryangava.

When I got to my new home, I introduced myself to the lady of the house. Aunty Hambelela was not pleased to see me at all. Two other girls who work in the bar were washing the cups and without being told, I joined them. I am not afraid of work.

I have been working before I could walk and talk.

I was later told by the girls that Aunty Hambelela does not like me. I wasn’t sure why my mum would put me in such a situation but I knew I had to just focus on school. So I did everything she asked me to just to avoid being chased out the house and having nowhere to stay.

When she asked me to jump, my answer was always “how high?” with a huge smile across my face.

To be continued…

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