Guitar Maker at Dzaleka Refugee Camp, Malawi
0
Archive for 2013
LIVING UNDER THE TENT.
0
LIVING UNDER THE TENT.
LIVING UNDER THE TENT.
Life has always been tough for me. Ever since I fled my home country
to this foreign land, my life has always been miserable. I have been
under this kind of experience for twenty years now. Everything around
me has been nothing but trouble including the so called family. “This
wife and the children only increase the pain,” I said one day.
Unfortunately, my wife overheard that statement I uttered complaining
about her and the children. ”Hey useless husband, how can you call us
the instigators of your pain?” she asked angrily. “I am declared free
now as you have become this useless, ungrateful and boring husband.”
She added. She continued to say a lot of things including how she was
going to get a more responsible man who would feed her and take care
of the children. This pained me but I was out of options because I
there was nothing I could do about it.
Oxygen is a very useful gas because it is not only for breathing but
also help in calming our minds. This is exactly what I needed after
the insults from my wife. Near by there was this big tree with healthy
branches. The branches blocked the sun’s rays thereby creating a
shadow around the tree, something that was suitable to relax my mind.
The oxygen direct from the tree would really help me a lot. Then I
went and sat under that tree, how sweet and relaxing it was. You know
when your mind is relaxed and calm; you begin to meditate about a lot
of different things. All of a sudden, the bad effects of fleeing your
country and becoming a refugee began flowing in my mind. The effects
such as being given undesirable kind of food, distributing clothes
that are fit for a new born baby to you. Just imagine, how could a man
of sixty five years like me put on clothes like that. My cultural
beliefs being negatively affected gradually and our children to grow
up having no idea about their cultural heritage. The belief we had in
God has been corrupted because of different problems and now for most
of us it’s hard to tell whether we are monotheists or polytheists.
My freedom no longer exist and my right taken away. My wife whom I
trusted has become a burden of course and in addition to that I now
live like unworthy thing. I cannot work and get salary on which to
live on and even if I get one, I would still be underpaid because of
my status. This place of residence of mine is like a prison, ok may
not be exactly like a prison but it’s a place where you are limited in
a lot of things. Going out of this so called camp requires you to get
an authorizing piece of paper. What if it’s an emergency and the
issuers of this paper are not around. Does this mean that you have
just to accept the reality of the situation and suffer inside?
Furthermore, people like me no longer have even the right to
discipline their family. When children misbehave, you cannot do
anything, they say its democracy. You touch your wife, hey! That is
gender based violence! Can you believe that now I can’t even sneeze in
front of my wife? This is so painful that I am beginning to develop
trauma. There are some people who doubt that trauma exists, trust me
it does. There is this little boy who asked his father, “dad, I have
heard people complaining of hunger and referring to it as an enemy,
what is it really?” The father was confused and could not even say
anything. When I heard of this story, my heart broke. Where other
people are suffering with hunger, others are ignorant of the term hunger.
I began considering life as meaningless and the best thing that could
happen to me was just dying. In other words, I began preferring death
to life. I took a very strong rope which I tied to a branch of a
certain tree and then wrapped the other end to my neck. It is obvious
I was in the middle of killing myself, or let me say committing
suicide. I climbed the tree and then threw myself down so that the
rope stops my breathing and then die. As I was suffocating to death, I
saw my wife coming while running to where I was. She immediately
untied me from the rope and brought me down. I began to cough heavily
as a tuberculosis patient; I think it was because of the rope. ”Uh
tell me now, you want to kill yourself uh!” she exclaimed.” How did
you find me anyway?” I asked her. “You have been away for almost eight
hours so I thought of looking for you.” She answered. She then held my
hand and led me home .On the way, she asked to know the reasons for my
decision to commit suicide. I told her that it was because of the
problems we were encountering in the camp and the fact that the family
supposed to stand by me had rejected me. She became very sad to hear
that she had played a part as one of the instigators to her husband’s
problem up to the extent of making him commit suicide.
My suicide attempt brought about a turning point in my family’s life.
The wife and children became obedient and understanding. My son and
daughter became very intelligent in school. The son finished form four
and got a very nice job in town. The daughter finished form four as
well and then applied for a scholarship to study in Canada. This
scholarship was being offered by an organization called World
University Service of Canada. Fortunately, she was taken and went to
Canada for her studies.
They say “everything that has a beginning has an end”. The problems
which almost cost me my life had their beginning, but now their end
came when my daughter returned from Canada after her studies. Oh, how
beautiful she was and rich as well. She brought us a lot of money
meaning that poverty was no longer a problem. She also brought a lot
of things. In fact, she was the redeemer of the family. I now got a
reason to live on Earth.
This was a very good and encouraging example to the rest of the people
in the camp. The children began working hard in school; the parents
started being responsible for their families and a lot of people
changed their ways. Troubles will always be there, but the thing to do
is to figure out how to deal with them. Do not let a challenge
overcome you but you overcome the challenge. Learn from my what
happened to me and do the right thing.
Patron Nyirenda
Performing Graduated student
@ Regis University
Life has always been tough for me. Ever since I fled my home country
to this foreign land, my life has always been miserable. I have been
under this kind of experience for twenty years now. Everything around
me has been nothing but trouble including the so called family. “This
wife and the children only increase the pain,” I said one day.
Unfortunately, my wife overheard that statement I uttered complaining
about her and the children. ”Hey useless husband, how can you call us
the instigators of your pain?” she asked angrily. “I am declared free
now as you have become this useless, ungrateful and boring husband.”
She added. She continued to say a lot of things including how she was
going to get a more responsible man who would feed her and take care
of the children. This pained me but I was out of options because I
there was nothing I could do about it.
Oxygen is a very useful gas because it is not only for breathing but
also help in calming our minds. This is exactly what I needed after
the insults from my wife. Near by there was this big tree with healthy
branches. The branches blocked the sun’s rays thereby creating a
shadow around the tree, something that was suitable to relax my mind.
The oxygen direct from the tree would really help me a lot. Then I
went and sat under that tree, how sweet and relaxing it was. You know
when your mind is relaxed and calm; you begin to meditate about a lot
of different things. All of a sudden, the bad effects of fleeing your
country and becoming a refugee began flowing in my mind. The effects
such as being given undesirable kind of food, distributing clothes
that are fit for a new born baby to you. Just imagine, how could a man
of sixty five years like me put on clothes like that. My cultural
beliefs being negatively affected gradually and our children to grow
up having no idea about their cultural heritage. The belief we had in
God has been corrupted because of different problems and now for most
of us it’s hard to tell whether we are monotheists or polytheists.
My freedom no longer exist and my right taken away. My wife whom I
trusted has become a burden of course and in addition to that I now
live like unworthy thing. I cannot work and get salary on which to
live on and even if I get one, I would still be underpaid because of
my status. This place of residence of mine is like a prison, ok may
not be exactly like a prison but it’s a place where you are limited in
a lot of things. Going out of this so called camp requires you to get
an authorizing piece of paper. What if it’s an emergency and the
issuers of this paper are not around. Does this mean that you have
just to accept the reality of the situation and suffer inside?
Furthermore, people like me no longer have even the right to
discipline their family. When children misbehave, you cannot do
anything, they say its democracy. You touch your wife, hey! That is
gender based violence! Can you believe that now I can’t even sneeze in
front of my wife? This is so painful that I am beginning to develop
trauma. There are some people who doubt that trauma exists, trust me
it does. There is this little boy who asked his father, “dad, I have
heard people complaining of hunger and referring to it as an enemy,
what is it really?” The father was confused and could not even say
anything. When I heard of this story, my heart broke. Where other
people are suffering with hunger, others are ignorant of the term hunger.
I began considering life as meaningless and the best thing that could
happen to me was just dying. In other words, I began preferring death
to life. I took a very strong rope which I tied to a branch of a
certain tree and then wrapped the other end to my neck. It is obvious
I was in the middle of killing myself, or let me say committing
suicide. I climbed the tree and then threw myself down so that the
rope stops my breathing and then die. As I was suffocating to death, I
saw my wife coming while running to where I was. She immediately
untied me from the rope and brought me down. I began to cough heavily
as a tuberculosis patient; I think it was because of the rope. ”Uh
tell me now, you want to kill yourself uh!” she exclaimed.” How did
you find me anyway?” I asked her. “You have been away for almost eight
hours so I thought of looking for you.” She answered. She then held my
hand and led me home .On the way, she asked to know the reasons for my
decision to commit suicide. I told her that it was because of the
problems we were encountering in the camp and the fact that the family
supposed to stand by me had rejected me. She became very sad to hear
that she had played a part as one of the instigators to her husband’s
problem up to the extent of making him commit suicide.
My suicide attempt brought about a turning point in my family’s life.
The wife and children became obedient and understanding. My son and
daughter became very intelligent in school. The son finished form four
and got a very nice job in town. The daughter finished form four as
well and then applied for a scholarship to study in Canada. This
scholarship was being offered by an organization called World
University Service of Canada. Fortunately, she was taken and went to
Canada for her studies.
They say “everything that has a beginning has an end”. The problems
which almost cost me my life had their beginning, but now their end
came when my daughter returned from Canada after her studies. Oh, how
beautiful she was and rich as well. She brought us a lot of money
meaning that poverty was no longer a problem. She also brought a lot
of things. In fact, she was the redeemer of the family. I now got a
reason to live on Earth.
This was a very good and encouraging example to the rest of the people
in the camp. The children began working hard in school; the parents
started being responsible for their families and a lot of people
changed their ways. Troubles will always be there, but the thing to do
is to figure out how to deal with them. Do not let a challenge
overcome you but you overcome the challenge. Learn from my what
happened to me and do the right thing.
Patron Nyirenda
Performing Graduated student
@ Regis University
Patron, a guitar maker at Dzaleka Refugee Camp in Malawi shows how one can make something so beautiful from a simple piece of wood and the limited resources available at the camp!
Stay tuned from more videos from Dzaleka and from www.lpgpatron.webs.com
and more on you tube
Stay tuned from more videos from Dzaleka and from www.lpgpatron.webs.com
and more on you tube
What you are in need of
0
Now in view of responding at this need and reduce this difficulty, by the way; the L P G over view putting its technical plan in action by using young people and others who would like to learn how to make a guitar of good quality; we read to sharer this knowledge with any one! Come forward.
But for our achievement, we pull the attention that L P G remains in financial problems, stressing upon our accomplishment.