BILAKHULU!: Small Friends and other stories and poems

Lies

52 Lies Gaudencia Rutize I want to tell you a story. When I was young I could hear everything people were saying. I went to school with my friend as I was learning with other pupils who could hear. At that time my mother was working in Gweru and, one day, she came to collect me from the village as she had heard I was not well. I was so sick that I could not eat anything or do any work to help at home. I do not know what was wrong with me or what kind of a disease I had, I only know that I was always throwing up and my stomach was really painful. My mother rushed me to hospital, where I had to use an oxygen tank to breathe. She thought I was going to die because I could only breathe through the oxygen tank for three whole days. I don’t remember anything of that time. Then, when I did wake up, I remember opening my eyes seeing my mother smiling down at me. Then I heard a very loud sound. My mother was calling me but I couldn’t hear her properly. Throughout the next few days I could sometimes hear my mother’s voice but it seemed to be from very far away although I could see her by my side. I cried and cried all the time. I also found it very difficult to stand up. After two weeks I went to the rural areas in a scotch cart with my mother and father, to my father’s village. My mother then left, and I sat down with my father and I started to cry and cry. The next day I asked where my mother was, and my father told me he was sorry she had had to leave but that she was coming back soon. She came back a few days later with her friend and she asked me why I was crying, but I could not explain that I was so frightened. She had to carry me everywhere she went because it was still hard for me to stand. My sister wanted to play with me but I couldn’t walk. Once, when she threw the ball towards me, I fell down as I was so weak. Later my mother took me to Gweru as she was worried that I was going deaf. She had called me several times but I hadn’t replied, so she wanted to take me to find another doctor to check me. After examining me, the doctor told my mother that I was now deaf, that I could hear no sounds any more. The doctor said it was almost certainly because I had been so sick. My mother was desperate, and took me to the Johane Masowe church. We 53 went inside, sat down and started to pray. We both prayed and prayed, but nothing happened and my hearing did not come back. We stayed on in Gweru and eventually heard about another girl who was deaf who stayed near us. She could write and school was easy for her. The girl’s mother explained everything to my mother and she started to look for a place for me in the Jairos Jiri Association Naran Centre. My mother had to find money for me and sort things out so that I could go to the school. As we arrived there I saw deaf school children signing, raising their hands as if they wanted to hit me. I touched my mother’s hand and she told me not to be afraid. She told me these children are the same as you, but I was still afraid of the children. The headmaster said I should start in Grade Zero because I didn’t know sign language, despite my mother telling him that I had been in Grade 4. There the teacher asked me ‘What is your name?’ and I wrote it down very quickly. The teacher realized that I had been sent to the wrong class and I went back to Grade 4. Everyone was surprised, and I was so pleased when I then passed all my subjects. At that time my mother started to become very ill. One day an ambulance took her to hospital and they called my sister to go with her. I was left with my father and they told me about my mother but I didn’t understand how serious it was...