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27
- LANGAA RPCIG
- Chapter
- Additional Information
183 27 anja’s family, which had not left home, was under lockdown. They could not go outside their compound. For their safety, they paid some young men, sympathetic to their plight, to keep a vigilant watch over their home and guard their lives. Still, they could not sleep; tension mounted within them to the sounds of raving gunfire outside their door. When the sun rose on the second day, it brought with it the stress of the day. They received word that both Nico and Wanja were already at the station. They did not feel safe there either, for they were still outsiders. Nothing changed—tension remained, and fear became a norm. At nightfall, Wanja’s parents were still guarded by those with whom they had forged a security pact. That night, they buried their family treasures in the sand in their backyard, hoping to retrieve it after the clamor of violence ended. The next morning, the police escorted the family to the station and reunited the family. That day, treacherous swirling winds ensued, sweeping everything in its path. Most people at the station felt twice victimized. Some watched the little they had swept under the twirling eddies of the wind. Luckily, very little rain followed in its aftermath, for they had to sleep under the open to the horrid nightly chills that settled in after dusk. Not to mention, the mosquitoes that feasted on their exposed skin nightly. Days came and passed. Nothing changed. Weeks came and passed. Nothing changed. The internally displaced people still stayed at the station. Months came and passed. Nothing changed. Soon, when the bowels of the heavens opened up, illnesses settled in with a vengeance—children suffered from malaria, grown-ups suffered from malaria, others were struck with dysentery, typhoid and diarrhea. Even when they were given tents for shelter, maize, beans, and peas, for sustenance, their problems remained. Eventually, they W 184 adjusted to their squalid living condition . . . And that was before Nico vanished! ...