Who am I? – Bilingual blog

Let’s go back to the main story.

While I went up to the next grade from the previous one at school,  I already started noticing the difference between me and my friends.

It became very clear when my parents told me I could not go to school trips at age of 13.

“I can’t afford a school trip….”

And my inner voice had then said “No wonder why my lunch box is always only full of rice”. Actually it was not only that…

until the age of 18, I hadn’t had my own room. I had to share a 9 m² room with two brothers. I can’t even imagine how comfortable a private room would have been.

In this 9 m² room, furnished with desks and closets for 3 boys , if one of us sleeps in the middle of the room, the rest two of us had to sit down on the corner.  Therefore, when we slept in the night, two of us slept horizontally and one was vertical next to two’s heads, looks like → コ.

When I became a secondary school student, I joined a baseball club activity at school, though I always got second-hand equipment from my cousins.

Special days such as new year, X-mass and birthday etc., there was nothing for us. I didn’t want to hear classmates talking about presents from families.

I had to go to friend’s house to play with toys and video game, watch movies and read manga.

I had used a sweater given by my grandmother that I wore until I started working for the company after Zambia.

I couldn’t go to a cram school for the university exams. And there was no space in my room to focus on study, thus, I ended up staying school very late.

There are still many thing that convinced me we were very poor though, but that’s enough for this time.

Anyway, let’s go back to the main story about my boyhood.

One day, my brothers and I were discussing the reasons for being so poor.

Our immature answer was “that’s the parents’s fault”.

This answer led us to think about how we could change families, so we went to the library and looked for the answer in a book that may explain how to do it!!

At that time, the internet was not yet well developed for ordinary people. It was common to get information from books and newspaper.

I still remember that it was during summer vacation. We rode the bicycles under the strong sunlight.

It was cool in the library, which was refreshing.

However, we couldn’t find the book. Moreover, we couldn’t even imagine what kind of book explains how to get a rich family.

In the end, we just went home with empty hands.

With time, I realize how silly of an idea it was, and the three of us still laugh about it.

I must say, it was a difficult moment in life, but thanks to this environment, we got to help each other and became extremely close. Ease is a greater threat than hardship.

Even though, I couldn’t defeat poverty. I was forced to give something up….

Next page: End of the dream