I am sending this to you so that you may warn women for me please.I was just a naive young village girl with city girls dreams. I come from a poor family and i saw how disregarded my family was by the people in the villages. It is true that money can and will buy you respect. I was a very beautiful girl whom older men with a few cows, goats, sheeps or even chickens would approach my dad about marrying me for themselves or for their sons.
My dad was against it at first but as time went on he realised that he is getting more disrespected and shamed for being poor. He was getting tired of being treated like a nobody so he was slowly getting tempted to sell me to the village's highest bidder.
Both my parents were unemployed and we survived by planting and harvesting crops for well off families in the village. We were not paid by money but for basic things such as a small bag of maize meal, tomatoes and sweet potatoes or a few corns or whatever the produce that was in season.
One night I overheard my dad telling my mom that maybe it's time they gave me up to highest bidder just so they can be respected and improve their lives. I ran back to the hut that I shared with all my 6 siblings and my grandmother and cried myself to sleep.
Why couldn't they give me a chance to study and finish school and become a somebody and lift them. My mom was a quite woman who lived by my dad's rules, she'd never stand for her own beliefs or anything. The next morning they sat me down and told me that I had to leave home and agree to marrying a man who was 22 years older than me.
I begged them to allow me to finish my Matric and go to university. My dad asked me who would pay for my fees? I told them about bursaries and explained to them how it works. Thank God I was able to convince them on that. But the agreement was that if I don't get any bursary then I'd have to marry the old man.
Time flew and I was waiting eagerly for Matric results, I also had applied to few universities and bursaries aswell. Unfortunately I received Good news and bad news. The Good news was that I passed my Matric but not well enough for bursaries to fight for me and the bad news was that I didn't get any of the bursaries I applied for.
I took advantage of the fact that my parents couldn't read so I lied to them and told them that I got the bursary. My last option was now Nsfas, but I wasn't gonna tell them that. I was in the "I will cross that bridge when we get there". I left my village with no plan in place but all I wanted to was get away from the village and their transactional marriages.
They gave me bus fare and a few rands for food. I got into the bus and left. I cried so much in the bus burying my face on my thighs just so the next person couldn't see that I was crying.... I was scared, very scared.
Upon arrival in Pretoria, I asked to be shown where TUT is. I was asked which TUT as there were many campuses. I didn't even know what to say as I didn't even know any of that information. I then opted for TUT's main campus and I was dropped off there.
I didn't have enough of me, I needed money to pay for a place to sleep and also res money... Everything was money this and money that. I was now scared and regretful of my decision to run away from home. What did I get myself into?I thought to myself. It was getting dark and the campus was closing, people were now decreasing and my heart was beating very fast, I was scared cos I had no place to sleep....
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