DEUTERONOMY

Chapter 5 of the book-“NON-CONTRADICTORY CONTRADICTIONS”

V. Deuteronomy

2 Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. 3 He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. 4 Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. 5 Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you. 6 Observe the commands of the LORD your God, walking in his ways and revering him. 7 For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land – a land with streams and pools of water, with springs flowing in the valleys and hills; 8 a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey, 9 a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills. Deuteronomy: Chapter 8:2-9 (The Holy Bible, New International Version)

1

Chipo Rawlings was watching traffic from her suite at the Pamodzi Hotel situated in the Zambian capital, Lusaka. She and her husband, Richard Rawlings had just come back from Lusaka International Airport where they had seen off her son and his lovely bride. Her son, Nhamo, had just wedded a Zambian girl, which was the reason why Chipo and Richard were in Lusaka. They had come to attend the wedding, which reception had actually been held at the very hotel that Chipo and Richard were staying in. Now the young couple had just flown off to Mauritius for their honeymoon before going back to England where they all lived.

Nhamo was Chipo’s son, but not Richard’s child. This was because Chipo had, herself, only married Richard nine months ago. Chipo had two children from her previous “marriage”. Nhamo, the elder of the two children, was twenty eight years old. The other child, Tambudzai, was a young woman of twenty six, who had married a South African national and was now living with her husband in Johannesburg. Tambudzai had, to everybody’s sadness, not been in a position to travel to Lusaka for the wedding of her brother. Her doctor had advised her not to travel as she was pregnant and the baby was almost due. Not only that, the pregnancy had also been a difficult one and required close monitoring.

Chipo smiled to herself as she noted that she was soon going to be a grandmother at the age of forty. Looking at the Lusaka traffic, whilst waiting for Richard who had gone to the bathroom, she knew the dinner that they were going to have at a restaurant recommended by Nhamo’s in-laws, was going to be lovely, like everything else that was happening to her life these days.

2

It had not always been like that. She had had a tough life but the present and future were definitely much brighter. It had not been easy but she had persevered. Chipo was born forty years ago in a Zimbabwean rural village called Chiweshe. She was the eighth child in a family of ten. The family was very poor and her father had only allowed her to attend three years of elementary school. What little resources were available, were channelled towards the education of the boys in the family. As a girl, Chipo was expected to cope with very little education. As soon as she had learnt how to read and write, she was taken away from school and commanded to help her mother who sold various types of vegetables at a nearby bus –stop along the main road that passed by their village.

At the age of eleven, when Chipo had barely reached puberty, she was forced to become the fourth wife of the man who was married to her aunt. That is how she ended up being a mother at the tender age of twelve. She had almost died in child birth but was fortunate that the mid-wives at the nearby mission hospital managed to save both the baby and the young mother. After giving birth to Nhamo, she thought she was going to be spared the agony of going through the experience of child birth again as she was herself really also a child. This was not to be as her “uncle-husband” considered her his favourite wife and she soon became pregnant again, resulting in the birth of a girl whom they named Tambudzai. Fortunately for Chipo, Tambudzai’s entry into the world was a lot easier than her previous experience with Nhamo.

Chipo’s life was, however, a terrible struggle. As the fourth wife, Chipo had joined a family which was already very large. Her life with her parents had been difficult but the move into married life had been like “jumping out of the frying pan and landing straight into the fire”. Despite collecting wives, her “uncle-husband” would not provide for them. The wives and their children were expected to fend for themselves in the best way they could. Chipo counted herself lucky to have managed to get a cleaning job at the nearby Howard Mission Hospital where she had given birth to Nhamo. She considered herself lucky despite having to also work in the fields in addition to her work at the hospital. What made all this work even more painful was the fact that her husband demanded that she handed her little wages to him every month. He would take for himself a large portion of the small wage, giving her very little of her own money. Life was hell and she would wonder whether she was going to continue working in good health and manage to properly raise her two children.

3

Her situation improved somewhat when her husband suddenly died. It might have been a cruel feeling to experience but Chipo had been really pleased to “lose her husband”. Her husband had abused his body with alcohol and he had succumbed to acute liver failure. The death of her husband liberated Chipo. No wonder she had secretly rejoiced when he died.

A couple of years after the death of her husband, when Chipo was twenty and her second child, Tambudzai was six, she decided to go back to school. The Salvation Army which owned the hospital, at which Chipo worked, also ran a primary and secondary school in the area. The school also offered evening classes, mostly to adults who had not had the opportunity to do their schooling when they were younger. Chipo joined one of the evening classes and worked so hard that after only two years she had obtained her Junior Certificate in education. She did not stop there, enrolling to study for the ordinary level Cambridge School Certificate. Although she took the “normal” time, two years, to obtain the ordinary level certificate, she obtained her A-level certificate after a period of only one year. So, five years after deciding to go back to school, she had her Cambridge A-level certificate.

Her achievements in school were obtained with a great deal of sacrifice. Her children were also going to school and she had to help them with their school work on top of carrying out her day job at the hospital and taking care of her own studies. In most cases, she would only manage to have only three or four hours sleep.

Chipo’s superiors at the hospital were really amazed at what she had managed to accomplish under very difficult circumstances. They tried to persuade her to join the Nurse Training Programme at the hospital but Chipo was not sure that “nursing” was what she wanted to do. She however, promised to give it careful consideration, thus not rejecting the idea outright.

Her superiors assumed that her hesitation was due to a concern on pressure of work and were willing to give her as much time as she wanted to think about it. Chipo, however, had other bigger things on her mind. She was considering going to college to study English and History. Unfortunately for her, she did not have any means of financing further studies whilst at the same time taking care of her children. Even if she were somehow manage to get a scholarship to attend college, who would take care of her children?

A solution to her problems was presented to her quite unexpectedly. The international leader of the Salvation Army, General Anthony Hawkins, was on a tour of Southern Africa and came to visit the Howard Mission hospital and school complex. Somebody must have talked to him about Chipo because the next thing Chipo knew was that General Hawkins wanted to see her. Chipo could not imagine why the Head of the Salvation Army might be interested in her. When she was finally brought to him, he remarked that he had heard her story and had been deeply touched. He also wanted to know if she was prepared to take the nurse training course if she was given financial assistance. Chipo saw her opportunity and told General Hawkins what she really would want to do, given adequate resources. The General was impressed and promised to look into the possibility of assisting her to fulfil her dreams.

Three months after her encounter with the Head of The Salvation Army, when the memory of the incident was already fading in her mind, Chipo was called into the Hospital Administrator’s office. The Administrator told Chipo that he had received good news from General Hawkins which could have a huge impact on her fortunes. The General had managed to secure finances for her from a benefactor in London. Funds were going to be made available for Chipo to study at an English University of her choice with all expenses paid, including the upkeep and schooling of her children. All she needed to do was to secure a place at an appropriate college and make all the necessary preparations that would enable her and the children to travel to England.

Chipo could not believe her good fortune. There was no way she was going to miss out on an opportunity like that. Within a period of ten months she had managed to secure a place at the University of Leeds and she made plans to travel to England in the northern hemisphere autumn of the year that she attained the age of twenty eight.

4

Life in Leeds was tough. Although she no longer had financial worries, as the benefactor identified by General Hawkins was very generous, her work schedule was quite hectic. As she had done since the day she had made the decision of going back to school, she had to constantly worry about whether she was being a good mother to her children in the midst of taking care of her own education. But she persevered. It was no surprise then that she opted to embark on a Masters Programme in English after successfully completing her undergraduate studies.

Chipo did so well in her post graduate studies that the University of Leeds offered her a teaching post. She accepted this offer and remained in the English department of the college, only now she was a teaching assistant. It was during this period that she met Richard Rawlings who was a professor in the Engineering Department of the College.

Richard was a third generation “Anglo-Jamaican” and he started dating Chipo soon after she had become teaching assistant in the English Department. Chipo was now thirty five years old and very much at peace with her world but she also did not want to rush into a long term relationship. This also seemed to suit Richard who had not dated anyone since the death of his wife, seven years earlier.

They went out together for a period of four years before deciding to get married. By this time, her children were both independent adults. They encouraged her to marry, something that they had long been advocating ever since they were old enough to know about this sort of thing.

5

Now here she was in a lovely Lusaka Hotel, looking forward to the evening. The following day, she and Richard were proceeding to Johannesburg, South Africa where they were going to await the arrival of their grandchild. They were only going to go back to England after Tambudzai’s baby had been born and they had had the opportunity to assure themselves that “mother and child” were in good health.

She heard noises from the bathroom which indicated that Richard had finished and she walked towards the large plasma LG television set, making sure it was switched off before they went out. She picked up the remote-control from the top of the TV set and the letters of the manufacturer’s logo “LG” jumped at her from this small device. “Yes, LG, Life was now really Good”, she thought, remembering one of the “LG” manufacturer’s commercials.

Richard came out of the bathroom, looking really “handsome and fresh” as always. She took his arm and they walked out of the hotel suite.

 The next chapter-Joshua- will be published not later than Thursday, 16 December 2010

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