That Child Never Grew

Hello friends, let me tell you about a strange child I have met. Yes, that child that consciously and unconsciously decided not to grow! She decided to hold on to her childhood dreams and aspirations. She so desired to give those childhood wishes over to another child as a gift. Safe to say, she's already doing that and on her way to doing better. That child is me!

So, while growing up, I loved reading. Ooh, I so loved reading. I loved stories, fiction, more. I loved the drama and that was one way I could get carried away into another world. Sinking deep into my imagination and living in the world as created by those books. How I loved those books. My dad made sure to purchase these books for me.

Sad enough, I grew up in a rural community. I was fortunate to attend a private school which was arguably the best in my community at the time. Inspite of this, I, desired for the community library to be functional so that I could go over to read more books. I faintly remember how it used to be operational but not for long. Years passed and it lied obsolete, unused and deteriorating.

Then an organisation come over to our community and opened a library where students could come over to read, draw and engage in other fun activities before going home. You could imagine my joy. I never cared about how far the library was from house. The journey to the library would take me further away from my school which means I needed to do a longer journey back home. I happily engaged my feet just to satisfy my desire to read. Along with some friends. I don't remember my age then, but I should have been in my primary level. Then, this initiative also closed down after some time. Until today, I have found memories of going over there to read and make art works. Those moments were pleasurable.

There were several attempts to reopen my community library but none could be sustained. This saddened me. This happened until I completed my University education. I then took it upon myself to enquire about it. My efforts met a dead end but presumably, there is a political play around ownership and maintenance of the facility.

Ooh, I couldn't stop there. At the time, we had already started some educational advocacy activities. After expressing the desire to start a library for long, my maternal family decided to be gracious and lend me a space to start with. They offered a land which was not in use. And then we set off to putting up a structure on it.

We wanted to create a learning space, a safe environment for students in our rural community to learn and network, a space where the youth can connect and be empowered. That kind of space my younger version needed.

The structure you see is our first. It is still under development but it is already serving the purpose for which it was established. This structure received support from many different friends and colleagues who believed in the vision. But this is not going to be the last. We'd create more of these in our surrounding rural communities. We desire to champion rural education and this we'd surely do

My younger version wanted this, but my adult version even wants this more for other children behind me. That child in me never grew. And I don't even want it to!