I often ride 100 km on R2 and observe young boys herding cattle in Ntabazinduna & Mbembesi, some loading logs/firewood onto a donkey-drawn scorch cart. By young, I mean 10 years old. Then when I ride on A7 I see women and young girls tilling the land, this always strikes my conscience and really sits at the back of my mind as I'm stepping on the pedals chasing the wind and watching all the scenery whiz by.
Rural children learn great responsibility at such a young age; Chopping wood and controlling a donkey back home is the indigenous equivalent of contemporary truck loading and driving to the delivery bay, it's a great responsibility, herding cattle too and tilling the land. I didn't grow up doing such things, many urban kids don't even know how to start a fire or make a garden bed. But in the countryside, straight after school, they are walking a distance to fetch water, trodding into the fields to herd cattle back home, feeding fowl, doing all sorts of things, a responsibility! Whereas this side, I don't even know what to say but it's piteous.
We then wonder what becomes of kids when they start smoking cigarettes at the age of 16 and eventually grow into irresponsible unconcerned adults, with no training whatsoever we have it so easy man and life becomes so stale. It breaks my heart what I see & hears in the hood man and I don't blame anyone; After WW2 men returned from war and found women in factories working and putting bread on the table, when the industrial revolution erupted women were already heads of their homes, till this day mom and dad both go to work early and return late leaving the kids in the help and security of a helper, a system that was profusely imposed on us Africans through imperial rule, and the cycle goes on until kids are properly spoilt & can't make their own egg.
Learning to be responsible for me is a self-imposed journey and still is a long one which drags but I am glad I chose it. I really think we ought to inflict it upon ourselves because it is indeed a punishment to learn to be responsible when you weren't trained from a young age, we're doomed if we do not exercise responsibility! Life is such an unfair concept which we by no choice have to meet halfway, and choosing to be responsible for ourselves is a big step because it's a span of teenage adults who don't know how to do things because. After all, mom/dad always did everything for them.
I often observe people's gardeners here in the suburbs, people my age but already have such heavy responsibilities as fathers and workers, they are from the rural areas and this is not new to them, I have such respect for them because as much as I am a resident and may appear superior to them they are far much better than I am at life's deals. Most vendors in the city are from rural areas Nkayi, Filabusi, Gokwe etc, they return home every weekend/fortnight if things are alright just to check on family and leave a dollar or ten then return to the city for work. At the market this past Thursday, a fella I'm well acquainted with told me things haven't been going well for him so he phoned his mom eNkayi to send him a bucket of maize by bus so he could get it grinded and at least have pap and mbhida to hold his breath and strength with. It is a tragedy I do not want to glide my ballpoint into right now but my propelling point is that the concept of responsibility imbedded in him grants him that relationship and favour to have a bucket of maize sent to him because when things are right he visits home with a couple groceries. Can you call home right now and ask for $10? You departed from home and they haven't heard from you in years.
Country people are noble, and I admire that about them. Responsibility gets one ahead in life, harness it because the years are going by and we are not getting any younger. If you feel you are a late bloomer, responsibility will grow you much faster.