chapter two: Everyday life

Every experience in Emasoras life has always felt the same. It's like she was programmed to do the same things over and over receiving the same response at the end. " mom can I please wear makeup to school just once" and her moms response was always something in the likes of " no makeup till you are old enough. She wished her mom would behave like all the moms she had watched on those foreign movies. Taking their daughters shopping for what ever there like, doing everything they wanted, allowing them go for parties and have sleep overs. She would watch how this girls of her age and even younger than her would wear lots of makeup, short skirts and lived a very free life. If ever there was a punishment for breaking the rules all they got was detention in school, being grounded at home or worst their phones taken away. But in her case she couldn't count the number of times she had been bitten by her dad. Living in an African home where you know your mom can use any instrument ranging from her hands to a cook spoon to bring you back to order. In school you would be beaten and manual labor added to it. All those times she had to work in the school farm under the hot sun just for making noise in class. Or when she had to clean the school hall all alone for not dressing appropriately. All of this rules were in place putting her on check but still in her community there were homes with no rules. The children in these homes were free to live the "American lifestyle" as it was called and one of such homes was that of her neighbors. Emasora had to eat breakfast, dress in her boring long and extra large school uniform and walk to school each day. She was in class 4 and the load of books she had to carry each day made her believe she wouldn't be able to stand straight by the time she finished primary school. Each day before leaving home her mom would put little snacks in her bag with a bottle of water. " Be a good girl and pay attention in class" was always her send off message. On her way Emasora would be passed by her friends and school mates riding in their parents cars and the school buses. How she wished she could trade places with one of them. She would have the possibility of going to school like a princess. Have a driver open the door for her and carry her bag to class. Most especially she wished she could be like Melissa her next door neighbor of 17years who rode in different cars each day but heading to different destinations other than school. Emasora loved school and the fact that she got to play with friends and learn new things but all this she could still do while living her best life. She would have friends to party with. They would go swimming, dancing and shopping together. In her head Emasora imagined how a conversation to convince her parents would go. Mom will be like " Dear sending you to school is the best gift we your parents can give you. You get to learn so much and its sure your future will be certain and brighter if you focus on your studies". She would reply "I can learn everything i need to know if you just get me a phone. I'll be so happy spending time with my friends and my future will be great cause I'll get married to a man who has so much money". No matter how many times these conversations ran in her mind Emasora always knew at the end her moms answer would always be no. She would see herself running away from home to go live her life but she also knew her surrounding was not like that showed in those movies. At the school gate she would just shake her thoughts away. "You live in one of the poorest countries in Africa where can you run to"