I HAVE SQUATTED IN GABORONE (Botswana Capital City) WITH NO ACCOMMODATION💔

I was so stranded, my brother had just gotten transferred outside Gaborone. I was staying with him during my college times, atleast he left when I had finished my final exams and I was only waiting for the results. Only had two weeks to wait then apply and return to my home village. I asked the boyfriend to accommodate me for the remaining time whereas I was still waiting for the results and he refused. Just for two weeks, two weeks, he said no.... yet we were neighbours and I was spending most of the time at his house but he couldn't allow me to stay with him when I needed it the most.

I asked around from few people I knew, with no luck. I ended up asking a patient I met at a hospital during my attachment time to accommodate me. He had no proper house. He was renting in a small room at a congested hostel at the outskirts of Tlokweng. Very congested, honestly the boy was just having no choice but to help me in time of need with just what he had. This boy, was staying with his brother (both were fully grown men). A small room which was accommodating a double bed mattress, we were all sleeping on that mattress.

At the head next to the mattress was a two burner stove, a very old one, with only one side working. Next to it was where food was kept.... 12 KG maize meal, 5 KG sugar and Ace Coffee. As for meat it was a struggle to buy it, we were not affording it, sometimes we would even have chicken intestines, or hearts, or necks or feet to eat as our meat. These men were not really working, they were doing piece jobs.

At the end of the mattress, towards the door there was a plastic bathing tab and our bags stuffed near it. Remind me of the courage I gathered to stay there, I only wanted my certificate. Of which after getting results, one must go to school to get references, it wasn't a one  day thing cause lectures wouldn't be always waiting for you. It went to about a month to complete everything I needed to do before I left for my home village.

Trust me, i still visited the boyfriend from this shacks to Gaborone suburbs and he never visited me at the shacks to atleast see where I was staying. I was the only one who kept on visiting him. And all was well between us, i never got angry to him for not accommodating me and I never broken up with him for that reason. I respected his decision.

Me and my new housemates, we would walk to the mall on their pay day and we would carry that 12 KG maize meal and the rest on our heads going back to our shack. There were toilets at that hostel, Lord... I just wish everything has improved now. Terrible thefts was happening day and night at that place, in the middle of the night you will hear people screaming, crying, hurt, raped by criminals. It's only God who protected us, me and my room mates.

As emotional as it is, I want you all to know that, i have lived such a life. I don't know what you are struggling about, where ever you are but just know that there is hope. That season is not there to stay in your life, it's a passing lane, allow yourself to just pass through it, don't stay there. And those from far areas to developed areas, searching for greener pastures, i know how difficult it is to find accommodation, please don't give up on your dreams and go back, that's the process, go through it. GO THROUGH IT. I have passed through it. I got help from the people I don't know, just strangers, only because I once helped them on line of duty, and i was only a student by then. And no form of abuse have I experienced on the hands of those young Batswana man, no form of abuse, no sexual involvement of some sort❤️um still grateful ❤️

Babedi Samakabadi FACES Reality♥️

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