Life and I

Dear Me, This is what the world is like.

January 10, 2019.
Dear Me,
I was surfing through my favorite social media app, Instagram, when I realized that there was a trending story on nearly everyone's page. It is about a popular woman who had decided to come clean about what she had painfully kept to herself but couldn't anymore.

She had been raped as a young girl by a man her family had held in high esteem. He was her rich neighbor who helped her family out times without number. Her family being the average family managing to survive gladly accepted the man and his assistances, while having the mind that he was Godsent. Until the day no one was home except her and he having known, came to her house as though to check up on her, in his usual manner. One thing led to another, with him knowing the nook and crannies of the house and using that to his advantage, with him overpowering her, with him stifling her voice with one of his large palms and the other holding her hands firmly behind her, all the while dragging her to her parents' room, with him, a 34 years old bachelor and her, a 14 years old student, forcing his way into her on her parents' bed, with him breaking her hymen just to satisfy his desire, with him causing a pain that she still hadn't healed from. Emotional pain.

It was heartbreaking reading it.
And trust the media world, half of the them are speaking against her coming out clean with a traumatic experience only now, and twisting the whole thing, making it seem she's against his success and marriage as he is now a successful and wealthy oil mogul. They seem to be forgetting that she's also successful and has a name for herself. She could be lying, yes, and yet she might not.

Many people have taken this up and are now speaking up against an harassment or assault they once had with the other/ same sex. Two of my friends have spoken up, one against an attempted rape incident with her uncle and the other with an harassing uncle.

I have my story to tell too. But I won't tell it for all the world to see and know. I know that somehow my family would know if I do that and I wouldn't want to break their unsuspecting hearts. So I will write it here, for you alone to know, so keep it to yourself okay? Lol.

I was six years old when he made the first advance at me. My father's cousin. Then I of course didn't know or think his advances were signs of a coming harassment. I didn't even know what harassment meant.
I only knew to accept his gifts, the goodies every young child loves.
I was doing my assignment on the dining table, while my mother was outside with my aunts and grandmother talking away time, like they did every other day. My father had yet to come home from work and my siblings had gone for a choir rehearsal at church. It was a Saturday. I was in the dining room doing the assignment my lesson teacher had given me just hours ago, before he left. It was a pretty simple assignment, and I decided to do it before I forgot how to solve the mathematical problems.

T, that is what I call my father's cousin, the evildoer. I stripped him of his title 'uncle' long ago, after realizing what it was that he had been doing.
T came to the dining room with his usual smile and started name singing "Mora the Mora! Mora peperempe!" I smiled back.
Greetings and teasing turned to him telling me to come and give him a hug where he was seated. I got up and went to give him a hug where he was seated- in the seat opposite mine. His grip was wasn't loosened until more than twenty seconds later and three pats on my butt accompanied the hug. His eyes roamed my small body as I stood looking at him, waiting for him to tell me what else he wanted.

The days that followed with him in our house was met with different approaches and advances of his.

A day I remember so well is the Friday and I happened to be home and not in school as I was just recovering from fever.
My mother and T were the only ones in the house with me. I was having my bathe with my usual bucket of warm water when the door opened and T came in.

My mother had gone out to buy the popularly known energy drink- Lucozade boost for me at the time. T told me he was there to help bathe and I insisted I could do so myself, and he told me to go ahead while he watches how I did bathe myself. When I bent down and started washing my vagina as I had been taught to, he laughed and told me I was doing it wrong. He spent minutes teaching how to wash my vagina, all the while slowly. He was speaking slowly too "Youu wash. It. Like. Thissss, okay? Then....." His voice was heavy, as though he was being pleasured. When he stood up straight a big bulge was apparent in between his legs, stretching his trousers forward. He stroked my cheeks and told me to continue bathing. I remained silent about all these, for reasons I do not know, as I was a chatty and innocent child that said things without know what it meant to people around me. I could have blurted out the incidence(s) but somehow I didn't.

I'm cringing! I'm crying!
That was so disgusting. And i never knew what it was that was happening to me. I can't even begin to imagine what it would be like had he decided to take it a notch further and raped me.
This page is getting soaked with my drops of tears.

Rape is crazy! Why would anyone even do such?! This world, dear Me, is crazy.
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Oh wow. It's strange how the world works. I started writing this chapter about 2 weeks ago, and coincidentally it goes with what we are currently boiling about.
I STAND AGAINST RAPE, HARASSMENT, RACISM AND INJUSTICE!
#JusticeforUwa
#JusticeforTina
#JusticeforGeorgeFlyod.
💔
#Justice!

•1064 words.