With every good-bye, comes a story.

Dear readers,

Here is a story I wrote and shared with a couple of dear friends, two years ago (October, 2018). Its title reads, 'with every goodbye, comes a story'. It is an epistolary short narrative, which is to say, it is in form of a letter. It is a goodbye letter from a dying father to her daughter. It was written from the eyes of a Tanzanian soldier who died fighting for peace in a foreign man's civilization.

Tanzania is among the many countries that deploys her soldiers in various pece keeping missions. One of such peace keeping missions where Tanzania has deployed her soldiers and established a temporary base is Congo within Eastern Kivu, in an area called, 'Beni".

The dawn of early December, 2017 witnessed the death of 14 Tanzanian soldiers who were supposedly ambushed by the ADF rebels in their military base. These soldiers had wives, sons, daughters, mothers, fathers and friends dearly hearted.

The story has been inspired by their bravery and a great deal of sacrifice in redefining the narratives of our brothers, our extended human family, who are vulnerable to despicable inhumanity by a fleshy-hearted fellow human. It is a tribute to the 14 Tanzanian soldiers and all servicemen from the many walks of life, who had to sacrifice their lives at the altar of fraternal love for a neighbor.

In as much as this story has taken me to a paradise beyond the farthest star as I was writing it, I also hope that it will perch you to this paradise in the course of your reading.

Here is to a happy readership.

ALBERT K. KITWENGA.

Writer.