Five Photos, Five Stories: Day2

Respect women
This is day two of the challenge five photos, five stories. I should have done this continuously but got held up on some issues and i wasn’t able to post.

This post has been inspired by the exemplary things women do to make a living or take care of their families. Naturally i have a lot of respect for the struggles that women go through majorly due to the reason that i was brought up by a single mother.

I know it wasn’t easy for mum to raise two boys all on her own, but she did and here i am, i think i turned out alright ;). She had to be extra tough to ensure that she raised us right. If we erred, as boys are wont to, we got whacked more than our buddies who had fathers. At least with them, their punishments were always postponed till the time their dads got home, and normally by then they would not receive any more than a strict warning not to repeat the error again.

We on the other hand had to deal with the wrath of a lady who was playing the part of mother and father; that meant we got double the portion of punishment!

Every other day i see women struggling to make ends meet, working from dawn till dusk to ensure that society does not point a finger at them for not bringing up their kids well, or not giving them proper education. They work off their backs to put their children to school in a bid to secure a good future for them. They struggle in spite of all the odds to make sure that their kids are well behaved even if they lack a father figure to look up to.

There is a woman i see almost every morning in our estate. She sells assorted stuff which she normally has in a huge polythene bag strapped on her back. She walks around the estate hawking her wares as she calls on every gate and house on her way.

The wares include homemade liquid soap, baby clothes, pampers and such. I can only imagine how hard it can be doing those rounds daily in the sweltering heat of Mombasa. I look at the dust gathering on her feet, sweat lining her eye brows, voice exasperated after calling out morning to customers who probably take things on loan to pay later.

An elderly friend told me once that money earned by a woman, unlike a man, is always spent well to the very last cent. A woman will always think of her household and children first before she uses the money elsewhere. If a woman earns wages for a day rest assured that all the money will get home. It is hardly ever in a woman’s disposition to swing by the local bar to down two for the road, never!

Basically, if all men learn the value of a woman in society we would see them being treated with more deserving respect. In Islam, a woman is extolled in the most excellent of ways and Allah reminds us of the hardship a woman goes through especially during childbirth.

Respect the women in your life and even those who may be strangers to you. You never know, someone just might treat the ones in your life the same way you treat others.

Today i will nominate two bloggers. I realized much later that i failed to put up any nomination for day 1. my nominations are georgeagak.wordpress.com and Princely Sid on cdohnio.blogspot.com