Table of Contents

• My Olympics Dream

• Journey to my first school

• My life after the funeral of my grandmother

• My journey back to school

• Success comes with hard work

• Living on the street of Accra

• My change of life trip to England

MY OLYMPICS DREAM

Emmanuel K Nartey

Copyright © Emmanuel K

Nartey 2013

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be let, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher`s prior consent in

any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent publisher.

The moral right of Emmanuel K Nartey has been asserted.

Dedication

To My late Father- Richard Kwame Nartey

Mother – Enyonam Nartey

My Fiance – Urszula Piatek

AcknowledgementMary Nartey

Gifty Nartey

Boanergesis Nartey

Israel Nartey

James Nartey

Alice Nartey

Natacha Florestano

Sidali

British Army – First Royal Tank Regiment

Army Judo association

Army Sports Control Board

Bath University – Teambath Judo Training Group

Teambath

Weston College

IJF – International Judo Federation

USO Orlean Judo – France

Jurgen and Sandra Klinger

Morgane and Houx Family

Darren Harris

Elisabetta Fratini

Col (retd) Chris Harris

Alex Leslie

Pauline Beckford

Eboni Beckford-Chamber

British Judo Association

Fighting Film Company Limited- Daniel Hicks

IJF – President Mr Marius L. Vizer

Richard Goulding

MY OLYMPICS DREAMS

The world has a purpose for every living thing under the sun. At 10:00 am on April 18th, 1983, I was born to fulfill my purpose and ambition in life. To live and make it in life you must have a dream-dream to be successful, dream about your future and dream about the unforeseen things you wish for in life.

Our ancestors said man was born into this world to do his best in everything; perform his tasks successfully to his best ability yet not to accomplish every single one of them. Whether I will live to accomplish my objectives in this life to the fulfillment is another question; which I believed I will not be able to answer because my life’s journey ends the very moment I take my last breath and there will be no time to judge my own life.

At that very moment, my life’s journey is over and all doors are shut for me; there will be no place for me in the land of the living neither will I have part to play again in the world of the living. Who judges me, or who am I accountable to for what I have done with my

life in this world, surely I do not know yet I believe I will be accountable for my deeds in this world to my creator.

Life brought you to this world which is the same life is going to take you out of this world; therefore, my life’s journey has begun for me in this dark and cold world. When you are born in this world, you knew nothing; you just an innocent babe who is born in this world to face reality all on their home.

As baby, you do not know what is right or wrong; your environment, along with your guidance, will determine how your journey will end. Either good or bad, way it only in the end that you will be judge by people and the legacy you left behind. It’s not a baby dream to be born in this world, live and grow up to become something which society may hate or will hate to remember for many years to come. It never their dream; and it never what we wish for but it the life which made us this way; it the life which made us turn out to become disappointment to society. Before I was born, there was a drought in Ghana with no rain for the whole year and because of that, the farmers were not able to grow their food crops during the raining season, which led to a shortage of food in Ghana.

There was no food to buy throughout the whole country and it was a case of fighting for survival for my family and the people of Ghana. My mother went into labour without food for nearly 24 hours.

Doctors did not think I would make it; it was just impossible for both of us to survive with no energy left in our bodies. All my family could do was to watch and pray for God to receive our souls and rest it in the perfect place.

My mum told her oldest daughter, Gifty, to take care of her three younger siblings when she is gone and that they should love each other and become one unit.

My father could not bear it; all he did was pray because he thought there was no hope. In the morning my father`s family came around the house and they decided to take me to the hospital to deliver there, at least when something happened to me, maybe they could be able to help me or save me they thought. The hospital was just a few blocks from where we were living at that time. Everyone helped my mum to get up, the family started walking to the hospital, and she was so exhausted she had to rest half way and that was all she can remember. I was delivered there on the road safely without making it to the hospital. Eventually everyone summoned the energy to walk the rest of the way to the hospital and we both received care.

I was born in Teshine, which is a small town in Greater-Accra district. My father thought my birth was a miracle because no one ever believed we would both make it so they decided to call me Emmanuel (meaning God with you).

Life has its own way of doing things, we cannot fight nature, neither can we fight destiny in life. Our destiny is unknown to us, will it end as we desire; I’m not sure as this is one question which could be subject to many debates in this world.

Life is a journey, you can determine where you start in the environment, the society, the culture and the people but the question we should really ask is do we have control over our life’s journey and what happens on the way. What life and the environment we live in throw at us.

Who cares for us and who fight our battles for us? My battle in life began from birth and continued as we struggled to farm and produce food. Life is always about believing and hoping for the best, hoping for better days ahead because without that you have nothing but just a wind blowing from west to east, which will never come back again.

I was the fifth born in my family, and with an uncertain future; finding something to eat as a baby was a very big problem and how to survive in life was a different story all together. In a rich man’s world when you are born, life and destiny is already given to you. Things are given to you; you never work for anything in life. For them life is just one big dream which they are living. They live it until they die but what happens in a poor man’s world, how do we survive?

Being born in a poor family only means one thing, life is a very long journey and struggle with painful taste, one that you will never wish for or dream for in your entire existence in this world.

For us our life struggle begins immediately when we are born in this world. From birth until you grow old - that is if you manage to make it through the struggles, some never make it and die as baby or at young age, disease was and still is in my homeland one of the greatest threats a baby faces. I have witness tragic scenes on a daily basis, as cars while selling on the street of Accra hit young children; it was a battle for survival for us.

With the rich when their baby is ill, what they quickly do is to take the baby to the hospital for treatment by a qualified medical practitioner but for the poor parents struggling to make ends meet, so what they do is pray.

This was how my life’s journey in the world began, I did not have the toys, I did not have the rich parents and all the things babies love but I had parents full of life and love. Their love kept me safe and kept me going, their love protected me throughout my early years.

It was a difficult situation when I look back on the stories my parents told me. I didn’t understand how I made it through but my parents have always have something extra in life, hope, belief and fighting for the best and the wellbeing of their children and I was able to survive based on these principles and qualities they had towards life.

When I was a baby, my mother decided to take me to the market place and find herself a job because she needed money to look after me and the rest of the children.

My parents had five children and my father’s salary was not enough to take care of the whole family, so my mum decided to go to the market and find a job to raise money and help the house but it was very difficult to find job on the market

The only job on the market was helping people with their shopping. My mum helped them to carry their shopping to the bus station or their various cars while I was in a baby pouch on my mother’s back in the 40-degree heat.

My mum always said I was a very good baby; I never cried a lot, I only cried when the weather was very hot. My mum would bath me and put me to sleep before making dinner for the rest of the children to eat before going to sleep.

Lamb is our only lighting source, there is no electricity. Sometimes we cannot afford the kerosene for the lamp and this means we have to sleep in dark. I cannot sleep in darkness; therefore, I always need the light on before I can sleep. If there is no kerosene in the house, I have to go to the shop and buy it on credit.

Which my mum repaid after working on the market the following night. The nights were always short for my mum, she went to sleep at 12am and woke up at 4am to bath me and leave the house at 5am to go to the market before sun rise.

Mother told me, ”Son, I have no choice I cannot sit in the house and watch my children starve and die. I need to do something about it, there is no way will I be live and watch my children live without food and water. I prefer to suffer to feed them for a better tomorrow than staying in the house and doing nothing about it.”

“I need to feed my children, my children are my life, and they are my world. When I see my children, I see life and future, when I see them I see hope. I will not change my life for anything else because I know when I look after my children, they will become responsible people in society tomorrow, and they are the hope of the future.”

She has never looked back in life and questioned herself because life has its own meaning. You cannot question life and you cannot fight nature; if you can do both, then all of us would have been rich by now; but unfortunately, that wasn’t the case, one must stay and fight for the others to be free, one must die for the others to live. This is the true reality of life itself.

Being a mother is like chicken looking after its chicks because she protects them from the hawk; she protects them from the raining and sunny days. My mum was like that to her children; she protected us through the darkness and the light so that no harm came our way.

You see in this world, success comes with hard work, dedication and belief. Success is not given to you, especially life in our world. You have to work for it; you have to fight for it with every drop of your sweat and blood from your body;

You have to earn it, and earn your way through it. We did not have money but we were children full of life and energy, with a bright future and place in this world even though they were born with nothing.

My mum sacrificed so much for us to ensure a brighter tomorrow. This belief was what kept my mother going on the sunny and raining days; this is what kept her going on the street of Accra in a hopeless situation which few would come back from.

Life was not easy for her on the street of Accra with me on her back while she helped people carry their shopping. My mother did not give up hope on us; she did not give up hope on life. She was the true example of a strong black African woman.

My parents fought hard to keep us alive, healthy and happy until we were able to take care of our daily needs and ourselves.

In 1984, my father lost his job as a bank clerk and we had to leave our house. We did not have anywhere to go or even a place to sleep; I was only nine months old. How do you look after five children without a house and with no food on the table?

What is life worth living when you cannot look after your own children? It was a difficult situation for my parents and especially for my dad as the head of the family. He was like

a king who has lost control over his people and a king without authority is worse than a dead king.

My father met one of the elders in our church at one on the military camps in Accra. I remember he told me, the elder said Mr. Nartey we are looking for someone, like caretakers to take care of Apostle Revelation Society (ARS) church in a residential area close to the airport. The land was a treasure for the church and so we moved; it was the place where I would spend the rest of my childhood.

When my parents moved us, my father said it was just big land with one wooded structure on it; the structure was surrounded with bushes. There was no water in the house; there was no electricity in the house as well.

He said I remember the first thing I did when we start moving our things to the wooden structure was to kill a big black scorpion at where your mother decided to put you to sleep, it was very scary and my first instinct was not to stay there with the family but it wasn’t a matter of choice, it was a matter of not having any means of providing shelter. That was the best we could get so we needed to stay there and keep our eyes open for deadly animals so that each one of you will not be beaten by any of them.

When you are born with nothing, you live with nothing and you get used to living with nothing. This is the life that no one prepares you for, some people are lucky in life to be born with bread and water but does that make them smarter or any more special than us? No, we are all equal because at the end of this struggles and a life’s journey we shall return to the grave all while finding a resting place in the soil.

Some people embark on a journey well prepared but others do not and it is not just, because they do not understand what it takes to accomplish the journey. It is because they do not have the means and the tools to prepare for the journey like the rest; for them they will live each day of the journey as it comes.

That was how my life was; that was how my family life was. We lived each day as it came, we do not think about the future or years ahead. What we cared about was that moment and how we survived then.

My father said that as a child he run away from village life in Ada because he wanted to educate himself. He said I do not want to live and grow up in the village like the rest of the children; I want to do something different and something more meaningful with my life so he run away from home to move to Accra to start his own life.

He did not have anybody in Accra or a place to call home, but in years to come, he knew he made the right decision as he was blessed with my mother, his wife, their children and the church.

My father did not spend much time with me as a baby because he was always working and I was with my mother in the market. Nevertheless, he saw me grow stronger each day. He always said I was very stubborn and resist to illness despite our living

conditions, and while I grew up they had to bury many generations of locals who did not survive the drought. It was an especially tough time for mothers and babies in Accra.

It was a sad time. We heard our neighbours and people crying day and night after losing their loved ones; lot of babies die during that time but you make it my son, you made it. Today when I look at you, tease run down my eyes because it was hard for you when you were babe.

My father summed it up and said, “Never, ever run away from your troubles in life and never stop believing in yourself and your abilities. Never stop respecting and showing love to other people. You survive as a baby because you were shown love from home and above.”

He said if he was not here to see me, to always remember these words. The hard roads along your journey prepare you for the tougher days ahead. We were born with nothing, so we live with nothing that is why we have to fight for everything in life.

JOURNEY TO MY FIRST SCHOOL

The first school I attended in Accra was King of Kings International School. I started school at the age of five with the rest of my brothers and sister. Father would wake all of us up at 5:00am for our morning prayers. We all had breakfast then walked three miles to school.

Assembly would start at 8am with school morning prayers, which is follow by singing. Class lessons started at 8:30am then we had a break at 10:30am to 11:00, which was followed by another lesson and another break at 12pm before finishing school at 2pm. I always liked to be at school 30 minutes early.

The problem with being late for school was that we’d be beaten even though it may not be our fault for being late for school but they still beat us. Therefore, to avoid this I always make sure I was in school 30 minutes before assembly. The teachers had a big long cane, which they used on students arriving late for class.

I enjoyed my time at King of Kings international school and it is at that school I developed my love for mathematics; my mother was very good at math so it was a family thing. During my early years at school, mathematics was always my favorite subject. I did struggle a lot with English grammar; it was not my favorite subject because it had nothing to do with numbers!

After two years in King of Kings international school, the situation changed for my father and he could no longer afford the school fees anymore, he could not afford to send us to school anymore.

He said the school fees have gone up 30% for each one of you and my salary is still the same every year, I cannot afford to send all of you to school. I was not listening; I was

determined to go back to the school with my brothers and sister even though we knew our parents did not have the money to pay the fees.

We were successful going to back to the school without paying the school fees for one month until one day there was a roll call at the class in the school. The student whose parents had failed to pay their fees were called forward and asked to go home.

We all went home and my sister was crying on the way, but for me I was determined to come back to the school the following day. It was a sad situation for us because we wanted to learn and educate ourselves, but the means to pay for it wasn’t there, my sister cried all the way home.

Our father told us not to go to the school again because he cannot afford to pay the fees. I do remember asking my father why he couldn’t borrow the money from the bank or somewhere to pay our school fees. He said ‘My son I do wish things were that simple’, he said ‘I wish I can, I wish I know someone who can help us. Nevertheless, it is not that simple, we have nobody in life, it’s us and it has always been only us’.

I ignored my father’s advice and told my brothers and sister to go to school the following day, which we all did. There was no roll call, we stayed in our class room and took part in lesson all day; we were all very happy after.

I hugged my sister and told her we should go home. The following day we all dressed up again in our school uniform and went to school but this time we were not so lucky; the head teacher went to every single class in the school with a piece of paper in her hand. She called the names of schoolchildren in class whose parents had not paid their fees.

We were called in front of the class; the head teacher of the school beat us. I remember I had six marks of the cane on my back. They then sent us all home again. I was the stubborn one among us; I never cried or showed my emotion in front of the teachers.

As a child I always thought showing my emotion in front of people was a big sign of weakness and especially when they don’t care about you, your wellbeing and what you going through in life. For them it was all about the money and not the schoolchildren, when I met my sister in front of the school gate she was crying. My sister asks me why are they beating us and why are they treating us like this. We are just kid who want to learn and educate our self like the rest of the other kids.

We were very bright students yet in Ghana everything is money; it’s all about the money and the rich people, and nobody paid attention to the poor.

This is the true story of life for the poor children on the streets of Accra; it was my life, and it was what I experience every single day of my childhood. When I walked back from school, I would see children our age selling ice water in plastic bags on the street in the middle of the road.

We were not special, neither were we different from the children on the street. They were born like us in a world without anything, therefore they have no choice in life, and they have to fight for everything. For them, and us life is always about survival and each day could be our last.

It was very scary but that is the situation I was born in and that is what I accepted life to be. However, in the end we all still hoped to make it in life one day. My brothers, sister and I finally dropped out from school at early age, as we could not take the constant caning by the teachers.

It was difficult for me to drop out from school because I loved my time there; I loved education and of course mathematics. My heart was torn apart but I did understand my father’s situation. You could see it in his face, he was heartbroken, he was like a king who has led his army to battle and lost. My father was the kind of man that liked to suffer in silence that was his nature; it was the kind of person he was.

That was the end of my education and school dream, sometimes life is what you make of it; you can determine where you start but you can never determine where you finish or how your story ends. It is up to destiny and nature to determine how that journey ends. Whether it’s good or bad you just need to keep your head up and keep moving forward.

I stayed at home for three months and had no books to read. The only book we had was the bible, which belonged to my father, and it was written in the Ghanaian language, which I could not understand. In those days at school, I was only taught English language not the Ghanaian language; our education system does not allow us to learn to read and write Ghanaian language until we are in junior secondary school.

After April when the raining season was approaching, I helped my father to cut the weeds in the land in front of our house, to prepare it for farming during the raining season.

The land is about 200 meters x 300 meters; it took us four weeks to prepare the land for farming. We do not have machines to cut the weeds; everything was done manually by hand.

Usually I had the hoe and my father had the cutlass; we worked on the land in the morning till midday and had a break before coming back in the evening to continue where we left off; this was because in the morning the temperature was bearable and in the evening the sun begins to set so the temperature drops, which allowed us to be able to go back to the farm and start working.

We start worked at 7:30am till 12:00pm when the temperature of the sun is very low; we always used the sun as a marker when we working on the land. My father always says at midday ‘Emmanuel the sun is right at the middle, its midday let’s finish here and continue later in the evening’.

The land was just in front of the house, we only needed to walk a few metres to go home. Mother prepared lunch for us; we ate and rested before going back in the evening to finish our work on the land for the day. At 7 years old, I was identified by my parents as the hardest working child in the family; I would do anything they asked me to do and was willing to support them in anything.

It was a normal attitude for me, which I developed as a child when I was growing up. I have no problem helping my parents at all. But if you ask me while I was working on the farm if I missed school then of course I would have said yes and would have preferred to be there with my brothers, sister and friends.

For me life as a child was all about trying to make the best out of every situation, it is something I learnt very young and still believe now.

The raining season came and all the family helped us to plant corn in the farm, it takes six months for the corn to grow and be ready for harvest. My mother helped with the harvest of the corn together with all the children. We saved some of the corn for food and my mother took the rest to the market to sell for extra cash.

Money made from selling the corn was used to buy ingredients for cooking. We only ate chicken once a year; my diet was always dry fish and pepper soup or palm nut soup. My mother tried her best to manage everything and if that is what she can provide for us with the little money she had we needed to appreciate it and be thankful for her.

I didn’t care about eating fish or not, what I cared about is to have the taste of fish in the soup and that is enough for me to eat my dinner. My diet when I was child and growing up was Baku (made from grind corn) and pepper soup or palm nut soup. If my parents couldn’t afford it then they gave me ground pepper with one fish to eat with the Baku. Rice was not in my diet, it was only on the menu at Christmas.

I was always excited about Christmas for two main reasons. I saw all my extended family and most importantly, I had the opportunity to eat rice and chicken! My parents didn’t have it but the little they had, they made sure we enjoyed it.

After years out of school, I decided I wanted to go back but again my father said he could not afford it so I came up with the idea to raise my whole school funds myself and send myself to school. During that year, the government opened new public schools in the same area of my old school.

The new schools were much cheaper and were closes to us; they were 2.5 miles from us. I asked my mother to go to the school and pick up the registration forms for me and I will look for the money to pay the registration fee myself. My mother asked me where I was going to get the money. I told her I do not know but am going to raise this money somehow. I was determined to go back to school, I set my mind on and it and nothing was going to stop me.

My mother came back with the registration form; she stood quietly in front of the door without talking. I saw tears coming from her eyes, and I asked my mother why she was crying but she said nothing. I told her I would find the money myself. I was only 8 years old, how am I going to raise the money, how am I going to raise money to buy the school uniform and the books for my studies.

In our world, we were taught to fight before we learned to walk. No one comes to your aid or to give you handouts. You have to be creative at a young age. I decided to raise the money by helping people to clean their homes and garden.

I had one friend from the north of Ghana; he was a very kind person and one who was close to my family and me too. He was a gardener and house cleaner in the opposite house to us. When I woke up in the morning, I climbed their wall and asked him if he needed help to do, the garden has and clean the house. After all the house cleaning and gardening work was done, he agreed to give me a small amount of money, which I could put towards my school fees.

I helped him in the garden and clean the house for eight months. I then had enough money to pay for my school registration, fees and uniform to go back to school, During those years of staying at home, I began to play football with the area boys, we always called them area boys because they had no school and future like us but the difference between us and them is that we never gave up the hope and the fight for survival but they did.

I was very good football at a young age but my interest was in education more than anything else in life. In September, my mother took me to Dzorwulu Primary School, where I restarted my education in class 1.

The joy of going back to school was amazing, I was very happy and wasn’t able to sleep the night before because of the excitement. I woke up at 3:00am in the morning and woke my mother up; I told her I needed to get ready for school. I don’t want to be late for school in my first day, my mother told me 'Emmanuel, its 3:00am; go back to sleep.'

I went back to bed but I couldn’t sleep, I lay on the bed with my eyes wide open. When I heard the cock crow in the morning, I woke up and run to my mother. It was the first time I woke my parents in my life. Mother gave me water to wash my face, after that we all gathered and had our morning prayer. After the Morning Prayer, my mother gave me a chewing stick, which she half chewed and made it soft for me to chew and clean my teeth with.

I always cleaned my teeth with a chewing stick in the morning or grind black Chaco with lemon. Even if my parents heard of tooth paste and a brush, they couldn’t afford it. After chewing the stick and cleaning my teeth with it, the hot water on the fire was ready for me to take my bath and then put my school uniform on.

I had borage for breakfast, which was made from powder maize with sugar. My mother prepared it for us every morning. It was very exciting knowing that I was going back at

school, I didn’t care about how long the day was going to be, I didn’t care about having pocket money for food during break time. All that I cared about was going to school and that was enough to motivate me and keep me going.

When I finished everything and I was about to leave the house, my mother said she does not have any money to give me for food during break time at school. One cedi is enough to take me through the day but my mother did not have it neither do my father so I have to go to school without pocket money or food.

I told my mother not to worry about me and that I will be fine at school; after all, it was only 8:30am to 2pm then I will come home and eat. I walked in the rising morning sun to school in the morning on my own. I was a little sad when I was going to school because my mother was worried about me, as they did not have pocket money for me. After nearly an hour walking, I finally made it to my new school.

It was a Monday morning and the first subject in the morning was mathematics, the teacher asked me Emmanuel where are your books to write in. I told the teacher my parents said they will buy me the books on Friday, I was in class all day, and I did not have a pencil or book to write in. I sat watching other schoolchildren to do their class work and write everything down in their books.

It was very inspiring and a beautiful thing. I sat next to a girl in class, she did not understand anything taught during the lesson and she hated mathematics so I collected her books later and did her work for her. She became my friend throughout my years in Dzorwulu Primary School. I did all her work for her and gave the book to her to submit to the teacher for marking. The bell rang for break time, every pupil in the classroom quickly ran outside for break time and for food.

Some parents prepared food and packed lunch for their children for break time. I had nothing to eat and nothing to buy food so I sat in the classroom on my own during break time. The teacher asked me why I was not going out for break but I could not tell her I didn’t have food to eat or money to buy food so I went out and walked around on the school campus, watching other school children play and eating their food.

I could go without for a few hours and go home to eat, I was just a child but I had hope I would find light at the end of the tunnel. This struggle and journey will end one day and the suffering and the pain will all end one day. The sun will rise and sun on my family. Just as I was walking home, I found a small amour tree close to the school and I saw fruit on the tree; I picked up a stone up and threw it at the amour fruit on the tree with intention to knock some of the fruit down for me to eat but it never happened.

I was very hungry, I had no water or food since morning and now it was nearly 11:00am, all school children had eaten and had something to drink except me; I had nothing. You know for us when life becomes hard and tough, we become more determined than ever. I was not looking forward to going home to eat, I was rather looking forward to going back to class to learn, learn something new, learn something about life; educate myself. That was all that was on my mind not food.

To be successful in this world you need to have dreams and aspirations in life, something to hold on to in life and something to keep you going. The other schoolchildren have all the dreams and aspirations in life, their parents told them what they can be in future. They told them am sending they could become a doctor, lawyer, engineer or teacher. For me, for us, it was different story; we did not have these aspirations and dreams in life.

This is the true story of life for the poor children on the streets of Accra; it my life, it what am use to every single day of my life. When I walk back from school, I saw kids our age selling ice water in plastic bags on the street in the middle of the road, I saw that every day. We were not special, neither were we different from the children on the street.

They were born like us in the world without anything, therefore they have no choice in life, they have to fight for everything and settle for anything in life. For them, and us life is always about survival and each day could be our last. We hear children die every day, children being kill by car whiles selling ice water in plastic bags on the street. It was very scary but that is the situation I was born in and that is what I accept life to be.

Nevertheless, in the end of it all, we all still hope to make it in life one day and have better future. Brothers, my sister and I finally dropped out from school at early age, as

we can’t take the constant caning by the teacher for our parent not being able to pay our school fees.

It was difficult for me to drop out from school because I love school; I love education and my favourite subject mathematics. My heart was tore apart but I did understand my father situation, everything was be young his reach. You could see it in his face, he was heartbroken, he was like a king who has led his army to battle and lost. My father was the kind of man that like to suffer in silence and die snowing, that was his nature; it was the kind of person he is.

Since my last beaten at school, I never step my feet on that school ground again. That was the end of my education and school dream, sometimes life is what you make out of it; you can determining where you start but you can never determining where you finish or how it end.

It destiny and nature which will determine how your journey in this world end. Whether good or bad you just need to keep, your head up and keep moving forward. I stayed at home for 3 month doing nothing, no school; I have no books or storybook to read. The only book in the house was the Bible, which belongs to my father, and the Bible was written in Ghanaian language, which I cannot read either.

Because at school I was only taught English language not Ghanaian language, our education system does not allow us to learn to read and write Ghanaian language until we are in junior secondary school at the time.

After April when the raining season was approaching. I help my father to cut the weeds in the land in front of our house, to prepare it for farming during the raining season. The land is about 200 meters x 300 meters; it took us 4 weeks to prepare the land for farming.

We do not have machines to cut the weeds; everything was done manually by hand. Usually I have the hoe and my father has the cutlass; we work on the land in the morning till mid-day and have break before coming back in the evening to continue where we left; this because in the morning the temperature is not very hot and in the evening the sun begins to set so the temperature drop, which allow us to be able to go back to the farm and start working.

Hoe Cutlass

We start work at 7:30am until 12:00pm when the temperature of the sun is very lower, we always use the sun as marker when we working on the land. My father always says at mid-day Emmanuel the sun is right at the middle, it mid-day let finish here and continue later in the evening.

The land was just in front of the house, we only need to walk few meters to get home. Mother prepare lunch for us, we at and half rest before going back in the evening to finish our work on the land for the day. We go back to the land at 3pm to work because during that time, the sun begins to go down and the temperature drop so working on the farm becomes less hard for us.

At 7 years old, I was identify by my parents as the hard working child in the family, I do anything they ask me to do and was willing to support them in anything. It was normal attitude for me, which I developed as a kid when I was growing up. I have no problem helping my parent at all.

Nevertheless, if you ask me whiles working on the farm do I miss school? Yes, of course I do miss school and would have love being at school instead of working on the farm. I also enjoying helping my father and the family prepare the land for farming in the raining because after all when they food is harvest, we will be the one who will be benefiting in it.

For me, life as a kid is all about trying to make the best out of every situation; it was what I learn as a kid and what I know. I got use to life like that and this is what I see from my parent’s eyes. When I look into my mother’s eyes every morning when I was going to the farm, I notice something not right with her; my mother is worried about my future, she is worried about me but one thing for sure.

Never give up hope; she has always have the little believe that I will be somebody important to society in future. Her words to me in the morning when am going to the farm, take on the farm and watch where you put your foot. When the sun is hot, the