AIR-CLINIC WRITING CONTEST: STRESS, THE QUEST TO MAKE ENDS MEET

If life were physics, Mr. Chilaka would have passed for the S.I Unit of stress. Mr. Chilaka is my neighbour. He stays in a 2-room apartment with his parents and 4 younger siblings. We all live in a ‘face-me-i-face-you’ house. The type you wake up by 4am to make sure you ‘book’ a spot to use the toilet or bathroom if you wish not to be late for work or school.

Mr. Chilaka teaches in a school that is about an hour away from our yard if you go by foot. He is also a ‘renowned’ moi-moi distributor in Obiagu, where we live. His customers place their orders a day before the supply. He wakes up by 4am everyday to prepare his moi-moi. He finishes around 7am, get them packaged and hand them over to his younger brother, Obinna, to deliver to his customers. Mr. Chilaka treks to his school everyday. The seventy naira he will give the keke driver is enough to buy water that can be managed for the day. His school ends by 3pm. He takes additional extra-mural lessons for interested students from 4pm to 6pm. He returns home around 7pm. By 7:30pm, he starts a 2-hour private class for the children of a rich man in our neighbourhood. When he comes back, he checks his poultry at
the backyard, attend to students’ scripts and any family issue that arose in his absence.

But then would you readily blame him?

Mr Chilaka’s father is bed-ridden. He has been a colon cancer patient for years. His mother is severely obese, diabetic and hypertensive.

His younger siblings are in secondary school. Sometime last year, he wanted to travel to Canada but was duped. He is still paying back the money he borrowed to finance his supposed travel. The ailments of his parents alone gulp down whatever he struggles to get in a month. There is feeding, school fees, house rent and other contingencies to attend
to.

For the likes of Mr Chilaka, stress has a different meaning. It is not suffering but a quest to make ends meet.

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