Thank you @fendit and Steem Argentina community for giving me an opportunity to express my childhood memories.

INTRODUCTION

The pride of every child is looking over and seeing her parents working together hand-in-hand, in unity, to build a comfortable life for their children. It is beautiful to see one’s parents struggle to make life a beautiful little paradise for their little ones no matter how hard. It might seem as if children do not notice or observe what their parents are going through just to keep them happy, but it would amaze you to know the things little children observe, and think of in their little minds.

Funny enough it is also those little things that serve as the foundations of their lives, it is those little things that guide them through life, it is those actions we see our parents take that we build on, that is where the charity actually begins.

For me, I would say growing up was a bit of sweet and bitter. While the bitters were quite bitter, I cannot even begin to complain about them because that would mean being ungrateful for the life that God has given to me. As we all know life has its ups and downs and distributes it generously to every single one of us.

While growing, I had some fun memories especially ones I created with my family. There were those times when we were all so happy, you would never imagine we ever had problems. My parents always knew how to ‘buzz’ up our lives and make it interesting. No matter how little we had, they made the best out of it and we would all be satisfied in the end.
One beautiful experience I had that I would never forget, was the time we built our first house (laughs).
You see my family had never really been the rich sort, you would find us between poor and middle class (we called ourselves the richest though). There was a time when life became so tough, my parents could barely afford to provide for me and my three siblings, or pay our fees not to even talk of our house rent. It got so bad to a point where the landlord started giving us trouble. Then one day my dad decided enough was enough, since we had a land, he said he had a plan and that he was going to build us a home to live in comfortably.
At first, we thought he was joking, we laughed it off as being completely ridiculous, because I mean we all knew there was no money to buy materials, let alone pay for labour, not until he actually started drawing the building plan himself ( P.S my dad is actually a genius, he can do anything he puts his mind to, and he does it perfectly as well) Over the next few weeks, dad kept talking about his plan, and just kept drawing on and on and then one day mum came home and said there was actually a way to make it work, She was going to supply the finances while my dad said he would handle the labour, and then boom just like that the plan was set in motion.
My father would leave the house during the early hours of the morning, get to the site and start working.
He laid the foundations of the house with his own hands, by himself and only later called an expert to verify if he had done it right and as usual it turned out he had done it perfectly. Over the next few months, mum and dad worked together, mum supplied the finances for materials and labour (occasionally) and then dad, with the help of my two uncles(his brothers) kept building on building, our dreams were gradually becoming a reality.
During the weekends, we’d cook enough food, carry our working tools and move to the site. While dad was working on the house, mum, I and my siblings did the work of weeding and clearing the environment, we even carved out a little section of the land and started planting our own garden. I remember one of those times we planted a little mango tree, and laughed at the fact that we would have to groom it for years before finally reaping its fruitage. It was all so memorable.
I loved watching my father work so much, I felt proud of him. No matter how tired he was, he still always managed to have a smile on his face, always singing or humming one of his favourite reggae songs or the others and never ran out of jokes to make us laugh our hearts out.
One time I’ll never forget in my life was the day my father slipped and fell while placing a block that was so high up and I was right there but I couldn’t do anything to stop the fall. Hmm… my father’s reaction was so completely stunning. He simply got up, wiped himself off, laughed at the situation and got back to work like it was nothing, although we all knew that that fall was hard and had affected him seriously because he couldn’t walk well from that day, for a pretty long while but as a strong man that he is, he never relented in his efforts, he was so determined to finish what he had started. I adored him so much. Even if this happened over 10 years ago, every single time I recount the experience in my mind, it still brings tears to my eyes. I feel truly blessed by God to have parents as wonderful and industrious as they are.
I also saw mum go through a lot of hurdles to ensure that money was forthcoming at all times. Mummy, an epitome of virtue, very hardworking, resilient, industrious and smart, she was all very supportive of my father throughout the process. Even though there were a lot of setbacks and complications, they still worked together to make sure that the project was completed, just to ensure their children had a roof over their heads and a shelter to call our own.

This story can never be complete without including the kind of tremendous support that we got from our extended family members, everyone was so involved in the process, each of my aunties and uncles put in their efforts, in one form or the other, not to talk of my grandparents, and even our distant relatives and friends, each supporting the project either financially or by provision of materials. I love my family so much and infact, most of the decisions I have had to make in life, are a product of these experience and my future plans are still as a result of the lessons I have learnt from each and every one of them. I have a lot of role models and people I look up to in my family and I cannot wait to make them super proud of me.

The building process was completed in less than a year to our surprise. It was a two bedroom flat and we were able to move in even though the house wasn’t completely finished, I mean the walls weren’t plastered, the floor wasn’t tiled, we did not even have a ceiling over the roof or widow frames, it was just the bare house and yet we were satisfied and happy to live there.
For a while, there was so much peace, no more headache from our landlord, no more thinking of how to gather house rent, we even started enjoying the produce from our little garden and we all just started adjusting to the new environment and tried to build our lives around it. Little by little, my parents continued with finishing of the house and we as the children joined in helping out as much as we could.

Even though I was still a teenager at the time, I could tell how much my parents had sacrificed for us and I admired them for it. Although I have had a couple of wonderful memories, this was the very best experience I had as a child.