This man toils all day to ensure that everyone and everything around him finds comfort but yet some people are out there seeking ways to bring his struggle to the ground without checking the consequences.
My dad is from an extended family where his dad who happens to be my grandfather married 3 wives, should I say fortunately or Unfortunately my dad happened to be the first son and the only child of his mum my grandmother who happened to be the first wife.
Fortunately because he got the first love of a father to the child and that made him exceptional from the rest of the children but then unfortunately because he happened to be the breadwinner of the house and this turned out to cause hatred and jealousy from his step siblings, so by all means they try to render all his effort useless even when it's to their own benefits they don't care.
I grew up with my dad seeing how well he treats them even though they never reciprocated that same love he showed to them.
He got lucky to be the only who acquired the western education and that gave him a good job which he used to make sure he provides for the whole family which includes us his immediate family then the other families which happened to be his brothers and their family as well.
So this tells the kind of burden he has taken upon his shoulder.
Dad tried to see how he could grow outside his job that's engaging in another thing that could generate income so he decided to go into farming but then he never had time to do that himself because of the nature of his job so he entrusted his step brothers with that responsibility.
Though they don't have to do much since he will be sending money for the cultivation process so all they needed to do was just supervise as they are supposed to hire labourers to do the job.
There was already versatile land enough for cultivation which granddad had acquired already.
The rainy season came and he gave out a huge amount of money that will be enough for the farming process, and the testimonies began to come whenever he asked? They would tell him everything was going on well and we believed that, since we are not there.
All the process came and went and it's now time for harvest which also requires some amount of money.
Dad sent money demanding and expecting a bountiful harvest knowing how much he had invested into the farm.
It was rice farming. From testimonies we were expecting nothing less than 100 to 150 bags of rice but then the bombshell came.
“We only realized 2½ half bag of rice”
I in person was furious on hearing that silly announcement but my dad asked that we should lay low. I went further to ask about their farm which I know they never spent the kind of money my dad spent on his own and I discovered each of them harvested 70 bags and above.
Like how on earth is it possible that one spent close to 200 dollars on an investment and could not even recover half of the money. That's total wickedness but then my research told me that all of the money my dad sent for his farming was diverted to their farm.
Dad knew all that but never said a word. Is it a crime to be the first child in a family? I asked my dad but all he kept saying was “Just allow the sleeping dog to lie”.
“It's high time you just forget about these people and focus on your life and that of your immediate family.”
“I am sure they can take care of themselves and their family.”
“They are family and we can leave the family to suffer. my dad responded to me.”
“What then will you say about a family that wants you to suffer?” I asked.
“They are just kids my dad responded” my eyes wide open at that statement. “How can you call a grown up uncle of mine with children, kids?”
“You will understand better when you grow old," my dad answered.”