It Takes A Village

A nephew of mine paid me a visit the other day so that he could check on me after he learnt that I had sprained my leg.After exchanging greetings and discussing the weather,the true nature of his visit soon became apparent when he started complaining of the difficulties he was getting in trying to raise his eldest son as an upstanding member of the community.

It Takes A Village

Like most of the young people of his generation my nephew has his sense of entitlement were he expects things to be done for him and things are handed over to him on a silver platter. His father has a small business which has managed to put him through school and the university education which is now enjoying is a result of the efforts of his father. The parent had in his wisdom asked the young man to have a holiday job so that he could earn a some pocket money .Towards the end of the vacation job stint, the young man was not happy about the fact that his payment was delayed which resulted in him pouring out his heart to the effect that he did not think much of his father and he would much prefer his mother ,who was more understanding and gave him all that he asked for as for the surname he might as well change it since his father was not fair to him.

Things got so bad that he has since dropped out of University and he wants to go back to form five so that he can resit his “A” level examination once more.He completely misses the fact that he has spent a lot of time ,effort and expenses on his studies todate. Nobody seems to be able to stop him from going on this self- destructive quest of his and the family is at their wits’ end.He is warming his back at moment whilst consuming the musical programs that are spewed by the various channels on the Television set.

I was roped in to try and talk some sense into him.His intention is to change the program of study.In most peoples view this is throwing his future away.Since I am a bit removed from the situation ,the belief was that I would be able to hear his side of the story and advise his parents so that a collective decision could be reached.After I had sat with the young man and he listened to my and his parents view presented by a neutral,the matter is still up in the air and his future hangs in the balanced.

I have had the privilege of tutoring some hard working youths who were down on their luck and many struggled to have anyone who could pay for their education and it pains me to find one who has parents and extended family egging him on and making sure he has all he needs in order to get a University degree which a lot of other deserving people crave for but fail to get because of circumstances beyond their control,but he is prepared to throw it all away on a whim.WHAT A SHAME