She tells us about how he survives in his field of work.
I wake up at 5am and do clean the house, take a bath and then prepare breakfast for my mum and me.
After eating, I dress and at about 6:30am, I leave for school.
Before going to school, I make sure I distribute my charcoal to some of the shops in my area so that they can sell them while away and then I go for the money when I return from school.
At about 7:30am, I would have been in school and then work begins. I work through the morning right down to the afternoon. I am a class 5 teacher at one of the clusters of schools in my area. So you can imagine, it’s a bit stressful. But within the times are breaks that I use to either eat or relax a little.
About half of my afternoon is spent at school because I close at 2pm. Then I have some students that I do extra classes with them for an hour so, by 3pm, I head towards home.
At about 4pm when I get home, I quickly dress up in the clothes I use in tying the charcoal and then I start packaging them for the shops the following day. Sometimes, the sack attracts animals so I make sure I do it early so that I don’t get bitten by any animal.
So by 5:30pm, I should be done.
After packing my charcoal, I go straight to the kitchen and then prepare dinner. In an hour or an hour and a half, I should be done with preparing dinner and t then I eat.
Then I quickly go and take my bath. I then pick my lesson note and fill in what I will teach the following day. During this time, my mum would have returned from work, then I would give her dinner.
While she also goes on with her evening duties, I would also finish my lesson note, then we will sit to either watch television or have a little chat.
At about 9pm, I would go to my room, pray and then sleep.
Basically, here’s how my routine is every day, except weekends because I don’t to school so, if there aren’t any programs to attend, I would be home focusing on selling my charcoal.
It’s most challenging being a NABCO trainee. For more than four months I haven’t been paid and my only means of income is what I get from the charcoal and that’s what I depend on for all my needs until I get paid by the government.
It’s stressful too, having a side job because all the time I am almost doing something but I know it will be worth it.
It’s not always stressful especially when the money is coming. At least I know I am not being idle.
My mum also helps me, I gave her some money for airtime transfer and mobile money so, she also adds money. Hence, we hardly struggle to be comfortable although we want to be better than this. I use the money government pays me to pay for the house rent while the other income is used as housekeeping money.
One thing I would say is that “make hay while the sun shines.” Don’t wait for someone to pay you before you move. Find a lucrative side job and add it to your job. It will be worth it.
