I looked up at my mother’s face and could see that she was visibly upset as she vowed never to table her matter before the police, ever again. From that moment, she knew that she was ‘on her own’.
That night, as soon as my mother stepped into the house, she received a hot blow to her face, ‘for embarrassing the family’. My father even accused her of being a ‘wayward’, she was called all types of unspeakable names for receiving money from ‘another man’. It was a painful experience and here we were, standing before this tall fellow with a face so hard, It looked like if he ever tried to smile, his face would literally fall into pieces. We stood for what felt like a couple of hours in a long queue.
In the most croaky and thunderous voice he shouted to my mother, “Where ya moni?” (meaning: Where is your money?). Noticeably terrified, she handed him a wad of the money, some of which she had been saving up. It was a lot of money. Then he beckoned to her and ushered her to a narrow walkway, that led into a ship which was getting loaded up, it was nearly full. More and more people joined us on the boat, it was scary, it got stuffy and smelly. I remember feeling like I was going to pass out. Once we were all cramped up and ready, the boat took off. I remember how tightly my mother held me, and I could hear her mutter prayers and could feel her racing heartbeat. She was terrified of the experience.
Among the women that joined the boat ride was a heavily pregnant woman who looked evidently uncomfortable and scared, but had no other choice, I guess, just like my mother and me. The boat ride took so long that I lost track of time, because I got sea sick (the movements of the boat made me dizzy and I remember throwing up the few peanuts and banana that my mother had woken me up to eat earlier.)
Two days had gone by on the boat, and I was suddenly awoken by a loud scream! It was the pregnant woman. She had become exhausted and sick due to the discomfort. She kept saying, ‘my baby is coming!’ She gave another loud scream that made the last cry seem like a whisper. It was then that people started making room for her to stretch her legs over them, ready for the delivery. One of the men asked in a loud voice if there was anyone who could help. It was so terrifying.
My mother responded to the call, although she didn’t have much of a formal education, she had midwifery experience, which she learned from her grandmother – who often praised her skills. She handed me over to a stranger in order to attend to the pregnant woman. As my mother began to massage different points of the woman’s body. We could hear her muttering prayers. After a short while she told the woman to take a deep breath and push. In agony she screamed her head off, I tried to look in her direction but the stranger turned my head away from all the action.
Suddenly, the smell of faeces mixed with blood filled the space. After a few loud screams in agony, there was a sharp cry of an infant that seemed to go on forever! The cramped boat felt even more crowded with the smell and all the activity. My mother did it! She successfully helped to deliver that baby, cleaned her up and handed her to the mother who immediately breast fed her. Shortly after something came out of the woman, it looked like a small bag with blood and a rope, which my mother cut and tied up the end closest to the baby’s tummy. It was a lot to take in. There was a huge sigh of relief, as people hailed my mother for saving the day! I recall feeling proud, but was soon overwhelmed by the motion sickness and awful smell that surrounded us, luckily, I very soon after that fell asleep in my mother’s arms again.
I was awoken by that husky thunderous voice, giving instructions for people to alight the boat, we had arrived our destination. Finally, I could get something, anything, to eat. It was nearly a week long on the boat ride, we had run out of food a day ago. I overheard my mother asking a fellow passenger where we were, to which they replied, Libya.
…To be continued in the next edition
