Today, I saw one of the most painful things that there'd ever be. It was a woman and her family; her husband, a 3-year-baby and an older girl, put out of their house without notice and for a thing they were not completely guilty of.
From the stories I gathered:
The family squatted in a shop which happened to be the woman's twin brother's. A rented shop. That means, they lived in this shop.
This shop: the previous renter owed three years rent before selling to the woman's twin but never made this information known to the man. And he would later convince them to pay for the shop through him because he was the original renter. They did. And he ran with everything.
Twin brother moved in his business and later, his sister moved in with her family. Because poverty. Because difficulties.
Fast forward to months later, the caretaker began to come for the three-years rent. The debtor was long gone and the new people were asked to clear the debts. They thought it unfair. There were pleas. They tried to negotiate with the caretaker and when nothing would work, the twin brother went to court.
Unfortunately, he lost the case and today, the court came for him. They took some of his business properties, put the woman and her family out and sealed the shop.
The woman lost consciousness at first and after she was revived, she began to shout down the whole area. She cried. She wailed, threw herself on the ground and calling onto God in tears. I feared she would run mad.
She is sitting this minute and the next, she is running or dancing or laughing and then crying. Her husband was drowned in shame. I saw it all and he struggled between consoling the wife and the baby in his arms.
I went to hold the woman. I didn't even know where all the words came from but I found myself consoling her. She hugged me so tight I feared she'd throw me down the stairs. She wouldn't stop narrating to me over and over again how she has suddenly been rendered homeless for a thing she knew nothing about.
I was supposed to be strong but my tears failed me. I still wouldn't let her go until she suddenly let go of me, threw herself on the ground and began to roll, her tears wetting the ground.
Her baby watched on. She'd cry this minute and the next, she is shocked. She'd watch her mother for some time and begin to cry again. I took her and asked the father to take care of the mother but all to no avail.
While the baby cried in my arms, the mother looked up from the ground and said a prayer that gave me chills. She asked God not to defeat her ears to the baby's cries. She promised her she'd never be raised stranded. She promised her everything would be fine and as though the baby understood, she cried the more.
...
In all of these, I was more worried about the woman's older daughter who had left for school in the morning. Leaving your home to school and coming back to learn that your home does not belong to you anymore.
I didn't want to see that. I prayed not to. And I didn't.
My thoughts have been with that family ever since. That man - the husband, who could hardly say a word. You could tell he was fighting so hard to keep his tears in, to be the man. Everything broke me.
This is about the most painful thing I have ever seen.
Every picture of the woman crying and jumping and holding me still plays in my head. But I am glad I gave her arms. That I let her hold me in all of that anger. That I let her tell over and over again her story and I didn't try to make her stop crying. I let her.
I don't know what became of their fate later but I learnt a few things from all of what I saw today.
I learnt that the heart of man is wicked. I have always known this though. Her neighbor knew about the debt but never let them know. They knew everything that was coming and kept shut even though they laughed in their faces.
The lesson is to understand that not all laughter is genuine.
I learnt to seek legal ways to do things. To always get to/from the original source
Buying that shop from a person who was not the rightful owner and agreeing to pay for the shop through him was very risky. There was a caretaker/lawyer in charge. It wouldn't have hurt much to pay whatever extra money that would've saved all of the pains and troubles.
As humans, we need to always pray to never fall victims of circumstances. To always ask for the grace to be kept out of troubles.
The grace to never be surrounded by enemies who would watch us drown while they laughed in our faces.
My prayers are with that family. I pray God grants them all of the strength to survive through this difficult time.