Sky is the Limit

by Ronald
(Lusaka, Zambia)

I lost my Dad when i was 16 years & my parents divorced when I was 8. My young brother was 6. My dad did not immediately get married, so we started living with him until when I was about 13 years old. My Dad got married because I became unruly & I had almost stopped going to school. Besides, Dad was not always home as he had work.
In 1994 when I lost my dad, I went to live with my Aunty, my Dad's sister. My brother went to live my Dad's brother. It was like I had lost both My dad & Brother. He was very far away from me...

Whilst living with my Aunty I completed my high school education & the following year I had applied to go to college & was accepted.

Unfortunately, I could go because none of my relatives, that included my Aunty, were in a position to help me with my college fees. Eventually I had lost hope & could not see my self going to college. Whilst thinking how am I going to raise my college fees, I got a job from my uncle who was running a contracting company contracted by a local copper mining firm to supply cold wood. He is married to Dad's young sister.
She was older than the one whom I was living with.

I got a job as an accounting clerk, which was not a well paying job, but I realized that I had to start from somewhere. I worked for about a year & I had to quit & joined another mining firm which was run by Australians which later was bought by the Americans. The company is called Stanley Mining Service. Its a drilling company. I worked there as underground store-man & in terms of payments it was far much better that my previous employer who was my Uncle.

At Stanley Mining, I worked for a year. whilst working I had applied to college for the following intake & I was accepted. Unfortunately my employer did not want to me leave my job. As I had proved to them that I was a hard working & that is the same attitude I have with my current work. But I had to go to college & eventually they got to accept my decision. This is something that when I reflect back I feel proud about myself.