Nimemaliza Saut mwaka jana,Malimbe-Mwanza.
Katika vitu vinavyoniuma hadi leo sisahau ni kilipishwa fine ya laki moja on top of ada ninayodaiwa,kisa kuchelewa kulipa ada. Unaweza kujiuliza, sasa kama ada sina,hiyo laki moja ya ziada nitatoa wapi?
Nilikua loan beneficiary,sina support nyingine yoyote,nagawanya boom kwenye chakula,accomodation,ada nk. Kiukweli kabisa, huwezi kulipa vyote hivyo kwa semester na ukaweza kuishi vizuri bila kutetereka so ilibidi kudelay kidogo kujipanga. Nilimweleza Mwanjonde hivo, na barua niliandika kama walivosema lakini wapi. Mwanjonde alinisomea tu quote from a document, 'our culture should be no fees no school'. Nilimwambia nia sio kusoma bure, nia yangu ni kulipa lakini wanipe muda na waniruhusu for the mean time kufanya mitihani. Nililipa laki moja hiyo alimradi nimalize chuo, or else my 4 years would all have been wasted like that.
Kilichofuata ilikuwa ni how to survive the year,i look back today and call it, my great depression.
Lakini haikuwa ajabu sana hasa kwa finalist. All my four years as a loan beneficiary i was made to put up with boom and tuition fees delays from board,had to beg chuo to let me seat for exams first and would pay later. Sometimes they did let me,sometimes they didn't so i borrowed elsewhere with stringest conditions such as interest rates that sees you broke paying the debts the moment boom comes. In the former case, i still had to make futile routes from office to office,they threw each other the balls, dvcaf,faculty,vc,bursar etc everone not wanting to be 'the disgraced guy who let them did exams without paying'.
The hustles were so much to put up with, not to mention that i also lived from hand to mouth.
But what's the moral do you learn out of all this? I observed saut is an institution with great financial discipline. You either conform or learn the hard way, which is, lord knows i hate to admit-commedable sort of.
But the church has got to find a way to hep the needy, instead of taking advantage of their desperation.
What good does it do you, lors's servant, dear rev kitima, to often and always speak so passionately about helping the poor, and vehemently blast the government when things aren't in order at home?people in glass houses should know better not to throw stones. Doesn't make you any better.
Wanafunzi, for all it's worth, saut is still a far better place to be than the rest uni's across the country,trust me now, i knw better now.
Hapa ngoja niseme kiswahili ili inoge na ilete raha nlokusudia. Tujifunze kukabiliana na changamoto kadri zinavyokuja. Na tuwe na nidhamu ya pesa hata ndogo tupatayo pale tunapoipata haijalishi wapi imetokea bodi au kwingine.
Serikali pia ifikirie upya commitment yake kusaidia watoto wa kitanzania. Kiukweli wanateseka,wamekata tamaa na wengine wanaacha chuo na ndoto zao zinakomea hapo. Ushahidi ninao pale saut na inatia uchungu sana kuna baadhi ya watu ukijua story zao unaweza kulia.