Home

I lay awake staring at the ceiling, twisting and turning restlessly as I wait for another water droplet to dribble over my face. Agitated with the sound of the leaking water in the dead of the night, while others sleep so calmly I can’t help but think “why do we have a roof that leaks every time it rains…whyyy??”

 I keep staring at the hole in our ceiling (out of anger) that has grown so big and it terrifies me with the thought that it will soon cause our roof to collapse on us. For a second I let my imagination take over me and picture it all in my head. My mind paints a vivid illustration of the water gushing in through the leak, taking bits and pieces of mud down with it in every fall. So strange, although I am well aware it is just in my imagination it feels so real. I can literally feel and smell the muddy water droplets flowing down from the ceiling, the very thought that whatever we have… this house, our home, the center of our lives and everything that we’ll ever have will eventually turn to rubble and dust.

My body shivers with these horrifying thoughts that I struggle to shake away, but I fail…. I lay petrified on the floor, on nothing but a single tattered sheet trying to protect my fragile skin against the harsh floor. It seems the ground is pushing me towards the ceiling only to pull me within itself.

The thought itself is suffocating, imagine feeling that every time you hear the sound of rain or feel the water on your skin.  It’s both weird and funny that a source of joy for others can be the cause of terror, pain and misery for you.

Time quickly passes by as I am buried in my thoughts…  I let out a sigh of relief as it stops raining, glad in my little heart that our world, our house and home stands firm…. at least for now. My eyes start closing gradually and before I know it I fall into a deep slumber, with all the hope in my heart to wake up to a beautiful sunny day after a dark rainy night.

You see for people like us who have so little of the worldly goods, home is so much more than just a shelter, a protective layer or a place where we spend our lives. 

"For us… home is a feeling, an emotion and a blessing in disguise."

I woke up to a beautiful sunny day the next morning after a restless night. My eyes felt heavy because of the sleeplessness and my body ached as if I were still petrified from those dreadful thoughts.

It was start of yet another day of uncertainty in our continuous journey of struggle, a long distance to be covered barefoot with a path full of thorns. But still the pain, hard work and effort were all worth it as long as we had a shelter to sleep under, a place to be together, a home within a house.

But I do wonder… what is home to you?

There are so many people out there who have roofs over their heads with comfy beds to sleep in, yet what they have is merely a home. Why?

What is it that makes a house a home?

Continued...