MY STORY

Benedicta C. Ogbonnaya

Thunder and lightning flashed as heavy rain poured on the rich soil in Amagunze village of Nigeria, West Africa. I lay helpless in the arms of my father. Tears gushed down his cheek and seeped through his gray bearded chin, dropping like a warm summer rain on my body. He whispered a question, “Am I going to lose this one too?” With this question, my father quickly gathered himself up and carried me on his shoulder, braving the storm, risking his own life in search of a doctor or anyone that could help save my life. The universe responded as he arrived at the home of a local medicine man, no time to waste it was a matter of life and death. The doctor cut open different parts of my body to extract parasites that had invaded and made hosts in me. Weeks passed before I could breathe and walk again. I was 8 years old drowning in the toxic pollutant and contamination in the water I drank.