This is what l know! Jesus Christ fasted for 40 days and 40 nights whilst me and my daughter tapped out in a few hours! You see hunger has its own tune,a serenade that blurbs a melodius and unpleasantly fowl air of internal need! Sometimes it comes out as a mere puff or a loud stomach growl but when it comes out accompanied by a voice that tells you "dad l am hungry" then a whole new level has kicked in! We stayed roughly 1 day and some few hours without food before we eventually gave in to the flesh. I begged, l tricked and scolded her trying to encourage her to soldier on and ignore the hunger but who was l kidding? Everytime l tried something new to kill time and shift her focus to something else,my own stomach betrayed me with an earthquake of a growl! There was no food, no edible insect or fruit to eat but only poisonous shrubs and grass! What an irony isn't it? The sheperd had become the sheep and hunger the staff to struck the sheep inorder to gobble up the shrubs!
For a moment l thought about what it felt like being the ancient king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar when he chewed the card for 7 years! Was the grass sweet? Did it taste like beef?Was it tender or salty? Maybe humans can chew grass like ruminants and we have been depriving ourselves of our true nature who knows?. I went overdrive with futile views and guesses until l plucked some of the grass to taste it and commemorate my research and indeed ladies and gentlemen, do not eat grass! After being a 2 minutes vegetarian had failed, there was only one option,cannibalism! Hunger had shifted from being just a feeling and a need,it had became a form,an element and yes, a state and we all know what states do fellow citizens, they rule! The floating bodies of my fallen brothers and sisters were beginning to conceive ideas. I was drawn to them by the hunger,its like there were voices giving me forks and knives freely to taste the delicacy but l couldn't go ahead with it!
The very thought of eating human flesh horrified and tormented me to a state of temporary fullness for some hours but the reality was,l had a terribly hungry young child who needed to eat more than l did. I could have always of course put her out of her misery by twisting her neck but l could never live with myself! So l did what every soul in need does in times of unbearable pain,l prayed! I prayed to God to take us both and receive us warmly in his arms in heaven for we had truly been failed by this earth but there was no reply, just more hunger and pain! As night began to set again, l folded and tucked my unconscious daughter on a small tree that had comfy and supportive roots that seemed like bed-rests. I wished for the cyclone to come back and finish what it had began and in my mind l was ready for it this time! If this was our death and our tombs to claim then this mountain was to be equivalent to the Egyptian pyramids for on it was a story of blood and family that gold couldn't buy! So like the ancient Pharaoh's before me,l called my burial place,"gomo revakarasika asi risina kukanganikwa"(the mountain of the lost but not forgotten) so that history could remember us openly ,on a monument that could stand the test of time more than we could!
Finally l gave in and became weak,wobbly and light headed until l fell down head first on to the ground. It was like it had finally happened and we were on the way to a new world but the reality was l had just fainted because of hunger! Embarrassing isn't it? I mean who faints just because of a day or two of no food? Well try it my friend and pray that you are not on top of a flood covered mountain whilst you do! It was all just a blur until l woke up to people carrying me over to the other side of the mountain l hadn't got too and voices saying "his alive" and "give more food to the little one"!