A hole full of cash

South west of Gaborone -the capital city of Botswana- lies Makopong, a slowly developing settlement, located 60km away from the city. In this village lives the Modise family which comprises of Pako Modise, the head of the family in his seventies and his wife, Marea who is also in her seventies. Both of them are farmers with cattle and are highly respected because of their wealth. Along the way Marea was diagnosed with hypertension and diabetes, she needed special diet and care but she couldn’t live with her husband because he enjoyed eating lots of salt and enjoyed listening to loud music even in his old age.

At this time came Dintle -their first born and only daughter who worked as a nurse in Gaborone -who decided that her mother needed special care so she asked both her parents to move to the city so she could take care of them both. Her father refused. He thought Dintle wanted a share of his savings and would sell his cattle once he would be away from his livestock. Marea eventually moved to Gaborone while Pako stayed behind with his son, whom he later chased because he was convinced he was the only one capable of taking good care of his cattle.

When his last born son Katlego visited him at the farm, he found out that Pako, his father, was ill. He took him to the local clinic where they were told he needed to go to the hospital to do more tests. Katlego took the old man to Gaborone, where tests were run and it was concluded that he had hypertension. Everybody pleaded with him to stay in Gaborone so he could be given medication but Pako refused and asked them to take him back to Makopong.

Pako was the kind of man who didn’t believe much in education, he only knew how to write his name. Marea on the other side learnt through non formal education and dropped out early since she was studying far from the village and wasn’t getting any support from her husband at the time. She then fought with everything she had to send her children to school as her husband wasn’t paying school fees. Merea sold chickens and home brewed beer to raise them and finance their education.

All the children did well at school; Dintle became a nurse, while Katlego was a police officer. But they did not have a good relationship with their father even though they were able to fend for themselves. When Pako got sick, even though they were not in good terms with their father, Dintle and Katlego were worried and tried to make him to stay in the city. In return, Pako threatened to report them to the police if they didn’t bring him back to his farm.

Pako only cared about his wealth i.e his cattle. He didn’t have time for his wife or his children. Something his wife Marea had accepted a long time ago. Marea was coming from a poor family while Mr Pako was coming from a wealthy family. And so months passed with Pako staying at the farm alone, with his son Katlego coming to check on him whenever he had a chance to. Dintle was sending hypertension pills every month to her father but he was still eating the food he was told not to eat.

At some point he started becoming weak and decided to sell half of his cattle which by then were about 80. Since he had no car and did not trust anyone with his money, he kept it with him at the farm. The more ill Pako became ill, the more cattle he sold and the more suspicious with his money he became. Whenever he was seeing someone walking towards his house, he would hide inside the house. He wasn’t doing this to his neighbors only; he was even hiding from his own children. Days passed without anyone seeing him so everyone started getting worried. The neighbors broke into his house since they couldn’t find him anywhere. They found him dead.

According to the Tswana tradition, when a wife or husband dies, the wife wears black and mourns for her husband while the husband’s clothes are all gathered and washed, all to be distributed among family members when the mourning period is over. After Pako’s funeral, his clothes were all collected. While his son was searching under the bed, he found a termite hill which was full of cash. All the money Pako was getting from selling his cattle ended up in this hole under his bed and no one knew about it. The money was so old it was all torn into tiny pieces. Alongside were found the boxes of pills Dintle was sending her father every month.

Pako Modise died alone in his house leaving a hole full of shredded cash.

Most people worship money. Truth is that money makes us blind and we end up not seeing clearly and thinking straight, just like Pako who only saw his wealth to the detriment of his own family. The wealth we may have is only temporary; we will leave it behind when we die. It is important to give so you can also get back with an open heart. No man is an island.

#Botswana #family #inspiration #happiness #money