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How Fauz Earns a Living from the Roaring Waves

How Fauz Earns a Living from the Roaring Waves

Day of Roaring Waves

Many people know the roar of a lion but few have heard of or listened to the roar of a wave. It is unrelenting. Think of a sneeze that keeps on coming. It is scary. Think back to that lion, charging at you for ten straight hours. Non-stop. Like a train whose brakes have failed. That is how the waves behave during most nights when Fauz is out fishing.

Fauz is a lanky twenty-year old fisherman from Kiunga in Lamu County. The Indian Ocean has been his constant companion for the two decades he has been in this world. But unlike domestic and international tourists who only know the serenity of the Ocean’s shallow waters, Fauz knows the roaring, raging side of the ocean.

Tonight, he is back in the deeps, together with three other fishermen. He sits at the front of the boat, eyes alert hands tugging at the net. A wave roars and slams into the boat, sending it to its crest where it lingers for a few moments before plunging back for several metres. All this time, Fauz continues holding the net tightly. He can feel the fish fill it. This fills his young heart with joy so loud that it dims the waves’ roar.

The Day she said yes

Today she doesn’t say yes because he doesn’t ask her anything. She doesn’t even know that he exists. Until a few moments ago, he also didn’t know that she existed. He was walking in the ancient narrow streets of Lamu Old Town when he saw a group of polio vaccine officers walking towards him. She was at the front and she was so beautiful that he found himself staring at her so hard that his head turned when they crossed paths.

Wow.

He followed her from a distance for some time.

She insulted him a few days later when he sent a text introducing himself. He had gotten her number from a friend who lived nearby. The insults came severally until later on, she softened and started chatting with him normally. But he had gone back to Kiunga 92 kilometres away, near the Somali border, so he couldn’t drop by her house.

But today, he is finally in Lamu in her mother’s house. She has just said yes to him.

About six months later, his mother is in her mother’s living room, seated in the same spot where he had sat six months earlier. She has come to officially ask for Halima’s hand in marriage.

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This fish give him a livelihood.

Things never worked out with her. But Alhamdulillah we are both fine.

Life goes on. InshAllah.

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