Tambah, the Village Boy 

Once upon a time, in a small village in Margibi, there lived a boy named Tambah with his parents and little sister. Tambah would wake up every morning and go into the forest to gather firewood and bamboo worms. When he got back home, his little sister Korto would carry the firewood and bamboo worms to the market to sell. After selling, she would then buy food for the family. That was how they made a living. Tambah was just a seventeen-year-old boy, but he had to do everything on his own. This was because his mother was very ill, and his father was jobless.

The village Tambah and his family lived in was called Kpen, which was around the Firestone Rubber Plantation. The place was very breathtaking, with fertile land and beautiful rubber trees surrounding the village. Since they had a plantation nearby, many of the villagers would go there to look for jobs. But sadly, Tambah couldn’t get a job there, and his father was too old to work on the plantation. Being the first child, this bothered Tambah. 

Earlier, when his father had his farmland, Tambah and his sister were in school. But they had to stop because the plantation owners said the farmland belonged to them, and they took it forcefully. Tambah and his family were in a very bad state and found it hard to earn a living and feed themselves. Tambah tried to do many things like producing charcoal and palm kernel oil, but none of them were successful. As time passed, the situation became worse. Unwillingly, even Korto had started to look for a job to help her brother. This made Tambah very sad.

One day, while he was in the forest collecting firewood, he met one of the plantation workers. This man was from Kpen, and he was carrying the latex he had collected to a nearby storage facility.

“Hey, I heard that this division needed more tappers,” the man said as he walked past Tambah.

“Really?” Tambah asked excitedly. This gave Tambah hope, because divisions in Firestone usually need many tappers, and he thought this meant he would finally get a job.

He quickly collected the firewood,  went home, and told his family the good news. They then waited for days, but there was no news of any employment on the plantation. Therefore, thoughts of going to Harbel to find work in the factory there started running through his mind.

Tambah was really sad on the day he had planned to go to Harbel, but he couldn’t resist, so he left the house without telling anyone, except for Korto who had seen him going. When he reached Harbel, he realized that he knew no one there. However, thinking about the pitiful conditions of his family, he moved on in search of the factory.

He reached the factory’s gate, and there he realized that it was very difficult to look for work in an unknown place. Tambah entered the factory hoping to find someone to help him. He mistakenly lost his way and came to an area where a group of young boys were gathered. There, he saw a man who was the supervisor for Yatta’s Contractors, a contractor service that hired people to work in the factory. To his utmost pleasure, there he got a job as one of the contractors with a salary of $100 USD per month. However, the work was not that fun and very tiring. He had to work several hours a day. 

It so happened that there was a beautiful house near the factory.  Its owner, Mr. Kollie, was a big man in the factory and he was a very good man. He allowed Tambah to stay with him in his house after the supervisor told him Tambah’s story. Mr. Kollie’s family was living in Monrovia, so he was alone in the house. Mr. Kollie then employed Tambah to take care of his house. Tambah, being a very hard-working boy, did this job very well. Mr. Kollie started paying him $120 USD per month for his hard work. This way, Tambah earned money from two different sources: the factory and Mr. Kollie.

After four months of struggle, Tambah went back home with all the money he had saved. There, his family rejoiced in his homecoming and with the money he earned, he took his mother to the hospital and enrolled his sister in a good school. He then opened a small shop for his family in their village, where they were able to earn money while he hustled in Harbel. His family was very proud of him and THEY LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER.

Authored by: Roland K. Dweh Jr.

Featured Image by: Annie Spratt on Unsplash