Poor Mathias

...I know that my story might offend someone but I am not sharing it for everybody rather I am sharing it with just the person who understands what it is to be poor. I mean the person who understands what having poor parents and very poor siblings is all about so if you don't know what it means to be born into a poor family where the provision of food and shelter is a center of argument then my story is not for you. Please do not read.

My parents were so poor that even our relatives that were financially stable rejected us,a lot of cousins refused to identify with me and my siblings but that wasn't even a big issue for us and for me in particular because I learned to accept who I am from a very tender age because I started eating roasted corn and coconut before I even grew teeth. And by age sixteen, I had just one pair of sweater, two pairs of short and a pair of slippers. The holes on my sweater got tired of been patched at a point and all i did was simply to accept them as style.

There was a situation that almost crippled me, someone stole yam from the councillor's yam barn and I was accused of it. I did all I could to defend myself but no one believed me and right in front of my father, the community chief whip flogged me one hundred and twenty six lashes of the cane for an offense I didn't commit; that experience proved to me that my father was simply useless because justice is deprived and denied only a boy who has no father. Though I didn't hate my father because there was nothing he could do but I decided right after the last stroke that I would be a better version of my father.

But the road ahead was very tough because my desire could only be possible in the eyes of a mad man after all, a vulcanizer will always be a vulcanizer.

...People look down on people like me not just because of poverty but because of my kind of job but one time I argued with a customer who didn't want to pay me the full charge for my service, he argued that I am not important and I made him to understand that without me, his car tires will be in a mess. Vulcanizers are like your doctors; they take care of your health and we take care of your car tires so no matter how you see it, as far as I am concerned, I am an engineer.

That day I was flogged by the chief whip was the worst day of my life but as time passed, I realized that sometimes injustice is the only thing we need to understand our true worth because a lot of people saw what happened to me and believed that I was innocent. I made a good friend after that incident and everything about him became my healing. He bought me nice cloths, nice shoes and a brand new generator which made my work smooth and efficient. I wasn't the only vulcanizer in the vicinity but I was the most popular not because of my age but because of my friendliness.

Among my very good customers was Ikem, he has flirts of cars which he used for car hire business and I was in charge of all the tires of his cars. He took me like his own brother and was the one who helped my family when our Father got sick and needed a kidney transplant. He helped us raised the fund needed to fly him abroad and as the donor, I was so happy that I was traveling abroad. How many managers and doctors could boast of entering the aeroplane I questioned? My father had a successful surgery and we returned back to a roasing welcome because the king of our community organised a welcome party for us.

I quickly went back to doing what I love doing and I also kept in touch with all the people I met in the hospital in Canada and among them was Susan.

...Susan's father was actually admitted in the same hospital where we had the surgery and her mother was one of the seven doctors that operated on me and my father perhaps that was why she took keen interest in us because we bonded like relatives, she always brought us flowers and when we were discharged but needed a place to stay as out patients, her family took us in. They provided everything we needed to make our stay in Canada memorable.

There was this chemistry between me and Susan, the kind of chemistry that exist between siblings and everyone saw how we bonded then one week before we left Canada, she created an E-mail account for me and went on to teach me how to operate a laptop because she gifted me one. She also took me to her father's workshop and I was surprised to see such a massive workshop. Her father owns a computerised auto workshop and he specialise in car tires just like me. She couldn't believe that I also do the same kind of work like her father.

I told her that in our own country, vulcanizers are treated without dignity but respected in Canada though I saw the reason why it is so and I started dreaming from that day I saw that workshop to step up my game though I also knew that the possibility of such dream becoming reality is like a camel passing through the niddle hole. Whenever people asked me about the magnificent things I saw in Canada, that workshop was the first thing I mention because to me, it is a landmark. During one of our correspondence, I told Susan how I wish to set up a workshop like her father's in Nigeria and she promised to assist me.

I knew that she would surely assist me because one of the things they kept asking us in Canada was if there is anything they can do for us.

...One of the things about life is that many people are faced with the same problem and all these people are totally ill prepared about life and I am one of these people despite the fact that I had a job but I wasn't prepared to take my life to the next level until I visited Canada. Susan's promise to help me establish a modern workshop was an answer to my prayer because everyone needs a breakthrough in life and mine came the day I was handed over my international passport then the visa process was just the magic.

Who says that there are no good people in this world? Who says that white people are racists? This family had nothing to loose if they had failed to help me but they gave me their best from our first encounter. They paid for all my travel expenses and accommodation in Canada, enrolled me in the institution where I got the basic training that made me a certified vaulcanizer. After my training, Josh allowed me to work in his workshop as a paid trainee to complete my practicals. You see, Josh and Susan are happily married, they love each other and they are blessed with a beautiful baby girl called Naomi.

They wanted me to remain in Canada after my training but I had a different plan that was why I returned back. My desire was just to come back to my root and establish a modern workshop. You see an average vaulcanizer makes between two thousand to three thousand naira daily; that's more than the average monthly salary. However, a facility like the one I dream to establish is nothing but a jackpot. You see, when my father was sick, his younger brother was his exact match but he refused to donate a kidney to save my father so we turned to the next option which wasn't 100% match and that was me.

Josh shook my hand a day before I left Canada and reminded me that although I wasn't a perfect match for my Dad, that I was still his best match so I shouldn't take any opportunity that come my way for granted because the twenty feet container they showed me a day earlier is filled with all the equipments I need to start my dream shop and they also gave me cash.

...There is no crown without cross and no make without break that is why one of the things I try to do whenever I am asked how I did it is to remind whoever that wants to know that there is no mountain too high for one to climb so far one has the climbing spirit. Life was purely messed up for my family, we were ranked the poorest in the community and apart from the day I was humiliated in front of my father and entire family, our mother was also sent parking from the market because she owed six months levies.

Things was bad for us but my father tried his best to keep our family together then he took ill and looking at his condition, we became very scared, not scared that he was going to die but scared because we will not bury him in a coffin and will not accord him the simplest burial because we didn't have money for feeding so where on earth would the money for funeral come from. We all planned our individual kind of burial for him but God has his own plan and that sickness which almost destroyed us became our breakthrough because we saw the other part of the world.

I established Poor Mathias Auto Shop because everyone that knows me knows me as Poor Mathias; it was the business name given to me by nature itself so I decided to carry it along because being poor isn't the end of the world. Poor Mathias became the best auto shop and one thing I learned in Canada wasn't just how to fix car tires or car fault diagnosis rather I learned that for one to maintain a level of success, one need to give back to the society so I opened my shop for trainees for free. And the first set of people that benefited from the training all received money to enable them start their own businesses.

It doesn't matter where you are now or how hard life treats you, once you are patient and believe in yourself, you will eventually laugh after all, he who laughs last laughs best.Those who considered me as nothing eventually had their mouths wide open as they looked at my success then something that changed everything happened.

...My story is not different from a whole lot of people out there whose struggle is cemented under paved beautiful marbles. You see, the best thing that happened to me was that the same chief whip who flogged me mercilessly for an offense I didn't commit came begging, he didn't just begged to be forgiven rather he went on to confess what exactly led to my public humiliation. It was well planned and carefully executed by my uncle, my father's own brother who sold me out to protect his son.

I forgave the chief whip and also forgave my uncle because that public humiliation was what brought Ikem into my life and had I not met Ikem, you won't be reading about me because he was the one who made my father's treatment possible so what I want to let you know now is that the hardship, disappointment and pains you face are preparing your grace because they will surely make you the moment they plot to break you. Life can be hard for you but believe me because I am saying this out of experience and our experiences are similar, the foundation of every success story is built under struggle and pain.

I once owned just a pair of worn out sweater and two shorts but today, I have suitcases of cloths I give out to people, I have over three hundred personal cloths and more than one hundred pairs of shoes. Our Mother was evicted from the small kiosk in the market but today there is a plaza of one hundred shops in her name. I don't care wether you believe this or not but James 1: 12 became my trademark not just because of the fact that I am Christians but because his word is true...

'Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him'

Don't ever be ashamed of who you are because they will laugh at the back of your dress just once but will admire it forever when grace fall on you.

May God guide you as you trail your path in life.