Claude Habarulema has been without a home for 14 years. I do not have specific time I wake up, but I usually wake up very early, mostly when it is still dark, before the birds start to sing. I sleep in an open place and sometimes people who pass by in the morning, mostly kids, throw stones at my shelter made of dried grass and old iron sheets. I have a lot of work to do in the morning. Most of this work is fetching water to families around where I stay. I pick up Jeri cans from different families and take them to the well.
Claude Habarulema has been without a home for 14 years. I do not have specific time I wake up, but I usually wake up very early, mostly when it is still dark, before the birds start to sing.
I sleep in an open place and sometimes people who pass by in the morning, mostly kids, throw stones at my shelter made of dried grass and old iron sheets.
I have a lot of work to do in the morning. Most of this work is fetching water to families around where I stay. I pick up Jeri cans from different families and take them to the well.
At around 9am I have finished fetching water. The last family I fetch water for, provides me with breakfast.
At 10am, I slope down to Kimisagala market to see if I can get any work. Most of the jobs at the market are carrying luggage.
I camp at the market, waiting for any opportunity to make money, sometimes grabbing and scrambling for a chance to carry someone’s luggage.
I stick around until I feel too hungry to go on. If I have made some money, I go for lunch. But if I have little money I can’t waste any coin on food.
I always leave the market in the evening at around 7pm, heading for work that may need my attention in homes around my shelter. If there is any, I engage myself in such work and go to the bar at around 9pm for the local brew known as urwagwa.
But if there is no work, I go immediately to the bar. I drink as much as I can. Even if I don’t have enough money, friends will always buy drinks for whoever can’t afford them on the understanding that when they are strapped for cash, the favour will be repaid. I later on go to my shelter for the rest of the night.
I shower before I go to bed with water that I earlier fetched from the well. This is always at around 11pm when it is dark and all people are already in bed so no one can see me take my shower.
After the shower off I go to bed. This is round 12am. I sleep for only 4 hours. I last owned a home before the Genocide. I do not know what a home is today but hope to own one again. I am here today but tomorrow I may shift to another location without difficulties. I am used to this life
Contact: tumusteve2008@yahoo.com