IT'S A HARD KNOCK LIFE (Part 1)

Part 1

I promised to post more about my parents and the reasons why they have so little saved up for retirement. Both my parents have college degrees from the 70s so it wasn't an issue of education . The main issue (I think) was the lack of opportunities in East Africa where they were born and spent their adulthood lives. Also, it is excruciatingly difficult for someone in a "3rd world " country to immigrate to better "1st world" countries if this is what they choose to do.

After graduating with a Bachelor's degree in Chemistry from India, my dad began his career as school teacher in a high school in East Africa. At this point in life, he could have chosen to immigrate to other distant lands based on his qualifications. However, he chose to stay back in the small rural town that he was born in to help support his mum and dad bring up his younger siblings. He was the second oldest of four brothers and four sisters. He was the oldest boy and he dutifully took on the task of helping his brothers and sisters move forward. His teacher salary was modest one - but he religiously saved it and used it to help his brothers and sisters move to the UK. His father (my grandfather) approaching 60 worked as a priest earning very little. In fact, the entire salary was used to pay for rent. He also suffered from asthma. His mother (my grandmother) catered for 50 - 200 people daily. This money was used for day to day expenses and saved to help prepare for future costs. In fact, I attribute this single act of kindness as crucial in helping his brothers and sisters rise out of poverty.

In a cruel act of fate, the British government (at that time) refused entry to my grandfather into the United Kingdom on the grounds that he had neutralized his citizenship a while back. This was despite the fact that all his children (including my father) had UK passports. The government also changed their law requiring my father to choose his citizenship between the East African country and UK. Again my father chose to stay behind with his Mum and Dad and gave up his British colonial rights that could have granted him entry into a first world economy.

Soon my father got married and a few years later (5 to be more precise) he was the proud father of two boys. He had duly been promoted to the head master (principle) of the school. However, the teacher salary was barely enough to scrape by and inflation was soaring making things harder. Based on the hardships, my father decided to give up his teaching career and venture into small businesses. He began by selling cloth pieces (a lucrative business in the late 70s) but this business quickly grew competitive. So my father switched gears and invested in two refrigerators. He then started selling cold colas. A "Double Cola" factory had just opened up. This was a great move on his part as he was able to improve his savings. With the newfound money, he was able to send off my brother and I to a far off Missionary school. We lived with my aunt during the school semesters and traveled back to visit our parents every four odd months. The train journey took approximately 18 hours (if all went well). I'll post more on the trains later.


So life was good - or so it seemed. Kids were in good school (which is probably what all parents want) - my Dad's business was moving along well. In time, he self-taught himself accounting and started book-keeping for many other small businesses in the town. This brought in additional income. My Dad was able to build a nice house with the money he saved up in 1980 (there was no concept of mortgage in East Africa - all properties were built with cash) and continued to save.

Part 2 will follow on later