Short story: Don’t put off until tomorrow …
In the village called Ansakrom, the inhabitants were very hardworking. They toiled diligently for the progress of the village and the result was healthy people and a neat and beautiful village.
Close by was another village called Bankesse. Between the two villages, was a stream. Sometimes the chiefs and the linguists of both villages meet to have discussions concerning the progress of their respective villages by the stream.
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One day, the two chiefs decided to build schools for their individual villages since their children had to travel long distances to attend school in neighbouring towns.
That said, the inhabitants of Ansakrom went to work immediately. They started mobilising resources to start the construction of the school.
On days that they didn’t go to the farm or fishing, they did communal labour. So twice a week, they dedicated their time to help build the school. The farmers did their communal work on Fridays while the fishermen did theirs on Tuesdays.
After two years, they managed to put up a beautiful school building. They did not stop there, they continued working together twice a week until they built a fishing boat as well.
As for the people of Bankesse, the least said about them, the better. They kept procrastinating when to start their school building even after the children in the other village had already started attending school in their new school block.
In the long run, they could neither construct the school nor build a fishing boat. So the children of Bankesse always crossed the stream to attend school at Ansakrom.
Besides that, children from Bankesse could attend a school that was about two kilometres away from their village. They did not have to cross any stream but it was too far.
The school at Ansakrom, on the other hand, was not far from Bankesse at all but the children would have to cross the stream before they get there, which was a better option than walking for two kilometres in the morning to school and another two kilometres from school to their village.
When the chief of Bankesse and his elders decided that their children would attend the school at Ansakrom, they decided to construct a small bridge so the children could use it to get to the other side of the stream.
At that time, it was the dry season, therefore, the stream was shallow. The chief and his elders decided to use about 10 big stones as a provisional bridge to cross the stream as the construction of the new one was ongoing.
When the chief and elders saw that the children had no problem crossing the river, using the big stones, they started postponing the construction of the bridge as they did with the school and boat.
One day, when it rained cats and dogs, the stream overflowed its banks and it was difficult for the children to cross over to the other side but they were also determined to go to school that day since there was going to be a class test.
While these children were waiting by the stream, still deciding on what to do, a little girl, believed to be the daughter of the chief of Bankesse thought that the current was not so swift and jumped in the water to try to cross.
Unfortunately, the rapid current pulled her away. She would have drowned but for the timely intervention of a passer-by. This incident made the people of Bankesse very sad indeed. The chief in particular was embarrassed. He felt that he had failed his people as well as his family. The little girl was his only daughter and if she had drowned, it would have been unfortunate indeed.
Later, they used two days to construct the bridge. The chief of Bankesse visited the chief of Ansakrom for lessons on how they were able to build their school and boat within such a short time.
The people of Bankesse used one-and-a-half- years to complete their school and their boat and they were happy about what they had done together.
Benedicta Baiden Otiwa,
Calvary Praise Preparatory School,
Central Region.
