An Extraordinary Human Being!

As a ten year old who enjoyed reading I remember one day I came across the word “Extraordinary”.

I did not understand the meaning of the word but there was something catchy about it, I then consulted my human dictionary utatomncinci (My uncle) who was not just my dictionary but way more than that. He was teacher in profession, a teacher at home, a father to everyone, a light of our family and our stronghold. He taught us the role of a man in the family, in the community and in the world as a whole.

It is said that a girl’s first love is her father and in my case Tatomncinci was my first love, I now know a father’s love because of him.

When I consulted him with regards to the word “Extraordinary” he ordered me to sit next to him and in my mind I thought “There goes a whole day of class”. He said to me “Thato Nkwatsha is an extraordinary human being, what do you understand by that?” it was indeed going to be a whole day class that I started regretting my curiosity.

I went on and on trying to explain my understanding of this beautiful word but instead of him telling me the meaning, he gave me a dictionary and said “From now on you will understand every word from here” and that was when I started owning a dictionary.

When he was leaving for work the following day he requested that I repeat what he had told me the previous day and there I was singing like a little birdy “I Thato Nkwatsha am an extraordinary human being”.

Every time he was home for the weekend I’d remind him who I am “Tatomncinci, I am an extraordinary human being.”

Those are the moments I’ll forever hold dearly to my heart.