Osabeni is a village of soil and silence?a place where the wind carries gossip faster than the post man, and the earth cracks open in summer like it, too, is tired of waiting for rain. Red-dust footpaths twist through sparse thorn scrub, mopane trees cast fleeting shade, and every raindrop is prayed for.

This book is their story: a journey from the cracked earth of Osabeni to the stone halls of missions in Rhodesia and Nigeria, and finally back home to help rebuild the land that raised them. You'll witness a boy who divides herds of cattle with the same precision he applies to his equations, who endures mockery without losing his quiet strength, and who carries letters wrapped in basil leaves as if they were passports to possibility. Along the way, he learns that knowledge is not a shield against cruelty but a kind of power?softer than fists, yet more enduring than fear. Turn the pages, and walk beside Themba. Feel the dust on your feet, the fire in your chest and the weight of every lesson learned in the wreckage of war. This is not just a story of one boy or one village?it is an invitation to believe that, no matter how stubborn the ground or fierce the storm, we all have the power to build something lasting. This is more than a coming-of-age tale; it's an homage to every village that bucks the odds, to every mother who plants hope in youth, and to the countless children who dare to imagine a life beyond their horizons.