My earnings had dropped because I had been offline for one whole month.
But I continued posting.
I kept hoping my performance would improve.
I thought taking a Lipa Mdogo Mdogo phone was my solution.
I didn't know it could become another source of stress.
I wasn't earning enough.
And my husband was still jobless.
Sometimes I would fail to raise the KSh 75 daily payment.
Not for one day.
Sometimes I could go for a whole week without paying for the phone.
And when I failed to pay…
the phone would be locked.
Imagine having a phone that was your only hope of earning money…
Then losing access to it because you couldn't afford the daily payment.
I struggled to find the money.
Sometimes I would somehow manage to get it and pay.
But other times…
I simply left the phone locked.
Honestly, my heart was carrying so much.
There were too many things happening at the same time.
My husband was jobless.
I was trying to earn through Facebook.
The earnings were not improving.
I had two children to take care of.
And now I had a phone payment that I couldn't always afford.
Sometimes my mind would just stop thinking.
I would sit there and feel completely overwhelmed.
Not because I didn't want to fight.
I was just tired of carrying so much at once.
But somehow, I still kept going.
I had to.
Nothing changed.
In fact…
things got worse.
Everything became harder.
My earnings were still low.
The phone payments were still a struggle.
Food and household needs were becoming harder to manage.
And then, the house we had moved into also gave us a notice to leave because of rent arrears.
This time, it became serious.
We were taken to the area chief.
We were told to clear the rent arrears that same day.
And if we couldn't…
we had to move out by the next day.
I remember sitting there thinking,
“But we don't even have a single coin.”
Not even one.
And honestly, that day I didn't even have food for my children.
My babies had nothing to eat.
I was already carrying so much in my heart.
The phone was locked.
My earnings were not enough.
My husband was jobless.
We had rent arrears.
And now we were being told to clear everything immediately or leave the house.
I honestly didn't know where to start.
I just looked at my children.
And for the first time, I felt completely helpless.
I was their mother… but I couldn't even provide them with food that day.
No one helped us.
There was no one to call.
No one to send money.
So I waited for my husband to go to town.
I kept hoping he would somehow find even KSh 100.
Just KSh 100.
Because I knew I could manage with it.
I could find something small for the children to eat.
I wasn't asking for thousands.
I wasn't asking for a miracle.
I just needed something.
My husband managed to find the KSh 100.
He sent it to me.
I didn't think twice.
I went and bought one kilogram of flour and some milk.
That was our supper.
I remember looking at what I had bought and thinking about how life had changed.
There was a time I never imagined I would be calculating how to feed my family with KSh 100.
But that was our reality.
I cooked the flour and milk for my children.
And somehow, we ate.
It wasn't much.
But that evening, it was enough to get us through the night.
The landlord's suggestion was that we clear the arrears immediately and move out.
But the chief stood with us.
He told the landlord that we would sit on our deposit first, then vacate.
So instead of leaving the very next day…
we were given one full month.
One month to look for money.
One month to figure out where we would go.
One month to somehow raise enough money to move out.
Honestly, I was grateful for the extra time.
But deep down, I still knew the truth.
We had no money.
And now, we had only one month to change everything.
My husband started actively looking for money.
He knew we had only one month.
We had to move.
So he started trying everything he could to find money.
Looking for opportunities.
Trying to figure out where the money would come from.
And I watched him struggle too.
Because this was no longer just about rent.
We had a family.
We had two children.
And we had nowhere else to go.
I was still trying to make Facebook work.
He was trying to find money.
Both of us were fighting the same battle from different sides.
We just wanted to keep our family together.
And somehow…
find a way to move.
The one-month deadline came.
And honestly…
my husband still hadn't managed to get the money.
The deadline was right there.
We were running out of time.
But somehow, at the very last moment…
we finally got the money.
I honestly don't even know how to explain the relief I felt.
We packed our things.
And finally…
we moved out.
I remember looking back at that house and thinking about everything we had gone through there.
The struggles.
The rent arrears.
The days we had no food.
The fear of being thrown out.
And somehow, we had made it out.
We were still struggling… but at least we had survived another chapter.
I didn't know what was waiting for us next.
But I knew one thing.
I had to keep going.
And somehow, we moved out.