CHAPTER FOUR
one faithful evening when the reverend and his followers were preaching the gospel, in the community where they met Ebuka cutting lumps of firewood the reverend was so amazed to see a very hardworking young boy who was determined, God fearing, kind and slow to anger, Ebuka's kind was rare in his community and the neighboring communities as well. Because of his kind hearted the reverend offered to sponsor Ebuka to any level in his career, this was actually a good news and at the same time bad news because Ebuka have never seen the four walls of a school environment before, so he decided to tell the reverend that he has never attended any school since he was given birth to but the reverend advised him that if truly he wants to give himself a wonderful life he has been dreaming for that he should try and go to school at least he should start somewhere. Ebuka on the other hand was totally speechless, he was like so is this how God is changing my story gradually.
Nevertheless, the reverend continued his preaching after having the conversation with Ebuka, later that day the reverend started putting calls through for a personal home tutor who will put Ebuka through the basics. In one week time Ebuka had to stop doing those manual works he normally do in the neighboring community close to theirs, he later left his community and went to stay with the reverend where he can get the necessary attention and assistance from. As months, years goes by Ebuka was fully equipped with all the necessary knowledge he acquired from his home tutor and he was opportune to sit for the SSCE examination, that period was one of the most serious time in his life where he never needed to be distracted because he needs to give his full attention to his books and make sure to come out with good grades.
On that faithful day of the examination, Ebuka was fully prepared to deliver, On his way to the city for the exams, a fast moving vehicle splashed him dirty water from those porthole, he didn't say anything but quickly rushed back home to change his clothes, he didn't even retaliate nor voice out to the man, he had to act maturely and left for his exams. On reaching there Ebuka was 20mins late, he was tensed but he said to himself I can do this, when the question and answer booklet were given to him, he prayed then after he went through the instructions and started answering the questions like he was the one who set them. All eyes were on Ebuka, some of the candidates for the exams were looking at him, while some where mocking him saying what did he know that his writing, while some were seriously minding their business. When it was time for submission, the exam invigilators where moving seat by seat to collect the answer booklets before they could get to Ebuka's desk he has already stretched out his answer booklet for submission, one of the invigilator's who collected Ebuka's booklet went through it and noticed he had answer the number of question that was instructed for them to answer, she gazed at Ebuka and was eager to know how prepared Ebuka was to sit for the SSCE examinations. The exams was meant to last for a week, on the last day of the examination Ebuka forgot his calculator at home and the other candidates refused to share with him, what actually got everyone surprised was how Ebuka got the answers correctly without using the calculator for further verifications or error.
The result was meant to be out after a month but was announced on the radio that they are trying to verify the result of a particular student who happened to cleared all his papers with distinction. When Ebuka got the news he already knew he was actually that student. He was filled with joy neither did he know that he will be summoned for result vetting, though he wasn't pleased with the whole drama, he was scared and he started having negative feelings about the vetting. When he was summoned, different teachers who own those subjects started asking him questions which he answered with stammering, they were all in shock to see a poor boy from the village who took education as one of his priorities. This paved way for Ebuka he was given a sponsorship award to study in any country of his choice, this was like a dream come through and at the same time he was wondering if he will really survive the other world.