Let’s Talk To Mawuena
David Bondze-Mbir (DBM): Thank you for participating. What name would you want to go by? (It can be your real first name or any other name of your choosing)
Participant 32: Mawuena is my name
DBM: Oh, nice. I like Ewe names. What does it mean?
Mawuena: A gift from God or God’s gift
DBM: How is it pronounced?
Mawuena: Ma-wu-ena or MAH-WUH-EH-NAH
DBM: Hi Mawuena. Please tell me a little about yourself
Mawuena: I am married with children. I like it whenever the sunshine falls on my face. I have a good job, I am financially independent, and I have a mind of my own. I love to keep my home clean and my family well fed. I love being involved in my children’s lives, and I have always been there to support my husband and keep him amused.
DBM: What do you want to talk about?
Mawuena: My priority has been to make my husband a happy man by all means, and he’s told me many times that I satisfy him.
DBM: Good, but what does that mean?
Mawuena: Whatever that means, David, because I don’t believe him anymore.
DBM: Hmmmm!
Mawuena: He’s been partially blind for the past few months.
DBM: What happened?
Mawuena: He supposedly returned home from work in August, 2022, feeling sick. He complained about his skin becoming painfully itchy, but would refuse to go and see a physician. A week later, I realized the cornea area of his eyes had started to scar. I called a doctor friend to come and check on him at home. In the middle of October, he went blind.
DBM: Oh, wow! I’m terribly sorry
Mawuena: Don’t be
DBM: Why not?
Mawuena: I think it was the Universe’s way of letting me catch up with him.
DBM: How so?
Mawuena: All that while, I had not heard my husband’s phone ring or vibrate, not even once. He has been given a sick leave to recover, and so he’s been home from Wednesday, 19th of October till date.
DBM: Okay! How is he doing now?
Mawuena: His vision is still blurry but he feels the impact of light rays entering his eyes lately.
DBM: So, that’s an improvement?
Mawuena: Yes, hopefully.
DBM: You were talking about his phone
Mawuena: I don’t know where our five-year old son found his mobile phone but it was switched off and hidden somewhere in the house. He wanted me to download games on it for him to play. I switched it on, and gave it to him to go ask his father for his password. That was in the morning of Tuesday, 25th of October. I was getting late for work so I left them. I came home in the evening, and my son was standing at our carpark, waiting for me. Dave, anytime this child has told me to shishhh, he’s had something to report about. He told me his daddy made him promise not to tell me.
DBM: What?
Mawuena: He was holding his father’s phone. He unlocked the passcode and asked me to check his WhatsApp. My baby says his father instructed him to delete messages that had come in from a particular contact. He did not delete them but had lied to his father he had. He wanted me to see it first.
DBM: What did you see?
Mawuena: Everything a child shouldn’t be seeing. Obscene images and videos from my husband’s girlfriend.
DBM: Why would your son show you this?
Mawuena: Joshua is so beloved. He is the cutest kid in the world and a total badass. He understands my ultimate rule at home: Do not keep anything from mummy.
DBM: I see
Mawuena: From his conversations with the lady on August 24th, whatever bit him to make him feel sick had bitten him while he was at her house. Mind you, it was this same day that he came home complaining about body ache. I did not know he had called in sick at work that Wednesday morning, because he left home, claiming he was going to work. He went to spend an entire day with his side piece of shit.
DBM: Marriage is challenging
Mawuena: Dave, stop with the inspirational talk
DBM: Oh!
Mawuena: I am going through the gruesome pain of his cheating ass and I don’t need any motivational messages at this moment.
DBM: Noted! Have you ever had doubts about his loyalty to you?
Mawuena: I had no clue about infidelity. Even if I did, I wouldn’t have been able to do anything because it’s difficult to catch my husband in a wrongdoing. He is smart and gives you no reason to doubt him. My husband is also very careful about leaving any clues on his phone. He would have probably become more careful and subtle if he realized that I was onto him.
DBM: Have you confronted him?
Mawuena: I have.
DBM: You’ve known since October. Are you still angry at him?
Mawuena: Yes, and I’ve tried my best not to hurt him where it hurts, but I am at a complete loss as to what to do. How do I get attracted to a man when he has taken a wrecking ball to my trust in him?
DBM: You love him?
Mawuena: I’ve never loved any man as much as I love my husband. That’s what pains me. Before finding out about his cheating, we used to have sex multiple times in a week. Dave, we couldn’t keep our hands off each other. There was so much hunger like you wouldn’t believe. I don’t understand why he would do this to me.
DBM: Unfortunately, the urges of a cheating man lack reason.
Mawuena: And the fact that he told our son to lie, and gave him money for his silence
DBM: How much?
Mawuena: 50 Cedis
DBM: How is a blind man able to see a GHs 50 note?
Mawuena: Josh says he asked him to go and take it from his wallet. But he gave the money to me after handing over his father’s phone.
DBM: Are you still intimate with him?
Mawuena: No! I’ve lost that passion. I don’t feel comfortable doing anything sexual with him again.
DBM: Has he owned up to his mistake?
Mawuena: He’s been asking for forgiveness. He’s also been begging for sex.
DBM: Lol!
Mawuena: Smfh!
DBM: Is your relationship worth rescuing?
Mawuena: I no longer have interest in making my marriage a priority.
DBM: Can you let go of the resentment towards him and try to move forward?
Mawuena: Maybe, but I am not sure I would want to have sex with my husband ever again.
DBM: Is there a possibility of you being happy with him, despite what he has done?
Mawuena: No! I have mixed feelings about everything that has happened. I don’t think I can easily forgive and forget. I don’t trust him.
Image Credit: Yan Krukau
