The pace of life is such that one cannot stop and take a step back and look at what is happening. Case in point, last Saturday, I bumped into a drunkard I had never met before, he insisted on driving my truck home, and then compromised that I should give him a lift.

Except he didn’t want a lift in the truck, he wanted to surf the truck home, I begged and pleaded with the idiot for ages, I lost almost an hour. Every time we pulled off, he jumped on the truck, so we waited until he was unaware and sneaked into the truck and sped off, only to find the guy chasing the car on foot and jumping on.

We braked suddenly and he fell off, he rolled into the gutter and was soon asleep. Did we stop? No, life is too short. I had spent an hour wrestling a drunkard off the truck, he was violent and abusive, not to mention stupid. My friend asked "Are you going to leave him there?” I paused "Yes, life is too short.”

I had no compulsion to stop, he had no right to jump on my car while it was in motion, I spent an hour begging him not to do it and he did it anyway. That is the problem of modern life; idiocy is the biggest waste of time.

Sometimes, you have to do your best and walk away. I had a similar problem in Gikoba, my village in Nyagatare. The boy next door is neglected by his own family and when times are hard, they send him over to live at our family home.

The boy is nice and well mannered but when he comes in, it brings his insane family into our house; they claim what they want from the store, cut our matooke when they please and cause strife. Matters came to a head when his drunken uncle came around, drunk, waving a machete threatening the farm workers. So, we had to send the boy away, it was to condemn him to a lifetime of poverty, we could not help him while members of his family were threatening us with machetes.

In Rwandan culture, most things are negotiable and the next day the culprit was apologetic and laughing, saying it was a minor incident and we should patch things up.

Normally we would just shake hands over it, but I said no, we had to cut them off and never talk again. It is not out of cruelty but I have a purpose, I will not be diverted from this purpose either by drunken car-surfers or machete-wielding villagers.

All these minor dramas are meant to divert you from your dreams. So many friends of mine say "I don’t know what happened we were just there then all hell broke loose.” You have to avoid stress and the causes of stress; life is too short for stupid drama. We have to stick to our targets and push on.

Ends