“Hit by the droughts”

Reminiscent of the MINUAR days when it was literary Christmas every Friday evening, not anymore, we are left with dry throats that may sooner than later become coarse and sore! Believe you me, the cost of a very cold beer was not more than RWF200 for a “Grand MUTZIG” or PRIMUS but now a days, that has sky rocketed four fold. In those days, we did not worry of where the drinks would come from, we had plenty of “bagira neza” (good doers) who were always more than eager to throw those “beer parties” as long as there were willing “drinkers” to balance the economic equation of “supply and demand”! Then, we used to drink as if the breweries would shutdown now or the next day; meaning, there would be no more to drink! That was the status quo nearly a decade and a half ago, not anymore! We are now finding it very hard to have our throats washed, thanks to the “crise économique” that has hit the world. Though the developed countries seem to be emerging out of it, we seem to be sinking deeper and deeper into its abyss! In light of the above, most people have tightened their proverbial belts such that, they only spend their hard earned money on things they deem to be absolutely necessary. Last weekend, Gafaranga and I happened to be invited to a Grand Wedding Ceremony. One of the sons of a rich “son of the soil” was tying the knot with his own wife! Is that confusing? After all, whose wife should he be marrying if not his own, eh? As it happened to be, our friend Joe (not the politician though) decided to do the needful. As the saying is these days, he was seeking a “license to sleep naked”. Most probably, he was doing so without the necessary “byangombwa” (read papers). As is the normal trend, he invited many of us to his wedding’s preparatory meetings. As is the case, the contributions from here and there were so discouragingly low; despite that misnomer, Joe had no other alternative but to go by the schedule. Come the wedding day, there was no sign of any “drinks”, the only stuff around were several crates of all tribes of Sodas. Some of us were not ready to have children accuse us of taking their drinks. This made me long for a miracle, yes, like the one Our Saviour made under similar circumstances. Ok, those of you who may have never read the Holy Bible, He made the finest “Wine” at a wedding function in Canaan, that was after, it was discovered that, there was no “drinks” to serve to the guests (please do not accuse me of anything like blasphemy)! How I wish he would visit Kimisagara water supply and say the word and all the water pipes of Kigali would bust with ARMSTELs! If wishes were horses, beggars would ride! Due to the economic crisis that has hit the world, we have found ourselves “Hit by the droughts” even when it has been raining so heavily! Cutting the long story short, the wedding was so agonisingly slow, we wanted it done away with so that we could go and find some stuff to wet our throats. After all, who wants to eat on an empty stomach? mfashumwana@fastmail.fm