Many of us may have not had the benefit of having a parent but that is no reason for anyone to lament about it at all. To the lucky few that do have not only the parents but even grandparents, it could be a mixture of awe and challenging. Some of us came from one village, only to end up in another village that was more or less the same in both geo and demographic setup. That said and done, living in the city does notmean that, you have completely severed all village ties from your life; not quite! In the days when we had just returned to the “motherland”, a friend of mine, was called Gafaranga (read afa). As the Africans tend to believe, give a child a bad name and it will bring him calamities; the reverse is also true, give him a good name and he will “fall into things”! How else would a guy like Gafa have landed into the so many things he has? Simply speaking, he has over three residential houses in the environs of Kigali, he boasts of one of the best TOYOTA Land Cruisers in town. Having hit the “mine fields”, he decided to “import” his grandparent to Kigali. As I said, he is one of the lucky few to even boast of a grand pa! No problem at all, most probably, if that “gasaza” (grand pa) never did exist, Gafa too may have never been! The Old man was brought to Kigali onboard the Land Cruiser LEXUS. When he got in Kigali, problems began emerging one after the other. When dinner was served, the old man refused to take water after the meal; he inquired as to why he was to drink the stuff that was meant for cows and the like! Instead he demanded for milk, to Gafa, that was no big feat, he sent for some at the NAKUMATT Supermarket located at the Union Trade Centre. Not bad for the start, but as time went by, the old man was forced to succumb to nature (answer nature’s call), he inquired to shown the Latrine and was shown the in-built executive toilet just a few metres away from the sitting room! Hell broke loose, the old man went ballistic; “how on earth can you shit in the same house you live”, he lamented; he refused to answer the call until they took him to a poorer neighbour who had a pit latrine. The next day, the old man wanted to have his hair cut, they took him to a Saloon at UTC; as he was sitting, he saw a “funny looking” old man looking right into his eyes. This did not auger well with an old man who was a father to one of the richest guys in Kigali. He tried to dodge the other old man’s stare by swinging aside, the other guy did likewise. This was more than Grand Pa Gafa could stomach, he quickly grabbed his walking stick and “smacked” the “good for nothing” old man in the face. “Bang!” went the mirror, everyone in the saloon was shocked; they thought it was one of those blasts! The Grand pa argued, “How dare that old skunk look at me in the face as if he was my brother!” In reality, he was seeing his own reflection in the mirror! Not too bad for a villager, eh! Next time you bring one of those villagers to town, ake sure they don’t cause any harm to anybody, lest you be held iable! Mfashumwana@fastmail.fm
