Jobseeker’s diary

Jane hasn’t yet paid me back and it looks like she may not do so anytime soon. I’m partly to blame for this. See, I haven’t mustered the courage to ask her outright for the money I lent her. All I’ve done is throw hints that I’m broke. Either she’s ignoring those on purpose or just hasn’t picked the cue. I’m only praying she “remembers” to reimburse me because I really need the money. A couple of days ago, she sent me to buy milk and gave me Rwf 5,000 (whenever she pulls out these big notes, I get the impression she has some money). Anyway, when I got to the shop, the shop attendant said she didn’t have change and asked me to come back later for the money. I told her it was Jane’s and so I needed to get back with the money or else return the note so Jane would pay later when she got loose cash. I shouldn’t have said that because what the lady did was to hold onto the money. Turns out Jane had taken several items on credit and she just wasn’t paying up and according to the lady, it had been several months. She added that even if she kept this balance, Jane would still owe the shop Rwf 6,000. I was baffled and so went and relayed the story to Jane who then turned her rage on to me, and I was wondering what I’d done wrong. “Go back and tell her it’s not my money. Say it’s yours – anything…” she barked at me. I returned to the shop but I knew too well that that was the silliest excuse to give. I’d already told the attendant that the money belonged to Jane, so there’s no way I would turn around and claim it was mine. I would look stupid. So I just pleaded with the shop-attendant (in my broken Kinyarwanda) that I needed her to do me a favour and give me the money, promising to pay on Jane’s behalf when I got my salary. But she wouldn’t have it and by this time, her husband had come out and they both told me that Jane’s debt was long over due, so there was no way they were refunding the money. Feeling defeated, I returned home to break the news to Jane who then asked me to go back and ask the lady to come home. Now I found this troubling and believed that Jane should have been the one to go to the shop since she didn’t have the upper hand in this. But I returned to the shop anyway, all the while feeling like a seven-year-old being sent around to do errands. I needed to finish this back and forth soon or I would be late for work. The lady at the shop was good enough not to argue and just came home. Jane then tried to tell long stories about how the money was borrowed, and that she would try to pay up before the end of the week but the lady pointed out that that’s what she said all the time and never kept her word. Seeing that her pleas were falling on deaf ears, Jane lost her temper and instead became rude, insulting the lady before asking her to leave the house. I was in the second room and tried not to laugh. I mean, who does that? Clearly, Jane was at fault and she was trying to come off as the innocent one. The lady had every right to demand her money. If you’re too soft, people take advantage of you and before you know it, your business has collapsed. In fact, I liked the lady’s firmness and boldness. Jane later “directed” us not to buy anything from the shop again, branding the shop-attendant a bad person. So now she’s bad because she had the courage to claim what is rightfully hers?” I thought to myself. Jane asking us to boycott that shop is unrealistic because it’s not only near home, and therefore, convenient, but they usually have all the items we need and also close late. To be honest, there’s no way I’m going to stop shopping there. To be continued... nsophie77@yahoo.com