Following the end year woes, we are left with our hands folded on our chests. What can-we do apart from put our lives in the hands of fate? Nearly everybody is in quagmire as we nearly suffer from “aids” (acquiring income difficulties) as a result of having overspent our meagre resources in the end of year festivities, all in the name of happiness; alas, what goes round comes round! Our normal joints are now packed way below capacity, thanks to the broke patrons! However, some still have more than what they need and always will! As we macerate our teeth in pain and anguish, they simply cackle in wonder and disgust, as if to say, “If you don’t have cash, why don’t you use your ATM or credit cards?” Just like the proverbial Marie Antoinette the then Queen of France at the time the Bastille was stormed by hungry villagers, she commented, “if they don’t have bread, why can’t they eat cakes”! Do not get me wrong, I have no fight with the haves, all I need is for me to get into that privileged bracket too, where I would not wait for the promised riches but have them right here on earth! As Sixbert Gacumbitsi always laments, he is tired of being patient! And so are many of us! Just yesterday, as I had gone to fill the ever empty tank of my ramshackle car, sorry, I would not call that filling but maybe “spitting” in its tank! I gave the pump attendant a five thousand note and he asked me, should I put in all that? As if the 5K was too much!The needle of the fuel gauge hardly left the “enough” (E) region! As I was there, a guy came with a Lion of a Vehicle, a RANGE ROVER DHOC V8 and he ordered for its tank to be filled to the brim! In wonder or awe, I was transfixed such that I could not move, I kept looking on! Gosh, the bloody beast swallowed a cool Rwandan francs 120,000 (120 litres), not of diesel but petrol! I wondered, here I was, and struggling to “spit” into the tank and here was a guy, can I say “raining” into his tank like hurricane Katrina! I suppose if a walking villager saw me at the station, he would talk likewise! The Honeymoon is now over, children have began returning to school this week; amid talks of parents being broke, the schools have to open whether we like it or not! One of my kids has been nagging me badly, “dad, I need a new pair of shoes, sportswear, etc”. Not knowing that, the Dad’s situation is worse than the kids eyes can see! Believe you me; this is the time of the year that many parents dread, though most Head teachers love it! As they say, “amarira y’inka, n’ibyo byishimo by’imbwa” (Tears of a Cow, are the joys of a Dog); not that, I want to equate our honourable teachers to anything else! There is nothing we can do but to forge on. Aluta Continua! This marks the end of the “grasshopper” season as well. We can now get on with our lives uninterrupted! mfashumwana@fastmail.fm
