If Kigali is this hot, I don’t want to experience Summer. I have read about people fainting or worse, dying under extremely hot conditions. I’m beginning to understand why. These last few days have been searing. As early as 9a.m., the heat is on. It gets worse in the afternoon. Try walking even a few meters and soon, you’ll be yearning for a shade. Personally, I feel so exhausted and the workload isn’t helping. If this unfriendly weather doesn’t let up soon, I’ll strike. I wonder who against though. Perhaps my boss who for some reason has refused to authorize Finance to release money so the AC in our booth can be fixed. With up to seven people at a time in our cramped space, the heat is unbearable. Of course the boss doesn’t go through any of this. Not only does he have an entire room to himself, which he rarely uses by the way since he’s always off to see some other big shot from another company to “talk business”, but the AC in that room is as good as new. A stuffy workspace is not our only complaint though. There’s the water dispenser which dispenses air these days. Someone messed with the thermostat and no one has bothered to fix it. Where we had a cheap source of drinking water, we now have to spend on water of all things. Why not carry water from home, you must be asking. It’s an option true but how many times are you going to do that? Unless you carry a 5-litre jerry can everyday which is cumbersome especially when you have to walk a certain distance to the bus stop like I do. Dear boss, just fix our dispenser please. Thirst aside, there’s the dust to deal with too. I carry an extra pair of shoes and just before I board the bus, I change into the cleaner pair. Wish I had a car. Almost forgot about the funky smells all around. Everybody is sweating and some are attempting to mask that not so pleasant odour. The result is nauseating. Worse when people insist they want a hug! If my heat woes seem tough, farmers must be having a harder time. I travelled out of Kigali last weekend and on my way to a Muslim friend’s home for Eid festivities, I saw many dry maize crop patches. How tough it must be to plant and not harvest? There are also women and men I see almost everyday watering not green but brown lawns. I always wonder whether they are not discouraged by the wilted flowers and blades of grass. Guess Mother Nature wants it this way, for now at least and we have to accept that. What we shouldn’t accept are inhumane working conditions. I know it will be a long time before the so-called investors and shareholders put the needs of their employees ahead of profit. From the millions of dollars that mine owners make for example, they can’t or won’t facilitate the men and women who risk their lives every day to dig up those minerals. If the mine doesn’t collapse, there might be flooding or an explosion. Or the workers may suffer respiratory diseases from gas or dust exposure. I read about a young girl who was diagnosed with lung cancer and it was discovered that she picked the infection from months of hugging her father each time he returned from his shift and inhaling dust particles off his clothes in the process.Of course the father who dug up precious stones could not afford to take his daughter to hospital. More than 40 miners just lost their lives for daring to demand a higher pay. Before they were even buried, the bosses at the mine were issuing ultimatums for the remaining staff to call off the strike and return to work. How greedy can these vultures get? To be continued...
