Ki one chwani
It's Monday morning again, damn this day has to be a man because we all know why! Anyway, most of you are up to your business as usual because, well you probably don't have a choice. Deadlines have to be met, targets have to be achieved and new goals have to be set, it's a jungle out there, you snooze you lose. Eat or be eaten. The chances are slim and you have to wish against odds.
What is 150? Well, not the number, the currency, and not just any other currency but the Kenyan shilling? Well, I know you probably like "si one fifty ni one fifty tu? What else could it be?" I remember back in my youthful foolish days I used to have this girl I was crazy about. I kept telling her sweet nothings and how I would love her forever but since she had seen life from another perspective, she would cut short my trail of dreams by asking "how long is forever?" And I would be left dumbfounded like the naive small boy I was. In the same breath, how much is 150 really?
Well, it could be my fare to the place I grind. It could be my airtime or me partly paying back okoa jahazi. It could be bread and milk for breakfast this morning, a pair of slippers or a toothbrush I bought over the weekend when I woke up in the unfamiliar territory. It could be a packet of sigara or a beer, it could be anything really. Either way, it's still almost 1.5 USD!
Someone got stabbed last week, because of 1.5Usd yaani one chwani! This hit different, yaani I might be a potential murder victim, I owe my boda guy the same amount!! Not that he would kill me or something, that guy looks like he couldn't harm a fly, but we never know do we?
For most of us,150 is just that 150!we wouldn't feel the pinch if we lost it. For other people, that is their daily Budget, they would die without it! For instance, last week's case, How much does a tea picker earn, well not much that I know. Supposing he /she has a family? Is the breadwinner? Or a single mother with children to feed and take to school? Are you catching my drift here? Every penny counts. I remember growing up with my grandma back in Bunyore (there it is, the cat is out of the bag), money was only used to buy what could not be grown on the farm and it had to be a very essential commodity, sabuni ya 5 Bob would last a week, you wash clothes with it, wash vyombo with it and wash yourself with it, chill on a stone to dry up then use the same soap as lotion, ukinuka vyombo shauri yako. Another 5 Bob was for kusiaga Unga, well it was like 3 Bob but dare you come back without change and traces of toffee in your teeth, utajua hujui!
Well, am not saying life was difficult, we lived modestly and made good of what we had, and I shall be forever grateful for the lessons.
However, I feel it's wrong to kick people while they are down. Desperate times call for desperate measures and in turn desperate results. I will not justify the murder of the employer it's not in my place to do that, it would have been avoided though. Don't stand in the way of someone's daily bread, it's not right in the heart of man and the eyes of God. Let's all serve a purpose.
I have friends in business, I try my hand in business too sometimes. What comes out clear is most businesses go under because of debt. People will borrow with no intention to return or pay. This is Africa, someone is always competing with someone so they just have to acquire something regardless, in turn, standing in the way of your daily bread because of assumptions! Deni moja haiwezi angusha biashara, ata Kenya ina deni kosokoso. If you don't really need it and can't afford it, leave it. If you gotta hire a service you can't pay for, do it yourself!
In so doing we change the mindset of society and grow each other. What is 150? To you it might be a beer to someone else it's their daily bread. Do the right thing and pay up that debt.
What is 150? Well, not the number, the currency, and not just any other currency but the Kenyan shilling? Well, I know you probably like "si one fifty ni one fifty tu? What else could it be?" I remember back in my youthful foolish days I used to have this girl I was crazy about. I kept telling her sweet nothings and how I would love her forever but since she had seen life from another perspective, she would cut short my trail of dreams by asking "how long is forever?" And I would be left dumbfounded like the naive small boy I was. In the same breath, how much is 150 really?
Well, it could be my fare to the place I grind. It could be my airtime or me partly paying back okoa jahazi. It could be bread and milk for breakfast this morning, a pair of slippers or a toothbrush I bought over the weekend when I woke up in the unfamiliar territory. It could be a packet of sigara or a beer, it could be anything really. Either way, it's still almost 1.5 USD!
Someone got stabbed last week, because of 1.5Usd yaani one chwani! This hit different, yaani I might be a potential murder victim, I owe my boda guy the same amount!! Not that he would kill me or something, that guy looks like he couldn't harm a fly, but we never know do we?
For most of us,150 is just that 150!we wouldn't feel the pinch if we lost it. For other people, that is their daily Budget, they would die without it! For instance, last week's case, How much does a tea picker earn, well not much that I know. Supposing he /she has a family? Is the breadwinner? Or a single mother with children to feed and take to school? Are you catching my drift here? Every penny counts. I remember growing up with my grandma back in Bunyore (there it is, the cat is out of the bag), money was only used to buy what could not be grown on the farm and it had to be a very essential commodity, sabuni ya 5 Bob would last a week, you wash clothes with it, wash vyombo with it and wash yourself with it, chill on a stone to dry up then use the same soap as lotion, ukinuka vyombo shauri yako. Another 5 Bob was for kusiaga Unga, well it was like 3 Bob but dare you come back without change and traces of toffee in your teeth, utajua hujui!
Well, am not saying life was difficult, we lived modestly and made good of what we had, and I shall be forever grateful for the lessons.
However, I feel it's wrong to kick people while they are down. Desperate times call for desperate measures and in turn desperate results. I will not justify the murder of the employer it's not in my place to do that, it would have been avoided though. Don't stand in the way of someone's daily bread, it's not right in the heart of man and the eyes of God. Let's all serve a purpose.
I have friends in business, I try my hand in business too sometimes. What comes out clear is most businesses go under because of debt. People will borrow with no intention to return or pay. This is Africa, someone is always competing with someone so they just have to acquire something regardless, in turn, standing in the way of your daily bread because of assumptions! Deni moja haiwezi angusha biashara, ata Kenya ina deni kosokoso. If you don't really need it and can't afford it, leave it. If you gotta hire a service you can't pay for, do it yourself!
In so doing we change the mindset of society and grow each other. What is 150? To you it might be a beer to someone else it's their daily bread. Do the right thing and pay up that debt.
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