Things are tight the world over as far as money is concerned. The Euro zone is on the verge of collapse, Greece is just short of going to the dogs while Portugal and Spain are on bunkenke with their economies.
Uganda too, has been hit and I suspect that there are only a handful of people like Sudhir, Wava, Mbire, and Kirumira who are not feeling the economic pinch and can still afford to go to Serena and drink beer for 6K, or imported Heineken at 10k!
The rest of us have scaled down our outings to bufunda’s where a beer still costs sh2,500 though if you did go to the depths of Namuwongo, I do know of bars where a drink is a mere 2k.
We no longer have a full tank of fuel that the orange fuel warning light is permanently lit and we no longer buy a pack of fags, but ‘separates’. Smokers will know what I mean.
Down Kinawataka Road, there is a small shop run by – ah let’s see, let me call them Tom, Kilama and Acordi for arguments sake. Tom and Kilama run the shop, while their sister Acordi, who is still at school, sells bogoya or is it menvu and fried cassava to earn some pocket money.
Acordi takes her business seriously and is not one known for giving credit. But she did, to Lady who lives in the hood and who took menvu worth a mere 2k.
Two weeks down the road, the bill had yet to be cleared so when Lady’s husband turned up at the shop, she threw in a polite reminder that his wifey owed 2k.
And that was it. The man cut more than just a wire! He unleashed a string of swear words that would make a hardened man like Kahinda Otafire, who is used to vulgar words, squirm.
Then he stormed down the road while shouting at the top of his voice: “Do you know how to do business? Am I the one who bought the 2k menvu? You can take you and the rest of your menvu and f**k off then disappeared out of sight only to return ten minutes later and still seething.
He went on and on that his rants attracted not only a small crowd, the passing motor traffic also slowed so that they too could be in the mix.
The storm eventually calmed with our chap walking off still vexed at the thought that he might have to pay sh2k bill.
Looking back, there is something that does not make sense. Why would a man scream for the whole kyalo to hear that, his wife had taken a banja of 2k and on menvu of all things and failed to clear the bill?
In fact most people in the shop assumed that he had been swung a mega bill, something along the lines of sh250,000 and that is why he was making noise and noise which even I, would have found justifiable.
But he screamed for a mere 2k worth of menvu! When he eventually left, to placated Acordi, I paid the 2k. The following day when he was told the bill had been cleared by a ‘Good Samaritan’, he did come to the shop to thank me but didn’t refund my 2k.
I thought of making a big fuss about it and go screaming for the whole kyalo to hear, but sanity prevailed
No comments:
Post a Comment