PATIENCE, WHAT PATIENCE?


Patience is a virtue they say, patience, patience, patience……..patience, an art you master because smacking people on the head with your shoe is a crime or simply because you are a non-confrontational coward hiding behind an “innocent face”. Patience is the art of learning how to hold your handbag close to your chest while sitting in a matatu so that the lady with the largest hips decides she has to squeeze past you to get to the last seat leaving the empty ones behind. You hold your bag close because, a slip in memory and that thing with its content will be on the floor and you will have your face rubbing against someone’s behind as you retrieve it!
Patience is a virtue they say. Patience is sitting next to a lady in a matatu, hot day, stuffy matatu, sweaty people and she decides it’s the most appropriate time to unpack her snack. A boiled egg that could have been a cockerel, an annoying one at that, the one that wakes up the entire neighbourhood. She isn’t done yet! She will place it in a brown bag, get a toothpick out and start piercing whatever is in there, chips it looks like. Now the whole place smells weird, strange. It smells of despair, anger, frustration and cowardice. It smells of angry souls, venting against the egg eating lady and her evil twin who just applied a hand lotion that smells like what a devil would apply on his hands before he gives innocent humanitarian aid workers a colonoscopy.  
Patience is holding your breath while that boda boda rider flaunts traffic rules, decides to use pedestrian walks because the skinny guy at the back with no helmet has to get to work earlier than everyone else. Patience is standing in a queue behind a group of people at the ATM and wondering why they are not using the two machines at the corner. Is there something wrong with it? Maybe not! Just because the guy in line decided that’s not his favourite machine everyone else assumed its faulty. And you look stupid suggesting to the people in front to give it a try, so you start moving “excuse me….excuse me…why is no one using this?” bingo! You get the look, and you move forward to that empty spot, insert your card and get your cash, now everyone is looking at you. You were sweating because all eyes were on you and you don’t want to look stupid, phew that part is over, you got your cash. You smile, chin up, bye bye fruit cakes, happy queuing!


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