Gidi Hustle

Yawn…, the young conductor rouses and checks his time… it is 5:45am. Gosh, are they late! What kind of life is this? He wakes his older colleague (driver) and tells him they are running late. The driver quickly rises and they both rush to the bathroom. S**t, Iya Risi and her children are already in the bathroom. The conductor rushes to the toilet while the driver goes to the wall, both to ease themselves. The driver shouts to Iya Risi in the bathroom to hurry up as she isn’t the only one there. “o wa wo mi jade” (come and pull me out now) says Iya Risi. The driver, getting really upset starts out to insult her when the conductor begs him to shut it and apologizes to Iya Risi while begging her to hurry. Fifteen minutes later, she comes out with her children murmuring. For lack of time, the driver and conductor go into the bathroom together.
Iya Risi takes her children in and orders the elder child to dress both herself and her siblings while she goes to wake her lazy husband working as a bricklayer in a house being built on their street. She begins to dress up while thinking of how she hoped the akara woman would sell early today so she could get some food for her children before they left for school. Thirty minutes and 50 naira akara later, she walks her children out of the house just as the driver and conductor drive their danfo bus out. She turns left towards her children’s school while the danfo bus goes right. The conductor watched her go but his mind was actually wasn’t with her for he was praying that he made enough profit today.
Some hours and about 20 rounds later, the conductor whose throat was sore from shouting the same thing over and over again (“mile 2-wharf” to and “osho! Oshod!! Oshodi!!!” fro) stopped a boy selling pure water. The boy, not having sold much all day rushed to the bus. He gave his conductor his change and ran back to the side of the road. He prayed that he would sell the bag he had on time so he could go and get another one. He thought about his ailing mother and his little sister whom he had to drop secondary school for so she could finish her primary education, looked up to heaven and prayed. At that very moment, a woman rushing to enter a bus hit him and almost knocked him over. The woman got into the bus first before she looked back at him to apologize. She tried bringing out her purse to pay the conductor but it was too difficult as the load she carried was too much and her wallet was too deep to find. She decided to leave it, thinking she would pay just before she got out of the bus. The conductor spoke to her rudely but she was too happy to be offended as she was carrying some goods she had been waiting for for so long. Now, she thought, I would be able to give this money to my husband to pay for the house rent this month.
At her bus-stop, just before she got down, a school girl in her uniform stepped on her in an attempt to get down before her. She shouted after the girl but the school girl was too much in a hurry to hear her. The young teenager was petrified at the punishment she was going to get from her mother. See, this young s.s.2 girl, due to peer pressure, was dating a guy much older than her and in his final year in the University. She had gone to pay him a visit after school and had lost track of time. What beating she was going to get from her mother today!!! She thought. Of which, she hadn’t seen her period this month and it’s already the 28th… At that point in time, an okada man who was obviously high on “igbo” and “paraga” breezed past her, the lady behind (dressed in a flashy manner) had her pants pulled down such that her butt crack along with half of her butt was out in the open.
The lady, however, hardly took any notice of it because she was very angry at her boyfriend whom she had just found with another woman in his house. She got down at her bust stop and crossed the road, all the while wondering if she was ever going to marry as most of her friends had been married. Lost in thought, she almost got hit by a Camry 2.4. The man in it seemed young but was married; however the woman beside him was not his wife. He looked to the damsel on his side (unaware that he had almost hit a woman) and thought of the fun he was going to have at the hotel he was going. The lady, on the other hand was thinking of the clothes she would buy for her friends party after she had collected the money for the night. When the car stopped in traffic, she looked outside the window at a handsome man in his Toyota Tundra driving alone. The man looked at her, she smiled; he smiled back and turned away. As soon as the traffic cleared, he drove off and all he could think about was how he would surprise his wife with the things he had bought for her in order to celebrate the contract he had just been awarded. Oh, he couldn’t wait!
He could smell the aroma of his favourite soup from the gate of his house. His wife was truly an amazing woman. He smiled as he saw his son rush out to greet him, his mother following not too far behind. His ears almost went deaf as she screamed when he told her the news. He settled on the dining table to eat with his family and thought how wonderfully favoured he was to have such success both in marriage and business. Life indeed was good.
At 12 midnight, while all was asleep, each with their issues, problems and dreams, the streets were finally at rest and Gidi town could finally be at peace. That is until the rise of dawn. Then it would be a new day, a new hustle.

Live to Learn

They say the strong one is the one who learns from his mistakes. True! But just how do you learn from your mistakes and just how easy is it to. As a child, you learn the importance of tying your shoe laces from tripping a couple of times on an undone shoe lace. As a teenage girl, you learn the importance of wearing the right pad or changing your sanitary pad after getting stained a couple of times. You even learn how to lie better to your parents, after being caught loads of times. Little things like this help us in understanding how to learn from your mistakes.
What they do not tell you however, is that as you grow older, learning from your mistakes become difficult. What is even more difficult is being able to discern what your mistakes really were? In a failed relationship, for example, how do you know where you went wrong? Was it in loving your partner a tad much or not loving enough? Was it taking your partner over your friends or vice versa? Was it in having sex too soon or too late? Was it showing your love too much or not showing at all? Was it being too materialistic or too demanding? Was it being too secure and comfortable or too insecure and on edge?
Life and Love isn’t like cooking. You can not easily pin point that there was too much salt or too little pepper, it is more grueling to identify your faux pas. Sometimes you have an idea that you are making a mistake in the process but for lack of whatever it is, you go ahead. And if you choose to pick the action of taking into account the consequences, fate just might throw a surprise at you, as the foreseen effect of a decision could change course or have a full turn around. For example, you think that leaving a current boyfriend for a not very well known guy may lead to eventual sadness, but what if that other unknown guy becomes your husband. Unfortunately, no one tells you this. Instead they dish out advice, sayings and idioms like life is as simple as following a cook book or laid out recipe. Even the chefs get it wrong sometimes, so how much more ordinary people.
Another thing is people thinking that they can determine your mistakes for you. There is always one guide book, friend, family, prophet or ex who thinks they can tell you what you should or should not do[in your best interest… of course]. The worst of all is when you beat yourself up over an already done deed…My God, get over yourself already!!!
They say there is a destiny for every one and you can destroy it with mistakes. Well, I say if my path changes because of something I did, then maybe, just maybe, that was my destiny all along! The oversights in life involve meticulous attention and grace of God. So, I am not saying live life without caution, all I am saying is if you make a mistake, don’t beat yourself up about it. Move on and next time, (whenever and whatever it is) weigh your options and do what pleases you and pleases God!
My point? You can never truly learn from your mistakes. Not in life and definitely not in Love!!! But when a certain regrettable and sad occurrence becomes one too many, it might be time to stop it. In the end, just live right and answer to no one but yourself and God.