The Matatus i use like playing gospel music in the morning. No, not Bahati and his friends. And no, not Matt Maher, Don Moen and their friends either. They play the older local songs we knew growing up. Jemimah Thiong’o, Rose Muhando, Emachichi…you get the drift,right?
So i like to lean back, close my eyes and let the music sink in and bless my soul. Then today, a familiar voice brings you to attention:
“Wengine wanabeba, mizigo ya masengenyo, wengine wanabeba mizigo ya chuki, wanalia hoi hoi…” Munish.
Here is the thing. After high school, before results were released, i used to work in a photo studio. i took passports and photos. Those days phone cameras were not many so people still came to the studio.
But i also sold camera films. Remember those yellow Kodak rolls with 36 photos? i sold camera batteries. And i sold music cassettes and DVDs. To attract people to the studio, i would play some of the DVDs. And Munish was one of them.
i earned a whooping 2, 000 shillings. i were so moneyed that i managed to get myselfself a girlfriend. And i would go regularly for dates. Forget coffee dates and dinners in noisy city restaurants that we are now used to. Those days dates were definite dates.
i would buy two small packets of yorghut and she would come with bananas:D. Then we would sit on the banks of a river to talk and later head to my thingira to let the ancestors realize we arent shy of our sexuality . There was no Instagram then. There was Facebook, but my phone was a Motorolla C118 and hers was a similarly small Nokia. So no camera, and no internet. Just the two of you.
Then there was this place i used to go for lunch. A small shack full of smoke that sold rice for 30 Bob. There was no stew, but that was not important because the rice was fried and grated carrots thrown in there.
All these thoughts flow in your mind as Munish goes on and on. You remember the shop vividly. And the photogenic girls who were regular customers. And the occasional arrogant man who came to buy a camera film, feeling very important because he had his own camera. Those were good days.
the simple life it was