Heee… shieet, apana!
Thats the first expression that comes to my mind every time i recall the short episode when you clear high school and you are not sure if you will join campus or go to Kiwanja ukimbie utafte kazi ya karau ama jeshi kama wanaume wengine.
I was a bright student by my village standards in the early 2000’s and thus got a genuine placement at a National Sch. wacha those guys who say they went to a national school ukimuuliza mwaka gani anasema alikuwa amepeleka uncle yake mwenye huwa anawauzia kuni na mboga through tender. It literally took them half a day to be in that School while offloading stuff
The Same cannot be said 4 yrs later after you’ve encountered ile makali ya sachet - chura, some weed, porn magazines and nyap from faceless girls during symposiums and national drama festivals and listening to a Paleto or dozing off during preps etal. I think we just turned out fine btw. Hio life ni kama ya drill school.
After clearing school I dont know what befalls our parents, hapo ndio unaskianga buda akipiga masimu every so often coincidentally ukiwa unangoja chakula iive,
‘Hello, hello - Ile ngombe ya Guernsey ulisema utaniuzia pesa ngapi mwisho?
Ati lazima nikuwe na kijana wa kazi?
Niko na ngombe ingine hapa ilimaliza shule itafanya hizo kazi zote? Wacha ajue maisha huku nje sio mchezo. kama alienda kucheza shule basi atakuwa ready for life nampa needed experience!’
Your heart sinks to your feet and all you can do is swallow an Adams Mango for you have nothing to say or do.
So it happened that during one of those days of desperation in Nov/Dec when everyone has gone back to normalcy that mathe came and told me that she had gotten a job for me at a neighbours place who wanted to build a house.
The neighbour was a mzee called Wangasha who had made some money from selling mitumba bales in town with the proceeds going into - you got it- Real Estate Development in small scale. That is a 2 bedroom house with a veranda.
My heart soared into the sky. Haki Mungu huskia maombi, ile thaara nilikuwa nimebeba na wheelbarrow kutoka zile ngambo za mto hadi home cost me a days work with only sugarcane belch stolen huko chini kianda to show for it. Mbuyu alikuwa ameamua nitatii…
I jumped at the opportunity and was ready to report to work which i would actually get paid for the next day.
Kufunga macho na kufungua, the next day I was at Wangashas site very early in the morn nisipate kazi imepeanwa.
We were a handful, about 5 of us and Wangasha was already on site with a foreman marking the ground with white wash.
The foreman then approached us and told us that we were to dig trenches 3 feet deep and 1 foot wide for foundation along the marked areas following the makongo string they had placed. That was standard and what would determine good pay was the length of the trench…woiiii, its now turned into penitentiary exercises? Haidhuru, kukataa kazi ni kusota
Tukaonyeshwa matools, wengine wakakimbilia sululu, wengine hoes, etc. By 8am kila mtu alikuwa amebreak ground with talks of if you finish the project to kuwekelea mabati you will be a baller in this village and the next…What a promising perspective after working like a shamba boy in my own parents house.
Wacha tulime mitaro!
9am - kwani hakukuwa na mama wa uji kwa hii site? 10, 11am - akakuja, we only had 30min for a break and the chapati and uji was like half a glass of juice and a cup cake.
By 11:30 the best guy had done 5feet lengthwise by 1 by 3. That is enough soil to fill a pick up haki…smh. The sun was literally laughing down on us but tukaendelea.
The morale to make some money by end of day was evident from the team to a point one of the guys had a quick lunch arudi ndio aendelee na kulima sisi tukienjoy Niggeritis syndrome chini ya mti ilikuwa hapo karibu lying on a gunia. I even had the guts to call Mary a girl i had tupad ndoano on during my encounters nikitaftia Jane the Guernsey thaara huko chini saa hio nakula kanyasi like a Bauss… you don know. Date check.
By 5pm, we were ready to clean the tools and get paid. But my hand & leg muscles could not stop shaking and twitching. I thought ni excitement ya pesa ile inakuja.
Foreman alikuja, kila mtu anaambiwa asimame kwa demarcation yake mfanye hesabu na fiti kamba. I had done a clean 15ft lengthwise by 150Kes per foot. Ndovu mbili kwa mbosho pap. Hio ya juu ilikuwa ya mama wa chakula site.
Tukafunga kazi and agreed to meet next day so as to straighten the sides with a spade and plan on when to start as KYMs juu material zitamwagwa kesho. I had a date with Mary who lives with the aunt thus we had a transfer window of upto 7pm kabla arudi. it was already 5;45 and a man with money has to take a shower and smell like money… Wacha niingie bafu, maji baridi…kuinua mkono juu…it stuck there, the muscle cramp was a revised edition of anything i had ever encountered, as i was trying to turn my neck ingine ikashika shingo… saa hio nimejaa sabuni ya kipande kwa macho hata sioni…statue.
It took me a good 15min to have a sub standard bath because every time the muscle cramp came, i had to give it 3 min itulie, yaani hii pesa ni ya uchungu hivyo…i guess a tear dropped in the basin but i was bathing so i also didn’t know if i was crying in the ‘shower’. Fasta fasta kumaliza nikachomoka and ran all the way to Mary’s. It was a 15min run. on the way at the shopping center i had bought her a PET soda, airtime ya 100 and a pretty handkerchief as a gift.
Kufika kwao the girl was more than happy to see me, akanipea chai, kidogo kidogo nikaona ameniletea ndazi am sure she had bought at Gitongas hotel…I felt like a king. Tukabonga kidogo nikamshow niaje akam karibu juu giza imeanza kuingia and i cant see her well…:D:D:D:D:D
The good lady obliged.
Shida ni, nilienda kumhug ndio nianze journey to Canaan kabla transfer window ifungwe, wacha muscle cramp zianze tena, nikienda kumshika, mkono inakataa, this time hadi za miguu, na jaw- yes it was that bad. The girl thought i was acting foolish saying am stuck in a silly awkward position after every few minutes. She gave up and said that i had to leave because the Aunt would be back anytime soon. I guess she thought i was making fun of an epileptic in slow motion
Nilijikokota hadi nyumbani with my brain almost getting a muscle cramp from all the thoughts i would have exercised and the missed opportunities. Na Imagine sijakamua. Oh shiiett…hii kazi kesho wacha ikae. Nitaskuma na hii 1200 hadi ile siku Mungu atasema ‘Its ok my child, you have not laboured and toiled in vain’.
It took me 6 days of applying Rob and maji warm intermittent with bad looks from Mathe for letting her down and runs sometimes as far as 3km looking for napier grass to get back to factory settings - muscle wise. Mary went back i guess to Nai where everyone who dissappears goes to and i still blame Wangasha for not only exploiting young mens energy but also making me loose a good lay due to muscle cramps.
Nowonder mafundi na watu wa mjengo hukulana Sato. Huwezi lima mtaro ama koroga aka chini ya mnazi na bado uhangaishe bibi
Respect to those guys who do mjengo as a career. I mean It
