Don’t mind about grammar and typos.
My friend Karis hired boys to pick the fruits and putting them in sacks. He spent like seventy five thousand and was left with thate five thousand. Nikatafute means ya transport and the owner of the canter agreed to charge us 25 thousand after long hours of negotiations. Plus to pay the driver three thousand meaning he was left with like seven thousand. That is day one
On the second day that is me and driver from Zimmermann up to Embu. We get to the village and karis spends another two thousand to pay some guys to load the sacks. From our village to Embu town is like 12kms. About a distance of six kms there was a very heavy downpour. The place was muddy and the canter could not move. It got stuck and we had to call some guys to help pull the lorry out of the ditch.
After like three hours of heavy rains, tiresomely hungry, the night knocked. Two thousand shillings went kaput and we went to spend the night at Embu. Super plus lodging made us spend something like two thousand. Karis had some few notes on him by then.
There were no worries as we had a millionaire in wait over the next short hours.
Day three we took off and joined Embu Thika road towards Nyairofi. On reaching Mwea we took breakfast and continued with our trip. At makutano junction some cops there ate one thousand. Meant for our lunch but haisuru. We had gold apples with us even pangs of hungers were felt hukooooooooooooo Rongai.
Karis kept telling me, “Reke ngwire buratha, njohi ukunyua withambie nayo”(Let me tell you bro, I’ll buy you beer until you shower with it)
All I could say is"mmmhh"(I could even feel guilty of leaving him at ushago but again I had helped him instead)
He could then see those bill boards advertising plots at Thika rd and say, “mwanake, hapa nitakuja kununua buroti next week na nijenge nikuache kwa bedsitter Zimmerman.”(this was very painful especially if I remember how some loans were sitting on me)
We get at weigh bridge at Ruiru and we are fined three thousand for not balancing the load. I had five k by then and I payed. Karis will refund with another five thousand on top after we get to the market. That is about 3pm now in the afternoon. But you see jam ya Thika rd was hectic that period muchina was tarmarking. Tulifika Githurai market by five in the evening and we could not get a place to park and sell our avocados.
We decided to leave the lorry and come back in the morning and secure space before everyone else. We then left to drown some dogogio then sleep.
Day four by five in the morning we were at the soko opening our treasure. After thirty minutes no one talked to us but we could see guys coming and buying passing by with wheelbarrows carrying avocados others with crates. We looked at each other wondering how? something was a miss.
One chokosh combed(akatuchanua) us that there are brokers with stores who we can contact. They like farmers like us and buy in large stocks. even if it was a whole truck like that of mwarabu wa @Meria Mata. I only had five hundred shillings and karis had nothing in the pocket. I paid the chokosh two hundred for showing us a tape(mukwa or mucoro). You get what I mean.
The boy even showed us the brokers and one guy size of @kush yule mnono came by. He asked us our prices and we negotiated until 8am in the morning. Kanjo had already come and I payed four hundred shillings packing and entry fee for karis. We had like 200 sacks and selling each at five thousand, that was a clean one meter. we settled at 900,000/=.
The guy came with his men of work to inspect the load and count the sacks before we seal the deal. Five of them jumped in the lorry and looked at us with that look ok, “Kai mwina ngoma?” (Are you mad). They all in unison shook their heads left right without talking to us.
I heard that boss ask one guy,“karii kii mani”)what is it?
One answered, “Icio ngoma ciarehe makorofea meeru tutware Ku?. Angikorwo macio meiguru nimaramondoka macio me rungu mahana atia?”(these Saitan have brought ripe avocados, if those at the top are ripe, what about those at the bottom?)
The boss shouted at us “Ngite Ici na mutire na mitwe miega, Maya ona mungiacokia gishagi mukahe ngui cianyu” (You dogs you have bad heads, it’s better you take your avocados back in the village and give your dogs) and he left.
Karis was literally crying by then, the driver of the lorry was twice shocked as karis. I was mouth agape.
Some women selling pineapples next to us gave us that look you know,(karii kii mwetereire_what are you wait for). At the corner of my eyes it’s like they were telling me, “Umira kumira, naiyu naiyu!”(chomoka kuchomoka mbio mbio) before kanjo wawapate. But again here is karis. Atleast driver hatujuani I can leave.
Wat about the load in the lorry, the driver called us kando, he told us we can offload the sacks and sell them to the wheelbarrow guys at cheaper prices. At least by noon we could have sold some ripe ones and return “our” money. What a sharp guy he was? A very bright idea.
I Even gave him Hi five. I saw some hope on Kari’s eyes. Again we had no cash to pay offloaders. OK, wait. My rationship with safaricom was perfect. I could afford a small loan of like 5k from mshwari. I kopad and we payed our guys. Then the lorry left.
We called some wheelbarrow guys and started our small small deals. Again, what type of avocados, the grafted ones. Hehe. Some guys refused to buy and said pple of nyairofi like the kienyeji ones. Those sell faster than the grafted ones.
I was terribly shocked. Hey. Karis. What do we do? It was now approaching noon and we hadn’t sold any. 2pm, 3pm and now five o’clock hours. We were sleeping on top of gunias burning from the Eve’s scorching sun rays. Karis was literally snoring. I went near the women selling pineapples and asked one, “wapi hapa naweza enda choo?”
She pointed at me, "Enda pale ukipiga ile Kona utaona choo ni shilingi kumi tu.?
And that is how nilijitoa kwa game. Kila mtu afe kwa msalaba wake, Design kalonzo ameacha baba juzi tu time ya swearing. Thirty minutes later karis finds me at Zimmerman in our favorite joint. We burst in laughter and get ourselves drunk till midnight.
Karis akamea mizizi Nairobi. How could he go back home? ataambia wazazi namna gan my frens? I ended up hiring him at zero pay kuuza gas till I went broke. How their parents payed the loan sijui. It’s like hiyo pesa ya SACCO ilikuwa na nuksi. Ama ni Karis. Ama ni Saitan. Who should we blame?.
Moral: Don’t get in a bizz you know not about. Enjoy your Valentine.
Yours truly,
C.B.C (Chief Business Consultant)
@Captain284