by Aluta Nite
Pay Week
In the city in the sun, pay week was something to behold. It started on about the twenty-fourth day of each month and stretched to the last day of the month. Private firms, especially the financial sector, paid their staff earliest while public service workers were paid last.
Wages going directly to the banks were also dispatched earlier because banks needed time to process bulk payrolls from various employers in time for their employees to crowd their counters asking for their pay. To designated staff, wages were paid directly in cash by employers.
There was a cut-off point, depending on the nature or type of work one did, that determined whether one’s pay went to the bank or was paid in cash at work.
Meanwhile, banks had already paid their staff so that they could freely serve clients during pay week, without resentment born of handing to others what they had not received. As the saying goes, ‘a hungry man is an angry man’, not to mention the fact that without proper service to their clients, they would have no jobs.
Wages were paid just once a month, therefore, every employee looked forward to this auspicious occasion. Budgets were drawn and plans were made for that once-a-month week of jubilation. A visitor or stranger to the city did not have to be told what was going on because the city changed visibly during that week. Just by observation one could guess what time of the month it was.
The streets were full of people from all walks of life. In some places, it was nearly impossible to move from one place to another due to congestion. One was knocked, pushed and slowed down by the sheer numbers of people going to pick up or spend their wages. Nonetheless, people were cheerful; smiles galore and loud laughter everywhere, all because pockets were lined with pay.
Lines at the banks stretched into the streets, as every account holder wanted something from their otherwise dormant accounts.
During pay week workers chatted with excitement at work because they had eaten and shopped to their hearts’ content and still had money in their pockets for the next few days. Lunch durations at work extended a little longer than usual, because some people carpooled and went to distant locations to sample or enjoy gourmet meals at plush eateries.
Others who usually ate air-buggers on the lawns of their work premises or at public parks could afford transportation back home to eat lunches with their families before traveling back to work. Sometimes people went overboard with alcohol at lunch and returned to work reeking or even seeing double. Some even forgot to go back to work and ended up losing their jobs when they returned. Others, however, were valuable workers, and were, therefore, only given a warning.
The unemployed also wore more hopeful faces because their working friends and relatives had temporarily struck it rich, and they would likely share in the bounty through generous hand-outs. Suddenly they too could shop or make merry one way or another. Alternatively they might enter a bar or restaurant and meet an acquaintance who would lavish them with alcohol or food, though they had gone in just to sip a soda. It was a win-win situation for almost everybody.
Coffee houses and restaurants were full to capacity, while many waited in line to replace those leaving after having had their special orders and dream meals. Eateries did booming business during pay week.
Public transportation was a mess because those who typically walked to and from home could now afford to ride in mini-buses. The roads were chaotic because vehicles that had not been running for three weeks prior, were now back on the roads. Therefore, as one might expect, gas stations experienced a boost in business.
Super markets overflowed with shoppers filling their trolleys and baskets. Even those who rarely shopped came in to pick up a few things. Meat markets in particular were teeming with people buying chicken, meat or fish, which they could only afford during pay week.
Other retail items such as clothing and shoes were also hotly sought after. Shopkeepers closed later than usual in the evenings, and some never even closed for lunch because demand had shot up. Others even opened on Sundays when they otherwise did not. Lay-away business, especially, was booming during pay week.
Bars and nightspots were certainly not left behind as patrons filled the premises for their peak-of-the-month entertainment. Many got drunk and stayed drunk for days, or lost their money to gambling, prostitutes, con-men or overspending on others’ drinks. Sometimes people over-indulged and forgot to go home, pay their monthly bills, leave shopping money for their families or pay their children’s tuition.
In addition, thieves did brisk business. As the buses overflowed, pickpockets took advantage of unsuspecting passengers in the confusion of pushing to get in, out, or while standing, leaning or making way in buses.
Wallets from men’s inside jacket pockets and back trouser pockets were often targeted. In the streets too, thieves sliced ladies’ handbags and men’s back trouser pockets with sharp objects, snatched purses and valuables and then seemed to disappear into thin air at unbelievable speed.
Moreover, beggars were not left behind. They were more persistent because they knew people felt happier and richer during pay week. They were therefore more likely to show mercy and drop something in their bowls, as they passed the beggars’ designated work spaces on street corners or elsewhere.
Unfortunately, the bustle and highs were transitory because within days, everything returned to the mundane. Faces grew long again, streets emptied, business slowed down, air-buggers became common, buses had more leg room, some cars stopped running, bicycles increased on roads and walking resumed for many. Some sullen faces were rude to each other at work and even to clients. Couples quarrelled and families were on edge.
This pay-week-related cycle repeated year round. During major holidays like Christmas, the highs were celestial, only to leave people more broke and lower in spirits than ever, for far longer than the holiday season had lasted.
Poor Old Gram
Old man Gram was a father to four sons and five daughters and a grandfather to many. He gave them all a formal education except his second-born and first daughter, Asaka. When she was born, most girls in their community were never enrolled in school.
They were married off at a young age to men of their fathers’ choice, soon after female genital mutilation had been performed before or at the onset of puberty. They were not supposed to fall in love or date someone of their choice, as (dis)liking the men they married, was immaterial.
Their duty as women was to get married, give birth to several children, take care of the children, do house chores and tend subsistence farms. That was the extent of their contribution to the family’s well-being, and that became Asaka’s life.
Gram’s four younger daughters were fortunate enough to have gone to school, because changes had slowly began to take place by the time they were old enough to go to school. The formal education they got gave them financial independence, as they got jobs and earned wages to support themselves and their families, thus supplementing their husbands’ incomes.
One of Gram’s daughters, however, who had the chance to go to school, chose to drop out at the end of middle school rather than continue to high school. She also chose not to have any formal training or employment, but stayed at home to raise her many children.
Gram was a very hard working man who farmed year in, year out both for subsistence and commercial purposes.
He grew corn, lentils, cassava and Bambara nuts for home consumption and sold cashew nuts, palm fronds and cotton-like material from big trees around his house. He also owned and ran a small retail shop where he sold basic household items like sugar, salt, matches, cooking oil, beans, lentils, rice, flour, et cetera.
Initially he lived in his father’s old house when the children were growing up. However, as the burden of tuition became lighter and he sold some land, he could afford to put up a large residence to house all his children and grandchildren, whenever there was a fa
mily gathering.
Then disaster struck suddenly! Gram was involved in a road accident while crossing the road. He broke one leg and injured the other leg and both arms and was hospitalized for a few months. He was in his eighties, therefore his bones were delicate and his recovery slow.
The accident left him weak and unable to do the things he used to do happily and with ease. He was given a walker to help him start taking a few steps at home and he made progress walking up to the veranda and back inside the house.
However, his wife’s attitude towards him became vile as his medical needs grew and he noticed this change in her. She showed him less support at this crucial time, when he needed her most and their children followed suit due to her negative influence. His wife complained about him every day to whoever went to see him, regardless of the fact that he could hear all that she said.
She denied him the small pleasures that he enjoyed like some soda, oranges, a little money and the like. The children were swayed by their mother whenever they visited and consequently stayed away from him after briefly exchanging pleasantries. He often realized too late that they had left, which prevented him from having meaningful conversations with them. This dampened Gram’s spirits significantly and he eventually gave up on life, becoming more or less bedridden.
Asaka who lived with her parents and Gram’s third son, Halim, who was the only child that resided in the city, were the only two children that remained close to their father. The others basically deserted him and secretly gave their mother whatever money they could, thus leaving their father out.
Despite living in the same house, Asaka had little to no money to give him, because she was divorced and shouldered the heavy burden of caring for her five children and paying their tuition. She peddled cooked food to make a living.
Halim was too far away in the city to attend to his father as much as he wanted to. When he found out about his father being alienated, however, he sent some money to his father through a confidant. His father kept the money under his pillow and used it to send for soda or oranges whenever possible through trusted friends.
Nevertheless, the old man succumbed to loneliness, refusing to speak or eat. He could not believe that the family he had nurtured was treating him like dirt. He became weak and unable to get up at all. One of his relatives who was a medic, recommended that a protein drink, be fed to him via a tube and this continued indefinitely. As Gram’s condition deteriorated, male relatives spent nights in his room to watch him closely.
On the night he died, two of his sons, the second oldest and youngest, both of who did not care much for him, were supposed to be with him but never came. He was therefore found dead in the morning alone. Nobody knew exactly what happened before he died, what he said, did or what time he died.
Gram’s treacherous wife did not live long enough to enjoy the fruits of her children’s labour either. Soon after his death, she became very sick with chest congestion, which she had suffered from for many years, and passed away sooner than expected.
Class Minded
MS. Dun was born during colonial days, when the British governed her country. Some apartheid existed, given that the white ruling class lived separate from the local people. South Asians, who ran most businesses, also lived separately. The same applied to schools, from pre-school to high school, and to educational curricula.
The ruling class never commuted on public transportation because they had private means. In addition, South Asians also rarely took public transportation. They also had their own schools and private school buses, though they shared the curricula of local people’s schools.
MS. Dun was born into a lower middle income family and was the first child in a family of three girls and five boys. The family lived in a four-roomed house with bathroom and laundry amenities outside the house, for communal use. Both her parents were employed six days a week to support their large family and all their children went to school.
By the time Ms Dun was finishing middle school; a few local people had started sending their children to the white and Asian schools, which had, therefore, slowly started becoming multiracial.
MS. Dun parents were among them, and so she attended a predominantly white high school and that changed her overnight. She acquired an accent and even her way of walking changed. She developed airs to the extent that she would not associate with or speak to unsophisticated or less Westernized people.
Even her diet changed. She would not eat local traditional meals or the plain food she had been used to. She now asked for omelettes, sausages and toast for breakfast, which was not the tea and bread she was brought up on.
It was very difficult for MS. Dun’s parents, given their large family, to pay the exorbitant tuition at a white boarding school, and provide different meals for her. It became a battle with her parents as she insisted, at home, on eating the diet she was provided at school.
Her mother regretted sending her to the school in the first place. She became spoilt and unruly, making new friends with children from high income families and dropping her old friends. The worst had yet to come, however.
Her parents wanted to remove her from the school, at the end of the first year, so she would continue her education at a locals’ high school, but she would not have it. She gave them an ultimatum of dropping out of school, if she was transferred elsewhere. She therefore remained at that school until she finished high school, after which her exclusive association with people of higher incomes continued.
Many young people from high income families were born into ready-made wealth acquired by their parents or grandparents, did not have to work hard and often did not work hard. MS. Dun followed suit, forgetting her background which required her to work hard and help support herself and her siblings.
She instead partied, enjoyed movies and was introduced to alcohol. In the process, she got involved with a much older wealthy man, a sugar daddy, and before she realized it, she was expecting his child. She became a fully-fledged mistress, had a total of three children over the years, and lived in an upscale home with twenty-four-hour security guards, a cook, baby sitter, chauffeur and other luxuries. A few friends told her she was breaking up another woman’s marriage, but she denied it because he denied that that was happening and she believed him.
His first wife, the mother of his five children, lived at the family farm miles away from the city. The man would lie to her often that he was out of town working, though he dropped in at the farm to see them sometimes during his “business trips”.
Before long, he met an even younger woman, and began to cohabit with his new find in another leafy area in the city. MS. Dun now had the wealth she desired around her, but not Mister. Right. She was now on the back-burner enduring lies about his whereabouts, just like his first wife.
She would not take the type of life where she was second to somebody else, like his first wife became because of her. She became quarrelsome and fought with him every time he came around, because she demanded to be his top priority that was not possible at that juncture. She had cuts, bruises and swellings on her body most of the time, because of their violent encounters.
He continued to visit her in order to see his children and provide for them. Out of uncontrolled rage, she packed her things, took the children and moved out to try a new life on her own, without a job.
This life turned out to be prostitution. Every Tom, Dick and Harry became bait because she wanted money. Her children grew up influenced by her atrocious example, which was made worse by the fact that their father did not refuse to provide for them.
However, when she moved out of his house, he refused to take responsibility for them all.
The children suffered the loss of their father in their lives immensely. MS. Dun’s house was small and ill-equipped. Food was not plentiful because sometimes earnings were meagre.
When the children were
old enough to figure things out for themselves, they found out where their father worked and started going to see him for additional support, while still living with their mother. However, they could not move in with him because of the other mistress and her children. When MS. Dun found out, she did not mind the help they received from their father, because she had come to realize that the financial burden was greater than she initially thought.
And that was the life of MS. Dun. From humble past to even more humble future due to her conceited and self-centred ways.
Giving Up, the Biggest Mistake
Edo was born into a low income family of many children. His father toiled in the city doing menial jobs to scrape a living, in order to educate his many children in the city. His mother lived in the countryside, managing a subsistence farm and sending the bulk of the produce to the city to help her husband feed their children.
Edo was the first child of Nash and Rita. He was not very bright in school, but he went to school religiously and his siblings, both girls and boys followed suit. Edo came from a family of humble, soft-spoken and well-behaved children.
He finished middle school and went to an unaccredited private secondary school, then graduated and had a break before his father sent him to an unaccredited private college, to study bookkeeping for two years. Meanwhile some of his sisters finished middle school and got married.
Edo’s father was aging and getting weary of city life, with its trademark ‘hard work for low pay’. He therefore decided that after his children had gotten a sufficient level of education, he would go back to the countryside to live with his wife off the land. His children remained in the city etching out a living the best way they could.
