‘I am so broke I take tea on credit’
Jan 08, 2009
JANUARY is supposed to be almost as sweet as December, since it heralds a New Year when we are fresh and brimming with hope. Yes, we are also excited to have lived yet another year and we are making resolutions for the times ahead.
By Jacobs Odongo
JANUARY is supposed to be almost as sweet as December, since it heralds a New Year when we are fresh and brimming with hope. Yes,
we are also excited to have lived yet another year and we are making resolutions for the times ahead.
Yet, ironically, January is the most dreaded (and hated?) month. Do not ask me why. It nauseates me when I hear the cliché “I am broke†from every lip in town. I think even those who cannot write their names know not only how to say “I am broke†but also what it means.
I am talking about the post-festive season blues. My festive season started in early December with all those corporate parties that flowed like water till December 23.
If I were not a teetotaller, I would have consumed enough of the bitter stuff during this month to float a boat.
So, the boy in me went for the ‘Reverend’s’ drinks and who said sodas do not get you drunk? They caused me stomach problems because they were freebies, so I drank whatever brand came my way and not my usual Tangawizi.
The problem with all those parties was I went to bed in the morning yet I had to be up by 8:00am. Now I need to catch enough sleep yet I have to work.
The other day, I came to office and the ladies were telling me my eyes were so red they could pass for fireballs! See, I had gone to bed at 8:00am on January 1, after covering New Year’s Eve festivities in Kansanga!
If I were born in January, I would commit suicide. This bad month is making me a debtor on all fronts. Even the tea lady is in my debt diary because I have been eating her samosas on credit.
I have a bunch of friends who are fast becoming enemies because they no longer take my calls, knowing I am going to rant about my brokenness and ask them to pay back what they owe me.
My worst blues this January is being broke. Those who owe me petty amounts are now behaving like doctors who, even when they know you have seconds to live, will reassure you that you are going to make it! I am tired of their stories; if only they knew I had enough spell-binding fiction novels to drown in.
But I have no right to rant on and on about the little amounts people owe me for I am indebted at all corners of the workplace.
I even fear to walk with my head held up; the guilt of debt is biting hard. Counsellors have been telling me not to feel guilty, but how do I when I am at people’s mercy?
And, to think that most of these problems are the result of change hurts me even more. In the past, I used not to spend on Christmas; mom did everything; I was a boy. Now I am a man, who not only has to spend on myself, but also on the daughters of Eve.
Problem is they do not give a damn that it is the dreaded January we are trying to wade through; she wants airtime; she wants to redo her hair, mbu, the other was for Christmas only and now she needs another style.
I think the remedy is a breakup now; reconciliation later, around Valentine’s Day.
JANUARY is supposed to be almost as sweet as December, since it heralds a New Year when we are fresh and brimming with hope. Yes,
we are also excited to have lived yet another year and we are making resolutions for the times ahead.
Yet, ironically, January is the most dreaded (and hated?) month. Do not ask me why. It nauseates me when I hear the cliché “I am broke†from every lip in town. I think even those who cannot write their names know not only how to say “I am broke†but also what it means.
I am talking about the post-festive season blues. My festive season started in early December with all those corporate parties that flowed like water till December 23.
If I were not a teetotaller, I would have consumed enough of the bitter stuff during this month to float a boat.
So, the boy in me went for the ‘Reverend’s’ drinks and who said sodas do not get you drunk? They caused me stomach problems because they were freebies, so I drank whatever brand came my way and not my usual Tangawizi.
The problem with all those parties was I went to bed in the morning yet I had to be up by 8:00am. Now I need to catch enough sleep yet I have to work.
The other day, I came to office and the ladies were telling me my eyes were so red they could pass for fireballs! See, I had gone to bed at 8:00am on January 1, after covering New Year’s Eve festivities in Kansanga!
If I were born in January, I would commit suicide. This bad month is making me a debtor on all fronts. Even the tea lady is in my debt diary because I have been eating her samosas on credit.
I have a bunch of friends who are fast becoming enemies because they no longer take my calls, knowing I am going to rant about my brokenness and ask them to pay back what they owe me.
My worst blues this January is being broke. Those who owe me petty amounts are now behaving like doctors who, even when they know you have seconds to live, will reassure you that you are going to make it! I am tired of their stories; if only they knew I had enough spell-binding fiction novels to drown in.
But I have no right to rant on and on about the little amounts people owe me for I am indebted at all corners of the workplace.
I even fear to walk with my head held up; the guilt of debt is biting hard. Counsellors have been telling me not to feel guilty, but how do I when I am at people’s mercy?
And, to think that most of these problems are the result of change hurts me even more. In the past, I used not to spend on Christmas; mom did everything; I was a boy. Now I am a man, who not only has to spend on myself, but also on the daughters of Eve.
Problem is they do not give a damn that it is the dreaded January we are trying to wade through; she wants airtime; she wants to redo her hair, mbu, the other was for Christmas only and now she needs another style.
I think the remedy is a breakup now; reconciliation later, around Valentine’s Day.