This child’s piercing scream threatens to rip my eardrums to shreds. Most of the passengers in this kombi turned their heads to face the back, where this toddler was engaged in a verbal war with her mother.
“Ndirikuda maJiggies (I want Jiggies),” she yelled!
The mother pinned the child to the seat and said in a threatening manner, “I used up the last of my money on offering! Tabvisa ka2 nhasi! Ndokutengera tavekumba(We gave offering twice today, I will buy you what you want when we get home!)
This caught my attention plus I was bored, I turned around to really assess the situation. Let Me Explain!
I studied the mother, a woman in her early 30s although her face looked a bit older. I can always tell how old they are, it’s a gift I am not proud of! Her fingernails exposed her role in her family, the housewife. The length of the nails and the sate of nail polish is always a good clue. Her nails were short, the nail polish present in form of patchy remnants of a ruby red shade that looked as a the child was. If her husband could not manage to make sure his wife’s nails were in good condition, he was obviously a terrible drunk or a serial cheater. Or maybe he was just plain broke.
The child tried to get her request head for the last time but eneded up stepping on an old man sting beside the mother. The old man swore silently, and the kid immediately calmed down. The old mad dusted off the $2 shoe footprint from his jacket. These goddamn Chinese and these cheap ass shoes. I loathed them. The mother fumbled through her bag obviously looking for her kombi fare. A clink of coins and the hand emerged tightly bunched up and as it opened up I saw five brown coin pieces. We are all evidently broke. As she finished counting her money, she stared up.
Our eyes locked as she searched for something in mine, I then realized that she just wanted me to stop staring. I turned and faced the front feeling all weird for being so weird. But all that I’m that I was staring at her my mind was working overtime. How does a ‘Man of God’ strip such a person of their hard earned money. All for bullshit prophecies and the promise of getting into a place the prophet is not even sure exists. How does one ask for two different offerings? Is it a church or a business? Now the poor child cannot even chew on something because her mother’s money went towards filling the prophet’s fuel guzzler.
Fuck the prophets! Thieving from the poor and not doing much in return. Money thirst vampires claiming to be servants of the people. Can they be good servants now and bring a packet of Jiggies just to shut this kid up! Just a bunch of liars and fraudsters. You-know-who recently got his brother beaten up because the truth on his fake miracles getting out was just too much for him. The other one has my national football team by the balls. The other is being asked to refund a couple. Another is on self imposed exile after duping quite a few. Damn these guys.
Just as we pulled out of the rank I noticed that the public toilet’s wall was covered in posters featuring a very smartly dressed white man. Another prophet/pastor coming!
Prophesy Papa, prophesy!
