nyem vivo

As I got down from the bus I knew exactly where I was headed. From afar I had already caught the glance of a vendor. From what his eyes were saying, I felt like he had already heard mine. Each step I took towards him broadened our smiles even more. Finally I am here. I took his hand, shaked it and I told him what I have been dying to say all day. 

Let me guide through what led me to this gay moment with the vendor. I just stepped into the first bus loading for the day at the park. My usual ritual before I board a bus is buying a vivo ear piece in the park if I don't have one already. I love traveling with blocked ears. Because alot of unnecessary conversations fly around in the bus during the voyage. I was unlucky this morning I failed to meet any vendor. So I expected the worse out of the travel.

Minutes into the travel I heard nothing but the roaring tyres of our bus. I decided to pray since the bus is quit enough for that. My sign of the cross was half way when someone in the mid section of the bus clamored "in Jesus name". 'There goes my silent travel' i thought. His prayer lasted as long as random bus prayers last, then came his sermon. Though his voice was quit loud I was ready to manage his sermon; it being the only constant sound disrupting my mind from the sound of our roaring tyres. But two students in bus decided to join the sound club. The almost everyday Twitter controversy on gender equality sparked their debate. So by now, it's the roaring tyres, the students bantering and the sermon that was joined together to give me this offbeat rhythm I feel now. The earpiece could have atleast broken the sound down to one. The sounds were off to me not just because it's disorganized. But because the other two sounds kept distracting me from the only true sound in the midst. The man's sermon sounded nothing short of a copy and paste. He made it seem that the words he brought to the bus came directly from his ear and never touched either his mind or heart. He often used the word "you will not understand " on topics he never really explained. I looked around in the bus and the faces of the people around said it all. From their looks you could hear " it's nothing new, it just another one of us desperately wanting to be heard than try to listen a little first". Hearing him speak made me reflect on how I go to church this days only to reminisce my childhood faith. When my believe were enough to cover up for my limited knowledge. My creed now is more about loyalty than belief. Sometimes I ponder the possibility of having same aligance for another religion if I were inducted from birth as well.

The students by now were conversing more than arguing. The female student was able to convince the male on how gender equality is inevitable for harmonious living in our world. I looked at the boy and smiled, he is just like myself. We open few books and all of a sudden we're eligible to argue on all topics. Boy/men who are miles away from there trial and tribulation era deciding on topics as sensitive as gender equality. Just because they can conjure sentences that sound smart.

At this point the driver decided to join the sound club as well. He tuned into a station on the radio, fela's song was playing at the time. 🎶"Zombie way na one way" 🎶 was serenading the bus at this point. That phrase from fela's song was almost like a summary of the entire event going in the bus. I don't play fela's song much but it was just the exact sound I needed at this point. It's just unfortunate that I am close to the next bus stop.

Our road echoes our destination. Getting close to my stop got me thinking on the sermon, the argument and the sound of the tyres. The sound of the tyres, the sound I loved most during the travel, was made by the man I wished to hear both his sermon and his argument on gender equality. I would love to hear a sermon from the driver, a man who left his house in the morning for work. In a country where petrol price rises before the sun. Perhaps it didn't matter to him, because with the current state of the nation, his vehicle probably runs on faith. Throughout most of the journey his eyes were fixated on the road, almost as if he was sure of what lied ahead of us. I would also love to  hear his opinion on the matter discussed between the two students. Him being a man who is aware of how it feels to wake up having a urge to run up and swipe a wallet. Him also being a man who knows that he just has to be caught stealing or come back home empty handed to be hanged. If it were him who delivered the sermon or anchored the argument, perhaps a different song, not "zombie way na one" could have come on when he turned the radio on.

The world gives way to people who are aware of were they are headed. "A part of Africa is dark because of humidity and the rest is dark because of the western shadow cast upon it". The truth is, I have alot to say on this bus. But why talk when everyon else would rather be heard than listen. I could lie that I felt bad when I stepped into a church and my mind said allhamdulilah. I could lie that our school system( if followed blindly) wouldn't  leave you teetering between enlightened and insanity at the end. I could lie that these systems we've copied and pasted into our country doesn't bring a divide, where members of each faction tag the others as outsiders. And I could say all that but I rather stay mute and enjoy the sound of the roaring tyres. Atleast it meant we were moving.  

And yes I told the vendor, NYEM VIVO!.