A glimpse of life 1

Drawing by  zerihun seyoum

There was a long line for taxi, ‘wow that is long’ I said to the woman last in the line. She didn’t care to talk; she looked at me and turned. More people came to line up behind me.

I was in line for a taxi from  Mexico to Bole. I keep looking at my watch every 3 minutes, the line was moving very slowly.

The people and incidents I encountered in my way from home to office, an hour, gave me a glimpse of life. 

A blue contract taxi slowly drove and stops side by side at the end of the line. I looked at the taxi, I looked at the line, I am far behind, I look at the people lining behind me, and in few minutes there were actually a lot of people. Thus, I thought, well the temptation is not just for me. I bet most of these people are also late for work and tired of lining up for just a taxi and want to fall for the temptation, the contract taxi. I thought of the money I had in my bag, what I am planning to do with it, how much the contract taxi will cost me, probably 100 Birr. I can bargain for 70 Birr. I also thought of what the people would think when I move out of the line to take the contract taxi. Would anyone come to join me, would anyone say let’s share the price and take the contract taxi. But no, they wouldn’t, they will only say, ‘yemanat kebet! (Spoiled brat J) I preferred not to be called that, even in people’s mind. No one else went for the contract taxi.

I looked at to the length of the line again, and the people behind me. An old beggar, with white beard on his chin and a green scarf rolled over his head is playing ‘Washient’, walking closely to the people in line. He stopped as people on line give him cents, and start playing again.  Beautiful sound of music!

Then another beggar came, a man in his 40’s, tilting from his back, he is wearing a grey short, with many patches sown on and a grey scarf over his shoulders. He looks sick. He is holding a white card, which seems like a hospital card.

A woman breaked a line behind me, “hum” no one reacted to that. She came up to the man behind me, calling out to him, Dr! they greet each other. As I often do in incidents as such, I start to listen to their conversation to shift off my mind from the line that moves like a turtle. They start talking about a man, who recently lost his son, Meningitis killed him. ‘Does Meningitis kill!!?’ the woman asks. ‘Even flu kills if it gets into you,’ the Dr. responded. '', I said, really? but not out loud.

They start talking about the father’s depression over his son’s death. The women kept saying, it is his wife, it is his wife that does this to him. The woman adds, ‘he is too religious, that is his problem, he even married her ‘beteklil,’ she lives in States.I started losing her.

Then the woman starts to talk about her divorce. “After my divorce, I always used to wake up at night crying, I cried a lot. It is because I was so attached to my children, before my divorce I always used to sleep with my daughters, I slept in the middle. ‘No wonder’…I thought.

She said that she called the man that lost his son and told him about her divorce experience, probably he is divorced too. He went to Europe, it is better if he goes to his wife, to States, they said. I thought of how all Ethiopian’s destiny became going to America.

There were two boys selling books on the side. As the people in line reach them, all the eyes fell on the books, reading the titles. A man asks, ‘how much is this book? I looked down, ‘The Power of Unconscious Mind.’

The boy responded ‘45 birr’,

‘Would you sell it for 40’

‘No’

‘Leave it then,’ said the man in line.

The boy turns to his friend, to continue the conversation he started before the man in line intervened. My attention shifted to them. They are talking about their home land, I learnt from their accent they are most probably from Gojam.

‘There is no road! There is no telephone…”

The other boy, continues, ‘there is no water, there is no light, there is no…”

His friend intervened, ‘what is wrong with you, you simply add on what I was saying,  there is light and water.”

They laughed, ‘the water we pour like this,’ they both moved their hand up and down, laughing loudly.

‘Have you heard, they now have started grade 9 and 10,’they continue their conversation.

The line moved, I got into the taxi and made sure the woman and the man I had been listening to are sitting behind me.

‘After 20 minutes we made it into the taxi,’ I said to the woman sitting beside me. I saw that she is pregnant, she didn’t lose it waiting in line like us, because she was allowed just to get in to the taxi.  I wished to be pregnant at that moment, I imagined myself, in a tight orange top, showing of my pregnant tummy just to cut in line.

I shift my attention to the people behind me, they talked about work, and business, tax…then they took out their wallets and showed each other their children’s picture.

The taxi stopped at ‘ShewaDabo’ turned off the engine, and the taxi boy went out calling ‘bole bole bole.’

Many passengers started to complain. I heard the woman behind me, making all murmuring sounds, ‘huff! Heche! Ti! Hai am late for work, can we please go.’

Drawing by  zerihun seyoum

In few minutes, people started to get into the taxi, there was no space, but there were more people getting in. A tall man with white hair only on the front of his head, black jacket and white shirt, gets into the taxi, there was no seat. The man had a big book and an Amharic Bible on his hand. ‘Looks like a pastor,’ I thought. The young man at the back seat leaves his seat for him, ‘I have been sitting for a while now, come here,’ he said. The young man sit on the spot, where mini buses usually sit extra passengers.

‘Oh nice of him,’ I thought.

I heard the woman sitting behind me, whom I have been giving much of my attention to, asking the man his phone number. To my surprise, she asks for his name too. ‘Wow she been talking about all these details of her life, her divorce to a man whose name she does not remember.

The man said ‘weraj ale,’ on his way out of the taxi she asks him loudly, ‘you have my number, right?’

‘I will look for it,’ he said and waved bye to her.

The woman keeps complaining about the extra passengers in taxi. The young man, who left his seat for the man that looks like a Pastor said, ‘it is good to help out each other, there was no taxi.’ The woman keeps complaining, and the young man said, ‘well you also break in the line, we didn’t say anything, because we thought it is okay, and now you are complaining.’ Oops! That remind me of how most of us, go to past incidents, which we did not deal with at the moment, just to back us up our present arguments. Hummm! Why didn’t he say so then if it bothered him when she broke in line? And if he thought it was okay, he shouldn’t have brought it up now. The woman tried to defend herself, shortly she was off the taxi.

I was looking down for something in my bag, when our taxi stops suddenly. Sitttittttt! It was about to crash with a silver Corolla, which was parking at the side.

As I look up, I saw I am almost at Bole,  ‘Weraj ale!’

As I walked into my office, I thought, wow that was just a glimpse of life-

In an hour, I was made to think of temptations; life and death; sickness and health; marriage and divorce; pregnancy and children; riches and poverty…much more!