The ghost of a flea
A few months ago I was heading home on the back of a motorbike at around 3am after a heady night of drinking. As we cruised down the Nyarutarama road and I tried hard to stay awake, the guy started talking.
"This is a tough job you know" He said to me and then said something else I couldn't quite catch.
I made a 'hmm?' sound wondering why he thought that crusing down the road at 80 km an hour in the cold with both of us wearing helmets was the perfect forum for any kind of discussion.
"I said sometimes I get really sleepy" He said.
Lightbulbs (the energy efficient ones) started going off in my head and I sobered up a little. What did he just say?
"You know you are on the bike for so many hours that eventually you just start dozing" He carried on. It was a bit like hearing a pilot cheerfully inform you that he didn't quite trust the radar in his plane because it occasionally went haywire and he usually just made the landing using his wits.
"You aren't going to fall asleep now are you?" I asked partly in alarm and partly because I was genuinely curious to hear his answer to this question.
"Oh no, if I'm taking someone home I can usually stay awake" He said "It's usually when I'm on the job looking for people to take home that I start falling asleep you know?"
No actually I didn't, but in a few seconds I sank back into my drunken bliss. The guy's somewhat depressed tone throughout the conversation had reminded me of someone but I couldn't quite place it. It was only a few days later that it hit me.
He reminded me of Marvin the paranoid android.
*****
One of the reasons I love Kigali so much-aside from the fact that I consider myself a patriot- is all the little ironies and charming gags that come at you on any random day. A fortnight ago, I was leaving the expo with my brother when he pointed at an oil tanker and started laughing. There was a heavy traffic jam and the cars were barely moving an inch every five minutes. In the midst of this chaos was a gigantic oil tanker. The driver was leaning out of his window and he was doing the only rational thing you could do if you were transporting a ridiculous amount of fuel- he was smoking a cigarette.
And a mere two days later as I was heading to work, a large truck painfully made its way up the road to Sonatubes. It was belching a thick black cloud of smoke that made it difficult to see, much less breathe. Scrawled on its side were the reassuring words: KIGALI HEALTH AND SAFETY
"This is a tough job you know" He said to me and then said something else I couldn't quite catch.
I made a 'hmm?' sound wondering why he thought that crusing down the road at 80 km an hour in the cold with both of us wearing helmets was the perfect forum for any kind of discussion.
"I said sometimes I get really sleepy" He said.
Lightbulbs (the energy efficient ones) started going off in my head and I sobered up a little. What did he just say?
"You know you are on the bike for so many hours that eventually you just start dozing" He carried on. It was a bit like hearing a pilot cheerfully inform you that he didn't quite trust the radar in his plane because it occasionally went haywire and he usually just made the landing using his wits.
"You aren't going to fall asleep now are you?" I asked partly in alarm and partly because I was genuinely curious to hear his answer to this question.
"Oh no, if I'm taking someone home I can usually stay awake" He said "It's usually when I'm on the job looking for people to take home that I start falling asleep you know?"
No actually I didn't, but in a few seconds I sank back into my drunken bliss. The guy's somewhat depressed tone throughout the conversation had reminded me of someone but I couldn't quite place it. It was only a few days later that it hit me.
He reminded me of Marvin the paranoid android.
*****
One of the reasons I love Kigali so much-aside from the fact that I consider myself a patriot- is all the little ironies and charming gags that come at you on any random day. A fortnight ago, I was leaving the expo with my brother when he pointed at an oil tanker and started laughing. There was a heavy traffic jam and the cars were barely moving an inch every five minutes. In the midst of this chaos was a gigantic oil tanker. The driver was leaning out of his window and he was doing the only rational thing you could do if you were transporting a ridiculous amount of fuel- he was smoking a cigarette.
And a mere two days later as I was heading to work, a large truck painfully made its way up the road to Sonatubes. It was belching a thick black cloud of smoke that made it difficult to see, much less breathe. Scrawled on its side were the reassuring words: KIGALI HEALTH AND SAFETY
posted by Minzo at 5:00 AM
1 Comments:
you're the best, i loved reading this
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