Taking it day by day

I am checking out job offers za public service. I am shocked to see ati they are looking for senior hr accountants na salary scale stated there is KSh19,665 - 26,280KSh p.m!!!! Tena they want pple with bachelor's degrees in social sciences.

It even gets worse; Land officer III - candidates must posses a Bachelor’s degree in Land Economics, Law, Geography, Economics, Agricultural Economics or in any other related field. Salary scale KSh.11,445 - KSh.15,600 p.m

Now I am just left wondering. After 4 years of chopping hard at some university you go home and get a jobo ya kupay 12,000Ksh??????????? Isn't that sickening? What would you do with 12K a month?

If you are to live/work in Nai for example, and you are living alone you will need to pay rent, pay bills, commute to work, feed and cloth yourself, get some medication whenever you get sick, if you are a woman you will have expenses extra kila mwezi. Given that you are lucky to find a bedsitter in an ok area you pay say 5,000Ksh kila mwezi. Then you need to commute 5 times a week, twice a day just to go to work (exclude going to visit relas/buddies on the other side of town) - say you need 40bob daily, 200bob weekly, 800/month....lets just round it off to 1000 bob coz it rained and fares hit the roof. Sasa half of your salo is gone :-(

Then you have bills....ya maji, ya stima ya mobile (if you have one and I can say, almost kila mtu has one) and you have to shop for stuff like sabuni, deo, sanitary stuff, omo, kimbo, majani, sukari, roiko and the rest. To make matters worse you got malaria last week coz ulidonwa na mosquitos - pesa illisha kabla ununue mosquito net. So you have to go to the dispensary around the corner coz Dr Moshesh ako na dawa poa at prices sawa. To make matters worse your mum in shags is ill and needs money to buy dawa. You have a small brother in college and he is about to get chucked coz fees iko pending.

By now ujue hiyo 12,000Kshs iliisha kitambo and it is only the 15th of the month. How does one survive the next 15 days? How are you supposed to go to work and concentrate on your shyt without thinking of ways to kindly ask someone for some money so that you can pay mama mboga ile pesa ya cabbage na kitunguu ya last week? How do you feel when you hear how your boss is making plans za businesslunch somewhere alafu you see him coming back from lunch at 3pm with a toothpick sticking at the corner of your mouth- all you had for lunch was an airburger washed down with some of that sweet tasting tapwater!? How do you tell your buddies no, no, no, no, everytime they ask you to hook up with them at some joint for some mbuzi choma? How do you feel when you look at your wardrobe and just see clad za 1920? Coz the last time you bought yourself clothes was in......hmmm can't even remember? Na magola zenye unavaa? They are even tired of your feet!

This is when you are so weak and vulnerable that you start contemplating suicide....or when that old guy with a jalopy looks like prince charming every time he smiles at you. That is when he offers to take you out for some drinks you feel like the world is yours, and when he gives you that 500bob so that you can drink a soda kesho you see the angel in him. Two more fives and the next time he asks for the cookies you pop your jar open and he eats, eats, eats them cookies without caring to wekelea any CD. That is how you get magonjwa yasiyo na tiba :-( . That is why you become someone's mistress:-( hoping day and night that he will leave his wife and marry you so that your financial woes can vanish.

I know this is some really long post, but I am really pissed off by these ridiculous salaries.....these guys should get serious.

There is this guy called Pinto that I once worked with. He was nice, we used to talk, crack jokes, take the same train home. One day he asked for my number - I gave it to him. We met a couple of times for coffee....walks around town - just innocent, platonic, no-strings-attached kind of thing.

For the last few weeks, I haven't been having time to meet Pinto as regularly as he likes. He calls, we talk, he asks if we can hook up, I say no...but promise to call him up as soon as I get a free minute.

Yesterday Pinto calls, we talk-the usual salamuz, habari za masiku, masomo, maisha he asks if we could meet today at 4pm. Since it's been a long time since we last hooked up, I agree to meet him.

I went to bed last night and at around midnight I get an sms from Pinto. He tells me that he is sorry that we cannot meet as planned. Reason is that he already has his dream girl and us meeting would be a big mistake. He wished me the best in the future. At first I thought I was dreaming coz I had just woken up. I read the message this morning again and just shangaad, aiiii kwani hii ni movie gani?

My questions are:

• Kwani what were we going to do mpaka ingekua big mistake kama tungemeet - tena in a restaurant?
• Why go all the way to make plans alafu uzikatizie juu kwa juu kwasababu u have a dreamgirl tayari?
• Yaani the time u were telling me we meet, huyu dreamgirl alikuwa wapi? Ama you had momentarily forgotten that she exists?
  
• People who have dreampartners already never ever meet other people for coffee or stuff?

Kweli Pinto amenishangaza. I did not bother to answer his sms coz I really did not know what to tell him. I thought I understood men (somewhat) but boy oh boy, I am sometimes left with question marks all over. They never cease to amaze me.