Dapo & Shade Reunion

Shade pulled out of the road on sighting Dapo standing on a long BRT queue. Once she was satisfied, she was properly parked, she headed towards Dapo on the BRT queue. The Yellow Danfo buses hustling for passengers going towards Onipan-Yaba made crossing the road a bit of a hassle. Her last encounter with those Danfo drivers was still fresh in her memory. 

Shade was only a few steps from Dapo when he realized who was walking towards him. In wild excitement, Dapo jumped out of the queue and they both hugged themselves tightly drawing the attention of some onlookers in the process.

Dapo: Wow! How did you manage to spot me out of this crowd?

Shade: I can’t really say. I just looked in the direction of the queue and there you are. You haven’t changed a bit. Immediately I saw you, I said I must stop to greet my popular Course Rep.  Where are you going to?

Dapo: Errm, I’m going towards Fadeyi.

Shade: Oh, that’s great; I’m going to the Island. You can join me in the car then.

Dapo: Oh really? It must be my lucky day.

Two minutes later… Shade and Dapo were already in the car. Shade waited for some waited for some reckless danfo drivers to go past her before she could rejoin the main road.

Shade: Wow! Good to see you, Dapo.

Dapo: Good to see dear, bawo ni? Kilon she le

Shade: Adupe! I’m good, my dear?

Dapo: You have changed a great deal. I’m not sure I would have been able to pick you out of that crowd.

Shade: Well, one of my superpowers is the ability to recognize people sometimes by mere looking at their ears or head. It’s always fun for me making the correct call. So, tell me, where exactly are you going to?

Dapo: I’m going to work.

Shade: Oh, I see. But if I may ask, by this time? Are you not late already?

Dapo: My dear, I woke up late.

Shade:  And will that excuse be enough? Won’t you be sanctioned for late coming?

Dapo: I don’t even care again. They can do whatever they want to do. Are you not going to work?

Shade: Well, I am but a different kind of work.

Dapo: How?

Shade: I’m actually going for a meeting scheduled for 10:30 am. I still have enough time on my hands.

Dapo: Okay. So, you are attending the meeting on behalf of the company you work for?

Shade: My company, actually. My little company.

Dapo: Wow! That sounds great.

Shade: Thank you. Back to you, when are you supposed to resume at your workplace?

Dapo: 9: am.

Shade: And it’s already 9:20

Dapo: Honestly, I’m very tired of that place.

Shade: I can see it in your eyes immediately I started talking about work. You must be truly tired of the place or the work.

Dapo: Tired is an understatement. I have lost interest.  Whenever I remember I’m going to work, it appears all the energy in me takes a flight.

Shade:  Sounds familiar. So, what exactly is the issue? I hope you don’t mind, sharing with me?

Dapo: Not at all. It’s no problem. I will tell you. Whenever I discuss the frustration, my job has become, I feel some relief. Today, I nearly called to say I was sick, but my conscience wouldn’t allow me.

Shade: Wow! This is serious.

Dapo: Honestly, Shade, I need a change of job. I sincerely believe I’m wasting my future at my current place of work.

Shade: What exactly the challenge here, the tasks or the pay or both?

Dapo: My sister, it is a cocktail of issues. The pay is not right. Can you imagine that I earn sixty thousand naira (N60, 000) every month? There is no motivation whatsoever and the owner doesn’t even care.

Shade: 60k? Oh, my world! And how long have you been there?

Dapo: Shade, 5 years. 5 whooping years of my life.

Shade: Trust me, I know how you feel. But what are about your duties, do you do them diligently? Hope you are not dropping the ball?

Dapo: You know me way back in school then. Nothing has changed about my dedication to my responsibility. The challenge we have here is that the owner of the business does not seem to care. He does not care. So, to answer your question, I’m not the architect of my current situation. The only blame I have is that I haven’t left the place yet.

Shade: Hmmm… It’s well. If I may ask again, what have you been doing about it? Have you been searching?

Dapo: I have applied in many places, but you know this country. They keep telling stories. I have attended countless number of interviews all to no avail. Sometimes I think this current place has rubbed off on me. They have murdered my confidence and creativity. I feel empty.

Shade: Okay, I didn’t see this part coming. Anyway, the right thing to do at this point is to quit. Nobody has the right to make you feel less than human.

Dapo: I have considered that a number of times, but I’m always caught and stopped in my tracks by the fear of the unknown. I’ve noticed I’m afraid to lose the 60k for the unknown.

Shade: I know. I’m not asking you to leave the known for the unknown just yet. You have to take some calculated steps. Maybe I should tell you a personal story and see if that will help.

Dapo: I’m listening. By the way, nice car you have here.

Shade: Thank you. It is a part of the story I’m about to tell you.

Dapo: Okay.

Shade: I was exactly in your condition if not worst about three years ago. It got to the point that I was convinced that something was wrong with me. It got to the point that I believed that nothing good could come out of me. It was that bad. I lost my identity, I lost courage, I lost boldness, I stopped believing in me. I was dying. I lost enthusiasm. Life was tasteless to me.

Dapo: Exactly the kind of feeling I have now. I can’t comfortably buy anything without thinking of its implication to my pocket. It’s not as if one is spending the 60k alone. I send money to my parents; my younger ones ask for money too. I spend the rest on transportation and feeding. I’m not even thinking or talking about marriage. You don’t want to see where I stay and even the apartment itself. This is far from the kind of dreams I had for myself when I was leaving school.

Shade: I know. Whoever has not worn that shoe will never understand. Very humiliating. You keep wishing and dreaming. Anyway, back to my story. It got to the point that I knew I needed to do something drastic to save myself from impending poverty. In fact, it was a matter of do or die. First, I started applying for jobs at any and everywhere. I just needed an escape from the company I worked for then. That period of applying and being called for interviews gave me some hope. However, hope soon turned into frustration as I watched all the interviews fell apart. My hope was shattered. My self-belief was gone. I was frustrated. I was dying.  I would spend substantial part of the night crying and asking God, “why me?” I started attending almost every vigil in town in search of breakthrough. I would attend deliverance services because I believed something was wrong with me or my destiny. Or how can one explain what was happening to me? Whenever I came to Ojota and saw some of those adverts written in chalk on some of the walls and I looked at how much they were promising factory workers and drivers, I would get angry. With all by education in school, I was as good as a factory worker.

Dapo: Exactly. Hmm, you know, listening to you, it seems you are just telling my story. These are exactly what I am going through right now.

Shade: I know! These stories tend to sound alike. But something happened one day and that is the core of my story. Like I mentioned to you something really needed to happen and quickly too. After attending all manner of deliverance services, it one day dawned on me that the solution I was looking for externally was but a mirage. I can still remember that fateful Saturday afternoon when an idea crystallized in my mind. You know me and EPL.

Dapo: Ah, you still dey watch football matches?

Shade: I can never stop o. So, I was walking into this estate very close to where I used to stay at that time to go watch premier league. I had always complained how can residents of a lovely estate like that with magnificent houses allow their drainage to be oozing with such repugnant odour. I told myself if I were one of the people staying in that estate, I would make sure we employed people to take care of the drainage all the time. Bros, that was how it occurred to me that, that was a business opportunity starring me in the face. What, clean drainage? Trust me I rejected that idea in my mind. What? Me clean gutters? “It has not gotten to that stage,” I assured myself. Well, that was the beginning of the battle that raged on in my mind as I watched the game that took me to the estate in the first place. At some point during the match, I reluctantly decided to give the idea a chance to survive. After the game, I walked to the security guys at the gate and told them I would like to see the chairman of the estate.

Dapo: Wow. You decided to clean gutters? The ever-elegant Shade?

Shade: I’m telling you. So, the guys at the gate didn’t know what to make of my request. One of them looked at me from hair to toe and casually asked why I wanted to see the Chairman of the estate.  I didn’t want to tell them about the business I planned to proposition the chairman for the fear of them hijacking it from me. I assured them I came in peace and that my wanting to see the chairman was for the good of the estate. They refused to show me his house. Instead, they told me to come back the next sanitation day when they usually hold their meetings. The next sanitation day was about three weeks. It was too long for me. I pleaded but my pleas fell on some deaf ears. I eventually left.

Dapo: Eyaah

Shade: Calm down. Their ““no did not stop me from coming around to watch football matches every Saturday. So, I made sure those guys saw me whenever I was coming in and leaving the estate. On the next sanitation Saturday, I arrived at the estate some minutes before the end of the sanitation exercise.  I went straight to the security guys and reminded them what they told me some weeks back. One of them volunteered and took me to the chairman. The Chairman, gentle-looking man pleaded with me to wait until the meeting was over. Let me cut my story short before we get to Fadeyi.

Dapo: Great. I’m enjoying every bit of this story. Please continue.

Shade: I met with the man after their meeting, introduced myself and told him the reason for which I have come. Are you sure you can do it the man asked after my story?

Dapo:  if you could keep their drainages clean?

Shade: Exactly. The man stood there and scratched his head for some minutes. He asked me how I planned to do it. I told him that I would wash the long drainage every Saturday and that I would require the houses along the drainage to provide water through their taps when I am washing it. He asked for my fees. I told him I would collect 50k a month. The man looked at me and laughed. He told me he would gladly do the job for that amount and requested I cut the fee. At the end, we settled for 30k at the end of every month. He asked me to see him the following the Saturday for feedback. I accepted, thanked him so warmly and then left. The following Saturday looked like eternity. It refused to come. Well, it eventually came, and I returned to the estate to see the man.  The way he looked at me when he came out of his house, I knew there was no good news for me. He told me the other exco members could not agree with him, so he decided not to push. I was disappointed. I thanked him all the same and turned to go. He called me back and told me I could provide the same service to his household if I so wished. I was so happy and leapt for joy. I said yes and we disappeared from the estate into his compound. A big compound I must confess. He introduced me to his guard and told him that I would be cleaning the compound henceforth. He introduced me to his children (two of them) too. And that was how I started cleaning his compound first thing every Saturday morning.

Dapo: Wow! Graduate cleaning compound? God!

Shade: My brother, forget certificate. The certificate was only fetching me 50k every month for nearly 5 years. In fact, less than 50k by the time you subtract the other expenses I incurred. So before long, he introduced me to another man who graciously accepted me to do the same thing for his compound. That was how I started earning additional 60k every month. I had only two of them for about 4 months before the estate accepted that I could handle their drainage too. I washed the estate’s long drainage for 40k. It was challenging but I enjoyed every bit of it. You know what I did. I bought a boot and some overalls and face caps. I looked professional on the job because I was seeing a pattern already.  With extra 100k every month, I was a fulfilled woman. I was making more than the company was paying me. I felt liberated. My confidence gradually started coming back. I told myself that I was simply underpaid at the company. I started seeing what my revenue could be if I could replicate what I was doing at this estate in some other places. So, I began aggressive marketing of my idea to other compounds around where I stayed. Some invited me for talks, some turned down my proposal because they already had some old women sweeping for them. Some wanted to have sex with me first. I witnessed all sorts of challenges. However, at the end, I got two compounds. I had to outsource the two to one of my friends to enable me concentrate effort on the first estate. So, from sweeping and cleaning houses, I developed a wonderful relationship with some of people in the estate especially their wives. I called all of them mummy.  So, I started running all sorts of errands for them every weekend.  I had to change my scheduled to accommodate the new roles. I would come to the estate as early as 5:30 am to begin my work and by 10: am, I was free to do other things. So sometimes, some families would send me to the market with their driver to the market. Mind you, I haven’t been touching the extra money I was making. I suddenly realized if I could survive on 50k for almost five years, then I can as well survive on it the next one year. My brother I was saving the entire 100k and the tips I got from running errands. When I did the calculation of the amount in my account six months down the line, I was a happy girl. I was encouraged to do more.

Dapo: Can you see my skin. Your story is firing me up here. Jesus!

Shade: Then my biggest breakthrough came towards the end of that year. Like I told you, I used to go to the market to purchase stuff for some of those women from time to time. So, I decided to bring the market closer to them. I walked up to the chairman of the estate and told him my plan. He opposed the idea vehemently and told me that trading was not allowed within the estate. I didn’t give up. I kept polishing my ideas. I went to people that construct metal shops, told them my plans and everything. The owner of the place was very kind. He took it upon himself and came up with a design he felt those rich men in the estate would appreciate.  I took the drawing to the chairman the following Saturday. He was impressed by what he saw but his challenge was that members of the estate might react negatively to the idea of setting up a shop within the estate. He was also afraid other people might request to set up theirs. Well to cut the story short again, I was allowed to start the business. And that was it. I started selling fresh fruits, plantain and crates of eggs. My brother, that was my bye bye to my financial issues. I did the business alone for one month and I couldn’t cope. I had to resign from my formal job which had been relegated to plan C. I had to employ two elderly women who understood this business well. So that was how my two businesses started in the estate.

Dapo: Wow! Wow! Wow! I lack words here.

Shade: See, If I say I’m literally the owner of the estate, I won’t be wrong. Because I provide almost all the services they need in that estate. I help residents of the estate when they are doing their child naming, birthday parties, Christmas parties, all manner of things. We cook for them, we go to the market for some, we clean for some. In fact, I have an arrangement with plumbers, electricians and all those services they always come around to ask me where they can find them. I have a lot of women at standby who execute these jobs. The meeting I’m going for is somebody who is doing housewarming. I’m going to get the details of what she wants.

Dapo: I feel like going back to the house right now to look for what I can do to improve my life.

Shade: Change is actually possible when we finally say enough is enough. When we take the bull by the horn. I have read in the past that we are where we are because we permitted it. I didn’t believe that statement before now. But I believe now. Remember our physics class then? An object in state of rest will continue in a state of rest until a force is applied to it. The same happens with whatever situation we find ourselves. Nothing changes until we decide to change it.

Dapo: I now believe this our meeting today is not an accident.  I will sleep over this discussion and will certainly take some drastic steps.

Shade: That will be awesome. Never give up even if you meet some brick wall because certainly there will be plenty brick walls. Always find a way around those walls.

Dapo: God bless you, my sister. I will get down here, at that signboard.

Shade: Okay. Here’s my card. Feel free to call me.

Dapo: Thank you, Bye.

Shade: Bye