Ghetto in One Continent, Rich Man's Quarters In Another

Jim is an importer like most other Africans whose families devised a means of sending one member of their family to Dubai or China to be based there and be sending goods back and money remitted back to him and circle repeated again.

They figured that almost two thousand dollars spent in each journey to these countries can be utilized in purchasing things instead of wasting it in air fare about five or six times yearly. But like most other African, Jim was finding stability a hard nut to crack in foreign land.

The amount he came with as capital was small to compete with other Africans and Chinese that has made Nigerian retail sector their focal point.

He was sharing room with other two Nigerians at the ghetto quarters in Guangzhou city. He is still mesmerized by the place refers to as ghetto. He had visited rich men quarters in Nigerian cities of Lagos and Abuja and where he found himself in Guangzhou called ghetto is better than where those wealthy guys live in Nigeria.

The rents are cheap, compared with the so called rich man places in Nigeria makes one to wonder about the quality of the so call money in Africa.

Imagine paying 150 in a room with palour, separate kitchen, toilet and other necessities in it?

In Nigeria, they refer to such places as self contained and if you don’t have millions as business capital, you don’t dream of such places. No matter how you dreams, whether you are malaria free or not while dreaming those dreams, it’s the type that take two centuries or more to come true in some African countries.

Even Joseph in the Bible could not come up with such dream in Africa without considering himself crazy. Yet, what could not be possible in dream world of Africa is a reality in ghetto of China. 

Jim sometimes wonders about human creatures, race, possible and impossibilities of this planet.

What is not possible even in dream in one continent is already a reality in another. Jim, from his primary school days had been a dreamer and most of his dreams like being in Asia was one of those dreams that turned out to be true.

      He had had a dream of being in Asia six years before it manifested. He never worked towards it becoming a reality and still it came to past.

Nature always draws him to wherever he sees in dreams without any efforts from him. At times, he would even completely forgot about the dream or not interpret it well till it becomes reality and he would suddenly recalls having such dreams months or years back. In all his dreamings, he never witnessed where ghetto turned out to be rich man’s arena.

Although inhabited truly by the poor locals and foreigners one notices only through behavior not buildings they go into each day.

In some countries, attitudes seems to be metrics for measuring poverty, not building and other amenities.

Excess noise, utterances and actions of the people living in such areas would tell you you have arrived if you happens to miss direction.

His flat mates seems to be of the same make with people living there. It took them only days to warm up seriously with the environment. They kept making unnecessary noises, not respecting the rights of their colleagues and neighbours, bringing in those uncultured girls into the flat at wrong hours and at times not even meeting their own flat running fees. 

He is not used to quarreling, or telling landlady stories over and over. The guys he saw himself with don’t know or care where any colour of any lines begins and where another starts. They cross all with reckless abandon. 

Unnecessary attentions always leads to unnecessary problems. His flat mates don’t realized this. That’s very big concern to Jim. 

He had been in China then for about 7 months, he has been living with those guys for four of those months. When he landed newly, he was welcomed by one Nigerian man who lives in middle class quarters, staying in a hotel is out of equations for those that came to hustle. Where would the money came from?

The man Mr. Damian Chima lives in middle class quarters of the city. He had been in the country for about ten years then, was doing relatively well back home. Yet, he was one of those poor guys in those quarters. The place were well furnished, three bed rooms. Buying a car never even crossed his mind once, not because he was not well documented but simply because he could not afford it. 

Could you imagine paying for parking spaces in your own house per say?

Something regarded as madness in Africa is normal in another continent. He has questioned the rationale behind those actions and was told it was to dissuade people from buying cars. The public transportation system is clean and cheap, why buy car to make money for the government.

Jim had noticed that in middle class areas, you can even choose to stay for a year inside your house without lacking anything. Everything can be ordered, including doctors let alone eatable items. It is life made easy to the maximum. 

He had made acquaintance of a friend of Mr. Damian who connected him with one of the guys he lives with, the guy in turn welcomed another guy from Nigeria and two turned into three strugglers.

He don't even recall once for the months he was living with Mr. Damian in the middle class area of having any dreams. He has racked his brain to recall one but to no avail. None exist. Yet, since he moved to the poor man’s area, he had been having one dream after another and he had even started wondering If dreams and poverty has any connection.

After one of those dreams, he had called his flat mates to tell them what he dreamt about and how his other dreams had came to pass.

“ Are saying that police are preparing to raid this area?” one asked.

“ That is what it seems to me. I have even started searching for another ghetto to shift to”

“ How many times since you came here has your dreams became reality”

“ I have not paid attention enough to my dreams since coming to this country, but this one is disturbing me. It appeared twice”

“ You mean none had become reality before, why won't this one go the same way”

“ in Nigeria, all my dreams have always came to pass, this one worries me”

“ Nigeria?, ah, Nigeria is in Africa with African problems, China in Asia. Purgatory and hell is not the same thing, you know?”

“ I don’t know anything about purgatory and hell, I am just letting you know what I saw”

“ Man, forget it. Nothing would happen, you are just restless. Do you know I have dreamt of making millions yet, I have not seen hundreds since then”

“ Ok, in three days, I am packing out. I don’t want to be deported so soon. I have given you my dues for next month, right?”

Jim had just been in his new abode for only a month when the message floated that one of his former flat mates was captured in an early morning raid of his former abode by the officers after illegal aliens like they call them. He shaked his head, searching for current dreams since moving into his new area.