Black Book

  "So, you mean you need to go to the restaurant first before contributing your share? And where is your visitor's share?" IK asked Eteroo who started lowering his voice while answering and piqued the interest of others in the room. "Where will you see Tendy to give him the money for him to buy the food items while coming back?" IK asked, raising his voice for the benefit of Eteroo's Visitor, whom he noticed that Eteroo doesn't want him to overhear what is being discussed. " Okay, here is his and I will give you mine later" the two others in the kitchen that had been following the line of talk and manner it was being done noticed that something fishy was going on and started raising their voice to be aware of what game Eteroo is into. Money is what some people can't just resist creating dramas and commotions around it once that chance surfaces. The rectangular shaped kitchen and the cabinets with the same shapes inside it can seat about seven people but with core four inside it that early morning discussing food money.

Living as a poor bachelor abroad can be disorienting and educational at the same time. It's almost like living in a communal dormitory. Only that the people involved are in the habit of two-timing themselves most of the time and you don't need anyone to tell you that it's poverty at work somehow among them. 

In Obankpaye estate they like to call Garden in far East Asia which I suspect must be the same moniker estates are known in America for almost all they do and say in most nations in that part of the world comes from that nation that has so many unoccupied buildings within its walls. I was wondering about that discovery the first time I noticed it. Government there seems to believe that they don't trust themselves with money or that they are afraid that the money they have will develop wings and fly away, so they tend to invest any tangible money that comes their way into providing one amenities or the other. They earmark one mini forest and wipe them clean and start erecting about three thousand forty storey buildings on it. So, the many buildings without humans inhabiting them are so many and they are cheap too. So why wouldn't those living six in a two bedroom flat hire them? 

The first simple answer is that some of those living that number in a flat didn't come to stay, some are those about to fade away from the country, some don't have proper papers and therefore don't want authority stories. Some are insecure humans. They like where those who know them live etc for personal and psychological reasons.

In that flat we live in with two visitors making us six, we have rosters on how to do things around that flat, how to tidy it up, how to pay every manner of bills payable within specified time. No need caretaker or the landlord knocking on your door for money reasons. I am not sure any foreigner wants those two snooping around him or her. 

So, eating at home is much better for us than eating out. Eventhough Eteroo is serving in one African restaurant in the center of the city, he was only allowed a plate of meal per day. So, he still eats in the house at night and sundays. Contributing money for meals each week had been the ritual in that flat. 100RMB each week always see us through for a week. So,when we have visitors like we have two that morning, whoever they are there in his name will pay for them if they stay there more than three days. 

Eteroo has one friend that came to buy goods and fade back to Nigeria and IK has one too with the same reasons for being there. Those traders that come to buy goods always prefer living among their people more than choosing hotels for many reasons. Not only security and lesser expenses, food too. Imagine six healthy guys seeing themselves through on only six hundred RMB a week and the food is still rich on all accounts. 

Nothing gives you heebie-jeebies on seeing those Traders that came to buy things and return to Africa on seeing that with a hundred RMB, you can buy five quality live chickens. You need to see their faces, the surprises on the first day they follow you to the market to buy those things. The organization alone in the food market always tells them that something is wrong with the food market setting in Africa. We have gotten used to believing that by nature, it should be a noisy and disorganized place. At times, even dirtiness is seen as one of its characteristics. These first time visitors are always speechless when they tour these food items market, how organized, clean and cheap things were inside there.

I recall one in 2008 shaking and moping into empty space when he went with his host to the market. "These people are too organized, these people are too..." He was reeling all the benefits he saw within thirty minutes out that you need little prompting to know that even teaching and learning are made easier when things are set in their proper places. The points dropping from him were in their twenties. If it were to be an exam, you need only five points for fullmark. 

The thing is that the hired flat is in the name of only one person among those six, meaning he was the person that visits agents, pays bills for everything. So, if he is cheating others, hard to know but mainly, no one cares that much. Better call such a communal living open dorm with two keys alone so, only two out of the six have the key to the flat and among themselves recognized as the real owners of the place. 

That particular morning, Eteroo had this friend from his generator line business in Nigeria that came for the first time to buy generators and he was the person that welcomed him at the airport. Four days already with us and we had been feeding him twice from what was in the fridge and the morning for collecting weekly money for food was due and when IK it was his duty to do so started in the kitchen, Eteroo was behaving funny like a person hiding things. It was when all had paid and his friend sitting in the parlor next room was asked to drop his, he voiced out that Eteroo had collected 400 RMB from him a day after his arrival and he had thought it was from there that we had cooked what he had been eating. 

Everyone was speechless and then we turned towards Eteroo and had as usual a good giggle for that story is common among us Nigerians community in particular. Cheating who has trust or quasi trust in you before he knew the state of things and refused to play ball. But for the first time in that flat we are hearing such tales of pocketing your visitors' money in the name of food.

Eteroo himself, his defense to the utterance of the guy was smirking and we all looked away. Who knows what he had been buying at times when he went to market to buy things for we had given him that privilege as a man that serves in a restaurant and knows how to price all those things. Not as if he even knew how to prepare the meals more than the owner of that flat who had lived in the village with his granny from the primary school level so knew how to prepare any kind of food and soup from a young age and had been doing a good job of it there. Eteroo himself has this cool mature guy image he projects. It's truly by their fruits you shall know them well.

"Emm, I think that we will handover this money to tendy to buy the food items. Since you claimed not to have your own money available now, I will give him your share and try to refund as you said in the evening" IK told him as I was handed the list and the contributed money. The brainwashed man was still sitting in the parlor there shaking his legs unconsciously from what I can't name because I did not see any anger or frown on his face when I scrutinized him. 

I am not asking if the trust he had in Eteroo is gone forever, some people are good at keeping their emotions well bottled and you can only know how fresh it's when an occasion presents itself as an outlet. I went out, closing the door behind me and forgot about the flat and what went through in it that early morning as I faced the city. 

   That story is not new to anyone living abroad on the life of those visiting to go back. Especially in a country like China,Korea, Japan etc buying and selling is the cog in which everything including manners, emotions, behaviors and utterances turns. So, I believe that even the visitors tell themselves stories and somehow were expecting behaviors not to be stable with their host. What rotates don't stand still. It's always this way today and that tomorrow.

Not as if we are backing that Eteroo move, but there is always wisdom in heeding well known statements like buyer being aware, experience being the best teacher and treating others as you will wish them to treat you. Eteroo for sure that morning had entered the karma black book from two angles.