My Easter babysitting job

From The Citizen Daily, Dar es Salaam
By Joseph Mtebe, Success Correspondent

This year’s Easter break couldn’t have come at a worse time. Just a few weeks ago, we got the ‘boom’. Now, as you very well know, the furthest the boom can last with most of us is a week. So, this meant, I had to employ ‘unconventional’ tactics to get my bus fare back to Dar.

I tried borrowing here and there in vain. So, this one time I was at Buhongwa attending a funeral, I got a call from my friend, Hussein, from whom I wanted to borrow Sh50,000.

But since I wanted to leave on the following day, I asked Hussein to get a ticket for me in town, which he did.

Unfortunately, he got me a ticket for a bus called ‘Lucky’. This, I only discovered on the morning that I was travelling, at the Nyegezi bus stand.

Buses that ply the Mwanza - Dar route fall into various categories, like stars for hotels. There are the fancy, luxurious ones every student goes for. Those are the five-star buses. But there are also the zero-rated ones. These are those which when you board you just pray all the way that you arrive in Dar in one piece, and not in pieces. Too bad for me, ‘Lucky’ is such a ride.

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