Be good to every body

BenielSeka

It was an awful day. I started my day by boarding a commuter bus that took me to the ITV bus station.  I disembarked ready to start a long walk towards my office in the Institute of Curriculum Development (ICD) situated in Mikocheni. ICD is now called Tanzania Institute of Education (TIE) and has new offices in Mwenge along New Bagamoyo road.

At the time this story I am about to tell unfolded, the route to ICD was mainly through the ITV road that went straight to the Tax Administration College and bent towards the High Precision Centre (now occupied by…). Another route was through the Old Bagamoyo road starting at Warioba bus stand. Both routes were very inconvenient for pedestrians because the roads were full of large pot-holes and were impassable during the rainy season.

As I walked past the Tax Administration College, a car passed by. I watched the driver as he tried to avoid the pot-holes. He dove so close to me that the tyres plashed water to my shoes. I thought that he would sympathise with me and offer me a ride. Instantly I asked for a lift but he just drove on. I had a good glimpse of his face through the site mirror. He was wearing a white cap.

I watched the car until it was out of sight. Then followed a terrible scene.There was a large pool of water ahead of me. I had to go through it or manoeuvre by passing along the patches of grass tufts on the road banks. I decided to do the latter. I saw a brown object which looked like a large stone. I decided to use to jump to a dry part of the ground. Alas! I was not a stone. It was some waste material ejected from a nearby factory. I jumped right into the ditch. I went so deep that the mud reached my knees.

After a great struggle, I managed to pull out of the ditch. My trouser was full of mud and my shirt also received some mud. There was no one around to watch the accident. I made a trespass on the HPC pitch. At that time, the Catholic Church buildings neighbouring ICD had not been built. The wooden ICD buildings had not yet been fenced. I approached ICD offices through the rear side. Nobody noticed me as I walked towards my office. I entered a toilet near my office where I poured two buckets of water over my body to remove the mud.

Fortunately, I had a key to my office in my pocket. I walked quickly to my office, opened it and closed it immediately. Still, no one noticed me. Every worker seemed to have settled in his/her office. I took off my clothes and remained with pants. Then I opened the window and dropped the shirt and trousers on the ground outside. I had not opened the curtains, so I was safe from observation.  We did not have cellular phones but table phones fitted with extensions.

I picked the phone and called a colleague. “I am in a terrible mess,” I told him. “I jumped into dirty water near HPTC. Tell one of the sweepers to come to my window immediately. I will instruct her to do.” He did that immediately. I assigned the sweeper to wash the clothes and put them on the grass to face the sun directly so that they could dry quickly. “I will explain later what has happened. Meanwhile, don’t tell anybody that I have talked to you.” She promised to do so.

The other part of the story concerns he driver I had seen just before I jumped into the ditch. Let us call him Mr X. He was on his way to ICD. When he got to the gate he introduced himself to the security guards. He wanted to see a curriculum developer called Seka. “Do you know him?” the security guards inquired.

“No,” he replied ruefully. “I read about his article in one of the daily newspapers. His article has prompted me to come and discuss a few things with him,” he continued.

One of the security guards opened a book where workers register daily when they report for work. “He has not yet arrived,” said the guard. “He should be on the way. He usually report around this time,” he added. “You can wait for him at the reception.” He pointed a finger towards he reception room in the administration building. He agreed and took a seat keeping his eyes on the workers registering at the gate. He expected the security guard to wink to him indicating that his host had arrived. But this did not happen.

He waited for one hour and became impatient. He stood up and asked the receptionist, “I wonder why Mr Seka is so late! Has he got stuck somewhere?”

“Maybe.It must be an unusual event. If he plans not to report for work, he normally states it in advance. Wait for a few more minutes. He may turn up. Here is a magazine for you to read while waiting for him,” the receptionist recommended.

Mr X waited for another hour. He could not bear it any more. He had other commitments to attend. He rose to go. As he walked to the gate, the colleague who talked to me on the phone saw Mr X. They had met before. As the exchanged greetings, Mr X hinted about missing his host. He mentioned my name. He thought for a moment and became sympathetic. “He is around. He has confined himself somewhere. Go back to the reception while I try to contact him.” He accepted the advice.

The colleague phoned me to tell me that I had a guest at the reception waiting for me for an urgent matter. I called my colleague to my office window. “Kindly pick my clothes from the lawn and hand them to me through the window. Don’t worry if they are not quite dry. Instruct him to come to my office after five minutes.” He agreed to do so.

I quickly dressed ready to receive my guest. My trousers were still no dry enough but I thought it was not that bad. A few minutes later, my colleague knocked at my door accompanied by Mr X. I welcomed him and gave him a seat. My colleague left soon after introducing my visitor. He told me how he had enjoyed reading my article. “It was so interesting that I was obliged to look for you. I have been waiting for you since eight ‘clock. I am glad that finally I have found you.”

I listened to his questions and we discussed pertinent issues which had appeared in the article. It was a very lovely discussion. As we continued our discussion I recalled the man I had seen in the car. Yes, it was him. He was still wearing his white cap. At the end of the discussion I asked him politely, “Did you come by car or on foot?” He did not realize the sensitivity of the question.

I used my car.  It is parked near the gate. The road is pretty bad. I could not have made it on foot. I pity the workers who come on foot,” he said without a pause.

“I came on foot. In fact you passedme on your way here. I asked for a lift but yourefused. I got into problems which caused my delay at reporting at the gate. Hetried to besiege me to tell him what happened, but I hesitated. “There is no need to cry over spilt milk. What I would like to tell you is to be good to every person. One day you may need help from one of them. This world is full of surprizes, my friend, “I told him. He looked sorrowful but I cheered him up as I opened the door for him. “Have a nice day,” I said as I waved him good bye.     END