EVER watched a TV series and then when it gets to the juicy part, it reads to be continued? I am sure you have and that sucks because you really want to know more about what will happen in the next episode.
Anyway, following my article from last week about not lending each other money or borrowing same, I received quite a lot of feedback. In fact some people even posted the article on their WhatsApp statuses which is wow, but also embarrassing at the same time because once I re-read there were one or two grammatical errors, oh well, life goes on.
It does turn out though that we are all in desperate need for money. Be it to get electricity, pay our water bills and sadly it is highly needed for food especially if you have young children because goodness me these people eat and eat and eat again.
It turns out one of you brave ones sent me an email telling me off basically about how I could have the nerve to write about people asking me for money.
It read: “Sky, just because life is being kind to you lately, please do not encourage people not to lend us money.”
I responded and asked if she had actually read the full article because I am sure at no point did I say people should not borrow or lend money; but I did say that for peace of mind, be careful whom you enter into these deals with because in most instances it does end in tears.
I noted though that some people are never deterred because one person was quick to text me to ask if the award money had come through. This is not a joke because as I was responding to her that there were still some delays (it has come through by the way), she was quick to text me that she needed a quick E1 000 to reserve a space at her child’s school, which she would repay as soon as civil servants were paid this week because allegedly some public officer owed her E3 000.
Seriously guys this money business is a tangled web and this borrowing from Peter to pay Paul business does not work.
A friend of mine lately has been posting statuses about how broke she is and people should not venture anywhere near her. I had to laugh when she called and told me that despite all the ‘broke’ statuses she had posted she still received responses like “it can’t be as bad as me, please loan me E200” and this was no joke.
I am not sure why we are all suddenly in need of cash, but we need to fix this. Can we just meet each other in the street and not ask for small favours.
I have this friend though who is quite monmonied, but she never gives out cash and perhaps you people can learn from her. For example if you send her a text to tell her that your water supply has been disconnected because of an outstanding bill, she simply asks for the account number (water account) and pays whatever amount she can afford into it.
If you send her a text telling her another sob story about the lack of electricity units, again she simply asks for the meter number. The moment you try and say “the problem is that my meter.” she simply cuts you off.
I laughed the other day when one of our friends called and said she needed at least E500 to get groceries as her fridge and cupboards were empty.
This friend of mine whom I was visiting on her ‘farm’ simply pulled my hand and said let’s go get your friend some food. She picked onions, pepper, carrots, potatoes and walked to the chicken shed where she took quite a fat one and we proceeded to slaughter it.
Shortly she called ‘Miss E500’ and asked her where she could drop off the little she could assist with. I asked why she did not just hand over the E350 (my estimate) and she was quick to tell me “Ye Sky, bayagembula labantfu laba.”
I do not know whether she has personally experienced this, but she told me that gambling is one of the worst cancers that have hit Southern Africa and our governments need to do a lot about this recent pandemic, she called it. I quite agree with her that people are falling for this gambling business and it is not pretty.
I tested it myself this past week when Liverpool played Arsenal and won a pretty decent E380 (after spending E20). Thank God my coffee had run out and I quickly withdrew the money and purchased my much loved Douwe Egberts.
I am not even trying to drive betting companies out of business, but something has to give—too many people are losing money to gambling.
Until next week, be kind.
