Should I have felt penitent, or proud that I stood up when all around me chose to sit down? Was it a case of being insubordinate or was it refusing to let someone else's problem become my emergency? The story giving context to these questions is a sequel to the police drama we experienced on 6-6-2010.

The prologue is that our new Boss did not bother with village registration until the Police semi-arrested, warned, and let go of us. This all happened the day a pal returned from Uganda with goodies sent by our families.

Being Ugandans, our Ministry of Disaster Preparedness was caught unprepared, for when we planned to meet her the day following her arrival, even an Old Testament prophet would never have predicted the direction, and end, of a discussion I began with Boss on the way home.

I asked when the first bus left the village, he asked where I was going. I told him where and why, adding that all 5 of us planned on going. He said only one of us could go, others had to house-sit waiting for the Police to visit.

I asked what the Police would want with us after we had finished the registration process and why it was okay for only one and not all to go. For if our presence was necessary, we all would not have to move, even though it was only the two women yet to finish the registration.

His next words? "Because I'm your Boss, and you must obey. Consider the day also working time and miss at risk." My next words? "Considering that the dance show we are obliged to do is at 9 in the evening when I will be at the venue, and that during daytime I am not obliged to house-sit, at least we boys should go, and the girls join after they complete the process of becoming legal aliens."

Again, I asked why if the registration was complete for us, we could not move as freely as we had done before the police swoop, and also why by the next traffic light, the one-can-go had mutated into a quarantine for all.

He said we could go the day after. I responded that it was important in a non-monetary way that we meet our friend from Kampala and others who had been waiting a week to have a day out with us to spend their salaries.

Between him and Mistress Translator they communicated that the Police had to look in on us,I asked why if we weren't National Security threats and had completed registration, we had to wait for tea and biscuits with Chinese afandes, especially considering that if he had registered like our ex-employers used to, we never would have seen the inside of a police station on foreign soil.

He kept insisting we stay, even after we affirmed to him and the friends that at least the men would start out and the women join after they finished registration. He asked if we could wait until the girls finished, and we agreed since it sounded reasonable.

The women returned at 11,I asked if we could go now, he said with an evil glint in his eye, "No, you stay here the whole day!" Being one for more doing than talking, I calmly shut his door and he left while I went to dress up. Enter the rats-bell-cat theory.

After I re-ascertained from Reverend XP that registration was complete and nothing barred me from moving as a free citizen if I wasn't interfering with showtime, I made to leave and arranged a rendezvous with Party B.

The rats I'd been in unanimous agreement/mutiny with before chose then to counsel a wait-and-see approach, others for an its-right-so-someone-not-me-do-it, while others abstained by virtue of being asleep.

Realisation: walking the talk is a thing to do alone, because for subjective reasons, most rats would rather raise the suggestion and volunteers someone else's action than have the cojonnes to follow through. Me, I chose to act.

At 4 o'clock when I called my colleagues to ask if the Police had arrived (didn't show), our Director told me the Boss was red-faced with fury, and would I call him and explain my action or risk losing my month's salary.

I declined, not seeing the point in rehashing things I thought I was being mature enough in telling him to his face instead of sneaking off like a juvenile delinquent,as the team had earlier advised we all do. Ergo,this month, for swimming against the tide, I have earned zilch.

Then, at 7:45pm when I'm already at the venue, a woman friend calls to say that at 4:30 the Boss said if by 5 I hadn't returned to Huilongguan to come to the venue with everyone else, I should consider myself off the day's list of performers and would I call now and say I was already at the venue?

Again, I declined since it was already 7, I was already at the venue, and the best I could make of it was  wait for the team, get the house key and subway my skeleton home.

Plus, whether I danced or not I was still not getting paid, so why not go the entire 9 yards and have an early night for once, give my costumes a much-needed wash or if push comes to shove, pack mine for a possible return to Uganda?

Will it become a case of irresistible force meeting immovable object?
Watch this space and stay blessed. blog comments powered by Disqus

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