When economic hardships hit Aggrey, I felt the ripple effects

When economic hardships hit Aggrey in his pockets, the ripple effects were felt in my whole body! It was when I was still a student at SFB a few years ago! Aggrey used to lend me his vehicle over the weekends. I would then cruise around town and really show off. Then I would head towards campus so that the chicks could ogle at this super turbo vehicle. Occasionally, I would give them a lift in the master blaster jeep. Of course I couldn’t confess to them that the car was a ‘borrow-borrow’. I would convince them that my side business in town was generating so much cash for me and that is how I could afford to buy such a beauty. And then we would kick off on a high with the ladies as we hit the road towards Bugesera. The fuel gauge was always showing the ‘full’ sign so I could afford to drive upcountry for mini-picnics. Obviously Aggrey could not tell that I had driven all the way to Bugesera. I would just send him an SMS to inform him that I was stuck at Sopetrad in a traffic jam. At Bugesera we would visit the lakeside resorts where we crushed some nice African food plus a few beers. After an hour we would speed back to SFB. It took us about 30 minutes to enter Kigali. Having dropped them off at campus, I would go and park the jeep at home as Aggrey watched CNN news. This was the kind of life that I was enjoying until Aggrey’s finances began to dwindle a little bit. Aggrey started cutting costs seriously. Now instead of his usual visits to Serena or Golf club, he started investing in overcoats and cowboy hats. The cowboy hats helped him shield his face as he sneaked in and out of the Migina pubs just across the National Stadium at Remera. By visiting these spots, he ended up saving some little cash. For me, it was a blessing in disguise as I behaved as an escort to Aggrey. Since he feared to frequent such places all by himself, he always begged me to go along with him. And in the process, my tummy became the overall winner as it sucked in all tribes of booze at the Migina pub. But in terms of my image at SFB, I started to lose serious marks among the chicks. I was no longer seen cruising in the Jeep since Aggrey had slapped some sanctions on me. I just jumped onto a motorbike, commonly referred to as ‘moto’. My so called girlfriend at SFB quizzed me about my vehicle “Ah, you see my dear, sometimes it is good to park the car and exercise our muscles. One needs to walk more often” Having convinced her that walking was a necessary thing to do, we started to take strolls in and around Gikondo. But as I quickly found out, it was not so easy walking these long distances. Actually, she appeared to enjoy it more than ever. As for me, my body just couldn’t cope with the long distances. I pretended to be enjoying these walks, climbing the Gikondo hill all the way to the top. I would be panting and struggling to pull myself together. As for her, she was so fit and could also afford to jog along the road. This was real torture! As I was on the verge to surrender my pride, the gods answered my prayers. One day, we were walking in the remote outskirts of Gikondo and it had been raining so heavily. The potholes in the narrow road had been filled by muddy water. Then from nowhere, a truck approached us at breakneck speed along the road. The truck then drove straight through the water filled potholes and in the process splashed my girl from head to toe. She was soaked! She swore never take walks again. “If you don’t bring back your car, then we are through!” As for me, I was happy that the potholes had saved my aching body…