Besides having to deal with people who speak at the top of their voices while talking on the phone, taxi or bus commuters have to deal with gossipers as well. Faith (not real name) boarded a bus from Kimironko going to town but little did she know that the trip would turn out to be disastrous. As she was trying to get onto the bus, two young women shoved her while rushing to get onboard. Faith didn’t care much because she thought the reason these young women were not patient enough to let her enter first was because they were in a hurry. When she boarded the bus, she sat behind two other women who seemed to be in their late thirties. As the bus set off, the two ladies started talking about the different people that go to their church. All they talked about was how some church goers act like they are of a higher class yet there are very poor. At some point Faith seemed not to care until one of the ladies mentioned her eldest sister’s name. This time she paid attention to what the ladies were saying. One of them started to narrate how Faith’s sister got married when she was about to hit menopause and that’s why she can’t conceive. She continued to say that the husband is a drunkard and that is why he no longer attends the Sunday services. At some point, the ladies were so loud that the whole bus could hear their conversation. Faith wanted to keep quiet and let it go but she felt that if she let them get away with it they would do it again. Faith went ahead and tapped one of the ladies and asked her to stop spreading rumours about people especially when using public transport. The whole bus was shocked and chipped in saying the ladies had no right to poke their noses into other people’s lives. One passenger even went as far asking the ladies if they only went to church to look for gossip. We know some people can’t help gossiping but doing it in a public is dangerous because you never know who is listening. As told to Doreen Umutesi
