HUSTLE HAS NO GENDER

BEFORE WE BEGIN...


I thought to start this post as formal as possible with the cliche; Good Morning, How was your week, Hope you're fine, but i felt more intimate with you. You have shown great interest to want to click this link and I surely won't let you down in this your decision.


THE BEGINNING...

My story starts as Complex as it can get. So,I work in Lagos and i'm sure you've heard tales of the city, it's vibrancy, it's people and the general culture.

Lagos has a strong work ethic too apparently, I usually leave or more accurately escape from work at 6, my work place didn't follow the usual cliche of 9 to 5.

Feeling numb, tired and drained, I plug into another world and try to blend in with the lights that seem to always make the city glow, the hustle and bustle of the city and acclimatize myself to the pattern of people trying to get home to their families.

Usually it's more or less the same everyday, but other times something spontaneous happens.


AND THEN IT HAPPENED...

Just like yesterday...
Over the weekend I had different ideas on what direction my post today would take, these thoughts were my in my mind when i got to the bus stop and before my eyes was a woman driving a Danfo, now I know this seems to some a relatively normal sight in Lagos, a woman driving passengers from place to place in her bus, but it still amazed me.

WHAT AMAZED ME...

Why I was particularly struck by this I can't tell myself but just the same weekend, on my way to work, I'd been in buses.

Almost like a cosmic joke, I'd seen first-hand sexism displayed time and time over and this things just annoy me, and at the same time fill me with a sense of powerlessness. Women in buses were cautioned by elderly men about not talking back to the rude driver, the elder women speculated that this women have no husbands and the drivers threatened to slap these women for defending themselves from the chauvinistic pigs

 My flashback was quickly broken by the woman's call for customers

"Ikeja, Maryland oo, enter with your change o, I no get change" 

MY CONCLUSION...

After loading up her passengers, she proceeded to drive away and as I saw her taillights get further away, I understood some peculiar points;

 1. Laughs can be found anywhere in Lagos

 2. Sexism can and must be overcome

 3. Hustle has no gender

Truthfully I have no knowledge of the woman's personal circumstance or her reason for driving a bus in Lagos and before you go off and spin stories in your mind about how she maybe was an old hungry widow or something, no and no and no,  she was a young and looked vibrant, but I was just happy to see a blow against misogyny in the same industry that had showed me sexism over the weekend as My mind quickly drifted back to the Proof lyrics playing out from my headphones and decided on what my next post would be.

Peace and love always....

See you next Wednesday

P. S: My Ranting is justified by my ability to make sense.
It is a given that Angie is amazing friend, but thank you anyways 😋