CANDID TALK : Devil smiles, frowns at gambling machine for the wag

Folks, nowhere in this Bongo are residents so optimistic about their daily living than this sprawling rat and roach infested Uswaz. It really does not matter that the country is reeling from serious financial meltdown.

Uswahilinites are so hopeful and resilient, I suspect, they can survive in the event of atomic bomb falling from the underbelly of Korean bomber.

We wake up at the crack of the dawn as soon as the Uswaz muezzin calls our Muslim brethren to the morning prayers and go about our daily businesses unabated. The hope that things will somewhat improve tomorrow is always what keeps us alive and kicking. At night, we lay our fatigued bodies on our urine-drenched razor-thin mattresses and dream away to easy wealth and hope that good God upstairs would have mercy on us the following day.

Those doomed toiling and moiling doing boring careers like mine – that of hammering away at the keyboard to generate third-rate stories like the one you are reading will go about our business without complaining.

Hussein the Uswaz wag who until recently dabbled as a mishentown (guys you can never tell how they earn their living) and a bodaboda rider has discovered a new “career”. He wakes at the crack of the dawn with only one intent – to spend his day at Mzee Shirima’s joint gambling away on the slot machine.

He believed that someday he would win millions. He has often argued that one does not have to bend over working if he can sit down and win cash. A number of times he has won – when the devil smiles wide at him.

My one-and-only Bisho Ntongo says that Hussein will never see the kingdom of heaven for surely, those Chinese slot machines littering the Uswaz must be devil’s inventions. I am tempted to believe it because I am afraid of even more serious gambling like the lottos.

Here is the reason. A couple of weeks ago, Hussein was the lucky winner of several hundreds of thousands after having spent a sizeable on the same junk. Of course, the temptation was to use the same amount of money to gamble some more.

Since the winnings come in coins, he had a field day changing then money. His joy was short lived because that night, barmaid who has worked for hardly a couple of days at Mzee Shirima’s Bar and Guest house made away with the whole loot minus the amount used for drinks and chicken they had devoured to devil-knows-where after lacing his drink with some coma-inducing stuff. Hussein is a sad man as it is.