SPLASHING WATER
It rained this morning and today is a working day. That did not deter me though from leaving home for work, as soon as I was fully dressed. I got into the rain and walked as fast as I could (under a light drizzle) to Church bus-stop along Iwaya road. My destination was Sabo bus-stop. After some five minutes of my waiting at Church bus-stop, a bus stopped by, calling for Yaba bus-stop. He called for say, 3 minutes, which largely turned out to be a futile effort. Seeing this, he innovatively decided to aggregate both Sabo and Yaba passengers and his bus was half full in no time.
In another ten minutes, we were at Sabo bus-stop (my destination). I alighted, very conscious of the fact that I had no choice but to trek under the drizzle to Alagomeji (location of my workplace). No choice, because all I had on me was 2005 NGN cash; 2005 NGN denominated as 1000, 1000, and 5 NGN (the fare from Sabo to Alagomeji is 20 or 30 NGN). If you're a Lagosian, you will easily understand why I had to trek. However, for the sake of those who are not, here is the way things work around here:
1. virtually all road transport transactions in Lagos are done in cash;
2. for this reason, transporters are usually required to give change to passengers who do not tender exact fare;
3. many a transporter screams at the top of his voice while calling, that passengers should come in with exact fare (or find an alternative way to transport themselves);
4. generally, you will be severely scorned (almost beaten), if you present any denomination way higher than the fare. This is irrespective of whether the transporter actually has enough change at hand or not. This actually applies, in varying degrees, across most other cash based petty businesses in the state.
By the way, the distance between Sabo and Alagomeji takes about a ten-minute trek for a brisk walker like me to cover.
Now, to the main point of this whole philosophical article (I like story too much).
