Inflation palava (troubles)

My experience yesterday inside a bus with some people on my way home from the market was a very funny one. Remembering the incident now just put me under serious laughter, and I thought to share it with you here so you can get some slice of laughter like I did.

I have found myself soliloquising in a frustrating situation, but yesterday, I watched a woman beside me practice it to the extreme. Looking at her, you could feel how frustrated she was, to the point of scattering every single item she bought from the market inside the bus where we were all seated.

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The woman kept talking to herself and kept using her hands to do calculations. At a point, she brought her handbag, opened it, and turned it upside down, shaking it so hard and expecting money to fall off the bag. Then I asked her, madam, what's the problem? What are we searching for? Then she began to express her anger at the current price of goods in the market and how the #20,000 she took to the market got exhausted so easily with just a few items she bought. She showed me her list and pointed out up to seven items she couldn't buy because of the expensive nature of commodities. She felt she must have lost her money, but she didn't after using her fingers as a calculator. lolz. I felt for her, but I couldn't stop laughing because it's something that most women, including me, experience every now and then since the inflation saga. Writing lists of items and putting a price tag prior to visiting the market doesn't work anymore because prices do change every week in my country now due to the high dollar rate to naira. It's funny how we feel that we lost money when, in actuality, it was honorably spent on expensive goods that are unavoidable..lolz.

As I tried to help her repack her scattered items, I discovered that she went to the market with measuring paint. Lolz,I was curious to know why, so I asked. Then she reminded me of how those market sellers usually reduce the length of their measuring paints intentionally so they can gain more profits after sales. This cheating tactic is common among most sellers in our local markets. For different sizes of their measuring bowels, they must tamper with them. The woman bought rice, beans, and corn, all in paint, so to avoid anyone cheating her with tempered paint, she took one untempered from her home to the market and would give it to sellers, instructing them to use hers for the measurements...lolz. It's annoying to buy foodstuffs at a high price without getting the supposed quantity due to how some marketers devise means of cheating people. The woman's action was funny, as it was my first time seeing someone go to the market with her own measuring paint. Indeed, the inflation is making lots of people do unusual things, but it's understandable.

When I thought that the drama was over with the woman inside the bus, another young man dropped and gave the driver #500 for his transportation fare, expecting a #200 balance (ordinarily, the transportation fare for the distance should be half of the cost, but due to the high cost of gasoline currently in my country, we are spending a lot on transportation). The driver gave him the actual change and drove off immediately, but within a few seconds, we could see the young man running after our bus with all his strength and sweating at the same time. Then we signaled the driver to hold his break. The young guy approached the driver with so much anger and commanded him to give him his complete balance. The driver smiled and asked him to check very well, so it happened that we have new notes in my country now, and the new #200 notes are looking like #100 notes. It can confuse anyone so easily if you don't check carefully. As a matter of fact, some people, including my husband, have lost money by overpaying someone because of the confusion. So apparently, the young guy assumed that the driver gave him a lesser balance, and being that he was so annoyed with the high cost of transport fares, he acted in such a manner. When he calmed down and took a closer look at the new money, he couldn't help but laugh at his actions. Everyone one of us in the bus couldn't stop laughing at the drama by the young dude. Obviously, no one would love to overspend unnecessarily, especially with the unfriendly inflation. It was a fun moment throughout the journey, people with different funny characters 😃

Thanks for your precious time on my blog