Lucy’s
story begins in the city of Nairobi. After completing her accounting course,
she went to live with her brother. One day when she went to the market, a man
overheard her talking to the woman selling her the vegetables. She was talking
about looking for a job. The man approached her and asked her if she was interested
in working. She said she would as long as it was not as a domestic worker. She
did not have a cell phone, the man agreed to meet her the following day in the
morning in the town centre.
Lucy was
exited about getting the job, she asked her brother to give her some money for
bus fare the following day. Her brother being overprotective refused to give
her and she borrowed from a neighbor. She woke up early and went to meet the
stranger. She waited for him for four hours. When he finally came, he showed
her the shop where he was to get her the job. It was closed. He told her to
wait and once it was opened to give him a call. The owner of the shop agreed to
give her the job to start in the New Year. It was November by then. After three
days, the owner of the shop decided to call Lucy so that she could start work.
She had given her brother’s cell phone number.
Lucy
decided not to talk to the man because she thought that he was interested in
her. After three days had passed and she was not reachable, the man went back
to the market where he has first seen Lucy. He asked around where she resided
and someone directed him to her brother’s house. He went and there was no one
home. The following day early in the morning, he went back. Lucy opened the
door and she could not believe that the man had come to see her before 6 am in
the morning. She wanted to lock him out but he explained that she was needed at
her place of work immediately.
The
stranger wanted to help her, wanting nothing in return. She worked at the shop
for a few years and made friends with the family of her employer. She got
another job where she could practice her career as an accountant. The man she
worked for was very obsessed on how the door of the shop was opened. She had to
recite a prayer seven times on opening the door. The owner of the shop would
take time off to go to a cave to pray for a week. She was a dedicated employee
who did the best she could. The business was making a profit.
Her brother
was working in a firm owned by some Asians and when there was a vacancy, he
asked her to apply. She did and when she was interviewed, they offered her a
salary twice what was to be given for that post. When she went to hand over her
resignation letter, her former boss increased her salary by three times. She
begged him to release her.
Lucy moved to a medical insurance company
where the environment allowed her to grow in her career, she met and fell in
love with her husband and things were going well. Janet, who was her superior, started
bullying her; she would get home upset. Her husband advised her to quit her
job. When her husband was having lunch with a friend called Paul, he told her
about his wife. They arranged for her to go for an interview in Paul’s office. He
is a doctor. The amazing thing was that the office was in the same building as
her former employer. She would meet with Janet in the lift. She would say hello
and Janet would not respond.
The office
that Lucy was working in was providing medical services to the medical
insurance company where she resigned. On the material day, the secretary was
not in, Lucy was asked to fill in for her. The mysteries of life cannot be
explained. Janet came in sick. She saw Lucy seated at the front desk and asked
her to help her see a doctor before the other patients in line. Lucy put her in
her place and told her to wait like every one else or to go get the messenger
from their office to come queue for her. She was too proud to wait she went for
the messenger. After the doctor attended
her, she went to Lucy and apologized for every wrong that she had done to her.
She worked
in Paul’s office for two years. In December, they had a team building tour with
her colleagues. When they left from Nairobi going to Maasai Mara, she
remembered that she had not sent a report that was mandatory every Friday. She requested
her colleagues to allow her to make a stopover in Narok to use a cybercafé. She
noticed that there was only one in the town. One had to have an ID to be
allowed to surf the net. An idea grew root, she consulted with her husband on
then relocating to Narok. He agreed. She took a month off work to set up the
computer business. She advertised her business by offering free internet and
people flocked there. She started teaching them computer packages.
Her
business grew. She resigned from her job and relocated to Narok. She employed
computer teachers to teach the large number of clients. She applied for a
contract with the city council to service the municipal computers. She was
doing so well, she bought a car. She diverged into wheat faming, proposal
writing for the natives.
Talking to Lucy
taught me a lesson. You can be a success no matter where you are, if you work
hard and grab every chance that comes your way.
