The marathon
I was at Russel Lane, which is not a road in New York City but an actual road in Kampala right opposite Cham Towers. I bet you did not know that.
Anyway I was at this little Mobile Money joint withdrawing some money to pay for a purchase I wanted to make. The young woman who was working the transaction was not too quick so I took to looking around idly waiting for her to finish.
A young man clad in a sky blue tee shirt, a grey pair of jeans and trainers suddenly appeared out of nowhere running like crazy. This guy was mighty fast. He ran like his life depended on it.
He probably came from a family of runners. Maybe his father, uncles and a few aunties were seasoned runners. He was clutching a phone in the other hand as he sped along the asphalt. I did not know the marathon had come to the city.
He probably was in the lead and needed the phone to call his buddies at the finishing line to inquire if he was still in the lead. This was my summation of this little scenerio.
After a few seconds other marathon runners followed the lad in sky blue. They, just like him did not have any running gear on. They wore regular clothes.
“Omubbi.” One of them cried as they gave chase. This is when it dawned on me that the lead runner was nothing more than a phone thief making good his escape.
Now what kind of mental talk do these guys that snatch things in the city give themselves? Do they say things like “You can do it Roger. Today you will steal all the phones that you have ever dreamt about.” The name Roger is used for merely hypothetical reasons. I know many decent guys named Roger.
It does take nerves of steel to go around stealing things in the city knowing full well you could be caught and prematurely ushered for a meeting with your maker.
The guys that do this kind of work, do they have families? Do their wives and children know the line of business they are involved in? Do they drag home of phones bent forward under the weight? The lad in blue was quite decently dressed.
He looked like someone you would meet at a university campus carrying a bagful of books coming from a lecture.
Or a young man you would find in a garage doing an apprenticeship in auto repairs. But this guy instead chooses to run marathons in the city because easy money is easy.
