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Fadzayi Maposah Correspondent
Have you ever clutched something so close to you as if your whole life depended on it?
The tight hold that meant that nothing should come between you and what you were holding.
I have held on tightly to many things in my life and as I approach half a century you can be certain that it is true that I have held onto to many things!
I have shed tears for what I lost along the way and celebrated what remained.
I am sure that women and girls out there can relate to holding tightly a handbag with some money.
I learnt that the reason why women are robbed is because of the way they hold their handbags.
The person who shared this with me included `visuals` as women walked about the bus terminus where the commuter omnibus in which we sat at the front with the driver was loading.
By `visuals` I mean he actually pointed out women walking and would casually ask me to observe how they held their handbags and then he would say whether the bag had real money or just bus-fare.
I observed that some women held their bags very close to their chests, while the others were carefree.
My commuter omnibus companion said experienced thieves then knew which females to follow and attempt stealing from.
As my` tutor` turned his attention to his phone, I continued to look at the women walking about the bus terminus.
Then I remembered a moment in my life when I had clutched a handbag as if my life depended on it. Actually my life, my reputation and my social standing did depend on it!
So here is the story.
I had just started working. I am fortunate that in my line of work that I travel a lot and get to see different places and meet people from diverse communities.
On this particular day that I recalled as the commuter omnibus was loading, I was having an ‘it’ experience. Because I travel regularly, it has happened on many occasions that I travel as I have an ‘it’ experience.
I was the only female on this particular team of four.
Travelling with males is not easy (apologies to the males reading!). It is more complicated if one is traveling and is on the ‘it’ experience and ‘it’ is pouring!
To be sure that all is well, when an opportunity presents itself it is important to go to the toilet and check. I have travelled with all sorts of representatives of the male species, some can suggest that stopping at a bushy area is the best just because they have no challenges in using a bush toilet! A story for another day…
On this particular day I asked when we stopped to refuel if I could go to the toilet. The looks that I got from my male workmates were all questioning.
This was the era before Covid-19, no masks were worn so one could read complete paragraphs off a face!
I remember only one colleague verbalising the look on his face by asking if I had been upset by the breakfast that we had earlier.
When I said no, the questions remained but I chose to ignore them. At the service station I got out quickly with my handbag and asked the male attendant if I could use their toilet.
He handed me a key and then pointed where the toilet was.
Knowing that taking long in the toilet would invite more (unnecessary if you ask me) questions from my male counterparts, with my handbag very close to me I made big strides to the ablution facility.
Got to the toilet, unlocked the door and then locked myself inside. Then swiftly went on to check. The flow was really heavy and the ‘it’ ware needed to be changed before a mishap happened.
Changed quickly and carefully and then began to look for a bin to dispose of the sanitary ware.
No bin.
Realising that the sanitary ware that I was using could not be flushed, I had to think on my toes. You know when we write on our curriculum vitaes (CVs) that we can work under pressure with minimal or no supervision we rarely put much thought to it!
On this particular day I had lots of pressure and there was no one to supervise me.
So I decided that I would wrap my used sanitary ware properly and put it in my handbag at the very bottom and make sure that whatever happened it would not fall out even if I tipped over my handbag and its contents fell out.
I then decided that I would empty the little purse that contained the yet to be used sanitary ware, put the used one in there.
Quick look around to check that there were no traces of the ‘it’ experience, flushed, washed my hands, unlocked the door, locked again from the outside and walked back to give the fuel attendant the key.
All the while holding my handbag very close to me, closer than before.
It contained precious cargo that I only knew about. As I got into the car, the male colleagues asked if I was okay and I just responded that I was fine.
I did not say that I had failed to find something in the toilet that I thought should have been there.
All I could do was look out of the window as we drove out of the service station holding on to the bag with my precious cargo which I would let go as soon as I got a place to dispose of it properly.
We got back on the highway and continued with our journey, ready for the work ahead, but I was conscious of the fact that something basic had not been in that toilet…
Online Reporter