In 2013…I set off to look for my first rented house as a national service personal.
After roaming weeks in Accra and still found none, I knew my strategy had to change. It was either I got money to pay an agent who will be taking me on a search spree or I built muscles in my legs so I could walk longer distances than I had earlier done.
One morning, having prayed that I must get a house today at all cost, I set off. This time with no particular area in mind. I stood by the roadside a while and hoped into a Kaneshie “trotro” from Kwabenya.
In the trotro, I heard a Nigerian man saying on the phone…”but I’ve told you I don’t like that house now, houses like that you cannot predict when they will lock you outside because I don’t come home early”. When he finished, I first apologised for eavesdropping then said, “Oga, please I’m in dire need of a house. Do you mind showing me where this one you don’t like is located, I might like it”. He looked at me weirdly then asked the mate to stop.
Eii the trotro was going to Kaneshie o, I sat in from Kwabenya and we had passed by the roundabout getting to Dome. He paid for himself and I and we got down.
He kept looking at me as we got down, I guess he wanted to be sure whom I was and what force ‘compelled’ him to do as he had done. I looked away if I caught his eye and kept praying “I must get a house today in my head”.
We boarded another trotro back to Kwabenya and we walked a distance to the house. All this while, none of us spoke a word. He showed me the house and I liked it straightaway.
After I said I will rent it, he now told me his name. I told him mine, said thank you and took his contact so I could thank him again. I called two weeks later when I moved in to say thank you one more time.
I lived in that house from 2013, travelled in 2018, returned and moved out of the house in early 2022 after almost 9 years.
I brought this up today to confirm Chinua Achebe’s proverb, “when a man says yes, his personal God (chi) will also say yes”.
That incident definitely was divinely orchestrated, however it wasn’t outside of my determination and affirmation.
Besides the lesson of determination is this:
1. Value every encounter with anybody, it might be for a specific reason.
2. You are either helping to solve a problem or you are teaching them a lesson.
3. Not all relationships last, yet they all must achieve their purpose.
I am the GHANAIAN VILLAGER writing about the everyday life encounters and the lessons therein.