Midnight at Merseyside 2

After a successful interview, I got the job at Tesco, Merseyside. My shift was from midnight to 4am. The public bus ends before I start and resumes after I have close. It was impossible for me to use taxi to and from work because my minimum wage salary could not afford taxi. The few times I used the public bus to and from work was when I got extra hour or two to do extended work at the City Centre branch of Tesco. I got to use the public bus then because that work starts from 5am when the public bus has started work. The most obvious means of going to my regular work was on foot on the lonely roads at midnight.  

My first day at work, I was dressed in an oversized working boots handed down to me by Alex when he was returning to Ghana. I used same boots throughout my working period till I returned to Ghana also. Alex was tall and had a big foot compared to mine. Upon seeing me at work, this Nigeria colleague laughed so loud and said “Oga, this una boots can kill person”. He continued by saying in his ancestral village in Nigeria such boots can be used to curse an offending individual and gods will obey the spirituality of the boots. Outwardly I laughed, inwardly I frowned. Later when he got to know I was a Ghanaian he commented on the boots again and said they were given to me by Alex who he used to laugh at for wearing them.  

My first experience working on the travelator was a real terror. I moved at opposite of the travelator, falling down several time. It was my first experience walking on the travelator and cleaning it. The ideal thing was to switch it off so cleaning it becomes easy but I didn’t know and my colleague never did. This Nigerian colleague who was supposed to be orienting me was rather having a good laugh at me and not doing the work either. At one point when a fell on the travelator, he shouted “it is not by might neither is it by power”. I wanted to work well to justify my stay on the job. He told me “Oga you don’t have to do all the work today, you can’t impress anybody here”.

Later on, I was told by my supervisor from Kenya that that Nigerian boy was a problem and the only reason he is keeping him on the job is so that he can also get a source of livelihood. Our Kenyan supervisor was keeping a true African in the diaspora spirit; the need to help other Africans because we were far from home.

Three months into the work, I was adjudged the best employee. I was so happy but to the gossips of the other African workers who had being on the job for long but has not received any recognition. I was told of a Ghanaian who was once employed to do same work I did. He came to work with kenkey and chicken stew in his food box, two hours into working, he took a break and ate his food after which he slept till early morning leaving the work half done. He was awakened in the morning and left home, he never returned to work again. He complained the work was too difficult and that if he continues he will die sooner.

Admittedly, the work was somewhat complex. It included having to dismantle the whole delicatessen machines to degrease the chicken fat in the boilers with detergents. The complexity of dismantling and reassembling the machines beat every single person who worked in the department. Without sounding boastfully, I was told to have being the only employee who worked smoothly on the machines.

Sometimes, the annoying part could be after you have finished working on the bakery, a baker comes and intentionally spreads like a two kilograms quantity of flour on the floor and call you to clean it up. Some of those guys were like a pebble in the shoe. I had to survive by all means so was prepared to bare the difficulties knowing that sooner when I had completed my postgraduate education, a better life awaits me in Ghana. But there were yet more challenges ahead. Life be some way bi. To succeed, you need to keep a continuous focus fight; when you fall, you get up and you continue. If you win you celebrate, if you lose you keep trying and strategizing.                  

For over a year, I walked the lonely roads at midnights from my flat to work and back. Between the distances were two cemeteries and two funeral homes with mortuaries attached. I had to put my fears away if I am to survive. I was a self-financing international postgraduate student. The expenses are huge; tuition fees, transportation, accommodation, feeding, clothing, books, entertainment, etc. There were also families and friends and church back home in Ghana who expected remittances for survival and offerings and tithes. To them you are abroad and it was their prayers that took you there so you need to remit them else they reverse their prayers. African Christianity is in many charismatic circles is but full of propagating fear theology. How dare you not to obey?  

I managed with my minimum wage income job to settle my financial obligations mostly to self-denial of any entertainment, luxury clothing and foods. The few times I went to the restaurant were by invitation. I lived on the fringes contrarily to the norms of the society and the stylish life of a postgraduate student. The Chaplaincy in the university served all day breakfast. It was intended to get people come to the Chaplaincy for reflection. I made the most out of my visits to the Chaplaincy.

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