What are neighbours for?
For a really long time, I have pondered over this question and necessity of befriending neighbours. There are various schools of thought as to why we need to get close to neighbours and, well even treat them fairly. They will watch your back, period, some blow out the words out loudly. They are first to rush to your side in times of need before your relations scattered all over Malawi find you, yet others proclaim. There are meant to be our caregivers and we are to reciprocate. Of course, some will be the first to rush to your side as well as scandalise you at the earliest opportunity. But, hey, that’s life I guess. Don’t we have busy bodies everywhere, anyway?
But I would like to share an experience which, in some sort of way vindicates the notion that we all need to mind our own business. Yes, we can rush to each others’ sides, but with caution. That neighbour will always be a stranger with motives, good or bad. Imagine a town house scenario, one compound with different number of houses. Externally, the compound looks one, and possibly on common ground. Trust me, once you are inside the compound, some tenants believe they own the compound and will wreak havoc on others, to the point of ‘evicting’ some with verbal venom. I witnessed one such incident, where a maid from house number one tormented a neighbour for reasons best know to her. I visited a friend in one of the suburbs and thanks to Blantyre Water Board (BWB), the water shortage reared its now mutated head (upon graduation from ugly). My friend lives in a compound with three houses, hers being the middle one. The households are served by a guard employed by the landlord.
On this black day, my friend asked the guard to help her draw water from the common borehole within the yard. The, the guard was busy drawing water for house one, so he said he would get right to it after that errand. It was understood and agreed. Later, the guard decided to draw two pails at a time to drop off at the two houses. Apparently, this arrangement irked the maid. She took the guard to task and showered wanton insults to my friend, accusing her of foolishness and abusing the guard. She went to town demeaning her and suggested she carry the pail herself because that was no task for a man. It was disheartening and pathetic how a mere maid gathered such courage within her mistress’s ear shot in exercise of compound authority. My friend remained quiet with the benefit of the doubt that action would be taken. None came until the landlord was involved. The man of the house apologised later and claimed he had no idea. I still found it strange that the woman and the maid were never part of the apology.
In this case, would you blame my friend for executing insensitivity to disregard her neighbours’ existence and mind her own business? Would such rivalry watch her back? Does she need her neighbours? Bear in mind that her predecessor fled the tirade.
