By The Reporters
MUTARE – Local woman Gloria Sachiti (26) spent the entirety of her journey from Mutare’s Central Business District (CBD) to Dangamvura where she resides feeling terribly dreadful of asking for her change from the kombi conductor, only doing so just as she told the conductor of where she was dropping off. Mustering all the courage in her, Sachiti finally asked the conductor for her change when she dropped off at the junction near Dangamvura High School, but she was even afraid of telling the conductor that she needed to drop off.
“I gave the conductor a $10 note, and I knew I was setting myself up for some serious trouble,” Sachiti told The Reporters. She added: “When I was still in town, I tried by all means to find separate loose notes, but I just couldn’t succeed. That’s when I knew kuti pakaipa. The moment I had to give him that $10 note, my heart started pounding. My anxiety shot through the roof! Getting all that change for one person only is such a gargantuan challenge. I asked myself, ‘Am I really entitled to this change?’ That’s how difficult it was.” Sachiti said that throughout the whole journey, she was thinking of a plethora of ways to ask for her change, which was $9. However, she did not register much success in that regard.
At press time, efforts to get
a comment from the conductor were fruitless, but the driver told The Reporters
that if passengers remain quiet throughout the journey and not ask for their
change – acknowledging that it’s not an easy thing for the nation’s citizens to
ask for their change without some palpitations in their hearts – then that
would be a sweet win for driver and conductor.
