Mai Rudo's application

‘I am going to submit these forms first thing tomorrow morning and deal with Baba vaRudo’s reaction later. There is no way I am going to die a lodger because that man won’t put his ego aside for the sake of reason’, Mai Rudo thought to herself as she completed the mortgage application forms from the bank.

Two years ago, she had tried to discuss the issue of the mortgage offer from the bank with Baba vaRudo and his response had been, ‘it is the responsibility of a man to build his family a house’. Mai Rudo had tried to reason with him by explaining that because she was formally employed she met the criteria for the application. Baba vaRudo could simply deposit the monthly mortgage repayment into her account, that way he would essentially be the one purchasing the house. To this suggestion, he had simply walked off and gone to watch soccer at the pub.

However, today Mai Rudo had made up her mind and she was not going to back on it. ‘This man has held me back so many times and I feel like I am constantly having to live small so that he can feel big’, she thought as she indented her signature on the last page of the application booklet.

Baba vaRudo had previously worked as a cashier at the post office. They had met at the bank, where she was a teller and he visited daily to make deposits from the post office. His uncle was a senior someone at the Post Office Head Office and he had facilitated Baba vaRudo’s promotions from being a deliveryman to a cashier despite having barely scraped through his O Levels.  Over the years, Mai Rudo had, on several occasions tried to convince him to go back to school to acquire a degree or some professional qualification to add to his experience. Baba vaRudo would hear none of it, once he said he did not have the time. Another time he said he did not need to go to school to learn concepts he was already applying; and another time he angrily asked her to stop comparing him to the men she worked with at the bank. Eventually, she had stopped asking him about it.

Ten years into their marriage, when Baba vaRudo’s uncle was fired from the Post Office, there was a purge of all his relatives and loyalists, and as a result, Baba vaRudo was retrenched. His uncle felt very bad about the retrenchment, especially since his nephew had such a young family. He invited Baba vaRudo to work for his painting company as a team supervisor. Sadly, two years later, Baba vaRudo’s uncle passed on and Baba vaRudo was unemployed. Mai Rudo had to bite her tongue on several occasions when she felt like reminding him about the numerous times she had asked him to go back to school.

After a year of trying this and that, Baba vaRudo had decided to start his own painting company. The business had peaks and dips like any other. The uncertainty of his income was the reason Baba vaRudo had given for making the unanimous decision to move to South Sudan and try his luck there. A decision she resented him for because he had not consulted her about it or even sought her opinion about the move. Now here he was, six months after his move sending a message on WhatsApp that read, ‘things are not working out here, I am making arrangements to come back at the end of the month’. She could have told him that this was not going to work before he had gone, but he never asked, now he was coming back with very little to show for six months away from his family.

She had not replied the messages, she had no contribution to the conversation, and it is not as if the move had anything to do with her. That message was the main reason she had completed her mortgage application forms. She had to secure her future and that of her children and a house was a sure way to achieve this security. She was aware that this was clearly not being submissive, but she felt she had to.

She reached for phone to check for messages and found a message from Mr Muza which read, ‘ You have been on my mind’.

She had not replied any of his messages or taken any of his calls since the almost lunch three days ago but he continued to text and call and this made her feel some form of awkward warmth on the inside...