When you live with people in a community where you share social infrastructure it behooves every individual to show consideration for one another, right? Well this couldn’t be further from the truth in my compound which I share with 11 other tenants. Need I say, some of these tenants are business tycoons of the ‘sell fish’ variety (if you know what I mean). The reason I decided to write this topic was because I got into a mini altercation over the use of a clothes line outside my residence. Here’s what went down:

I did my laundry on Sunday morning quite early but before I took it outside to dry I did something unusual – I hung dirty clothes on the clothes-line. Let me explain. The previous weekend I fell victim to not having any free clothes line to dry my wet laundry. I therefore decided to ‘reserve’ my clothes line space by pre-hanging dirty clothes on a section of the clothes line with the intention of replacing those with my wet laundry. Pretty smart or pretty desperate? You decide.

Anyway, I got the shock of my life by the time I went outside to hang my washed laundry – my dirty clothes had been shifted, so much so that I now had 50% of the space I had wittingly reserved! Next came the metamorphosis; my dark brown pupils and my whole body turned fluorescent green. The Crazy Nigerian marched upstairs to the neighbour who was responsible for this mischief to give her a piece of my mind.

When she came outside I told her, as politely as I could, that she shouldn’t have moved my things. Her response was that she moved them because they were dry (Duh! Those were my dirty dry clothes you clown!). I told her that I never washed anything on Saturday and that the least I could expect is to have a section of the few clothes-lines available once a week. This lady I’m talking about washes clothes 7-days week! I mean, just how filthy is your household for crying out loud! Guess what she did next – she complied with my request and took off the clothes which encroached my space. I hung my clothes as intended and felt for a moment a feeling of euphoria as I turned back to my normal self.

Yes, this was a mini tantrum victory for me but I’d like to know how you would have handled this situation whereby you just can’t seem to get a fair share (if any) of a public facility e.g. clothes-line. Would you chicken out and dry your clothes indoors? Buying another clothes-line and setting it up outside is pointless because someone will almost certainly occupy it if you don’t. Or would Or would you toss them to the floor, hide or bury or burn them just to hang your own clothes? Or would you confront your neighbour and fight for what should be your right as a tenant in that compound? Do tell 🙂