A Con?

 

Desperate for a job, I embarked on a journey with a friend to hunt for a job at any supermarket we could find as long as it entailed customer service. Before that, I went to print my resume and cover letter at a cyber cafe in Nairobi, and I met a man who uncomfortably stared at me. I didn't know why, but enough to see through you. As the cyber attendant printed the documents, he peeped at my papers, and I felt a strong urge to tell him to mind his business. To prevent bad luck that day, I behaved accordingly, throwing the notion of not talking to strangers out the window. He looked at me and asked," Which job are you applying for?" surprised, I looked at him and said nervously," Social media job!". All my life, I have trained myself to never talk to strangers for fear of being drugged, but since he was somewhere indoors, I figured I'd let my guard down a little. He said," Send me your CV, something is coming…" I was so confused. Had I come across my destiny helper? My mind raced. He wrote his email and phone number on paper the cyber attendant tore for him. I took the piece of paper, paid for the printing service, said thank you, left, and boarded a matatu to the supermarket headquarters. I don't know why I was smiling at the bus stop like a mad person; maybe it was because there was hope. It was midday, and as they say, the sun was sunning; I could feel it burn straight through my skull. I was dressed to kill for the abrupt CV dropping (testing my luck). I had worn some "mokase" shoes, a description my aunt uses funnily. For some reason, they were tighter than they were in the morning, making my feet kill me from walking; I'd blame it on the sun from a fact that suggests shoes shrink in high temperatures, and for sure, it felt like 100 degrees Celsius. We dropped our documents and left, hoping for the best.

When I got home, I emailed the guy my CV and texted him, saying I had sent it. He responded, saying he would check it out. After that, I went on my weekend like nothing happened. The following week, he emailed me and requested a sit down when he would be available. I responded I'd be looking forward to it. My paranoid self decided to check his website using the email he sent me. There were some red flags: the website was incomplete, and it was as if he had copy pasted content into it. Then, the images used were not original. That alone freaked me out. I checked their social media, but there was no engagement. These new findings tickled my paranoid side. I gave him the benefit of the doubt, considering it's a start-up business, but why was I this anxious?

After a few days, he texted me via WhatsApp and told me to meet on Monday, but later said he would be unavailable. He suggested we meet on Tuesday and told me to take my flash with me. On Monday, before the meeting day, I suggested we change the meeting place because the place was unfamiliar to me and was not on Google Maps, and that made me uncomfortable. He became aggressive all of a sudden, and it was only a suggestion. He said," My dear, is it me or you who needs the job? Forget about it". This statement alone made me question this whole thing. There's a way you can tell someone, no, that's not possible, but getting all aggressive for the suggestion made me really doubt him. Still desperate, I said the reason I was asking was because I wanted to know if it would be possible to change the meeting place so I could plan my day better. He bought it and asked what time I preferred: between 9 am and 2 pm.

Being a morning person, I chose 9 am. The whole day, I was feeling uneasy, and this was a horrible feeling that made me not think straight; I was so tense. I had gone for many interviews and got nervous before that day, but this feeling was nothing compared to it. With all the killings going around, I was skeptical. I asked my friend if he would accompany me and stay at a safe distance in case of anything, and he also found it shady. My parents also felt the whole thing wasn't adding up; they joined the dots real quick and told me that if I went, I should turn on my location. They respected me enough to ask me how I felt about the whole thing, and at this point, I felt confusion and chills. As if that was not sufficient to make me more nervous, my friend told me he wouldn't promise me anything yet, so at this point, I knew I would go alone. Because I was not that desperate to risk my life for something shady, I decided to make something up to cancel the meetup. You would trust someone who has something to show by being honest. But this one was not open about what he does. I suggested a virtual meeting to show my interest, but he said it could wait…at this point, I had so many questions. Why couldn't we meet virtually since it was an unfamiliar place? Was this a plot to lure me into something bad or otherwise? Is he just a genuine destiny helper? Looks like we'll never know. Stay tuned for more.