Coder Girl
“I need to know what the time is.”
“Ah Ahn, why? You just came here a few minutes ago Deola, and now you’re asking that question. That’s not how things are done o.”
“Aunty Dupeeee, Aunty Dupeeee, ah ahn now.” She said the ‘now’ with an extra drawl, long enough to show her exasperation, short enough to show it was playful; that she was only joking.
“I came here by six in the morning, it's almost 3 pm now and I need to leave so I can reach home in time to do chores for my mum. You know how she is now, if she thinks I’m not doing what I’m supposed to, she’d begin to para. So, that’s why I'm trying so hard to finish up all my chores so she can leave me alone and I can have free space and time to concentrate on my learning for the next two days. There’s an online test I’m supposed to take.”
“Plus, I also need to get on her good side so she can let me go for the classes I’d be having back to back next week.”
“I thought you said it was visual?” aunty quips
“V-I-R-T-U-A-L, virtual aunty D, and yes it is, but I need the light and data now, plus I concentrate better there than at home.”
“Omo, you use to try o. I don’t know how pressing a computer is supposed to do anything good for you especially since you’re a girl. Unless it’s yahoo you’re doing, at least I've heard of yahoo girls. But you said you’re not doing yahoo, that it’s legit and even if it was yahoo, I’ll tell you to stop because it’s not paying.”
“You’re a girl Deola, come and learn how to plait hair and fix nails from me. I'll teach you for free. Or if you want, I can hook you up with someone that sells clothes, she has big clients fa, she can teach you how she imports her stuff and then even connect you to some big people that you’d be selling to; the kind of work for a girl, especially a beautiful girl like you. Or at least, if you won’t work, marry that guy I heard is coming for you. I heard he’s minted abi it’s his dad, I don’t know sha, I just know he has money. It’s not going to go and press computers that only boys are supposed to. ”
You laugh because it is funny and then you reply,
“I don’t think there’s such a thing as ‘boy’s career choices’ and ‘girls career choices’. I don’t judge people who decide to sell clothes or make hair or manis and pedis for a living. That’s their choice or at least what they feel life gave them. But you see this? This ‘pressing computer morning and night’, it’s what I love. And it’s what I’ve been made to do.”
“The journey might be tough and shaky, and there are periods I might go on long breaks sef, but you see this stuff? We’ll continue until something comes out of it. Because I've heard other people’s stories and I know that something will.”
She laughs and says “Omo, you don ment.”
You smile and you tell her bye.
You smile because you didn’t even expect her to understand it in the first place.
Most people don’t.
