Obaa Yaa
By Obaa Yaa
Dear Obaa Yaa,
I am a regular reader of your column. I admire the extent to which you go to help get solutions to some of the problems readers present to you.
I have an interesting concern which I hope you can help address just as you do with relationship matters. This has to do with taxi drivers.
Obaa Yaa, all I want to know and understand is why taxi drivers always want to count their money during rides. I don’t know whether that is to show off to passengers what they have or not.
I believe they can sit comfortably in their cars and count their proceeds without any inconvenience or interference when they end their rides or reload their car. Interestingly, they sometimes do so about two or more times before reaching their respective destinations.
What makes it more fascinating is that I have asked over five taxi drivers why they always want to count their monies when driving. The answers I got amused me. After the laughter, they told me they came to meet the practice.
Obaa Yaa, can you please use your platform to get some answers for me or other passengers that may also have wondered about this practice?
—Sammy Tee, La Wireless
Dear Sammy Tee,
We appreciate your kind effort of reading and enjoying our stories. It’s quite funny and interesting to hear about this fascinating story involving some taxi drivers.
This practice has been ongoing since time immemorial, and I don’t believe it will change anytime soon. I have personally encountered such drama when I gave a taxi driver a huge amount for my change. He quickly brought out his sales and started shouting at me that he didn’t have smaller denominations.
In my opinion, taxi drivers count their monies to keep track of earnings and to give accurate change. Also, some taxi drivers usually deal with different denominations. Counting helps to separate notes and coins for easier transactions with the next group of passengers.
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Dear Obaa Yaa,
We bumped into each other on orientation day as freshers on campus. I liked his smile, his choice of words, and charisma. I didn’t hesitate at all when he asked for my contact. Who wouldn’t want to be friends with a guy like this, I said to myself.
We texted more often, had conversations on phone, and our friendship literally grew very strong. We attended lectures together, studied together, hanged out together; everyone thought we were lovers.
He did everything for me—surprise dates, thoughtful gifts, pays my academic fees, and gives me a listening ear everyone would wish for.
One evening at a friend’s birthday party, standing in the middle of the audience, he proposed and asked me to be his girlfriend. I declined his proposal; this was because I have no feelings for him, and I just want us to be friends.
He is a man with good morals, so gentle, God-fearing, ambitious, a man every lady would wish for, but my heart just wasn’t in it. I wondered if love was supposed to be this complicated: the more he did, the more I felt like a friend, not a lover. He still wants me, but I want us to be just friends. What should I do?
Naa Kwarley, Kaneshie.
Dear Naa Kwarley,
This is a tough situation, and you’re handling it with both kindness and firmness.
Since you’ve already told him you’re not interested in a romantic relationship, it’s crucial to be clear and direct while still being respectful. I’d advise you to reiterate your feelings to him, emphasising that you value him as a person and appreciate what he’s done, but you see him more as a close friend. Make it clear that you hope you can still maintain a strong friendship, but it can’t be anything more.
It’s essential to be prepared for him to need space or time to process, so be patient and understanding.
Dear Obaa Yaa,
I am a regular reader of your highly esteemed paper and I would like to know whether some amount of money is paid to those who write short stories for publication on the children’s page of your Weekly Spectator.
I wrote a short story which was published last month, and my friends who saw it told me that a token will be paid to anyone whose story is published.
A.J., Kwabenya.
Dear A.J.,
We don’t pay for short stories published on our children’s page. That opportunity is to encourage school children to develop the habit of writing. We believe that by publishing their short stories, they’ll be encouraged to write more.
The paper is open to everyone who wants to share ideas or write about a concern.
