The Good Deed Tradition

AFRICANS! UGH!

Ever since I came back from Nigeria, I’ve been bitching about Africans. The Africans in Nigeria, my African parents, the Africans of property Chi… it’s been non-stop and it’s not the easiest thing for me to read over and over again on this blog. It seems really weird complaining about Africans on MLK Day, but what can I do? With that said, here’s yet another African dilemma I find myself in…

In 2012, I started doing traditions. I wanted to start doing something every year to make life less stressful. The first idea I had was Blackout Day, which turned out to be fantastic. I can’t wait for this year’s Blackout Day because I really need it. The next idea I had was called Good Deeds, where I do one good deed every year. I started off in 2012 by paying for a meal for an African. I was waiting to pay for my Subway sandwiches one day, when an African came in and didn’t have enough to afford the sandwich that he wanted. So I quietly told the cashier to charge me for my sandwich as well as the sandwich he wanted to buy. I paid for it and then left quickly, not wanting to hear any “thank yous” or shaking any goddamned hands. I did it for me, not him, and I really didn’t want to forge any awful friendships... especially with those who can’t pay for a $5 sub. It felt good, and I wanted to keep the tradition going in 2013. Enter Ola.

For 2013’s Good Deed, I decided to hook Ola up with a job with the shipping depot’s security company that I work for. A position opened up at a different site, and my boss Charles asked if I knew anyone. I gave Ola the application, told him what to write, vouched for him to Charles, and he was hired. It was a bump in salary for Ola, going from $9 an hour to $10.50, as well as 20 hours of guaranteed overtime a month. It was also a much easier job than what he was doing, and the best part was that it was at a different site than where I work. It felt good and I thought it was another successful good deed. When I came back from Nigeria, I found out that he had an altercation with someone there and there’s an investigation. He accused someone of stealing or something, I dunno. That’s not the point. The point is that he now works at MY shipping depot until the matter is resolved. And here’s the kicker: I heard from Sha (who also works at my shipping depot somehow) that he teases me whenever my name is brought up. Like if someone says: “Oh you know Roger? That’s a good hard working guy.” He will respond with something like, “Roger? Nah he’s a dumbass.” It’s like he’s trying to make himself look good by putting down someone they respect. It’s… it’s… it’s my fault.

My annual good deed should never be done to someone that I know, especially someone like Ola. Ever since he got fired from the bank job in May of last year for excessive lateness, Ola has had 3 more jobs and he’s screwed up at all of them. He screwed up at the bank job for being late. He screwed up at a job he had worked with Sha because he left the job one day and thought no one saw him. He quit his next job to work at the shipping depot site, and now he screwed up there as well. That’s 4 jobs in less than a year. He just recently got into a car accident and hurt his neck. And now he has the nerve to talk shit about me at a place where I’ve worked long a hard to build a reputation at? I should have known better. This was entirely my fault. And now I have to wait until he screws up there as well, and hope he doesn’t drag me down with him. And how the hell did Sha start working there?? He filled out an application but said he was just doing it to have options and would never work there due to the low pay. Now he’s there every fucking Monday.

From now on, there are rules to my annual Good Deed:

1)    It has to be done to a stranger.
2)    The person(s) can never know it was me who did it.
3)    The Good Deed cannot be done anywhere near my two jobs or my properties.

This will ensure that this problem doesn’t happen again, but it wouldn’t have happened in the first place had I used common sense. But the lesson was mine to learn and I have done so. The Good Deed tradition will continue until it no longer gives me a good feeling. And, as for Ola… ugh. Just another African in my way. If it wasn’t for him helping me learn Yoruba I would have stopped talking to his ass the moment he got fired. Once I came back from the Nigeria trip, I was really hoping to get rid of him. But, with him now connected to my job, I can no longer do that without disturbing the balance I worked for so long to create. Ah well. It seems there’s truth to the notion that no good deed goes unpunished.

P.S.: Sha spoke to me and felt bad for Ola when telling me of all his recent problems. That’s the big difference between Sha and I. He feels sorry for Ola because bad things happen to him. I despise Ola because he causes bad things to happen to himself. He comes from a land where people would kill to have the opportunities that he’s had, and look at how he constantly fucks up! Ola’s the kind of guy you can give a million dollars to and he’d be dead broke (or just dead) in 2 years. I pride myself on having full control of the people I surround myself with, and I made a huge mistake with Ola. I really hope he gets fired or dies or something. Whatever keeps him out of my path to success is fine by me.