When Fish is Not Served in the Fisherman’s House.
I don’t know if it is myself alone or even you who has ever noticed that evidently, you are likely
not to be served fish in a fisherman’s house. It is high time we raced down memory lane and weigh
the truth of this matter keenly. Note the probability aspect though.
This is to mean that it is not always the case for every household but generally, you are more likely
to eat fish in a household of non- fish farmers as opposed to one of fish farmers. It is a scenario
that is intriguing and one which needs an academician to study about maybe.
When I was young, around class five, there was this guy who owned a small hotel near our school.
He would wake up early in the morning and cook the best and tastiest mandazis on that side of the
country. And because I was a cheeky young boy, I once tried to capitalize on this aspect.
As you know of astute business people, this guy would not let anyone joke with his mandazis. The
principle was simple, buy. Yet I was young and without money to purchase the sweet snack. That
is where I formulated my first strategic lesson.
I tried to find an excuse to go to the hotelier’s house in the mornings and there I hoped to find the
wife and children enjoying white tea and Mandazi. Having noticed the communal ties especially
in relation to children’s welfare, I was sure I would be invited to the merry also.
I was very wrong. Although I was invited to join in the breakfast, which I gladly accepted with
expectation though, I realized they were enjoying a cup of porridge and sweet potatoes on the first
day. I thought it was because they were tired of eating the meal that brought me here and that they
had decided to change due to boredom. I was wrong on this one too.
After attempting a number of those uncalled-for visits, I came to a singular conclusion. Tea and
mandazi to that family was the same as it was in ours; a rare privilege. Of the many visits I made,
only once probably did I have the opportunity to take sweet tea and those mandazis there.
And after realizing all was in vain. I called it quits. This realization compelled me to agree with
the Swahili adage that says, ‘kwa mvuvi hakuliwi samaki’ (Fish is not served in a fisherman’s
house) and the other that says to the same effect, ‘kwa seremala hakukaliwi kiti’ (There are no
seats in a carpenter’s house.)
In simple terms, there is a difference between business and personal life. I thought very deeply
about the statements in the preceding paragraph and realized they only make sense if applied in
the context of a business environment.
It is unwise to eat stock, and so the fisherman who does fishing as an economic activity will always
give priority to satisfy the demand of the customers and earning a profit first. With the profit, he
can meet other many expenses and thus, everything else is secondary.
I realized that probably you might not get served the best fish if you happen to have it served in a
fisherman’s house. This is because the best is for the market so that it can fetch a good profit. The
not so good for market then finds its way to the fisherman’s table.
Same as the case of the carpenter. It may not necessarily mean that in a carpenter’s house there is
no seats at all. There could be seats, but not of equivalent quality you see in his showroom. Those
are made for sale and to earn him an income.
In wondering what happens in a fisherman’s house when fish is not served, the answer is simple.
Nothing happens. That is part and parcel of a regular routine perhaps. The fisherman and his family
are aware of their situation and are living it fully.
As you may have realized, it is me who could be worried over such a matter which by all means
is expected to happen once in a while. Even if the fisherman wanted to eat fish every single day,
it would bring issues such as boredom.
If the carpenter wanted to have all the good seats he makes, the fact is that he will not have enough
place and space to put them. He will only have what he wants. At the end of the day, it is we who
hurt because we had so much expectations of him.
I now have the answer as to why I can hear that a psychologist or even counselor committed suicide
and not wonder. They too are people prone to the folly of human extremes and judgements. Their
careers could be more a means to put food on the table as opposed to the very definition of their
personal natures against which they can judged.
One thing can be my business though. A piece of advice, that even in our trade and businesses,
once in a while let us also partake of the best. The body will need a good meal and proper rest in
order to ensure tomorrow can afford an earning meat for the day too.
And lastly, there is nothing that brings peace like contentment. Ambition is good, yet it must
always be measured to ensure we are not so much into wondering what happens when fish does
not get served in the fisherman’s house and end up having long sleepless nights whereas the
fisherman is happily sleeping through the night unperturbed that fish wasn’t served on their platter.
Remember you will never have it all at once. Even the richest man on earth doesn’t have the whole
universe. He sleeps on a single bed at any single night, he can only drive one car at a time, sit on
one chair at a time and many more things.
Have it as you need demands period. Frugality is a virtue at the end of the day.
End.
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