Here is an advice from me; If it happens, that you have bad neighbour/neighbours, I don't think it wise to have extended discuss with the landlord. Just leave, find another house for your peace sake. The landlord can't do nothing for you, so far no one is destroying his property and he gets his monthly remittance on a regular.
There is no story, lol, okay there is a small story. Ever since I moved into my new house, my neighbours give me hell.
What are the things to lookout for when considering a new house? Because I failed, did not do my homework properly.
It was the garbage bin I noticed first, the evening I moved in. It was full and spilled to the ground. I retraced my steps to the security shack, I just had to ask the old man "What is the plan for waste management?"
I learnt people from waste management board come to empty the bin. Although, they have not been regular because the tenants don't pay. It is a struggle to get them to pay up.
That night, the power did not come on. The guys living in the ground floor apartments brought out plastic chairs, sat down and talked all through the night, talked really loud and laughed like hyenas. This happens everytime there is power outage. However, when the electricity came on they would disperse and one of the guys would go in, boom his music through speakers and turn the house to a club ground.
First night he did it, drums played in my head all day at work. In the morning while dressing, from my window, I watched this guy wash his car and go about his normal business unchallenged. The first person that approached him actually hailed him, even the gate man did not say a word and since then I have been trying to figure out what is wrong with this people."
One night I noticed a very very strange thing. After I had settled in for the night and closed my eyes I heard a sharp thud on the wall beside my bed. It continued for a while and it sounded like somebody was nailing something to the wall. Strange as it was since the flat next to mine is unoccupied, yet the noise persisted I could not sleep I kept feeling the hammering in my brain. This continued for days at times there was a break, two or three days and after that it continued.
One night, I was preparing to sleep I had packed my books and turned off the lamp. The woman downstairs had just turned off her gen, so the house was silent, which was a good thing.
I had barely closed my eyes when the hammering started once more. In annoyance and frustration, determined to have a talk with security the following morning, i stood up and pushed my bed far from the wall. I heard a door slam downstairs and this is what followed.
"Mama salvation are you a witch?! Tell us are you a witch?! Y do u keep hitting the wall above my head! What have I done to u, you this woman?." shouty shouty woman screamed from her balcony.(I gave her shouty shouty woman because even in a friendly conversation, she never talks quietly).
Almost immediately the house came alive, lights flipped on. I had the feeling everyone was awake, but no one wanted to interfere.
I ignored the headache and sat upright. What was I hearing, news of the century. I couldn't believe it. Mama salvation is the woman who lives on the lower floor beside shouty shouty woman. How could she! unbelievable.
Mama Salvation is a smallish single mum with two kindergarten boys and as I came to discover, she is a terror all on her own. She has done things, very nasty things to her neighbours and they avoid her as they possibly can.
I had moved into the house when I realized that the house was owing light bill accumulated by tenants who had come and gone without paying up, which ran into millions. Every month electricity workers threaten to cut the light and we have to tip them. There are days when no one is around and they come calling. So what happens is, we collectively contribute a maximum of ten thousand naira to have the light fixed.
One day the electricity company came in their Hilux vehicle brought down ladder, knocked on our gate, no one came out so they cut the power cables, carried their ladder and walked away. About thirty minutes later they drove back to the house and mama Salvation walked out to meet them, gave them some cash, watched them restore the light before going back in. The strange thing was, the light had been fixed but we did not have light. The compound opposite had. The next street had, everyone had. It was baffling. By evening most people had returned and they noticed something was wrong. Someone(Mr DJ) was the fist to notice the changeovers were gone, disconnected. Someone had removed them that was why there was no light. For two days changeover remained missing, for two days we were without light and water. The third night, mama Salvation called for a meeting where she announced dispassionately that she held the changeovers and until we refund the money she paid to the electricity company, a sum of thirty thousand, we would all remain in darkness.which was thirty thousand, we would not have light. No one paid, no one wanted to but we did eventually when got tired of going down the road to get water from the nearby filling station.
This nasty development continued for awhile until the youths became restive, threatened to beat her up if she ever as lay a finger on the changeovers again. Now it is this same woman hitting the wall every night.
"Mama Salvation, mama salvation are you a witch, stp hitting that thing on my wall, above my head, u are disturbing my sleep. You are wicked, you are very wicked". The aggrieved woman kept on shouting, while the pounding on my wall continued.
gate man ! gate man ! Come and see o. Come nd see what i am experiencing. This wicked woman that will not let me sleep. What sort of rubbish is this. gate man come upstairs now! Don't just stand there.
The gate man actually turned ready to come upstairs when she stopped him;"no don't come upstairs, go to that useless woman's house and talk to that witch.".
The pounding stopped suddenly and a door slammed shut.
"you are a useless woman times two! Your people are witches, your children, your family members everyone is a witch! You and your great grand children are witches". Mama salvation cursed and rained invectives on her assailant.
I could not see what was going on, because both women stood in their balconies yelling at each other but I did see the security man wander confused to the center of the grounds, looking up at the balconies.
"No it is you hitting the wall that is a witch, you animal. I used to think you were praying, but every night? Haba what is it!"
"I am hanging my children's things! I have to hang my children's things!"
"In the night??? Is it night they hang something? Daytime is not enough for you?"
"It is my house i can do whatever i want. I pay my rent. You don't pay my rent for me". Mama Salvation screamed "exactly how you disturb me with your caricature gen. You will put on generator from morning till night. You don't know you are disturbing my sleep too? Now you know how it feels".
Shouty shouty woman missed a beat before she spat "If it is because of my generator, go and buy your own and on it but stop hitting that thing near my head."
Mama Salvation hissed goodnight and I heard her door slam shut once more.
The compound became deathly silent but after about twenty minutes the pounding on the wall started again. Me I just stood up, shifted my bed far away from the wall and went back to sleep. Since I don't know how to shout, I will do what I am good at; managing situations, I cannot come and kill myself.
When I woke up at dawn, shouty shouty woman was downstairs washing her car and singing. Everyone was about, business as usual. Last night began to feel surreal. I almost doubted it had happened. Everyone was too... normal. I looked at the bed that had been moved from the wall and I was sure I did not dream it up.
Few days later, when the memory was beginning to fade, late into the night, I was working with the light of my phone touch, I faintly observed shouty shouty woman's generator shudder and then go off. I took the cue and climbed into bed and some ten minutes later I hear loud pounding on the wall beside me.
A door slammed "Mama Salvation, mama salvation! You this woman do you want to kill me? You are a witch o!"
You know what? Mental illness is real and it doesn't always have to be on the streets or in the market.
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