RICKETY housing has never ceased to amuse Lazzo because in one of these structures, a rat is nibbling at an opaque brew sachet even with the commotion around caused by loud music and people talking!

The rat has bitten off a large piece of plastic causing a hole which has disclosed the opaque drink that also caused humans to behave in miscellaneous fashion.

In the corner of the makeshift enclave some woman lies inanimate on a reed-mat recuperating from a hangover caused by the marauding festivities as she had turned into an all-night reveller the past 24 hours!

For a night, it is astounding how many people have gone overboard into infidelity risking marital break-ups. In fact, there have been a few punch-ups as a litany of fireworks permeate the skies.

Every year in December, this time comes round when all and sundry get embroiled in celebrating life and not what the occasion is meant for.

An avalanche of food is bought by those able to shop for edibles this time round.

The most common recipe has been rice and chicken although one outspoken woman was heard advance her philosophy by declaring that she always ate rice anyway and her household is used to eating the niceties that many people believe are an exclusive preserve of Christmas!

But she is contradicted by a man who tells her that at her age, she had advanced through generations which her children are yet to go through and she should not be a hypocrite to stop her children whose moment has come to reflect on what Christmas is really meant for.

Way down the road, two lads lie exhausted by a furrow with bottles of gin by their side oblivious of the curiosity around them and seemingly lost in their own world!

The common dressing of t-shirts emblazoned with American philosophy matched by a pair of faded jeans would tell one the story.

It is a story seldom told about what seems to be juvenile delinquency and wayward expression!

In fact, it is a common facet of existence in these parts for the lads to talk to anyone as if the addressee was not dressed.

This is by way of unpalatable language that emanates from the ‘foul mouths’ of these urban-bred youths one may rightly describe as ‘rascals’.

She was further reminded that her generation used to walk to school as far away as Kafue carrying pockets of mealie meal to cook at school.

“Those times are long gone and we should not subject our children to experiences of the olden times,” the man declares seemingly satisfied that he had driven a cardinal point home.

Elsewhere in the enclave, patrons are busy imbibing to a local ballad whose lyrics are somewhat nonsensical by the way the lyrics get to the audience. The composer sounds like a blabbermouth out to emulate American hip-hop music.

The theme of his composition is somewhat evasive or obscure because too many details crop up at random and the range from love, politics and social life in general if one had to write it out, its symmetry would not even make poetic sense.

But Lazzo realises this is what society is being subjected to as a man gathers enough courage to virtually order the persons seated behind the makeshift counter to play some sensible music!

Still what comes out when another song plays is a series of lingua franca phrases that may prove to be gibberish crap to yesteryear generations!

Still, one has to be an urbanite to really get the gist of what the musician(s) is trying to impart because it is apparent that a listener in the remotest part of the hinterland would have nothing to do with this music which has no bearing on countryside lifestyles.

Still roving the neighbourhood, Lazzo is affected by the merry-making mood spreading like a wild bush fire that seems unstoppable until dawn.

It is quite a crazy time for some of the elderly who have seen many such days and subsequently have had enough of the noisy fireworks!

Lazzo thinks that one may mistake this attitude to being resistance to change but this is what forms the progression of civilisation locally and elsewhere.

In cosmopolitan Lusaka, one sees a similar transplant of what some people rudely describe as ‘shanty life’. It seems rampant in some sections of the city albeit with a makeshift character.

It is these places that are a breeding ground for recalcitrant behaviour at dusk which inevitably call for more policing and surveillance by the law-enforcing agents!

Without such scallywag characteristics, one does not experience mugging, pick-pocketing and other forms of deviant behaviour that appear to be a common feature of the inner capital city.

Lazzo’s colleague with a knack for academic semantics vehemently defends such developments as a ‘been-to’. He declares that he has been out there and he thinks that any advanced society ought to have extreme opposite of economic status.

“We will always have these people around us and the greatest thing is to tolerate them,’ he emphasises as he downs a sachet of opaque brew.

He does not believe in sharing these containers and no one has succeeded in convincing him.

This is despite the fact that communal sharing starts with this liquid and then extends to food in our situations but there are risks because the probability of sharing with an infected person spells woo to the philanthropist playing to the gallery.

Lazzo takes one look at his mate and concludes that the erstwhile colleague is a social hardliner and can hardly bend to communal sharing.  He likens his thought pattern to American writer James

Baldwin who once stated: “Life gives and life takes away and the greatest thing to say is Yes to life.”

There are a few drizzles of rain and looks like it’s going to rain tonight and with this indicator, it is wise to head home….Lazzo aunters home with his mate having run out of resources to continue the merry-making melodrama.