The Series Of My Life - Season 1 - Episode 54

Episode 4 years ago

The Series Of My Life - Season 1 - Episode 54

There was no way Germans with their science and technology must not have found a solution to what happened in 1943-1945.*
The business continued as usual. I eventually started saving some small money.

Sometimes I would calculate my money and mentally change them in naira. Euro was hovering between 180 and 185 naira.

Two hundred euros amounted to almost 40,000 naira. That was a serious money To a poor Nigerian.

The Day of our allowances came. The Day was like a party day. All the people who had been posted to our HEIM had returned to collect their money.

More than half of our HEIM occupants usually left to the big cities. Some went to Berlin, Munchen, Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Hamburg etc. Just like the way I had left to Essen.

A night before the payment, the HEIM was full. Music was blasting, the kitchen was busy. The Camerounians were drinking while the Pakistani and Indians were baking their flour food. The Biafrans were busy with their business.

The major reason for the mass return was to let the authorities know that you were still living in Germany. It was said that if one misses the monthly allowances twice, the authorities will council out his/her name and arrest him/her whenever they returned.
The following morning, we all assembled in front of the HEIM, names were called. When I heard my name, I went into the office with my Ausweiss.

I had collected my Ausweiss a day after I returned to HEIM. The German police had seized it in Essen and sent it back to the HEIM. I was warned not to venture outside the state again or I would pay 40euros each time they caught me.

I received my own payment. It was a schein. A kind of food stamp. We were required to use it in the local markets. It was a plan devised by the authorities to prevent people from leaving the HEIM. The bad news was that we couldn't use the HEIM outside the City.
The good news was that the local traders from Turkey and elsewhere would buy the schein from us at a cut prize. A 200euro schein sold at 180euros.

I sold my own schein too.
These payments happened at the end of every month. January payment would be given to us between December 28 and 30th.
That was when the Germans who lived on social security got paid too.

So much money was circulating around during that period. The Germans who used to buy 20 euro weeds increased to 50euros etc.
I had no goods of my own, so I helped Johnson sell his own.