A day in the bank.

Hello good people, have you ever been in a situation where you desperately need something but it’s like the universe doesn’t want you to have it?

Well, I have a recent experience to share with you and I can’t particularly say it’s funny but I sure felt frustrated that day.

Source: my picture.
I didn’t smile because that day wasn’t particularly funny.
On a Tuesday morning when I should be at work and actually working, I took permission from my boss to visit the bank.

Fortunately for me, one of my bosses was heading out and he’d drive through the same route I’d go through w he going to one of the bank’s branches and I decide to tag along.
I highlighted at the nearest convenient junction leading to the bank and board a bike which cost 200 instead of six hundred naira if I were to carry the bike from my work place directly.

When I entered the bank, I saw a long queue of people waiting to get something done. that can’t be my own queue
I looked away, walked past them to see one of the bankers seated across the hall and pretended like I didn’t see the queue.

“Hello ma, I want to get an atm card, where should I go?” I asked.
“That’s the queue to atm card, join them and wait for your turn” she pointed at the direction of the queue that I ignored on my way in.
In my mind, I was like “that can’t be, that can’t be” but it was.
I joined the queue with the hope that it would be my turn quickly.

Having been on the queue for 10 minutes,I started feeling uncomfortable and I wished that the queue would get dissolved in the twinkling of an eye but I didn’t relent.
“Your account number please?”
The banker who was attending to the next person on the queue asked.

It was at that moment that I realized that I didn’t bring my account number along. I had written it somewhere in a sheet of paper and kept it at the outermost pocket of my handbag, beautifully placed on my bed.
exactly how did I forget to carry this bag

My plan that morning was so complicated. I remembered that I left the bag because I thought I’d be able to buy data bundle for my network so that I would be able to access the internet.

If it had worked out for me, I would have been able to browse my recent transactions in my bank app and get the account number there. As at when I got to the bank, I had no airtime, no data and I also didn’t bring my account number along. how wonderful.

What would I do when it reached my turn to get attended to? I was left with the choice than to ask someone for help. However, I also realized that I didn’t take the atm card for my other account number along. I planned to get an atm card for my second account number while I use that medium to also withdraw some cash with the other card.

What a stressful day. I blamed myself for opening the second account number with a different number. Well, I had only one choice at that instance. I stepped out of the bank and took a maruwa(tricycle) for the first lap of the journey to my workplace then board bike for the final lap. I rushed into the office to pick my atm card holder and head home immediately, to pick up the piece of paper containing my account number.

Furthermore, I decided to go the other branch of the bank which was nearer than the first one I went to. It required just one lap on the journey so I board bike there.
When I got there, I met a shorter queue there and the inside of me gleamed with happiness.
When it got to my turn to get attended to, the banker suddenly stopped clicking the keyboard for some seconds. He started chewing gum comfortably and even ordered for chilled cup of water.

I was right in front of him and other people queued behind me. After about five minutes, he places his fingers on the keyboard again and stopped again after some seconds and hissed.
“Sorry, the service is currently down and it might take a while to get recovered”
He said while removing his glasses.
He looked me in the face and repeated the same thing.

Some other person from the queue asked “Oga Shey make we wait abi”( sir, should we wait or what?).
“Errrr you can wait” He pointed towards a room beside the hall we were in and said; “You can sit at the room over there till the service comes back on”

Slowly, people dispatched; some went to the room while some went outside.
I stood in from of the guy, hoping that the network would come back on quickly.
I stood for 20 minutes thereabout.

“Can I go outside and come back later? Or does the service always take so much time to come back on”
I asked with so much annoyance in my tone.
“Aunty, you can wait here till the service comes back on or you can go, if you have something urgent to attend to and come back later”
“Okay sir”.

I left the bank in anger. Anger of the hunger that was stinging my stomach. The picture of the stirfry spaghetti that I left in my food flask at work flashed through my mind and I wondered why I didn’t eat my breakfast at home.
“Why exactly is today like this?” I asked myself as I sat on a mould chair, under a shade outside the banking hall.

I opened my WhatsApp and clicked on my boyfriend’s chat but he wasn’t online. I just knew my fingers were running over the keyboard as I expressed everything i bottled up. I texted so many messages in a short period of time. Yeah, I vented. I wanted to release all the frustration built up in me. I even sent voice notes. I just wanted to let them go somehow.
And that helped a little.

I walked to the gate and crossed the main road to buy snacks to munch on for the mean time. I had to open my snacks on the road and eat them like a hungry child.

Furthermore, I got back to the banking hall and asked “how far?”
The banker replied “the network is back”.
oh thank you
I covered my chocolate drink and my boiled groundnut and placed them in my bag.

The queue this time was more- more like the first branch I went to at first.
I can’t possibly join this queue, I’m a senior here mehn
I somehow found my way to the third person on the queue. Although I was the first person in the queue before the network, I just couldn’t bounce the people being attended to out of the line just to prove my local championship.

Very quickly, it became my turn to be attended to.
”Madam, Wetin you do our network?” The banker asked while facing me.
I had to look behind me to be sure he wasn’t referring to me but guess what y’all, the question as for me.
no, not this time again He asked the question after the merry go round he did just like the first time.
He faced the other people on the queue and urge them to beg me to release their banking network.

I was more than frustrated, I looked up at the time and it was then that I realized that I had spent close to three hours in the whole banking issue.

It wouldn’t even make sense to leave now.
The most sensible thing to do was to just get it done and get my atm card before leaving either I love to wait or not. I knew I was not likely going to get another free time to visit the bank in a long time. In fact, at that time, I was supposed to be working.

My boyfriend called me later and cheered me on to not get tired. but I was more than tired already.
I didn’t wait until the manager announce it the second time that the site was not going through and network was down before I helped myself to be comfortable in the other room(as directed by the banker).

I shamelessly brought out my chocolate drink and boiled groundnut and ate. I wondered why some people stared so hard at me. I couldn’t differentiate if they were coveting my snacks or looking at me like a weirdo. I know the combination of my snacks was weird to begin with but I do not care. After all, there was no where in the bank that put up a rule that “DO NOT EAT THIS COMBINATION OR EVEN DO NOT EAT AT ALL”.

I continued to check the banker at intervals to know what’s the update about the network and site.
I sat for thirty good minutes there, under the influence of air condition.

When I heard the banker called out a name, not mine though, I didn’t even want to know. I stood up and asked “ did you call me?”
“No, I called the other lady”

Well, I decided to neglect myself in front of him.
“The network is not back on ma”
“I know sir, but I’d love to wait”.
“Alright”.

At that time, I was so determined to just get it done. So, I stood there. Waiting.

About 15 minutes to four pm. My feet and back were hurting already. I just couldn’t bare it. where is my substance of things hoped for? *nowhere to be found *
I just couldn’t bare it again. I was very angry and frustrated. My boyfriend called me again and suggested that I just withdrew the money I needed over the counter till another day that I’ll have the time to visit the bank again.

The amazing thing was that, the last time I went to the bank to get atm card for my other account number in the same place, I was attended to within fifteen minutes. But on that day, I counted minutes, counted hours and didn’t get it done.

The bank would close by four pm. So, I eventually filled out a withdrawal slip and got some money over the counter and I finally left the bank in annoyance.

Thank you for reading my “a day in the bank” story.