How Do You Know it’s Time to End a Long Friendship?

The tired phrase “We’ve known each other a long time” is not a good reason to stay friends with someone.

In a way, you never end a friendship, the friendship fizzles out by itself – a slow, agonizing death.

It’s a thorn that has been pricking flesh for eons – testing family ties, business and ruling alliances.

So much, that Aristotle would pen a candid essay titled “On Friendships”, that tables a 3-pronged ‘friendship-meter’ system:

Friends hanging out in the hood (file image)

Pleasure Friendships:

This kind is fickle, superficial. These are the people in your gang – often meet up at the local for a fun drink or the mbogi that call you for the soccer derby.

This group will easily pool resources for an odd roadtrip out of town – but, not pool resources to pay a member’s hospital bill.

But, they hardly know your family, kids or what business you do – if you are in business.

If you don’t turn up for Karaoke Wednesday, and miss a couple more – they’ll move on without as much as a call.

Useful Friendships:

Well, this is based on material benefits. It may be work-based, same employer. It may be business-oriented, same business circles.

It’s loosely principled on money, special favors – perhaps, you work in a firm that offers periodic gifts or vouchers that someone leeches off.

This suffers a blow, when one of the parties is no longer as useful. Do not invest emotionally in it.

Virtuous Friendships:

It’s ideally grounded by a common desire for good, and prosperity. It’s all rounded – family, business – and often generational. College friendships may grow on, to form family-level bonds.

However, when the friendship cookie starts to crumble, it leaves a bigger emotional mess in its wake.

The secret for longevity lies in making efforts to nurture it. There are tell-tale signs, however, when a friendship has outran its viable phase.

Here are two common reasons most friendships die a slow death:

Social Status

Friendships are built around social circles. A promotion at work may come with a sudden change of income. A friend moves into an upscale neighborhood, hanging spots……

Slowly communication starts to fade and die out. Little effort is made to call, meet or share an evening as you used to.

If a friend starts to miss important family dates or events you previously marked, well – that’s a sign.

Communication

This is crucial in a friendship. Tight friends are usually up on each other’s call logs, social media timelines and frequent meet-up’s.

Theme nights are a thing – Karaoke, Fun Fridays….. then, it dies out.

When you try to call or chat, the other is busy, or driving, or cooking – and, can they call you later?

That ‘Call you Later, Bestie’ happens a few weeks down the line. You are alone in that friendship.

Well, it’s apparent that communication nurtures the bond in every friendship. It matters, too, how heavily friend banter weighs down on their respective budgets.

Presently, this needn’t bite to reach a fiend for some juicy grapevine – thanks to the timely Nyoosha Shilingi factor.

Communication is now much cheaper.

Nyoosha Shilingi is a brainchild of leading communication provider Safaricom to help their clients navigate harsh economic times with more on offer (calls and data) for the same amount.

Simply put, for the same price, Data, Calls and SMS offers are extended by between 40% and 100%.

Nyoosha Shilingi has made using Whatsapp, for audio and video calls a viable option. For offline friends, regular calls are asking for much less in billing.

For example, Safaricom has introduced All-in-One packages. There’s a choice of three. Well, say – Ksh550.

Initially, this would get 1.5GB+100 min+500 SMS+Free WhatsApp, but with the Nyoosha Shilingi rate, users now enjoy 2GB+100 min+500 SMS+Free WhatsApp.

More fun video calls for friends wishing to stay in touch.

The new data rates have hit really well with the youth, on daily, weekly and monthly bundle packages.

For example, the Daily bundle at Ksh10 now fetches 35MBs and 15 SMS, up from the previous 15MBs and 15 SMS. It also lasts longer!

On weekly data package rates, Ksh99 would fetch 350MB and Free WhatsApp but Nyoosha Shilingi presents an incredible 500MBs and Free WhatsApp!

The best on monthly packages is with Ksh1000 coming with 7GB+Free WhatsApp, up from the previous 5GB and Free WhatsApp.

Nyoosha Shilingi is available to all Safaricom users – Prepaid, Postpaid and Hybrid. It’s normal play in the purchase of the bundles, through Mpesa, airtime cards and redeeming Bonga Points.

There’s more on offer. Easily check the offers by dialing *544#, through My Safaricom App, Blaze App and official Safaricom website.

It’s time to indulge yourself by streaming your favorite series!

Delivery Boy: Kenyans are Annoyingly Poor in Giving Directions

It was fun learning colors back in elementary school. Remember belting out that catchy tone “Richard Of York Gained Battle In Vain“? That’s to name the color spectrum on the rainbow, from the red at the top to violet at the bottom.

All good. Except, the basic spectrum mutated into a thousand other variations that makes color identification an impossible exercise.

Kenyans are generally poor with colors.

I have suffered on my delivery runs for orders made from my online business. I sell second-hand kids clothing from my house. Online business model is great, and the weakest part in that chain is the human factor.

Delivery is a total nightmare, if you remember that Kenyans also share a collective inability to give directions properly. In a day’s work, expect a mix of hilarious and equally frustrating experiences.

My business has pages on all social media pages, but activity is highest on Facebook and Twitter pages. On a daily basis, I take photos of clothes available with my phone at different angles, and upload. From my page, I share the posts on other Facebook pages and groups for more visibility.

I log into Twitter, check top trends of the day and tag along. On average, depending on the day of the week, and date – I engage with a different number of clients. There are direct referrals by past clients, and general queries. I spend six to seven hours online every day, engaging with clients.

If you’ve ever tried to fish, this is it. The item is the bait, but – will the clients bite? Out of 10 possible clients making an inquiry, 5 will ask the price of the item, and go silent. Three will ask possible date for the next ‘Bale Opening’, and so on.

Two out of 10, will make an order, and pay. I have a Safaricom Till Number displayed on the page. Now comes the delivery part. I deliver free within town, and a small fee out of town. I live in Nyeri.

Client 1: Kuja tu na Kimathi Street. Hapo kati kati kuna junction ya Waridi Supermarket. Chukua hio njia. Utapata shop ya viatu imepakwa green karibu na taa ya tatu ya Mulika Mwizi... (I’m on a green-painted shoe shop on a road off Kimathi Street, at the Waridi Supermarket Junction).

Well, I find out it’s a four-way junction and each of those roads has a series of County Council floodlights. I’m lost. When I later find the shop, it’s not green-painted, it’s mint. Close.

Client 2: I’m a teacher at St.Michael Preparatory School, on the end of Koinange Avenue. I’ll meet you, I’m in a red top.

Easy, right? Teachers are precise and articulate. Wrong, they are Kenyan! First, there’s no Koinange Avenue, and worse, the school has a plethora of branches. The teacher is in a maroon top!

All these cases mean a great deal of to-and-fro with clients. Mercifully, most of my clients are on WhatsApp, so there’s a bit of online calls and chats. Sometimes, the clients are offline. It’s down to regular calls on Safaricom.

In the beginning, calling and data rates would eat heavily into profits. It took a while to break even, but lately its easier with Nyoosha Shilingi, the new Safaricom data and calling rates plan. I’ve even started video calls with clients. Kids are now more proactive in choosing colors and styles of their clothing.

It’s easier with online video calls, which means no returns and more referrals from happy clients.

Safaricom has activated Nyoosha Shilingi, timely offer that shields their clients in the present harsh economic times with new and revamped data bundles. For the same price, Data, Calls and SMS offers are extended by between 40% and 100%.

This means, unlike before when I’d use Ksh20 to buy 50MBS, now the amount fetches me 100MBS. That’s double!

What’s better is that the data doesn’t run in the middle of a clients call. It’s not as rushed as before!

Since I’m a daily internet user, I prefer daily data packages. I’m now purchasing 300MBs daily bundle, for just Ksh50. Previously, this would buy just 150MBs. I usually purchase data plans from MPesa, though – one can still purchase bundles by loading airtime or redeeming Bonga Points.

I have clients who prefer the weekly package, of which Ksh99 gets 500MBs, instead of the usual 350MBs. That’s an almost 50% increase.

Clothes move more when school closes, so I expect more client engagement. I’m budgeting for the Nyoosha Shilingi offer of 2.5GB+Free WhatsApp for Ksh500 bob, so that I don’t need to log out between sessions.

All Safaricom customers: Prepaid, Postpaid and Hybrid can access new Nyoosha Shilingi data plans.

There’s more really, on offer on the Safaricom website. Some good deals. What wouldn’t you stream on the 7GB+Feee WhatsApp bundle? It’s just Ksh1000. It’s time to chill and watch a movie after work!

Only specific bundles come with free WhatsApp. It’s easy to check the new data plans. Just dial *544#, *555#. Also, plans are displayed on My Safaricom App, Blaze App and on the official Safaricom website – www.safaricom.co.ke/bundles.

It’s a whole new experience on Safaricom’s seamless network.

Pro Tip: It’s always a better experience with your gadget if their apps and software is up to date. The new data plans are ideal for this purpose. There will be plenty of leftover data for fun!