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Showing posts from July, 2015

Expensively Free

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Back in the year 1997, we buried my great-grandmother (this was my first burial to witness). At the burial, since we were a normal village family by the then 'normal' standards financially, the casket was put up on two stools at each end and covered by a handmade cream table cloth with blue flowers. Of course an address system would have been a luxury we could not afford and tents were made by my grandfather by sewing together fertilizer bags at their edges. With that kind of upbringing, some things I did not witness until I left the village for boarding school. Fast forward and I witnessed a different kind of life setting a few years after my great grandmother's burial. First was a friend that got admitted at Nairobi Hospital, and oh my oh my, I was awed, I could not stop staring when I visited. The wards, pathways, cars at the parking, technology, food and even language, everything was shouting; PRESTIGIOUS. I could not help but think how good it was for my friend to b

The Healthy Patient

The waters i was floating on were clear and calm, my breathing felt heavy, but my mind was lost in tranquility. I wanted to be in that state forever, I imagined God was putting me through practice for heaven. Then I felt a sharp pain in my chest, something or someone was pressing on my chest so hard that I could only breathe in mouth gulps. I was swept off the waters and felt my heavy body lie on some sort of a couch. The pressing was repeated, this time harder than before, followed by a male voice 'Valentine can you hear me?' I responded but I think he dint hear me because I heard him say, 'she isn't responding, let me retry'. He pressed again, and my eyelids parted ways. The light above me was too much, I preferred the sunset scene while at the waters. The man, who was dressed in blue leaned closer to my ear and asked again 'Valentine, can you hear me?' I thought I responded with a yes but I only heard myself murmur and the man responded 'Good, don&#