Sensodyne for sensitive teeth……………….

Sensodyne for sensitive teeth, anti-allergy tablets for a cough that won’t quit, eye drops for redness and sensitive eyes are becoming standard in my life. Every time my employer changes medical service providers I am one of those required to get a full medical checkup before being admitted into the scheme. I am getting to that stage (and age) where health becomes an ever present constant that requires regular medical check-up for cancer, diabetes, hypertension and whatnot and where you are always being warned to watch what you eat and drink and avoid stress.

Where recalling names becomes a chore that the more you try to remember the more difficult it is. Where forgetfulness, loss of sleep and tiredness are your constant companion and one dreads password change day because you are bound to be a nuisance to your network administrator for the next few days after the change because you have been locked out of your account. One morning recently I spent a good 25 minutes looking for my car keys which I had left in the pocket of the tracksuit that I had worn the previous evening…….and couldn’t recall that!!

It is that time when eyes start to get a little rheumy and eye glasses become a necessity, the aches come to joints unbidden and itches explode all over your body at the wrong time and place. Your toilet breaks become more frequent and at shorter intervals and where you have to chart a route that guarantees you a stop over half way home for a urine break.  At the hospital, offices, post office and other service outlets the doctors, nurses, attendants, engineers, receptionists all appear to be just out of their teens and at the local pub or restaurant the buxom middle age waitresses of yesterday are now replaced by the slim down models of 2012.

This is the time when you are addressed as ‘Mzee’ to your face in a public place, and enjoy it, and your children no longer accompany you for functions and visits and are more comfortable going off with their friends. It is also the time when you turn to your children to assist you in anything technology related because somewhere along the way your ability to cope with the changing technology is obsolete and now completely irrelevant.

It is that time when you are looked upon to provide pearls of wisdom to the younger generation because of the wisps of white hairs setting you apart as a wise one, and where suddenly talk of long ignored cultural visits to accompany friends and family for some wedding negotiation or some family get together come your way unsolicited and uninvited.      

As one of my friends said recently, it is time in life where if you do not have an ache or a pain somewhere on your person when you wake up on any given morning; it means that you are close to meeting your maker!!

Speeding on the roads is now behind you because why accelerate (pun intended) to your demise when you are approaching the last two score of your biblical life anyway. You are also attending more burials and funerals of parents of friends and relatives and of your own kith and kin who have either grown old and passed on or succumbed to one illness or another.  Stories abound of titanic battles against cancer and other deadly diseases that ravage families or parts of families and which now morbidly fascinate you while you wonder if you will be exchanging similar stories soon. Now is the time when talk of preparing for the weddings of our daughters and sons supercedes plans for the weddings of our friends and peers.

But it is also a time where you have forged great contacts and friendships and are confident in your professional or business life and you wear a weathered mature look about you. You are probably, if in the middle class, a member of a private members club where you visit once or twice a week jealous of the retirees with all the time in the word to indulge in their golf unhindered by the nine-to-five humdrum of the rest of us working folk.

You have a regular routine for your weekly haircut and shave; you tend to find comfort at a favorite stool in your local club or bar where you can sit and while away time alone and with an understanding barman to serve your usual tipple at the right temperature.

I am lucky to have a surviving grandfather and grandmother one each from my mother and father side who must now be pushing 100 years well past their God given ages and I hope to one day emulate them to be a nuisance to my grandchildren and daughters who will be doomed to take care of me until the ripe old age of 100 for that is my prayer to my God.

To Commend or to Condemn!!

Kenyans, I had a dream that I would like to share.

I dreamt that I would commend our dear legislators for many things amongst them:

• Their unending and ongoing efforts to remove the shroud of tribalism from our midst by actively discouraging tribal speak,
• Their commitment to fighting corruption and all things corrupt since corruption always fights back,
• Their acceptance towards ensuring that this government (or is it goofernment!) of national unity that was a creation of the political class to serve their own interests will work towards ensuring that it succeeds at any costs,
• Their determination to ensure that no single citizen of this country sleeps hungry for lack of access to a job to enable them feed their families,
• Their attitude in fostering a sense of collective responsibility that they would want us citizens to emulate,
• Their pursuit of exemplary leadership so that we can see them as role models that our children can eschew,
• Their leadership by example where they accept the fact that we all have a common destiny in the future growth and stability of this nation including paying taxes on all income and allowances earned,
• Their commitment to a better livelihood for the common good of all by fighting land grabbing and other social ills that now threaten the very existence of this country since the primary water towers in the country are now threatened at the alter of politics,
• Their high moral standing in society where they preach that the family is sacrosanct and must be protected as a basic unit of continuing peace and prosperity at all costs,
• Their dependability and  non partisan crusade against crime, criminals and criminal gangs by whatever name they are called,
• Their sober and reasoned arguments as they go about their parliamentary business where decisions are taken based on conviction rather than any other considerations,
• Their passion to ensure the continued growth of this country on the economic front and the social front by passing laws that generate best business practices, encourage local and international investment and create a level playing field to attract and treat all players equally

The list is endless. However on waking up the reality struck because my dreams are instead a nightmare, unrealized and unfulfilled since all that I wish to commend I can only condemn our leaders for since they appear not to care two hoots for me or my fellow citizenry.

But, what do you expect when you elect people with criminal records including defilement, theft and obtaining money by false pretences? What do you expect to happen when we choose people with illegitimate children and tens of concubines?

People that are looters of public resources, plunderers of public land and die hard corruption czars have no business leading Kenyans and neither do businessmen protecting their personal interests over the public good or tribal chieftains preaching that their tribes are being targeted at every opportunity or liars who only pretend to care about you and me when the campaign season is imminent and who promise heaven and deliver nothing once in high office.

These people can only be termed as cabaliers (cabals) and carteliers (cartels) intent on forming alliances to continually exploit the citizenry while pushing their own narrow political interests and survival.

I condemn them all in the strongest possible terms but still dream that one day we as Kenyans will be free of this phenomenon that is as anti-development as it is despicable!

The weekend in the Masai Mara

This is the story of the long weekend just past. A story of the Masai Mara but not of the elephants, lions, hippos, bushbucks, hyenas, buffalos and crocodiles that we saw, the amazing vistas we photographed or the memories that will linger but instead of the relationships forged, the camaraderie built, the trust developed and the promise of future friendships.

I and a group of friends was in the Masai Mara over the long Madaraka Day weekend. We were actually 6 and a half couples out of a possible 9 couples in total and after a planning process of almost three months to visit the Masai Mara and view the wonders of nature at close range over 3 days and 2 nights. We knew it was probably too early to see the great migration when the wilderbeeste and zebra follow the tradition migratory patterns established by their ancestors millenia ago and which usually happens between mid-July and August.

We were headed to the Mara Serena (full name Mara Serena Safari Lodge)  a good 150 kilometres distance from Narok town in a remote area and based in the Transmara side of the Masai Mara and located atop a hill with a stunning view of the Mara River and vistas of the sprawling Mara Plains out in the distance. With a good pair of eyes you can just make out families of giraffe, buffalo and other plains game as they go about their business in the area surrounding the river eco-system as well as the hot air balloon soaring above the plains in the early morning mist. Groups of baboons often make their food gathering trips near the lodge as do the occasional impala, thompson gazelle and buffalo.

We travelled in two 4x4 Toyota Landcruiser vehicles and decided right from the outset that we would separate ourselves into the guys in one vehicle and the gals in the other which did not sit right with one of the couples only recently married and still on honeymoon. This decision proved fruitful for reasons that will be clear shortly.

The group comprised of the gals, fast friends who had been associated together in a "chama" for many years and their husbands. The gals (actually middle aged mothers with mainly grown up children and a sprinkling of younger children too) had been on many trips together over several years and were very close knit and met every month.The guys were their husbands who occasionally met when the wives had organised family outings or get togethers and while we were familiar with each other we had never really bonded as a group inspite of our wives relationships. The decision to separate ourselves in two separate vehicles therefore proved crucial in establishing and cementing the bond between us guys.

The sharing of a drink, the communal meals, game drives and games played also brought us closer together given the different professions and businesses that we all represented. As expected all common bills were split equally for all to share including that for a delicious but rather late nyama boilo/choma and bread lunch in a decidedly dingy joint in Maai Mahiu organised by a cousin to one within the group.

I have a feeling that this will be the beginning of a long and fruitful relationship between us guys after the baby steps that we took in the Masai Mara, exchanging stories and anecdotes as only men are able to do secure in the knowledge that among men all things discussed in the privacy of a vehicle remain privy to only those in the vehicle including the ribald and dirty stories and jokes.

We guys also made a firm commitment to meet early in July to  move this relationship to the next level and also involve the other four husbands who for whatever reason were unable to join us on that eventful and fun filled weekend in the Masai Mara.