It’s holiday time!!!…ish…

Waiting for the results…

Crossing my fingers hoping for the best!

How have you been??

Well I have been stressed but glad that it’s over.

I thought I should share with you about a patient I had over my Surgery Clinicals. Great guy by the way.
He is a broad shouldered man, with a slight stammer when he talked. 

His name is James*. He is 54 and insists he feels younger!

Married with four kids. Loves watching Auntie Boss and listening to Zilizopendwa.

He is an inmate at one of the prisons in Kenya.

Going to be released in one year ten months!(told me he keeps a calendar😃)

He has been a shoemaker his entire life even within the prison. He leads the choir during their church services and insists his tenor is the best!😂

Asked him about life inside…he said, “It’s what you make it. You create trouble, you’ll be in trouble. But there are a lot of opportunities to improve…you can finish your primary and secondary school and there are even certificate and diploma courses they can do.”

He wants to join school and get his diploma…he already got a certificate while inside and wants to continue learning.

I asked him…”Aren’t you too old?”

He laughed and said, “Not too old to make a decent man out of myself!!”

I asked him about this inmates who constantly bother us Kenyans with phone calls and SMS trying to con us!

He said..”Hao wako but most ni wale wako life imprisonment..watu huboeka! But si poa!” (They are there but most have a life imprisonment charge and people get bored! But it’s not right.)

And the whole time I took his history he kept on telling me to take deep breaths and calm down…(I was panicking) and that I would pass…

Each time the examiner left(to pick me a pair of gloves) this guy kept on cheering me on and telling me I was doing great!!!

Basically, he was probably the best patient I could have gotten.
I went to say thanks to him three days after. He said he had been praying that I would pass 😀😀

He told me about how his last 8 years inside have been. The friends he had made, the skills he had gotten!(he can now play guitar!) He told me he still kept contact with family..they had visited him at least twice per year and he was happy at least they came.

How he missed well made mukimo and sausages.

And he told me “Wachuka, life is what you make it. And every choice, make no mistake…has a consequence. Am still paying for mine…and probably will for a long time after. Hopefully we meet again…and I’ll fix your shoes for free!!” He chuckled.

Till next time!
Shu.😃😃

P.S. He was discharged feeling much better after his surgery went well.😃

* not his real name