through the lens of Kibera

My brother Jona has just sent me this video and even though I have three hours to sleep I could not help but watch it till the bitter end...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfW_r_4stqs

I hope you do not wait - Of Hospice, ALS and all things end of life

So today I stumbled upon this write up of a blog I follow of a lady who is living with ALS...You can follow her ALS journey here.....Below is a picture of her with her super supportive husband...

I’m glad I didn’t wait to make heartfelt toasts at meals.

I’m glad I didn’t wait to seize the moment with family and friends. Some of the best moments of my life happened with little time to plan.

I’m glad I didn’t wait to invite people to dinner that I didn’t know very well but wanted to know better.

I’m glad I didn’t wait to save and to be generous.

I’m glad I didn’t wait to be that annoying person with the camera.

I’m glad I didn’t wait to forgive.

I hope you don’t wait.

So yesterday at work I admitted a lady at work for hospice care. Basically she had come to slowly ease her transition into end of life...We literally sat on a table with her two daughters - who I remember had the most perfect teeth and the hospice nurse.So her daughters told us all about her - her most favorite things that she loved doing what she liked to be called and basically the hospice nurses continued to tell the daughters how we would continue to monitor her and administer Levsin - a medication given towards the end as her secretions got worse which the hopsice nurse I quote said, "though that will come much later," Today as I was home checking my work email - which after today I will stay away from - I see the woman I admitted passed away overnight...I was filled with shock, disbelief, like what the heck happened?? based on her admitting diagnosis I think two things may have happened either she had a brain herniation or an internal bleed or maybe just maybe her time had come early - for we know not the time or the hour..Either way I immediately begun thinking of her daughters - I remember them leaving last night saying, " Goodnight mum see you tommorrow." Did they have closure?Had they said all the Goodbyes and I love yous??Elizabeth Kubler Ross describes the stages of grief as going from Denial to Anger to Bargaining to Depression and finally Acceptance...I do not know at what stage her daughters were however I do hope that they look back at mums life with a sense of fulfilment...Kind of like she has run the race and finished the race as quoted from Timothy.

I know of another lady in Nairobi who was recently diagnosed stage four breast cancer that has mestastasized to her lungs. It has been heart wrenching to hear of the pain that she is enduring as Hospice care is not as specialized as it is in the Western world...Most of the care that is afforded in hospitals is really acute in nature so end of life care in the developing world leaves the healthcare staff with an  ok what are we supposed to do here???Anyway the long of the short in the last few weeks/ months I have realized how in a blink of an eye the equation of this thing called life can change - so it does not hurt to be the wind beneath someone elses wings, to be the the light to a dark world, to be the hope to another human , not be afraid to say I love you - Mother Teresa said it best - love until it hurts -  because tommorrow is not promised all we have are the moments that make up today... 

Pinchos - where all pictures have a back story ;)

Lol so the pinchos have a story of their own...so Dennz was so hungry one of the days i think we were downtown somwhere yani he was almost throwing a tantrum when I told him okay instead of getting a snack why dont we hold on a little longer we go eat a proper meal - which he came to thank me for later...Lakini after i said no to the Pinchas - which by the way are like small pieces of chicken on a stick like mshikaki type - heh dint Dennz have a fit lol - you know when this guy gets hungry all hell breaks loose so I had to take a pic of a Pinchos mobile kitchen which we laughed at after we had eaten a big plate of real food...

A day in Old San Juan

So Old San Juan was the old capital of Puerto Rico during Spanish rule - duh - old san juan...so we took a  trip there on Sunday the main itinerary - me and my itineraries for trips even to a New York Day trip I had an itinerary of arrival time what we would do and for how long lol of course it all ends up getting tossed out the window but trust me they help so anyhu the itinerary for Sunday was to go to a local church at 10 thirty then do Old San Juan in the afternoon however the long of the short we ended up leaving the hotel at noon and took a bus to Old San Juan which did i mention we waited for about an hour in 80 degree HUMID weather we had to grab a bottle of Fiji water at walgreens Exhibit A

So anyhu after an hour long wait the bus finally showed up the T5 and it took us almost half an hour to get there...our main destination was El Morro basically it was a fort built as a citadel yani bazookas the works -we actually watched a live demo - it was built to protect the city of San Juan and actually the whole of the Carribean at a time when Europe, North America were on a conquest for colonies etc etc ...that is a real condensed version but I think there is a deeper story to this and its history etc etc...but we were just awed by Old San Juan - the music can you imagine salsa, merengue, 24-7, the old roads, the people the food the little cafeteria line the streets all overooking the ocean and we were lucky to catch the annual cultural festival so there were artifacts from different artisans. We got to see a cruise ship that had docked at the harbor, there was even a mini "Trafalgar square" where you could feed the piegeons and of course we had to end our day at a Carribean restaurant and fianlly eat the famous mofongos which is basically mashed plantain so sweet and chicken wrapped in it with rice and beans yani the combo was so good and all the while listening to salsa music...

No Estacion!!

So Dennz and I  have come up with a private joke No Estacion which means is Spanish for no parking. So we are staying on the strip known as Isla Verde basically its on the beach just like the Vegas strip so there are so many hotels including where we are staying at the lovely Inter Continental that has been so good to us...lakini the parking we wacha tu...yani the first night we spent an hour looking for parking only to pay 20 dollars for the night however since then can you imagine we prayed for parking as in we closed our eyes and told God enyewe we are in need of parking for reals and can you imagine we have found parking everyday from all of our travels - oh yes on monday we went to El Yunque which is one of the only rainforests in Northern America can you imagine the splendor the canopies - of course there is a story here I will write in another blog - between the mosquito bites and me falling in a lake lol no surprises here -  like kutumbukiza kwa maji - yes so anyway back to the no Parking so anyway No Estacione aka no parking! But our little white car is so handy its like a ka handbag - perfect car for the islands see some pics below 

My own Kevin Costner ;)

So my amazing hubby and I finally took our long awaited honeymoon we are in Isla de el canto - The island of Enchantment aka Puerto Rico!!!We are in the main city San Juan at the Inter continental ...Today is day three of six and boy have we had a blast!!!Today we were taking a walk at sunset on the beach and i told him there is no one I would rather be experiencing this with than him...I tell you honeymoons are so important it has been a time of such intimacy, laughter, we have prayed together, hiked in a rainforest, walked down pebblestoned roads that line the city of old san juan and the most memorable played table football and I won declaring myself the football queen - rematch before we leave!!!But no on the real we have been so blessed beyond measure to have a time like this to just be in a room listening to the Coqui - small indegenous frog of Puerto rico that chirps at night...beautiful romantic moments we have shared but the one i will never forget was the first night we went out to Old San Juan - it was on Saturday night the streets were packed with night owls party animals we were just strolling the cobblestoen pavements looking for a place to have dinner that we had foind online El Patio was the name of the place...So we asked a police officer for dircetions and  he directed us down some path so innocent us took that path that seemed waay deserted than the rest it was a bit dark but we were like heh the cop knows whats up so as we were walking Dennis pulled me to cross the road and all the while he was silent - and if you know Dennis he is quiet mainly when he is hungry angry or thinking about something very major so we cross the road then he says lets cross here so as we do he says in a stern voice shoot that guy is following us as he turns to look behind...At this point my heart was racing i turn to look and see a guy in black from top to toe stop in his tracks and pretend to pick something off the ground and walk back up ...We start walking fast towards where the crowds were as Dennis says hand me your purse i put it in my back pocket...At this point I was like oh em gee lets get back to the hotel and Dennis is like what makes you special all these are tourists as well so we had our dinner as we recapped our near robbery or whatever heck the guy was trying and I went like damn D you really are my Kevin Costner damn making me fell all Whitney Houston saving our lives coz trust me I had no idea the guy was behind us and all Dennis said - they dont call me Ritho for nothing - Ritho means eye in Kikuyu apparently he had seen the guy earlier on behind us and had lengad but became suspicious when he crossed after we did twice. Yani I felt so safe with Dennz that night yani the last three days have been a reminder of the reasons we chose to say I do on June 14th 2014...this is the person you see laughing with crying with and coming back to puerto Rico with little minions as well...I love me my Kevin Costner so I called him Kev the rest of the night which made his head grow big cough cough...
Here are some pics from the Kevin Costner night lol

I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright, I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun more. I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive. I wish you enough pain so that the smallest joys in life appear much bigger. I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting. I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.