After too much reluctance to take a COVID-19 vaccine, blame it on the many conspiracy theories I have allowed myself to read ever since patient zero was announced. Or maybe not, there could be some truth to all those theories, right? Wish I could answer that. The only answer I can give is linked to another question whose response a medic friend once told me is:
“Taking the vaccine is a risk, not taking the vaccine is a a risk too – decide which risk you wish to take. After all, life itself is a risk that we wake up to everyday.”
With that, weeks albeit months elapsed as I contemplated THE RISK I was willing to take.
Finally, I gathered the courage to go for my first vaccine shot a few days ago. So far, except for the initial 24-hours side effects for which I took some painkillers, no other side effects have presented again…. hopefully it remains that way.
As I retired to bed same night I’d received the vaccine shot, I could not help but recollect what a day it had been. First it was waking up in the morning to a baby snake in our house. That’s right, a snake somehow slithered its way into our living room. Luckily, it was killed before it could harm anyone. But the thought of it still scares us. How did it make it inside? What if there are more around the vicinity??
As if not enough, I arrive at the vaccination point at midday as per the appointment and shock on me, my name was not on the list of persons enlisted to be vaccinated. Long story short, I got the jab but obviously among the very last people when I arrived among the first – wasted (work) day. Because with this kind of places, you can’t exactly carry your paraphernalia aka electronic gadgets and freely use them while within. I am referring to having in possession your smartphone to at least get a few things done as you wait on the queue.
Just when I am thinking this day should end already, a bodaboda rider ‘finds his rear underneath the front bumper’ of the vehicle I was using on my way back home. In panic mode the guy decides to escape. In the process, he does more damage while forcefully trying to unhook his bike off the bumper so he can speed off – the whole thing comes off. And just like that, in the middle of traffic, I am left with a terrible ‘wound’. Takes the hooting of a motorist on the adjacent lane to get me realizing that the damage could be more serious than I think (as I could not see the damage from my viewpoint, and I am not about to cause more traffic by stopping in the middle of an already snarled up road craze thanks to the ongoing express way construction works). I pull over at the next traffic police point a few meters away. Coincidentally, there happens to be a young Kenyan standing next to them. The young lad is trying to fend for himself as I would later learn – we live in tough times; the economy and pandemic do not make it any better – you do what you must to survive. He tells me there is a garage very close by, he can take me there. He temporarily finds a way to hold the piece of wreckage that is now the front bumper together so that we can make it to the garage before the piece hits the ground.
For a person already too broke being that time of the month when you are seriously watching your budget and expenditure, I am left spending money I’d considered the homestretch saviour. Because there is no way you are making it home with an extremely unsightly view that is left of a front bumper without attracting unnecessary police attention at subsequent check points. So just like that, I part with my supposed last of coins. I am now over broke, hungry, and tired – the latter could be one of the side effects of the vaccine kicking in. There is no time to think about it, the night is almost here.
I arrive home after sunset, then I remember the mechanic mentioning on my way out that one of the fog lights was ruined. Which means an appointment with our regular mechanic sooner than planned. Must boda riders always be this annoying and budget ruining? SMH. But there’s more bad news to add to the salty icing sugar of the awfully baked cake that has been this day….my sister who had arrived home a little earlier than I realized that she had a flat tyre. No worries, there’s a spare. All you have to remove the flat and fix the spare. Shock on her, the spare was in worse shape than the usual now punctured tyre – double tragedy. Not to forget to mention that she had an early appointment the next morning for which own means of mobility would have been helpful given the location dynamics.
I am no believer of bad omen. But I couldn’t help but wonder whether the mysterious black snake found in the house earlier that morning had flooded the day with some bad luck. I will leave that to (un)fortune tellers to interpret for themselves. For now, being a Christian believer, grateful that nothing too out of hand happened. In all times, we must be grateful. As it is, so let it be.
