I wrote this a couple of months ago. It actually happened late last year. Do enjoy :-)
I should have trusted the instinct that made me pause next to my desk and look at the two other pair of shoes I had under my desk. As the events unfolded, that would be the thought repeatedly running in my mind mocking me. I was running late for my cell group meeting. My colleague laughed out loud at the preposterous idea-according to him anyway- that I could be involved in anything other than dancing in a night club. I believe to this day he thinks it was a over for some date. As if! He wouldn’t be the first one to pigeon-hole me and be surprised that I did not fit the one narrow minded label he had for me. I decided to walk down Haile Sellasie road then cut across the park to reach the CBD. I was hosting the group hence my mind was very much occupied as I briskly walked thinking up what I needed to do when I reached home and perhaps it’s what led to my hitting a pavement with my sandal ; Lo! And behold it cut in such a way I could not drag it. I cursed so loudly the Ice-cream man gaped at me wondering why the nicely dressed lady was spouting such profanity or so I would assume. I was in a quandary as I desperately needed to get home before my guest as I had a very bad habit of keeping my guests waiting whenever I hosted events a habit I had sworn I would break. Traffic had already begun to pick up so even if I called a cab it would take forever to get to where I was plus the location was not one where public transport used frequently and it was a bad time of the month hence I doubt I could afford it. My father, from a young age, used to say that I’m a survivor before I could even spell the word or even know what it means. When he explained what it meant I was rather chuffed and all. In my late twenties I no longer like that word but on this particular day that quality served me well. I decided that I would have to walk across this park with one foot barefoot! It did not even take me long to make this decision since I’m a very decisive person. I carried the offensive sandal on one hand and trudged on with whatever minuscule dignity I had left. It was the one day I really wished I was wearing one of my stunners but alas fate is cruel like that. As expected I attracted a lot of attention…perhaps if I had a pair of jeans and a t-shirt I would have been less of a spectacle. Scratch that people like staring whether you wear sackcloth or strut around in your birthday suit. They will always stare. I got catcalls from some lazy bums in the park and through it all I smiled for I knew how ridiculous I looked. If you know Uhuru park, you must know the pathways are rather dusty soon it was too much I decided to ask a vendor to help me with a plastic paper bag tied it around my foot like a shoe and walked on. That girl laughed so hard looking at what I was doing and it was not a mean laugh since I joined her in the laughter but rather one filled with mirth. I decided I could choose to be so mortified and solve nothing or bear with the situation knowing it would only last a short while and the upside would be an entertaining tale for my friends who think my life is a comedy. So there I was in my office-wear, one foot in a sandal and the other in a paper bag shoe; quite the fashionista! Let us just say soon I had a crowd of people following me. The crowd was laughing and signaling to the rest who were unlucky not to have spotted the walking clown. The irony was that none of this had disturbed me till a group of guys near a vendor told me they have an extra pair of slippers and could give it to me if I promised to return them the next day. Again I ignored my instincts and turned to them to eagerly receive these slippers while assuring them I would drop them in the morning. Only to see them laughing their heads off till one fell from the stone he was sitting on. I smiled but that hurt and it confirmed my cynical view that no one really wants to help you but either harm you or humiliate you in the streets of Nairobi hence do not give them a single second. Luckily I was not far from the CBD hence I hobbled away to the nearest BATA shop to buy whatever cheap open shoe I could afford. I still made it home in time to receive my guests and actually forgot about the incident till the weekend when I met my friends and was regaling them with that tale. As expected they almost died of laughter saying how they wouldn’t have walked barefoot nor made a paper bag shoe but like I asked them, I will pose the same question to you; what would you have done in my shoes (pun intended)?
I should have trusted the instinct that made me pause next to my desk and look at the two other pair of shoes I had under my desk. As the events unfolded, that would be the thought repeatedly running in my mind mocking me. I was running late for my cell group meeting. My colleague laughed out loud at the preposterous idea-according to him anyway- that I could be involved in anything other than dancing in a night club. I believe to this day he thinks it was a over for some date. As if! He wouldn’t be the first one to pigeon-hole me and be surprised that I did not fit the one narrow minded label he had for me. I decided to walk down Haile Sellasie road then cut across the park to reach the CBD. I was hosting the group hence my mind was very much occupied as I briskly walked thinking up what I needed to do when I reached home and perhaps it’s what led to my hitting a pavement with my sandal ; Lo! And behold it cut in such a way I could not drag it. I cursed so loudly the Ice-cream man gaped at me wondering why the nicely dressed lady was spouting such profanity or so I would assume. I was in a quandary as I desperately needed to get home before my guest as I had a very bad habit of keeping my guests waiting whenever I hosted events a habit I had sworn I would break. Traffic had already begun to pick up so even if I called a cab it would take forever to get to where I was plus the location was not one where public transport used frequently and it was a bad time of the month hence I doubt I could afford it. My father, from a young age, used to say that I’m a survivor before I could even spell the word or even know what it means. When he explained what it meant I was rather chuffed and all. In my late twenties I no longer like that word but on this particular day that quality served me well. I decided that I would have to walk across this park with one foot barefoot! It did not even take me long to make this decision since I’m a very decisive person. I carried the offensive sandal on one hand and trudged on with whatever minuscule dignity I had left. It was the one day I really wished I was wearing one of my stunners but alas fate is cruel like that. As expected I attracted a lot of attention…perhaps if I had a pair of jeans and a t-shirt I would have been less of a spectacle. Scratch that people like staring whether you wear sackcloth or strut around in your birthday suit. They will always stare. I got catcalls from some lazy bums in the park and through it all I smiled for I knew how ridiculous I looked. If you know Uhuru park, you must know the pathways are rather dusty soon it was too much I decided to ask a vendor to help me with a plastic paper bag tied it around my foot like a shoe and walked on. That girl laughed so hard looking at what I was doing and it was not a mean laugh since I joined her in the laughter but rather one filled with mirth. I decided I could choose to be so mortified and solve nothing or bear with the situation knowing it would only last a short while and the upside would be an entertaining tale for my friends who think my life is a comedy. So there I was in my office-wear, one foot in a sandal and the other in a paper bag shoe; quite the fashionista! Let us just say soon I had a crowd of people following me. The crowd was laughing and signaling to the rest who were unlucky not to have spotted the walking clown. The irony was that none of this had disturbed me till a group of guys near a vendor told me they have an extra pair of slippers and could give it to me if I promised to return them the next day. Again I ignored my instincts and turned to them to eagerly receive these slippers while assuring them I would drop them in the morning. Only to see them laughing their heads off till one fell from the stone he was sitting on. I smiled but that hurt and it confirmed my cynical view that no one really wants to help you but either harm you or humiliate you in the streets of Nairobi hence do not give them a single second. Luckily I was not far from the CBD hence I hobbled away to the nearest BATA shop to buy whatever cheap open shoe I could afford. I still made it home in time to receive my guests and actually forgot about the incident till the weekend when I met my friends and was regaling them with that tale. As expected they almost died of laughter saying how they wouldn’t have walked barefoot nor made a paper bag shoe but like I asked them, I will pose the same question to you; what would you have done in my shoes (pun intended)?