Safe Travels Madoss.

Lately I have been excited by the prospects of really indulging into the joys of writing and expression, yet all I feel now is sadness and bitterness. I have lost a great friend...a good man who taught me above all else, that to be yourself is to be everything. and to be everything you should be good to people but not to make "being good" your mission but let it be one of your senses of purpose that will make this, a better life... 


My friend Anthony Ndungu loved my stories..no like seriously, he would see me coming into a room and reach out.."You guys have to listen to Angey's story", he would say..."Angey, tell them that storo"...and as I looked at his ever genuine smile and that heart which was always open to the possibilities of a communal laugh, I would oblige and tell the story. Sometimes, if not most, my stories were exaggerations of a minuscule event I had extrapolated....but I told them anyway (A Little exaggeration never killed a story)...and we had a good laugh afterwards..
I told them not because he made me...no...but because I could see the genuine feeling it invoked in him. He would spread the happiness, and why else would I give a story, but to spread some love and light. So I would get right to it and tell it with the vigor and passion it deserved, albeit some exaggeration, but as I said.... :-) All I know is that he wanted to share our stories.


...and I want to share one of our stories now...Madoss as we all knew him, was one of the first people to welcome me to the neighborhood when we moved from the mini city of Westlands.He seemed to have a brood around him, people including me really enjoyed being around him, he was kind, he was smart and most of all he was the reallest guy in town (if anyone from town takes offence, well..that's that) I initially hated being in this village, it had no city lights and no one called on the weekend to see if you were home....it was too far for a random pick up to the rave. 
But he made me and us believe, that it was okay to be away from the mini cities for now..for what more lights do you need than those of the bone fire as we barbecued below the night sky, or the lights under the pool table at "Club 145"...Madoss, you will forever remain..... "the Legend of the Pool Table", and why wait for people to call when you can all meet at one place and share the Coca Cola pick up (they owned the Coca Cola distributorship in my town, and that truck did its rounds to the city center (30Kms away) and back....almost every weekend.
Our journeys to and fro the city rave were always flawless.....Until "PASTOR" Ngata Ngan'ga, a neighbor, an age mate and a good friend, at the time he was a preacher in the US. He was home for the holidays and it just so happened he would be giving the sermon in the Local Church on Sunday. For some reason we left him with a promise that we would go and listen to his sermon the next day....It was some form of story telling I thought and as we all knew, we loved sharing in a man's story, so we accorded to the invitation.


Next morning, we got back to town at about 5am,...we were al plastered...I was so plastered I had jumped off a moving truck as a result bruising my entire back (another story for another day)... but we had made a promise to go to church.....We got to my parents house me wreathing in pain and the others sweltering in sleepiness...and we hit the sacks....sleep was pain to some, but oblivion to most. 
But, we had made a promise and as we slept in my house, Madoss woke us up and made sure we were all ready in time for church...we ALL got on the truck and made our way to Church. This was just in time to get the back seats where no one ever saw you sleeping. Ultimately we were there, we showed up and fulfilled our promise..holy place or not, we had pledged our word, and according to him, we shall keep it. I dont remember much of the sermon, .but I remember he woke us up...because we made a promise...


R.I.P and travel well my friend...I am grateful for your life, even the bit we shared in this story, that if for nothing else I shall always remember, that we should always wake each other up.


Thanks Madoss!