...I had to change area codes; move to new lands; abscond places I had know for 4 years without so much as a decent goodbye.
Well to be fair, I left KL in my head a couple of months ago or something like that but the actual movement in my head started in July when I got accepted to Sussex for my MA. The real physical movement was to be determined by one visa issuing officer. As a Kenyan, one of the most apprehensive moments is when one has to apply for visa to the northern hemisphere. Either I 'karma-ed' myself negatively or the theory that we dont really just get accepted to the north is true or maybe it was the universe telling me things.....after a 2 month long process of sleepless days, wondering nights or vice versa, the last words I remember are 'ill give it to you. Go to your studies and the back home and build your country.......'. That was on a Wednesday..orientation was on Saturday and classes were to start on Monday. The mind and body have a way of getting into logic and overdrive in an instant. I have never been so organised and logical in my life. Sleep was not an option, no big goodbye fests(none which are worthy f my 4 years tenure), no lunches with people and friends I had held for years, no last moments in kl with the twin towers/cheese naans/lunar bars e.t.c. It was get my sh** together and move like there is no manana.
I dare you to imagine how much stuff I had accumulated over 4years.Once you finish with that visual, now try packing it into 20kgs of baggage allowance (because you somehow found a flight at the 11th hour), then attempt to find winter clothes in a tropical country,then attempt to change rent contracts, pack desk in office, send goodbye emails to staff, request someone to pick you up at the airport on the other end at some ungodly hour,squeeze in some gooodbye dinner with the roomates, check all bills are paid, handover at the office,clear you taxes, pack whatever you can into a bag and all others into the trash can or boxes.....errrmmm MAYHEM.
The success behind such a venture lies in the combination of a supportive boss and colleagues, priceless roomates who volunteer to ship your stuff, Godsend friends who come and help you make sense of your packing or just hang out on your couch in support, friends who turn up at Zouk to enjoy one last drink with you even though they are still asking WTF?!, family who encourage you to keep up the fight and smile and cry with you all the way, amazing friends who pick you up at airports in the rain and slash at ridiculous hours, make you breakfast, put you on trains and proceed to open their homes to you when you need a breather,friends who champion your cause from the other end of the world and take time off their schedules to come welcome you to their lands...
Someone once said to be that i am mad. I feel like that sometimes but its a good mad. I'm mad and feel blessed in more ways than I can count. In my head I am still running and only now beginning to calm down and take stock of how far I have come. Its a change of lifestyle, thinking, dress code, diet amongst other things and I can ony trust that the graces and providence that have brought me thus far will prevail.
