It's in the script

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"Hadithi, hadithi, hadithi njoo"

"Hadithi, hadithi, hadithi njoo"

"Hapo zamani za kale...," the narrator would begin, as we craned our necks, steadied our gaze on him and listened as if our lives depended on it. As kids, we loved stories, and as adults we still do, there's plenty of evidence on show to prove it. Autobiographies or biographies fly off the shelves, Gossip sites are never short on traffic, Movie theaters always draw a reasonable crowd. The script may have changed but we still possess the same child-like enthusiasm for a story. There's just something so captivating and enticing about them.

While it may be fun to listen to a story, it's equally delightful to be in one and tell it, and today I share that privilege. My story dates back 2011, I was a young, undergrad student, fresh from finishing my second year of University. I was on the lookout for an attachment. Did I mention I was desperate? Well I was. I was on a 3 month break till school resumed for the next semester. Before then, I was required to do a 12-week internship. One month into the break, I still hadn't secured an attachment. That's not to say, I hadn't been trying. I had been invited for some interviews. Not one but two. The first being at Panafric Hotel, which didn't go too bad but I lost my phone immediately after the interview and I didn't do a followup to see if I got in. 

The second was at Sankara, which was a disaster, and I was not at all surprised that they didn't get back to me. Being the gentleman I was, I was courteous enough not to get back to them for obvious reasons. By this time, panic had set in. Time was whittling away and I hadn't even began, it became evident that I wouldn't do 12 weeks before the new semester started but far worse, was the unthinkable probability that I wouldn't do the attachment at all. Disaster. Unparalleled disaster. That would seriously jeopardize my chances of graduating, but then, a lifeline came. My sister managed to talk to a friend, who was then a director of a hotel, and we arranged for an interview. "Has to be third time lucky", I thought to myself.

The interview was scheduled for 9am, mistake no 1: I arrived late, very late, 9:30 late, Did I mention that the Director had a European background? So you get the picture now. I was hopeful that maybe she was involved in some meeting that ate into my scheduled time with her and so she wouldn't mind much. I was wrong, very wrong. The alarm bells were well and truly off when the Front Desk agent realized my predicament. "You were supposed to see her at 9:00?" he asked with a bemused look on his face. He then glanced at his watch and was rather apprehensive, an ominous, foreboding kind of apprehensive, even if he wasn't the one that was late. I seriously had it coming. 

He asked me to wait before summoning a porter to escort me to the Director's office. I didn't wait too long before the porter arrived. He ushered me away, as we navigated a couple of hallways before we finally reached her office. He greeted her and then beckoned me to come in before hastily departing. She looked easygoing, so I thought. Clutching my CV and application paper in her hands, she initiated what would be my shortest interview to date with these words, "You don't know how to write a CV or an application letter, and then you come 30 minutes later..I'm sorry I can't give you this opportunity." she tersely said. Mic drop. Just like that, my hopes of securing an attachment were gone and she was in no mood to give me a chance to explain, not that I really had any. Thus, I picked up the shards of my self esteem and was on my way, thoroughly despondent.

I once cried a river  after Manutd had only been beaten 1-0 by Liverpool at Old Trafford, God knows that I felt like crying then. I wore the longest face, as I trudged out of that hotel.  Despair does not even begin to describe my state of mind. I made it to Strathmore University, valiantly holding back the tears, and I begrudgingly told my course administrator that I wasn't going to secure an attachment. I then proceeded to spend the remaining weeks at home, not knowing my fate, unsure that I would graduate....

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.....As much as I toyed with the idea of having a part 2 to this blog post, I will spare you and continue my story. My childhood is rife with instances when this dreaded 3-word black screen appeared and the episode in question would never be continued. I mean who does that really.... who does that?!!! You just had to leave us with the suspense and wait a week later to see how it all played out. All you would get is the credits rolling and a news bulletin thereafter. Why didn't they ever have a 'to be continued' for the news I wondered back then. "Why couldn't they fit it all in one episode?"

My questions were never answered and so not wanting anyone to go through the harrowing experiences of my childhood, I will continue

...so there I was, at home, instead of being on an attachment, wondering whether I would graduate. I spent the remainder of my now enforced holiday, miserable and definitely not at peace, before returning to the University to begin my first semester of 3rd year. During the first few weeks, almost every lecturer wanted to know how we fared during the internship and would not begin the lecture without first inquiring from each and every student about their internship experience.  Everyone had an answer except me. This was surprising for a number of the reasons.

One, I was the class chop, the undisputed Index one,  the guy who would finish his exam 30 minutes before time, mic drop. You could say I was that guy who got an A regardless of Fred Matiangi or not. I was also the good guy, one could say I was the teacher's pet in a way. So it came as a shock, that I of all people didn't do an attachment.

Interestingly, a classmate had secured an internship at Panafric and was rather surprised I never reported there for work as she acquired info that I had actually aced the interview at Panafric. Maybe it was because I lost my phone after the interview that they couldn't get back to me. Fact was, though, I never did any internship and even the news that I did pass the interview was scant consolation.

I was low on confidence and self-esteem as a result. I really wondered whether I would graduate. I was stressed up about it. It therefore came as no surprise that a few months later, I contracted a condition known as Vertigo. Vertigo, being an illness, where one has an imbalance in the ear, and experiences constant dizziness. I felt as if the world was spinning, and it wasn't easy walking straight. I had to take around 2 weeks off from campus.The doctor attributed it to stress and I made up my mind that I would go on a one year study leave if I didn't get another attachment after 3rd year ended. 

I was put on medication and it didn't seem to cause any marked improvement. I only got better when the doctor recommended I do a set of simple exercises 3 times daily that included moving my head from side to side, moving my eyes from side to side moving my back and forth, staring into space among others. It was extremely simple and it was mighty effective because weeks later, I was OK. I thought I needed surgery but who knew a few simple exercises would get me back on track.

Third year would eventually end and like the year before, my sister managed to get in touch with a friend at a different hotel and this time I was early for the interview and I got the internship. After 12 weeks of the internship, my confidence was back, in fact it came with an added personality. I became super-talkative. I had no qualms of being a class representative for the second time. To make matters even better, my aunt gave me a laptop and now I could access the local area internet at campus with ease instead of hustling looking for labs. Life had indeed taken a turn for me. Then it took another turn. A turn for the worse.

Despite being the class representative for the best part of 2 years, and one of my responsibilities being to communicate any grievances my classmates would have of the exam timetable, I did the unthinkable; I got the times of my last exam very wrong.

The last exam of the semester was to be at 8am, I thought it was to be at 2pm. I had the habit of arriving right on time for my exam and not 15 minutes because I  didn't like that last minute group discussion of possible questions before an exam. I usually arrived right on time or slightly late to avoid it. Therefore, my classmates had no reason to suspect there was something amiss when they were frisked and ushered into the exam room and I wasn't there. They surely did when I hadn't arrived and the exam was over. All the while I was at home reading for an exam I thought was at 2pm but had in fact ended. I got a call from a classmate and she asked me why I had missed the exam. I was stunned into silence.

It was the shock of my life. I couldn't believe it. She explained to me that the paper started at 8am, and ended at 10. I can't remember what I replied back, but  my head was literally spinning from the news. I took another look at the timetable just to be sure and I realized it was true, the exam was at 8. There was an exam at 2 all right, being invigilated by the same lecturer but it was for the 2nd years. I couldn't believe this was happening.

Exam timetables usually come in one or two drafts before the final timetable and I remembered that in the first draft, the exam was slated for the last Friday at 2pm. A good number of my classmates weren't up for that and insisted I ask the faculty to push it forward, which I did. When the next draft came out, my classmates looked at it and said they was no change. They were right, the exam hadn't been pushed forward, it was still on Friday, but, they were also wrong, there was a slight change. It was no longer at 2pm but at 8am. I didn't notice that and it would prove to be a fatal mistake. I ended up missing the exam altogether much to my consternation.


I rushed to the University desperately hoping the lecturer would permit me to do the exam at 2 pm, but that would not materialize. Instead I was told to hope that the Evening Class whose exams were due the next month had the same unit in the exam roster and I could do a retake. Failure for that to occur, meant that I would have to wait till 2015 to do the exam and hopefully graduate in 2016, 3 years after my intended graduation!!!

I was crestfallen. How could I stupidly blow away my chances of graduating by failing to look at a timetable? I prayed that the evening class was scheduled to do that exam a month later but still told God I would accept the 2015 option if push came to shove. I left it all in his hands and waited.

A few days later. I was at it again. I lost my laptop. It was in my bag when I left it at the luggage section of a supermarket, on reaching home around 2 hours later. I discovered it was missing. What was all this?!!! I missed an exam, then I lose my laptop. Things were going downhill at a frightening rate. Worse was that I hadn't finished my project proposal which was due in 2-3 weeks.

Fortunately prior to the loss, I had been using my gmail account as an additional backup drive, and I had saved my progress. Fortunately moreover, I had the habit of writing things down before typing them, and so I was able to type my literature review from a written draft and subsequently generate a satisfactory list of sources for my proposal.

Then God gave me a lifeline. The Unit I missed was being examined after all. In December 2012, I thus was able to sit for the paper with the evening class and score a satisfactory grade. Months after that and slightly after the election of 2013, I had finished my coursework and my project, there was now the small matter of an attachment I didn't do after my second year. So, while every fourth year was waiting to graduate, I was doing an internship at Fairmont The Norfolk hotel. In order to ensure I met the deadline of all my marks being submitted one month prior to graduation my supervisor carried out  an early evaluation of my attachment so that I could be graded in good time.

Everything was going fine, till I realized again, rather belatedly that for a graduand to graduate, a convocation fee had to be paid, and for the convocation to be paid, clearance had to be done which involved going to a host of deparmennts to obtain a signature and a stamp. Unfortunately, because I didnt bother to fully read an email,(what's with me and failing to read stuff?) my course administrator sent, I only knew of this when attempting to pay for the convocation fee on the deadline for paying for the convocation and it was only a few minutes to 5pm.

I scampered across the University, clearance form in tow, rushing to get stamps and signatures from various department heads, but by the time I was through and ready to pay for the convocation fees, it was close to 7pm and the guy at Finance told me it was too late, I could only pay for my convocation on Monday. The deadline was that very same Friday. That was a death sentence because my university was big on deadlines and since now I didn't meet the deadline, I didn't have much hope of graduating again.

I prayed again, leaving all things to God, and acknowledged his will to be done. Come Monday, I paid the convocation fees , 3 days after the deadline and left it all to God. God,was merciful again because a few weeks later, the graduation list came out and my name was the fist one in my faculty's list. Phew!!! 8-4-4 was done, amidst all the odds. On June 28 2013, I was conferred with a Bachelor of Science in Hospitality Management, to cap of a very dramatic last 2 years at Strathmore University. In addition to celebrating my feat, my Aunt gave me a tablet, and in a way the pain of losing a laptop was erased

Next year, January 2014, I was catching up with my cousin, and she was surprised to learn I had worked at Norfolk. She then asked if I knew a certain chef she had encountered while she supplied stuff to the hotel. I told her I didn't. She mentioned he was an eccentric guy who struck terror among staff with his antics. He was an explosive character in the kitchen, few were spared from his wrath.

It seemed he wasn't working there when I was on attachment and on hearing her testimony, I was glad I never met him. Then, one day, as I read a list of Taste Award nominees, I noticed his name, not as a representative of Norfolk, but another hotel, the same hotel where I was promptly dismissed for lateness and a poor application. I was gobsmacked. I wanted that attachment so bad, to think that had I got it I would be working with such a volatile chef; me,  full of nerves because it would be my first attachment in the presence of such a chef; suddenly, I actually thanked God I didn't get the attachment. Suddenly, it dawned on me, that perhaps God was protecting me from him as he saw my temperament then wouldn't handle him. Suddenly, it hit me, I had practically experienced that in all things God works for the good of those who love him.(Romans 8:28)

And I lived happily ever after....well not exactly, but something close to that. My story is still continuing, even as I write this story, I am still the main character of my story which God is writing or should I say has written. All the above was God's script, laden with an incredible number of twists and turns, but his script ultimately proved good for me when it came to the end of my time at Strathmore.

As a character in his script of my life, in real time, things looked bleak to me. When I didn't get my attachment after 2nd Year, I could not see into the future to the period of 4th year I would do it at Norfolk. God already did. He had also seen an alternate reality of me with an eccentric chef and it didn't look pretty and so he protected me from it, even when I didn't see it and wanted that attachment so bad

When I lost my laptop, I couldn't see a future of completing my proposal and then my project the next year but God did and even saw my future with a tablet.

When I missed an exam, and could only see myself redoing the paper in 2015, God had already seen the future of me resitting the paper a month later.

When I couldn't see how my vertigo could be cured by just exercise, he did. I learnt that God could heal me without necessarily having to go for surgery or through medication. This lesson came in handly later on, as without medication or surgery, I had the faith to believe I could get healing from a condition known only as eosinophilic dermatitis that plagued me for a couple of years. I did get healed, and it is unlikely I would have gotten so without the experience of the Vertigo.

My myopic vision as a character in his script was not the point, His dynamic vision as the Author of my story was. Not only did he see my past and my present, he saw my future, all alternate versions of it because he is an all-knowing God.

I guess he proved to me fully that he was the author and perfecter of my faith as cited in Hebrews 12:2. In his wisdom, he though it prudent to develop me as a character and so he allowed me to go through these trials  so that I could grow and also develop a relationship of trust in him for times I would it need later. It was through these experiences that I encountered a God who is trustworthy, and I could respond to him in faith and trust.

I encountered a God who could heal even when doctors couldn't trace the route of my problem. I encountered a God who could make a way for me to graduate when there seemed there was none.

Sometimes we live life complaining that things are tough. We live life unhappy when we are beset by a number of problems. We wonder why doors are shut in our face, why relationships we desire never take shape. Why people never change for the better? In our limited perspective we only see adversity that we don't feel we deserve, but Gods's perspective is that even despite the adversity, his glory can be made known. Through the trials or long waiting period, he is developing your character so that you can handle what he will throw your way in the future.

Don't fret when your life seems to be on standby mode. Don't be anxious when your hit a supposed dead end. Don't get agitated when your life takes a turn for the worse. These responses may not be second nature but that's what the Holy Spirit is there for. That is the gist of Philippians 4:13, the power through Christ to do things that are second in nature to us;to trust him in the face of adversity

He may not win a Nobel prize or an Oscar but he is certainly up there when it comes to writing super scripts, and so even if we don't know the end to our story, he definitely does. They say it's over when the fat lady sings, God says it's over when he deems it to be over not us. Ours is to trust him, the author and perfecter of our faith, and as Francesca Battisteli sang, allow him to write his story in our hearts, even if it comes with twists and turns galore.