Handsome Caleb.

Do some things really touch your soft spot? Like really they just bring tears to your eyes? Quite a number of things do get me teary eyed. Say the ‘A Billion reasons to believe in Africa’ advertisement, when I nail a song on guitar, when I miss my mum or my little brother and so on and so forth. But you see those things don’t make my tears fall, they just leave them dancing on the edges of my eyes. Here’s one thing that really gets to me, leaving my tears fall and flow: when a young person falls prey to a critical disease, one like cancer.Sunday morning, I left the house with two main agendas:
1. Go to church for the service
2. Go to NPC Woodley for a concert ‘Let me live’
I did stick to my agenda so after attending the service, I was headed to woodley. On my way to town, I realized that I’d left my umbrella in the car but oh well I convinced myself it wouldn’t rain, despite the evident clouds that were threatening to let the waters loose. So I reach town, I’m balancing replying those ‘uko?’ and ‘umefika?’ texts, at the same time I’m strategically tying my scarf around my hair and also, debating on whether I should buy my lunch in town. Quickly, I rush to Nakumatt and get me some yoghurt and wafers then I’m now headed to Railways to catch the bus going to woodley. On my way there, it starts drizzling, but as long as my hair is safe, then I’m fine. Two seconds later, the drizzle turns to heavy rain drops, okay now at that point I had to be the savior of my hair, which only  means RUN! It was funny but I did reach the bus, feeling like a super hero, my hair was dry, it’s all that mattered. The weather outside was defining one saying, ‘when it rains, it pours’. At that point I thought of going back home but I wouldn’t forgive myself. When I alighted, it was me and the rain, face to face, now my hair, wet. I had to walk to the church, no other option. No turning back.

Never mind that I’m now in church, dripping wet but hey, I’m glad to have reached safe, on time. On time baby. The ‘Let me Live’ concert was all about raising funds for Caleb, a 16 year old Form two boy who has Leukemia. This month, he needs to go to South Africa for a bone marrow transplant so that he fully recovers. This will cost 5.5 million shillings so the family is really working hard to raise the funds. By the time I was in church, I had no idea of who Caleb was, I just saw the advertisement on my timeline and since it was for a worthy cause, uniting with a couple of friends to go there was definitely time worthy.

Performances by Alice Kamande , Webi and Zidi the band kept us on our feet. OK so maybe I was exaggerating the dancing, in a bid to get dry.I think I may have looked as though I was more in a P.E lesson, rather than a concert. Adawnage were now on stage and to say that I love their music is an understatement. The type of music that takes you to a zone, I love it to bits. Then, the band members themselves are a bunch of lovely people. Just to mention, Mweshy, their bass guitarist enjoys himself on stage, always good to watch him perform.

Time came for us to be shown the clip about Caleb’s journey battling with leukemia and it really touched me. One, he is such a handsome young boy, you know those adorable hug-gable people, that’s him. Two, he was diagnosed with the disease when he was in class 6, which made him stop playing soccer. The disease also frustrated his academic performance. To have fought that disease for four years just goes to show how strong of a boy he is. He deserves to be enjoying his youth, playing soccer, going normally to school and et all. I saw him in person, even more handsome. (Yes I gave him a hug) As he and his family stood at the front of the church to receive greetings and money, on the background was Rosy of adawnage singing her song ‘Let me live’ It’s such a deep song with a deep background to why Rosy wrote it. Even then, it is a prayer asking God to let you live, and as we all reflected on that song, we all prayed to God to let Caleb live, handsome Caleb.

(tried posting a vid, not been successful. Follow @teamcaleb16 on twitter, for all updates. Their Mpesa line is 0727647085 account under Grace Kipkan-mum)