It was my 23rd Birthday and i was but a lonely immigrant far away from home.
Sometimes everything in your life just goes wrong and you get to that stage when you are even afraid of going outside in case something else goes wrong.
I was going through such a patch.
I had dropped out of uni and was living illegally in this country.
My Kenyan girlfriend had recently broken up with me because she needed to get married to a jungu for papers. She had moved 3oo miles away and left me totally alone in a flat we shared and one that i couldn`t afford anymore owing to my circumstances.
The only thing going was my job at a restaurant in the middle of the city where i was paid to wash dishes, clean the kitchens and help the chefs with anything they needed done.
It was a very friendly place to work and anyone who has worked in the Hospitality Industry will attest to the fact that due to the long hours and highly emotionally charged working environment,people quickly get close and friendly and in time you are but one big family.
I had to deal with waitresses and waiters and the chefs and the managers and majuu,these are part time jobs left for Uni/College Students and are not necessarily Career jobs.
I am the only black face in the whole place and owing to the fact that we were located in a posh area of the City,there is virtually no other immigrants in sight .
in time, i start going out with one of the waitresses who i had met at the uni i dropped out of and one that actually hooked me up to get this job.
I open up to her about my status, my break up and my isolation and she promises to help me in any way…
(we even registered a marriage behind her parent`s back!)
Anyway, its my 23rd birthday one fine day and i have no intentions of celebrating it and i haven`t seen my Irish girlfriend since the weekend but she is working tonight.
I am so stressed i just want to finish my shift and go hide under the duvet in my flat.
The Restaurant was was on two floors and i worked in the basement.
There was a phone and a shoot that was used to send the dishes up and down for cleaning etc… and there was a flight of stairs that i would use if the chefs upstairs needed anything from the freezers at the basement.
They rarely phoned me because i was always on top of the prep and if they had to call me,it meant that i had to walk among the customers to get to the door of the main kitchen on the ground floor. - I hated it and everybody knew it!
I have kept mum all day about my birthday and apart from my girlfriend who is also on shift,im hoping that nobody else remembers.
But just an hour before closing time and right at the height of business when the restaurant is buzzing with customers, i get a phone call and its the manager.
She asks me to bring a box of Chilled wine from the freezers to the First floor of the restaurant.#
I think nothing of it and although i hate walking among all the tipsy customers, i know it won`t be long until the shift is over and i can go home.
I find the box and soon i`m making my way up the flight of stairs to the ground floor.
Its eerily quiet along the usually busy staircase and i also notice that my two workmates downstairs are nowhere to be found.
I make nothing of it i have a job to do and there must be a table waithing for their drinks upstairs.
The door to the main restaurant floor is at the top of the stairs and it only opens from the inside by pushing it so its abit awkward trying to open it from the outside while holding a box with my two hands!
I manage to do it anyway and unlike any other time i have ever done this,there is Total silence and as i use my foot to keep the door open,i notice the Complete Darkness in the restaurant!
I am ready to drop the box of wine as i stare into the Dark Restaurant But as fast as i can get my head around the situation a Candle shines in my eye and before i can blink,all the lights come up in the restaurant and Everyone in the Reastaurant ( customers and Staff) All break into a “HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!!.. HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR @Ka-Buda … HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!!”
There must have been all of the 200 hundred customers there and as i broke down in tears and confusion, my Irish girlfriend and the manager held the candle lit cake infront of me and asked me to make a wish!..
I have never felt so loved in my whole life.
That was 17 years ago tomorrow.
Now get out and go vote for Kenya…
Wembe ni ule ule!!!