AN APPLE A DAY

Its been on my mind lately but ive tried to focus on other things but the day has arrived for me to face this topic.. i mean how could i avoid it any longer?

1. A friend was in hospital for like 3 months

2. My colleagues' 36 year old pal collapsed at work..turns out he had a stroke

3. Then the Patricia Show is talking about diabetes...

If those are not signs..i don't know what is...

im talking about good health or the absence of...i did a lot of health reporting..suffice it to say i tried my best to practice what i preached in those stories but sometimes sacrificing that kuku choma for salads was not so easy..but the above incidences have made me wake up and really really check myself..and my loved ones health..

I mean 36 years with a stroke? That only happened in America i thought but nope...ni mkenya...dark skin and all...what is worse...he has been married a short time...just think of his wife..battling with physiotherapy and stroke meds at that age...this is the time for kids and fun...not hospitals and labs..

But what really shook me was my pal whose been in hosi for like 3 months...first time we all saw him we were shell shocked...remember the line 'he was now a shadow of his former self'? scrap that! he was a skeleton of his former self...literally! we could not recognize him...in a span of 3 months he had transformed from robust man to a skeleton of his former self...his wife was trying to be strong but after seeing your husband suffer for that long...u can only hold up for so long...she cried a lot...we did our best to console her but at times i wondered...how is telling her its going to be ok going to help? Actually it did but at that time it seemed so hopeless..thank God for faith..when we were loosing hope...someone reminded us to keep praying for him...the guy is now out of hospital and is on his way to recovery...God does answer prayer!

But the whole situation made me think...what if it happened to me? What if i was that wife and my husband was in that bed? how would i have fared? how prepared am i for such eventualities?

You see as young people...with this 'my whole life is ahead of me' tag that we take with us everywhere we go..having someone so young in a hospital bed literally spins us out of control..after all...we are meant to be having 'our whole lives ahead of us'...not dealing with sicknesses that our grandma's are also contending with.

Lessons:

1. Be prepared for anything: get ur act together..if u have insurance..find out what does that really cover? Whats our savings like? Can i survive if in the unlikely event my husband dies or my mum or dad leave suddenly? are we saving up for such eventualities? the same applies to the single's as well.

2. Watch your health: what are u eating? are u heading down the road of diabetes and strokes?

3. Go for check ups: ladies and gents: cervical cancer, fibroids and prostate cancer can be prevented if its detected early..same for most cancers and heart conditions..

4.True friends and family stick with you no matter the season...you learn your true friends in times of adversity...not plenty.

5. Try to avoid stress...ur health is too important.

As the dettol advert says: "Good health is in your hands". (metaphorically).

WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP

Sometime back a friend of mine pointed out that one of Kenya's blue chip corporate entities does not have a female in its Board of Directors. I thought about this again when they started this women in leadership debate in Kenya a week or so ago.

For starters, in a country where the population of women is higher than that of men; it is just silly to argue that there aren't enough women to take up posts. Also, while the same constitution calls for free and fair elections hence arguing that everyone who wants a post should vie for it,kenyans please, open the can and smell the coffee...this is still a patriarchal society...and in a society where men rule...there is no way that they will prepare a level playing field for women to actively campaign and vie for posts. Should i go into the names that our current women in parliament have been called in that law-making house to belabor the point? Or the way they are treated?
And before you go into that rant of "anyone getting into politics needs to have nerves of steel" speech, think about it...what nerves of steel did some of our current male politicians have to enter into parliament? For most of them, they were men first...the rest followed.

Back to the blue chip firm with no women in their BOD. As we discussed the sheer shame of it all, one of my gals pointed out that its never going to be easy to find a woman in a BOD of such a firm...and its simply because she has another role to play at home..wife, mother. While the man can stay at work till midnight making his way up to the big boardroom, the woman has to think about dinner, homework and the uniforms the kids will wear the next day...not the guy...doing the graveyard shift will earn him a pat in the back...
Remember the patriarchal society i mentioned earlier? which dude is going to sit home till midnight waiting for his wife whose working and trying to make it to the BOD? No, honestly...hands up? I thought so. A lot of women sit on their potential to be madam president because of a dude whose ego could not allow him to support his wife. Borrow a leaf from Obama guys..for the longest time its Michelle who brought home the bacon...he never died because of it. I wish sometimes that guys could walk a mile in our shoes...maybe be women for a day...

I know i keep getting back to this point...i know its 2011 but its still happening...the partiarchal society thing...parents putting more emphasis on their sons education and future than their daughters..FGM..early marriages...etc. Even for those girls who do get an education..try selling the idea of wanting to be a politician or a manager..try even telling them u want to be an entrepreneur...what did dad and mom say?

For me its not so much the numbers..its just that women do not have an equal chance to do it...women leaders are there..in plenty..i remember them in SONU during the campus years..you see them in civil society and parliament...some are even in high school...give them a chance to blossom; and anyway...we have had men leading this country for 40+ years...what change has come to Kenya? Just think about how efficiently your mum runs the home...always on top of everything...imagine translating that (with the necessary added experience) to our fondly called "National Cake"?

I rest my case.