Of corona vaccines and a public kiss
I had almost forgotten about this second shot Astra Zeneca vaccine, codename AZD1222 or locally called as Covishield. The initial shot in the left arm on April 6 was a big deal. A new vaccine had been realized in record time, hardly one year after the pandemic had hit humanity. It was that same record time that had led to lots of vaccine hesitancy and doubts on its efficacy. The second dose did not even seem possible after the scheduled eight-weeks interval period came and passed. There was even talk that our bodies would ‘reset’ to not-vaccinated status if we missed the second shot after the eight weeks. We must have therefore reset to ‘not-vaccinated’ as we prepared for the second shot that was coming forth on the twelfth week after the first one.
The announcement for the shot was sent late night as usual. The reason why they give little or no notice when these shots are scheduled remains unknown to me. Maybe be the body needs a ‘surprise’ for the vaccine to be effective? I was on late night work on this Sunday night, when that email notification popped up. It was just past one in the morning. It indicated that staff should report for their second dose vaccination on Tuesday and Wednesday.
I was out for my long run on Monday, just a day to the shots. I have never been this tired during a run. My lethargy was evident hardly five minutes into the run. My paining stomach did not make things any better. I knew that it was not my run day. Maybe the first dose vaccine had already cleared from my system and the body was complaining that it was due for the booster shot. What it was, I do not know – but I was so tired during this run that my own assessment was that I would probably do an average of six-minutes per kilometre. That would be twenty-percent slower. I did not care about the time. I had decided that I would take the run, and I was taking the run.
Using the same usually run route had its advantages. My legs knew how and where to lead me without much persuasion. I somehow made it to Ndumbo and was soon on the downhill on Kapenguria road towards Wangari Maathai institute. Even my autopilot mode managed to stumble on the five new speed bumps that had been added to the half kilometre road section all the way to the institute. That was new. They were not there during my last run on Friday, just three days ago.
I kept running and kept going. I was emerging from the university farm at the tank, to join Kanyariri road after about an hour of run. I kept struggling with the run, but I was now past the half way mark and I just needed endurance to keep me going. I was on the road for hardly another five minutes after this turnoff when I approached a white vehicle parked on the right edge of the road, on the same edge that I was running on. Part of the vehicle’s right side was almost touching the edge of the road, since the roadside did not have so much space anyway. Though the road is not usually busy with vehicular or human traffic, it still did not look right for a vehicle to be abandoned there.
I was about ten metres to the vehicle when I observed clearly through the windscreen some silhouette of two people. It took me five steps to clearly see a man and a woman seated on the front seats, guy on the driver’s seat, while the lady sat on the front passenger’s seat next to him. I was just passing them in another five steps when I observed them with tightly locked lips, as they sat and embraced on the small front section of the car. I was tempted to turn back and reconfirm, since I had made my observations a bit too abruptly to even register what was really going on. I recall having passed by some three or so school going children, of the primary school level, whom I had overtaken about twenty metres before that car. Those three boys would soon encounter that vehicle with its movie through that clear windscreen in a few moments.
I kept going and resisted to turn back. The school boys can start learning their lessons in life as they pass by that car. A movie or two would not hurt. I was already just struggling to keep on the run with all the tiredness and I did not have any more physical or mental energy to think about this issue at the moment. However, I lied. That scene of those two on the front seat kissing around left me analyzing the situation with many what-ifs and whys. Why would two grown-ups want to display their affection in the light of day in ‘the public of the road’? What happened to good old public decency and respect to one’s self, and the public?
Let me disclaim that I have nothing against anybody doing anything. Kiss until your mouth gets sore if you want. Its your mouth! (not mine!). For that matter, do it where you want to do it – it is your choice (not mine). My only gripe is turning ’public’ roads into ‘private’ rooms. There is an acceptable level of decency expected in public spaces. I did not make the rules. The citizens of this country made the rules. I may not like the rules but rules are rules. Let public affairs be kept to the public and so should private. But do not just take my word for it. A UK government minister had to resign just yesterday for having kissed a woman in private, so how serious can such in public be?
I kept imagining how that scene came to be. Could the gal have been the wife of the guy? But why would they decide to romance beside the road in that case? Could it had been a ‘plan’? Isn’t ‘mpango’ a ‘plan’ in the English language? Even if it was a ‘plan’, if you can afford a car, then you can surely afford better privacy. I must have been running thoughts on my mind for long, since I do not even remember how I did the U-turn on the Gitaru-Wangige road, as I found myself back to that very car hardly thirty minutes later on my way back. I passed by it and had a chance to glance back momentarily to confirm if I had even seen right the first time. This time, the two were decently seated on their respective seats looking straight ahead through the windscreen with straight faces. If you had not been around there before this time, then you could not even have even known that there had been no innocence on that front seat.
I was energized to pass by that vehicle and run away towards ‘the tank’, and straight on towards Ndumbo. That last hill towards Ndumbo shopping centre was something that I was waiting for, with all the dread it deserves. It is a one-kilometre section of pure leg pain, made worse by the way I was feeling on this Monday. I somehow managed to clear it and would soon just join Waiyaki way, then cross the road at Kabete Poly and be back to my starting point, which would be my finishing point. I was even surprised that I had missed that six-minutes average that I had feared. I had in fact done this run in an average of 5min 3sec.
I was glad that the run was finally done with, and there would be no more runs until after the second shot vaccination. It was hardly twelve hours later that I would get that shot. That second shot was even more painless than the first. The registration on the government system after the vaccination was a simple one question affair, unlike the initial interview done during vaccination 1. It is just about twelve-hours since that second shot in the arm and I am still feeling no effects, if there should be any. I cannot evaluate the effect of ‘full vaccination’ on my runs until the next run on Friday. The global corona infections* may be 182,403,071 with 3,949,423 deaths, but this pandemic shall soon be defeated if we continue to have and accept such vaccination initiatives. Our Kenya numbers may be 183.603 and 3,621 respectively, but we as a country are also doing something about it, despite the few doses that have come our way.
*source: worldometers website
The last two days have taught me two lessons – be blind to the going ons if you are a marathoner running on the public roads, and let us all respect our public spaces.
WWB, the Coach, Nairobi, Kenya, June 29, 2021
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