The things our eyes see!!!

The things our eyes see!!!

I walked past the laundry section of the hospital this evening to gain access to the car park. I turned to my right and saw various shades of male traditional outfits, "buba and soro" hung on the cloth lines to dry. I was about to breeze past when I suddenly realized that those were the same lines that hospital beddings and theatre scrubs were spread out to dry after washing them.

I asked myself who could have brought his clothes to get them dried at work or if such clothing was now in regular use in our hospital. The only logical explanation was that someone with access to the laundry equipment utilized such for his/her personal laundry job. But are the laundry staff not part of the ongoing JOHESU strike which has been on for more than 5 weeks?

What if there was no strike, should hospital equipment or space be used for personal "runs"? If in fact the laundry folks are part of the strike, only God knows what the others are indulging in under the cover of the strike. Government hospitals have been sadly paralyzed by the absence of a huge pool of workers for weeks now but no one is persistently talking about it; not even the section of the media who had no nice words for doctors during the Ebola season.

I soon left the hospital compound and headed towards western avenue via Akerele. As I reached the junction where I was to turn right onto western avenue instead of heading straight towards the national stadium, an incident occurred very rapidly right in front of me.  A  black Honda accord with the  red badge of a very popular church in Lagos pulled up beside a yellow cab driven by an elderly man who had only just obstructed his path while driving rather dangerously in the other direction. I observed that the pair exchanged a few words only for the younger man in the accord to hurl an object from his car through the windows of both cars before speeding away. The angry cab man shot out of his car in a flash holding an empty "pure" water sachet as if he was about to launch his own missile or at least put on his puma running shoes to go after the young man who had  had the gonads to pelt him. I burst out laughing feeling little pity for the cab driver but put myself in the shoes of the other man and remembered what I did yesterday to the red van that brushed my car in heavy traffic although I did not approve of the missile hurled at the older man even if the words exchanged may have been hurtful.

I must confess that it could really pose a great challenge at times to resist having a go at people who offend us especially with the conditions inherent in this country. It requires great grace but we forget that it  is available beforehand to resist such urges in the first instance before all that is unpleasant is said and done.

Thankfully, we need not dwell in shame and regret when we fall short. Our duty is to get back up and do better by utilizing grace.

joa

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