A SURGERY
This man came into the clinic for a circumcision. There was only a local anesthetic. He never once made a sound. Just his forearm covering his eyes.
{…will not insert name here…}
by christopher pereira
DENNISH
I called him Brooklyn. He wore this shirt almost every I was in Lwala. I must of sung the “Hello Brooklyn” by Jay-Z to him each time we met up. I think I covered every inch of the Lwala countryside with this guy. Ten days of walking. Everywhere. When we weren’t walking, we were on the back of really small motorcycles that should only fit two people. Including the driver there was three of us. He was waiting on me constantly. He watched me write down my schedule in my molskine and by the end of my time there I would be thinking out loud where we would be going next and he would annoyingly tell me to read my black book.
He would play his music on his speaker phone and I would dance. He would just laugh and yell, “Chris!”
Dennish Omundi is 25 yrs old and getting ready to go to college at the University of Nairobi. He dropped out of primary school in order to support his mom only to return with a vengeance. When he first started secondary school he didn’t have the money to pay for tuition. Each morning at 4:30am, he would start chopping firewood and then carry it a couple miles to school in order to pay his way. He didn’t just beat he overwhelming odds stacked against him. He crushed them, kicked them in the face, and smiled the entire time. In August he’ll attend the best and only accredited university in Kenya. Love this guy.
