When Honesty Failed Me

When an organist introduced me to the 9:30 a.m. English service choir of All Saints' Cathedral Nairobi that Sunday in April 2007 I first set foot in the cathedral, the choir chairman invited me to a committee meeting so they could get to know me.

I enjoyed telling them I had some musical skills, and that I was to enrol at JKUAT the following month to pursue engineering. And wow! I left the cathedral that day feeling that's where I belonged.

In the week that followed, I began going to the cathedral for choir practices on Thursdays and Saturdays, and came to like the hymns we sang and the tea we took afterwards. Of course I attended Sunday services too!

Now, the choir required new members to stay on probation for one month. During my probation month, I looked forward to donning the choir uniform on Sundays. When the month was over, four committee members interviewed me.

I told them I was enjoying being part of the choir when they asked me how I was faring. Then I suggested we take tea on Sundays after service like we did after choir practices, only for one of them to cut me short and tell me it was my spiritual health they were concerned about.

With that, they began tearing into me. One of them said I needed some spanking and another that I had to learn to think clearly. They really put me through the mill in the interview, and I was only 19.

And you know what? That committee member who told me it was my spiritual health they were concerned about, treated me in an offhand manner during my time in the choir, which makes me wonder if he was any healthier than me spiritually. But I still think the cathedral is where I belong.

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