ANOTHER KENYAN DIES IN MARYLAND

 

King W. Mungai

ENG 111-10

Jan 30^th, 2006

Remembered Event Essay

THIRTY BELOW ON TOP OF A 58 FOOT SEMI TRUCK

More than just hardening my muscle, nothing could be as rewarding to my soul. We all have our “good-ugly” memories. There are some that make us stand shoulders high to talk about. Not because we loved the pain so bad, but because we haven’t met the side of us that says, I will stand through it all. We really were not familiar with the “little further pusher” and “what is the worst that could happen when it already has”. Nothing could stretch it for me than the fierce deadly freezing Tuesday morning February, 15^th of 2005.

I was in the Blaine, Minnesota at the local Menards lumber yard by five in the morning. My Toyota Camry never got to keep me warm until I got to Blaine. It was a big struggle in trying to get a grip on my steering wheel. My thick miserable fingers were curled in the palm of my hands and not willing to unfold. My toes clung so fast to each other. I felt like a leper. But yet, this was still nothing compared to what was ahead for me.

This day, we did not use regular 11,000 pound Isuzu appliance delivery truck. We were set for the big stuff. It was major construction materials delivery day. My boss Doug was still in the store’s nicely heated delivery department office. He really took his time getting the daily customer invoices. He already had the fifty eight foot ugly roaring fright liner truck wide awake. The driver’s cage was not going to shelter me from the horrible weather condition. The foul-mouth Matt couldn’t wait to see me squirm. He kept demanding that I do this after that without a sincere need for my help. I wondered if he would feast on my flesh if I dropped dead at his feet.

Matt and the other two forklift loaders were wearing heavy duty layers of clothing. They had their hoods on plus masks that covered their whole face but for their eyes. Good company gloves kept their hands nicely warm. On top of that, these kids were born and raised in the deadly Minnesota cold. Poor King had a pair of Hanes polyester under suit bought from Wal-Mart; with a light pair of jeans, sweat shirt, a head band, and a Columbia sportswear jacket, my world was still under attack. Now I was twenty three feet high off the ground, squatting on piles of sheet rock laid on the flatbed.

The cold icy wind was cutting 20 miles an hour. That even made it worse. The cold was so hungry and it embraced the air so intensely. I felt it break through my bones. My ears were ready to fall off my head; my dry, flaky, chapped winter lips chattered. My teeth gnashed. My entire body went in to a tremendous shiver that kept rolling and rolling. My joints went so stiff; and neither could my wrist twist nor my neck turn. I could neither spring up nor sit down. My rear end felt like it wasn’t there. Cold hell was breaking loose on me. The Minnesota beast felt like it was on a mission to devour one very harmless skinned rat.

The unbearable cold sent my mind across continents. The thoughts landed me in the sunny and tropical ever-constant hundred degree temperature of Mombasa, Kenya. I envisioned myself in beige muscle shirt, khaki shorts and barefoot walking through my front gate towards the beach ten minutes away. The wretched cold snapped my mind right back to the semi truck; my thoughts rushed at me rapidly. Never in my life had I thought I would be working under such horrible conditions. I asked my self a thousand questions. “What is the purpose of this challenge?” “Why am I here?” “Is this the road to success?” Twenty dollars a day and I tried to put it all into perspective. “Can it get better for me?” I thought of my parents and my sisters and how they would have felt if they saw what I had to go through. I know they would have been sad. My mom would have probably demanded that I catch the next flight available flight home. I became emotional and wanted to cry; real men do cry.

I look back on this one of many bust memorable life-changing events. Learning to live with and in the sub-freezing temperatures helped shape me into a more focused and resilient individual. It has allowed me to stay committed to my goals no matter what it takes. I now find myself taking a more proactive and assertive role, never taking no for an answer. More than ever before, I am now prepared and know what it takes to persevere and succeed in an unfamiliar climate. I have learned to see challenges as opportunities in disguise.