SARAH

“Kindly have a sit, we will be with you for only 5 minutes" She said in a soft calm voice. I always wondered to myself, can she ever get mad? She had this demeanour, calm, collected with a soft smile that could melt a Viking’s heart.

“I don’t feel like sitting down. You think that I do not have a home to go home to? You keep me here for over 24hrs and expect me to just be ok with it? Sloths are a million times faster! Sit down! You people need to get your act together" She blurted. "Come Jay, leave these useless people alone" she retorted as she grabbed Jay's little hand and walked to the vending machine...

Sarah came to the back of the room fuming, this lady was lava red! (I still do not understand how we're still not ashes stacked up in a rusty urn) The kind of red that could instantly melt an anvil. The imp in me though I should call her Khaleesi (for those who can relate) or just simply RED! But my guardian angel, straight from drinking redbull came to my rescue didn’t utter a word.

“This woman... who does she think she is? Kwani she thinks sisi si watu? Kwani ni mimi nilimchelewesha”? She raged almost talking to herself.

 I’d never seen Sarah this enraged, always pictured her as her namesake from the bible. .Imagine a woman keeping up with Abe. Abraham who was so willing to sacrifice the only child they had waited for eons on...Patient, that’s how I would describe her in one word. 

Anyway, technically it wasn’t our fault, it never is! If you stay at the hospital for 6hrs and 32 minutes and spend 5 minutes at the pharmacy, I am not the one who kept you. Actually you should be thanking me for making you spend only 5mins of the 6hrs and not another 6hrs. Lady, *#%!h, you should be thanking us!

 But we had come to get used to it, (admittedly after days and days of customer care training made mandatory by HR) we had learned how to take it all, compose ourselves and give service with a smile. We had to, that was our lifeline. Of cause sometimes we let our guard down and returned fire with fire, but we swiftly regained consciousness and composed ourselves. So swiftly that our aggressor wouldn’t know we had had a spitting contest.

One person, only one person in the entire unit had never caved in. No single altercation with a client. Her name was Miss Customer care, aka Miss CC (soon to be Khaleesi or RED, still not decided). Not a single time had she let her guard down. But this time, this was going to be the day! Arise Khaleesi; unleash Drogon, spit fire, I almost cheered her on. Let’s admit it we all wanted to see CC turn into a ball of fire. But to our disappointment, relief, it didn’t happen.

As she’s always done a million times over, Sarah prepared the drugs and gave the instructions in a calm voice and off and her charming smile, without a word Mama Jay was gone. One thing that missed in all that that was that magical word that had been forced down our throats. “Good day”

Later, I asked her, Sarah (had never called her that) why didn’t you flare up like some of us. That woman was practically poking your eyes spoiling for a fight, why didn’t you react aggressively/” she posed for a second, seemed to think and with that same calm voice she said “I know myself, she does not know anything about me. I know why am doing what i am doing and am not doing it for her or anyone else for that matter. As long as i have done my bit, I can never lose my head over such.” And with that she walked away. Her shift had ended.

One thing I learned from RED (yes I settled on RED. Khaleesi was too hard to pronounce) is that; only you knows yourself better, you have the power to make yourself feel good or bad about yourself. Be your own cheerleader, appreciate yourself more (ladies not with cake the results are not great), be proud of your achievements. If you get a compliment from a 2^nd or 3^rd party, that’s a bonus. But never be too reliant on other peoples compliments, they might just never come.