WHO'S WORLD OF FANTASY WILL YOU DIVE INTO NEXT?

I MUST HAVE read this wrong my entire life, or at least, a good chunk of it. See, there was always a warning on the top bar of the bike saying ‘use your head, wear a helmet’. Anyone who is familiar with my story would have concluded that I had added a certain word to the sentence: then. In other words, it would seem that the comma was replaced by the word.

See, I used to despise helmets. I was under the impression that they were heavy and made one’s head look much bigger. Being a roadie, I was also shy that those in the vehicles (especially the girls) would laugh at my wearing a helmet. Besides, I had never seen cyclists wearing helmets, at least those I had interacted with. If only I had known….

Five days to my sixteenth birthday, I went out riding as usual. Nothing fancy. Just a ride in the not-so-near-but-close neighbourhood. I was having the time of my life when I crashed and cracked open my skull. Had it not been for the driver who’d been behind me at the time, my story would have been similar to that of an egg that had been cracked open and its contents poured into the frying pan: absolute.

I must have shocked many people when I returned to cycling despite my nearly-fatal accident. Many asked me whether I really had learnt my lesson. I have always maintained that I learnt two things from that experience:

1. Wear a HELMET!
2. Don’t do stupid things on the road.

Now, I bet you’re wondering how that story’s relevant to the title.

Well, for one, I would like to state in full confidence that there is no ‘then’ in the warning. It reads ‘use your head, wear a helmet’, and not ‘use your head then wear a helmet’. You probably wouldn’t survive the first clause of the sentence. I was lucky.

Second, the helmet protects the head. Without the head, there would be no life. Literally. You could survive without an arm, a leg, a lung,… but definitely not your head.

Similarly, the ocean is said to be the one thing that sustains life on the planet. Apparently, most of the oxygen in the air comes off the large water body.

Perhaps, then, it would be safe to conclude that the ocean is the “head” of the planet. Hence, no ocean = no life.

However, it is rather unfortunate that this life-sustaining bit of nature is currently undergoing lots of pollution. For example, the Nairobi River, which becomes the Athi, Galana and Sabaki drains its heavily polluted waters into the sea at the Coast.

The consequences are rather severe, and most of them end up in death, just like a hit to the head would in most cases.

Therefore, we need to observe the warning and put on the helmets! Although in a really bad crash the head could still be damaged, the helmet reduces the chances of head injury. Similarly, to protect life on the planet, the ocean and our rivers need a helmet.

Starting tomorrow (25th Aug 2019), a group of cyclists will be riding from Nairobi to Watamu, a distance of 680km, over the next one week. They will be riding in the shadow of Mt. Kilimanjaro as they ride along the river’s course. The objective is to raise awareness on the importance of clean oceans and rivers and on the urgency to clean them up. Furthermore, 50% of the total donations will be directed towards funding the noble cause of cleaner water bodies.

More information on the ride can be found at this website: https://seas4life.org/category/blog/