Was this a God’s favour moment?

On July 23rd, 2026,

I was at a social event and after a lull to the day’s business was reached, attendees were invited to partake of lunch.

And as is usual in such events, queues can get really long but fortunately the queuing was based on genders.

The male queue was relatively short but before I and two friends could reach the queue the tail end, several women had noticed that that queue was relatively shorter and had already taken their space ahead of us.

Facing that reality, we nevertheless queued and waited out turn to get food.

I was quite hungry since I had traveled early morning without taking my usual morning meal in order to save time so that I could reach the event in good time to capture all that was in the event’s program.

And as I patiently waited and reflected, a man in a reflector jacket and a total stranger approached me and took my hand saying, “tafadhali kuja wewe. nifuate–please come, follow me.”

I was rather taken aback but I also realized that I was most likely being led to the front of the queue to have my meal served and indeed he took me to the front and said, “tafadhali chukua sahani ukuwe served”, (please get your plate and be served.)

Feeling rather guilty for cutting the queue, i mumbled few apology words to my immediate queue neighbor who responded, “ni sawa mzee “, and i thus enjoyed the favour and got my serving and went on to enjoy my meal which was accompanied with a bottle of water.

As i enjoyed my meal, I started reflecting and wondering why the stranger had picked on me… Perhaps I appear very elderly or something close..

But then, even one of my friends who was not picked appears even a bit more elderly than I  or perhaps I appeared more of a stranger than the rest?

As I continued enjoying my meal and reflecting, I deduced that what I had just experienced was a God almighty’s favour moment.

Nevertheless, this moment  reminded me of the other times I have found such favour including in being warmly welcomed to the places i have visited and even getting salutations from security officers and ushers and even being politely asked whether I had secured nice parking.

Even as i reflected, I could not fail to notice the behavior of some three young men who appeared quite happy and jolly as they enjoyed their sumptuous meals. “Huku ni kuzuri… Wewe rudia halafu niendee ukirudi,” (this is a nice place. Go for your other plate as i wait and then go for mine once you return). And they did exactly that but rather feeling uncomfortable with neighbors who had now noticed that the young men had each two untouched plates full with food.

“This has turned into s wedding,” one of the neighbors bluntly commented leaving the young men rather embarrassed even more…

Yet, perhaps the simple incident reflected the socio-economic reality in our country currently where people do not get enough food for daily survival and therefore have to, whenever possible, be alert and, (as a rule) attend social events, (especially where meals will most likely be served,) to get what appear like full, delicious and proper meals