As I line up along the longest queue I have ever been; pulling my carry on suitcase on the immigration section of Heathrow airport, with my airplane ears, jetlagged ; all I felt was pride and joy and fulfilment. I was finally here, I pinch my nose, close my mouth and blow to my nose just to see if my ears will unblock; am so excited to feel the pain in my ears.

“What brings you to the UK?” The immigration officer asks me. “To work, am a nurse” I tell him. He asks me which hospital , how long is my visa, and where I will be staying and I tell him all the information. He checks my passport, takes my photo and my fingerprints and ‘clink’ he stamps my passport. I officially enter the United Kingdom. My suitcases were so huge actually when I picked them back in Nairobi, while pushing them on the streets people teased me if I was planning to carry someone in them. Anyway I was pushing them lazily and anxiously looking around for the allocated pick up point.

The hospital had sent someone to pick us up, my fellow new recruits and I. He picked us from the airport, pushed my suitcases to his taxi while others carried their own, I felt the favor from the start. We arrived to the building where the hospital was going to host us for 3 months, and was welcomed by a lovely gentleman from Nigeria. He was introducing us to the building and handing us our keys for the main door and our rooms, when suddenly the lift opened up, only for my friend Irene to pop out of the elevator! I couldn’t believe it, I ran to her and hugged her so tight. See how God planned my stay ahead of me, I have always heard stories of how lonely it can be moving abroad. You can feel deserted and alone especially if you move to a region that don’t have people from your country. But here I was, the first person I met in my building is my friend, we worked in the same hospital back in Kenya. We exchanged our UK numbers and planned to meet later cause she was just finishing her lunch break.

It’s been one year and close to four months now that I have lived here, I feel like London loves me, and the feeling is mutual. It has been a beautiful personal journey for me, I have grown to love and appreciate myself even more here, I don’t know if its finding yourself in a white country, you really start to appreciate and embrace your blackness. I feel that am part of this magical community of black essence, a beautiful culture to which I belong. I also really enjoy taking care of my skin, doing the full skin care routine and seeing your face looking healthy and moisturized is so satisfying. I have embraced my natural hair curls, and finding out that it’s not cheap either; the hair products for natural afro hair are some of the things clearing my wallet but the curls are starting to pop and I love them.

I have learnt that I can realize my dreams, achieve goals, reach for more and attain if I want to. Work is also amazing, I learn each day, have chances to gain more skills, and take different courses. My work is in the operating theatres, where I find myself assisting in some big surgeries in specialities like vascular, renal, robotics, colorectal, gynecology and many others. I work with most of the best surgeons in the region, anesthesiologists, exceptional nurses and other professionals which is really good for my growth in the career and most importantly for our patient’s health. The first time I came here my first placement was in vascular theatre,I had never done any vascular case before or ever seen one. I rotated there for 8 months, done cases like angioplasties, endarterectomy, bypass, Evar and others and now am a vascular nurse cover. Currently am in renal theatre, I scrub in for procedures like kidney transplants and watch people get new chances in their life with their donated kidneys. I especially am amazed when we have live donor transplants, where we operate in two theatres, one where nephrectomy is done from the donor, the kidney is then prepared and transferred to the second theatre to be transplanted to the recipient. It’s huge how much I have grown in my career and I couldn’t have done it if I stayed back home. When I was doing the process of moving here, I had this huge feeling that nursing and being a part of healing people is the purpose that God gave me. He is a healer and he needs people like me to help him heal his people. So I really worked hard, did my tests, met all the requirements, and now am here, playing my small part in improving people’s health. Am still learning and much is ahead of me but am so grateful.

London has been a huge part of helping me understand myself, accepting whoI am and loving me. I feel that I have been becoming a better version of myself each day, am kind to myself. My relationship with God also has become very strong, the lord Jesus is close to my heart because everyday am amazed of how good He is to me.
The friends I have made here are amazing, our energies match, and am always grateful for them. We like going out and just visiting new places in London, doing random activities, we travel to other countries together and sometimes we just chill in our rooms. Am happy we have each other and that our stay here is not lonely. They are literally big part of my life because they are all I got here, they make my days jolly, when am sad I have them to talk to, and while struggling with something, I have them to turn to.
I met other nurses from Kenya who were recruited in the same hospital as me, and more so living in the same building. Kenyans and ‘sherehe’ are one, cause let me tell you, we used to throw some smashing parties ,any excuse to drink and dance. Eventually most of them have moved out of the building.

Am still staying in the building that the hospital hosted us, only that after three months, I had to start paying my own rent. I live in a tiny room on the thirteenth floor, the view of London city is very beautiful from my room. My curtains are always wide open whether is day or night, each view has it’s own vibe. During the day I see beautiful tall buildings and towers, and beautiful white birds that like to fly over my window, at night it’s an ocean of city lights, breathtaking! The place is convenient because it is just next to the hospital so I don’t have to wake up early to catch buses and trains like my colleagues. I do however feel like am missing out on life in some areas, like I would love to live in a neighbourhood and see how different it would from the apartment that am living in. I might look for a place this year am still deciding on it. London though is known for its crisis in housing, getting apartments or any type of housing is very expensive, and if you get a cheap one, it means your are sharing the house with four or five people. So people basically come together as friends and search for a two or three bedroom house and cost share. Also its very cold here, we depend on supplements cause the sun is like gold dust.
All in all, being here is a blessing that I had never thought of when I was young, it became a dream for me 2 years ago. Which only comes to show, that you can keep dreaming and never stop wanting to achieve even more. Am not saying that you need to move to another country, thing is, you don’t know what you might dream of tomorrow, or what idea may come to you tomorrow, just make sure when you get the idea and it is making sense, work on it!

Flo.