7th of January, a year ago today I was in Nairobi with a good friend. He was ill, having just gotten back from Owiny Ki-Bul and contracted typhoid. Well, we learnt later on in Nairobi that it was typhoid but all the "doctors" that he had seen in Juba diagnosed malaria.

To cut the long story short, he went to see a doctor at some plaza don't remember it might have been Afya Plaza or something and of course once at the doctor's, the man being a good "Turuk" I left him to his devices. After 30 minutes he joined me at the waiting area. Amusingly, he began to speak almost in tongues, in other words he was reciting his Will.

I was to inherit the green "Beretta M9," the AK was going back to the army depot, and disappointingly I was not to touch any of the girlfriends both in the army or in other circles. In addition, the misfortune of breaking the abominable to his mum and his REAL girlfriend was solely tasked to me and it was to be done in person. The precision and detailed manner in which this was delivered bordered on military instructions - the man is a fine soldier so I understood.

Bemused, but annoyed internally, I asked what was causing him to deliver a valedictory of a Will while I kept busy trying to figure out how I had lost 6,000 KES worth of data in just two hours on Safaricom internet. "HIV test na itategemea," implying that the execution of his Will was dependant on the results of a General Medical Test he had undertaken which included a test for HIV status. As you can imagine he had my full attention, silence and occasional outbursts of laughter as I probed him who was potentially responsible for potentially passing him "Dudu Mbaya" ("the bad insect") - the list is somewhere.

When the results came I laughed and kept laughing all the way as we drove back to Juba via Kitale-Lodwar-Kakuma-Loki-Kapoeta-Torit route. Even today I still laugh.

Have you ever checked your HIV status? BE SAFE than sorry.