Page 91 - moondani kyema

ndani kyema, My Story - Ray Moore 91

might do things like that to other people, or even to each other, but we would never
do anything to harm you or Jim. We respect you and what you do for us.

I first met Michael when Jim had him as one of the helpers who set the place up each
morning. He was a very intelligent man and I was naturally drawn to him because of
his personality. He was a bit like Jim, a quiet and gentle man. Then one day Jim
said to me would I come out into the lane and help him bring someone inside. We
stepped out and there, lying in the gutter was the wreck of a man, with an almost
empty methylated spirits bottle in his hand and the neck of another one sticking out of
his pocket. He stared blankly at us and mumbled something incoherent. It was
Michael. We tipped his metho into the gutter and then carried him into the hall,
where we lay him down on a bench to recuperate. He was probably as bad a case
as anyone I had seen there.

Later Michael told me his story. He had trained as a doctor in Ireland, and then had
become an alcoholic and been deregistered. Trying to escape his problems in
Ireland, he managed to find his way to South Africa, but he had only taken his