So yesterday was the 25th ofiicial christmas day .A place I would love to have been is Manger square - Bethlehem - home of the site where Jesus was bon a couple of thousand years ago...But tsk tsk I was miles away in Seabrook NH - hadtaken one of the ladies I work with to spen time with her family.What amazed me the most was the manner in which to them chritmas is a time mainly to unwrap gifts and compare notes on who has got what.....Christmas in the diaspora is not what we as Kenyans have been brought up with.My rommate Mary brought me to this reaity yesterday desribing how she misses her kids and good ol family times over christmas nyam chom - the long drive to see cucu guka and cousins you have not seen the whoel year...Then I get to work later on in te day and my workmate tells me the exact same thing Peny can you imagine we are working on Christmas day - a lady with children and a huzzy....the sad reality is that life in the diaspora seems to offer material satisfaction to some extent but sadly there are things that life here snatches away - the laughter and joy of Christmas with family but most important rememberig that 2000 years ago in a lowly manger in Bethlehem a carpenters son was born to die and save the world...instead of spending so much time going round the malls shopping for gifts why dont we take that time to go to a cancer ward and hold a childs hand who is bald from chemo.Take time to say thank you Jesus coz you died I live, tell the ones you love how much you love them...
So we may be miles away from home but that should not stop us from just being thank ful for the smallthing we take for granted - that you are alive is blessing enough t see another year...so Kenyans out here hang in there hold on to your Christmas memories of days gone as memories keep us grounded and not forget where we are from......
Friday, December 26, 2008
Monday, December 22, 2008
Enough Mugabe Enough!!!!
Robert Gabriel Mugabe...Zimbabwe has had enough you have milked her dry you have milked her people dry enough is enough...Mugabe with the white man is what Hitler was with the Jews during the Holocaust.Am sure if you ask Mugabe who his mentor is he will tell you Adolf Hitler.The similarities are so similar - the most obvious is the famous mustache - look at Mugabe look at Hitler..then their Marxist beliefs , both did not have a father figure in their lives from an early age...Okay am straying from my point...I think its so unfair that I can write all this down while someone in Zim right now cannot even fathom what will happen to them should they even entertain any subservient thoughts not even talk about the government.
The statistics in Zim are alarming - the highest bank note right now is at 10 quintillion - I did not even know such a word existed...inflation is at 1 million percent is that right surely mathematically , morally and economically speaking??Mortality rate for men is at 37 for women is at 34!!!the lowest in the world..
The saddest is the cholera and hunger outbreak...a farmer I quote , "You should see what we eat in our homes," said Ethel Sibanda, 55. "I haven't eaten isitshwala (a thick porridge made from maize meal) for a long time now. My family and I have relied on wild fruit and kernels of the amarula tree. We last received maize in my area in November."..
Zimbabwe is crying out and we as the world are so busy solving our credit,auto,mortgage crises celebrating christmas - it is so unjust.Rwanda cried out during the genocide and the world kept on doing its thing - causing a 21st century African holocaust.....the International community needs to be mobilized in Zim...yes there are laws that avoid a country from infringing on another countries sovereign rights but just this once those laws need to be over looked...this is a humanitarian cause.. Mugabe needs to get out of his palace and look around him..people are falling like flies from hunger...so what can we do as individuals is my question??
"The only white man you can trust is a dead white man."
- Robert Mugabe
The statistics in Zim are alarming - the highest bank note right now is at 10 quintillion - I did not even know such a word existed...inflation is at 1 million percent is that right surely mathematically , morally and economically speaking??Mortality rate for men is at 37 for women is at 34!!!the lowest in the world..
The saddest is the cholera and hunger outbreak...a farmer I quote , "You should see what we eat in our homes," said Ethel Sibanda, 55. "I haven't eaten isitshwala (a thick porridge made from maize meal) for a long time now. My family and I have relied on wild fruit and kernels of the amarula tree. We last received maize in my area in November."..
Zimbabwe is crying out and we as the world are so busy solving our credit,auto,mortgage crises celebrating christmas - it is so unjust.Rwanda cried out during the genocide and the world kept on doing its thing - causing a 21st century African holocaust.....the International community needs to be mobilized in Zim...yes there are laws that avoid a country from infringing on another countries sovereign rights but just this once those laws need to be over looked...this is a humanitarian cause.. Mugabe needs to get out of his palace and look around him..people are falling like flies from hunger...so what can we do as individuals is my question??
"The only white man you can trust is a dead white man."
- Robert Mugabe
Emotional Roller Coaster
Gosh it has been ages since I was last here I have so much to say so much to write so many pictures to post I do not even know where to begin...Maybe I can begin by its December 22nd there are 8 days to the close of this year I rememeber last year at this time we were psyking up to go to Florida with Shingi and Prisc OMG and this year I am so bila any plot...watsup with that ???
so anyhu.....today was a day for me to push off..I think with 8 days left to the end of the year its a moment of reflection - look back at the year - achievements , downfalls , nonstarters - as Dennis would call them...I was not only reflecting on the year but in generall the last couple of weeks have been an emotional roller coaster for me in so many ways I cannot even describe in words...For one mum and Adi have been here for four months - at the beginning it seemed like such a long time but time went to so fast we had a such a grand time by the time they were leaving I think I begun experiencing withdrawal symptoms - haiya for real - no more mums food , Adisas sarcasm , just the joy and laughter of family...Secondly am leaving Lowell and more specifically Mary.Lowell has been my home for the two years that I have been in this country so I will somehow always call it my home in America and Mary has been more than a rommmate , but a friend a teacher a mentor and almost a mother to me in so many ways....so yes am moving to Salem - so I am a "tabula rosa" - blank slate - ready to write another chapter in my life.Its very exciting , nerve racking , but all in all am ready to grab the bull by the horns...but thats what life is about grabbing it by the horns - we cant let it get the better of us....My reasons for moving are many that I will not go into detail but I think everyone at some point in life reaches a turning point where decisions have to be made , actions have to be taken words have to be spoken to find your purpose and achieve certain things ..okay am getting carried away as usual....
So other than that - certain relationships in my life have been ...whats the word I can put there...can I say growing??advancing??getting deeper??confusing?? generally the lines / boundaries that I had with certain people are becoming blurred and the worst thing is I cant really explain what the expectations are or what the outcome will be so its a grey area in my life right now...and I really like seeing things either black or white..hopefully the whole thing will get done with as little heartbreak as possible - not a good feeling....
Yes so thats why my emotions feel like they have had a pass to the roller coaster at Six Flags....so today I drove to New Hampshire to my quiet coffee house to absorb myself in The Swallows Of Kabul - great book - I think am falling in love with Afghanistan.now thats a whole other story...so anyway the ambience of the place gets five stars the music is great not too many people actually no people at all I go there when I want to be me want to let go think straight and read a good book...so there was the sweetest couple that came in...so am deep in my book..from the corner of my eye i see a walker I did not even bother looking up but as they passed I saw it was a very old lady with her equally old husband by her side and he was helping her with the walker and he held her bag sat her down brought her coffee aaaggh i was almost in tears it was so sweet to see how the old guy still thought the world of his woman...Ok yeah bear with me...as I said I have been an emotional wreck...
The life I touch for good or ill will touch another life, and that in turn another, until who knows where the trembling stops or in what far place my touch will be felt.
Frederck Buechner
so anyhu.....today was a day for me to push off..I think with 8 days left to the end of the year its a moment of reflection - look back at the year - achievements , downfalls , nonstarters - as Dennis would call them...I was not only reflecting on the year but in generall the last couple of weeks have been an emotional roller coaster for me in so many ways I cannot even describe in words...For one mum and Adi have been here for four months - at the beginning it seemed like such a long time but time went to so fast we had a such a grand time by the time they were leaving I think I begun experiencing withdrawal symptoms - haiya for real - no more mums food , Adisas sarcasm , just the joy and laughter of family...Secondly am leaving Lowell and more specifically Mary.Lowell has been my home for the two years that I have been in this country so I will somehow always call it my home in America and Mary has been more than a rommmate , but a friend a teacher a mentor and almost a mother to me in so many ways....so yes am moving to Salem - so I am a "tabula rosa" - blank slate - ready to write another chapter in my life.Its very exciting , nerve racking , but all in all am ready to grab the bull by the horns...but thats what life is about grabbing it by the horns - we cant let it get the better of us....My reasons for moving are many that I will not go into detail but I think everyone at some point in life reaches a turning point where decisions have to be made , actions have to be taken words have to be spoken to find your purpose and achieve certain things ..okay am getting carried away as usual....
So other than that - certain relationships in my life have been ...whats the word I can put there...can I say growing??advancing??getting deeper??confusing?? generally the lines / boundaries that I had with certain people are becoming blurred and the worst thing is I cant really explain what the expectations are or what the outcome will be so its a grey area in my life right now...and I really like seeing things either black or white..hopefully the whole thing will get done with as little heartbreak as possible - not a good feeling....
Yes so thats why my emotions feel like they have had a pass to the roller coaster at Six Flags....so today I drove to New Hampshire to my quiet coffee house to absorb myself in The Swallows Of Kabul - great book - I think am falling in love with Afghanistan.now thats a whole other story...so anyway the ambience of the place gets five stars the music is great not too many people actually no people at all I go there when I want to be me want to let go think straight and read a good book...so there was the sweetest couple that came in...so am deep in my book..from the corner of my eye i see a walker I did not even bother looking up but as they passed I saw it was a very old lady with her equally old husband by her side and he was helping her with the walker and he held her bag sat her down brought her coffee aaaggh i was almost in tears it was so sweet to see how the old guy still thought the world of his woman...Ok yeah bear with me...as I said I have been an emotional wreck...
The life I touch for good or ill will touch another life, and that in turn another, until who knows where the trembling stops or in what far place my touch will be felt.
Frederck Buechner
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