THE PAST IS WRITTEN,THE INK IS DRY

About two months ago I added one more year to the ones I have gathered. I always imagined things would be different, that I would feel totally different. I actually expected to wake up with a beard…LOL (Pun intended) but I still feel the same way I felt when I turned twenty one. My life has been a medley of great monumental moments and just like everyone else, I have had my share of the bad and the ugly. I have met people, I have fallen in and out of love, I have made friends and lost some, I have grown physically and mentally, above all of these, I have learnt some valuable lessons that I thought I would share with you;

1.Appreciate more, complain less
The most important asset we have is life. We might be making all sorts of plans for the future but there is just no way can we be able to execute them in death or when we are taken ill. I have learnt to appreciate good health. There is always someone out there who wishes to just be up on their feet and do something for themselves, so for as long as I live, I will always appreciate the things I have, however little or clumsy.

2. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.
No one wakes up looking forward to a bad day or hoping to fail or with the notion that their plans for the day are going to fail. We all hope to succeed in every single thing we do. If we hoped to fail then we would presumably not try at all. You do not have to win all the time, so give life all your best, give   your work the best shot, and if things do not work out the way you hoped they would, you always have an untouched 24 hours to start over, if you are still breathing that is.

3. Learn to let go.
I have lost things and people that were very close to my heart. Haven’t we all? And sometimes I feel very grateful that I came out of every situation alive, in mint mental health...and each time, even stronger and better than I was before. It is not as easy as counting one...two...three or eating popcorn, but you have to work towards it. We all go through unfortunate life wrecking experiences, the ones that make you feel suicidal, everyone does, but the most important thing is to get past it. There is very little you can do to change the past, you have to accept it the way it is and move on with your life. However down-trodden or feint hearted you are feeling, you have to pick yourself up, dust yourself and keep moving. In the words of Martin Luther king junior, ‘If you cannot fly, then run, if you can’t run, then walk, if you can’t walk, then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward’

4.Listen to good advice
They say that nothing is new under the sun, and there are people who have lived longer than you have, and if not, they have been in the situation you have found yourself in. Good advice is priceless. Do not let anyone make decisions for you, but learn to listen to other people's opinions and experiences. These will help you in making more rational and sober decisions.

5. Be patient.
Train yourself to delay gratification .This one has taken me time to master and it's by far my most treasured virtue. Patience is priceless and a life saver. Not wanting to wait can land you in situations you never thought you would find yourself in or make you do something that you will never be able to get back from. You might want to rush into things because you so badly want to be like your peers, have what they have or go to the places they go,waiting a little longer doesn’t hurt.This brings me to my next point.

6.Do not compare yourself to others.
We are all different, in so many ways. We can never be the same. The way we look at life varies from one person to another and that is largely shaped by our experiences. You do not know where someone has been, or who they have been with, or how they have lived, or who they have met, and then you meet them and want to compare yourself to them. If you keep comparing yourself to other people, you will always come second. If you want to compare your level of success to those of your peers or friends, you'll always see that they have something that you don't. That is like letting someone else choose the path for you. The only person you should compare yourself to is the ‘you’ of yesterday. Are you getting better or worse? Are you getting closer to your dreams?

7. Be your own person
Each one of us has cultivated relationships whether with friends, family or partners. The people we interact with on a daily basis have a lot of impact on us and how we choose to do our things. Despite all of this, you need to be autonomous. You need to think and make decisions independently. As i said earlier, it's important to listen to advice, but the process of making decisions lies squarely on your shoulders.

8. Appreciate your friends
Friendship is what keeps life going. They say it's a long road when you face the world alone, when no one reaches out a hand for you to hold. We all need somebody. Once in a while, we all need a good laugh and we all need someone to share the joys and the sorrows of this life with. Check on your friends, talk to them more often, be there for them when they need you, spend time with them and above all, pray for them.

9. Trust in God
This might sound too cliché but the reason why it is, is probably because it is something we cannot live without. I was born and brought up in a Christian family, and for as long as I can remember, God is good. No one knows about tomorrow, but I know my ‘handler’ has it taken care of. That is why I go to bed with plans for a new day, or the future. Trust Him with your bigger problems and your smaller ones. We might struggle for a perfect life but if God is not part of it then it's like chasing the wind. "Kupuliza gunia.” You’ll never know how many things He shields you from. I call Him the man behind the scenes.

10. Learn to forgive.
From my own experience, when you forgive, you do not do it for the other person; you do it for yourself, for your own peace of mind. Forgiveness is liberating. Bearing a grudge is as overwhelming as having someone dangle the pain of death over your head. Forgiveness is healing and therapeutic in itself, a cleansing of sorts.

HOW DO YOU LOVE YOUR EGGS?

We all love eggs, right? I particularly do, especially when I am going
for something that is simple and less time consuming to
prepare. Well, here is a simple yet delicious scrambled egg recipe that
you can prepare in less than ten minutes, with less than ten
ingredients.


Scrambled Eggs Recipe (Serves 2 or 3)

You will need;
3 eggs
2 large tomatoes
1 onion
1 large capsicum (pilipili hoho)
1 tablespoon Spanish paprika
A pinch of garlic powder
A pinch of salt to taste
1 fresh green hot pepper (optional),or powdered chilies.I like to go for the unprocessed ingredients
2 tablespoons of cooking oil

Step 1; Whisk the eggs together with a pinch of salt
Step 2; In a pan, heat 2 tablespoons of oil
Step 3: Fine chop the onions and add them to the oil. Allow them to cook
             until almost golden
Step 4: Pour and blend in your beaten eggs. Allow them to cook for a
            few seconds while stirring
Step 5: Add your grated or finely chopped tomatoes and the hot pepper.
            Allow them to cook until they're well blended in with the eggs
Step 6: Sprinkle a tablespoon of your Spanish paprika and a pinch of
            the garlic powder on the eggs and mix evenly.
Step 7: Add your diced green pepper and simmer for 3 minutes.

Your dish is ready…

Best served hot with ugali, rice or pasta, but you can try it out with whatever works for you!
Bon appetite!

Traveled East Africa:Crossed Two Borders, Met Two Cities.

I  had been looking for this bracelet for quite a

while when I stumbled on it on the streets. The hawker had several beaded ornaments in display including the famous shanga za kiuno. Ahem …

I need a lesson or two about these. You see, I needed a bracelet, with the colors of the flag of any East African country and I always imagined I would be spoilt for choice over which one to settle for. Well, I would wear all of them at the same time but I don’t want to look like a witch in a Nollywood movie or weird Ugandan artiste Radio. Surprisingly, without giving it much thought, I settled for the one with the colors of the Kenyan flag. It was effortless, it was easy, and it was natural. This got me thinking, would I really wish not to be Kenyan? Would I have wished to be born in another country? Would I one day just pack my bags and leave my motherland for elsewhere? For good?

A while back someone made a joke about how Kenya should be sold and each of us given their share, so that we can go elsewhere and start anew. Allow me to digress.

About two years ago I went on a road trip to Rwanda. The trip was supposed to end in Kampala but it extended all the way to Banyarwandaland. It was adventurous and exciting and somewhere in there I fell in love but fell right out even before the trip was over. It was a five-day trip, traversing two countries. Kigali is a very beautiful city, and the countryside is lush, green and quiet. It is less crowded than most cities I have visited. The Rwandese are very friendly folk. They prefer to be referred to as Rwandans; I never had the chance to inquire why. Well I did but I did not have the courage to. I made a
few friends and one beautiful slender young lady offered to take us shopping. I mean, it would have been a nightmare haggling about the price bracelets with the only Kinyarwanda speaking vendors. She helped us locate the forex bureau offering the best exchange rate for the ‘superior Ksh’. We needed to
convert our mulla in to Mafaranka – Rwandese Francs in case you are wondering. Sounds like vifaranga. I know!
There was not much to shop around for, but you don’t visit another country and leave without a souvenir. The streets of Kigali are super clean, well kempt, lawns manicured and trees well-trimmed. You will rarely spot street children roaming about with dirty bottles of glue sticking out from their mouths. Most of the population is middle aged and I noted they looked rather sad, and the mood sombre. I guessed that perhaps it was so because we visited at a time when they were about to
commemorate the lives of those who perished in the 1994 genocide.

And of course I was eloquently reminded that I was not in Nairobi by the orderly public transport system. Buses comfortable and spacious; no loud bend over music with hoarse voiced deejays croaking in the background ninety-five percent of the time or rude matatu ‘condas’ who won’t give back your balance and always looking like they spent the night swimming in a changaa still spotting the signature miraa particle-decorated teeth accentuated by dark cigarette charred lips. The Hutu –Tutsi conversation is almost taboo. No, you do not talk about that. If you are too hard pressed to, then you’ll probably have to lock yourself up in the darkest room in your mind and whisper whatever it is you have to say, to yourself.
Most of the Rwandans I interacted with either spoke Kinyarwanda or French. A few of the ones I met at the national university of Rwanda had mastered a few lines of the English language, though still struggling not to confuse ‘has’ with ‘have, or ‘was’ with ‘is’. We had to keep asking ‘Tu parle francais?’ in order to save everyone’s time and energy.

The Rwandese cuisine is not so bad, although I did not get to see or even eat any green vegetables and if you choose to do buffet, you only get to serve one piece of meat (mostly beef). If you need an extra piece, you pay for it. Isn’t that weird? And what they call chapattis cannot be sufficiently described in words. They are made from wheat flour, eggs, baking powder and water and they look like big round mandazis. The experience was fantastic and I somehow toyed with the idea of how great it would be to live amongst people so kind, so friendly and in a city so clean. I imagined how safe it would be to spend the rest of my life with people who seemed to have understood how important peace is and had learnt the hard way to appreciate it. The mass graves at the Genocide Memorial
Centre bore notes mostly written ‘never again’. I was touched; deeply.

Kampala, the city of a thousand hills, on the other hand is noisy, crowded and God help you, you do not get hit by a bodaboda motorbike. Ha! Am on a roll, bambi don’t lynch me. Well if you think Kenyan police are corrupt then you should try Uganda. Counting Ugandan shillings made me sick, a banana costs two hundred shillings; that is approximately seven bob. You can imagine what happens when you want to buy something costlier, say a refrigerator. Lord have mercy.

Now in the food front, Uganda is way up there in the globe. The cuisine is rich and diverse - from g-nuts to matoke, potatoes and all manner of veggies. You should see a Baganda breakfast, rich, buffet. They even serve meat. I didn’t like their ugali though. The thing that looked and tasted like overcooked grade four Ahero rice. They say a change is as good as a rest, but other than the food and novelty in the environment, there was nothing much to be desired in Kampala. Who buys airtime worth ten thousand shillings? You know i took a bodaboda between Wandegeya and somewhere in town –and I was told in thick Uglish that it cost UGX 1,500. I rolled my eyes and remembered thing was just about Ksh 50. I wonder if people from countries with buoyant economies feel the same way about Kenyan shillings. This would take me some time to adjust to.

Rwanda would be an excellent place to live or even work in, but I am Kenyan, and what makes me Kenyan is not the name on my national identity card or the fact that I was born in Kenya, but what makes me Kenyan is that this is the life I know; that ugali is my staple food; that Swahili is my national language; that my hair is kinky and tough as tough as steel wool; that tea is our favorite beverage, that elections in my country are always almost never peaceful, that we forget; that accept and move on is our slogan that we vote along tribal lines, that traffic is part of city life.

That you have to watch out for your handbag and cellphone while walking in town or when you are in traffic, lest you get home with bruises and a potential tetanus infection. You see, I am not Kenyan because I live here or because I am black. I am Kenyan because we have a great sense of humor, that our currency is the Kenyan shilling, that sheng is our national colloquial language, I choose Kenya despite the fact that corruption is the fourth arm of our government. I choose Kenya because am
optimistic for better days. I choose Kenya because we are fun and hardworking and chapchap and always find something great in ourselves to fall back to. I would not wish to be Rwandan, or Ugandan, or Turkish, or British (I wouldn’t mind the accent though), or American, or South African. I am Kenyan and that is all I want to be.

Je suis kenyanne! But do I say buana.

WE LIVED

Of moments glorious and seconds atrocious

Of time wasted and minutes well spent

Scars acquired and wounds healed

From the stench and dark of our graves

With aching backs under the gaping stars

We'll look back and say,We lived

Of friendships broken and made

Of lessons learnt and kept

Of the times bad and good

Of the seasons colder and warmer

From the stench and dark of our graves

With backs aching under the gaping stars

We'll look back and say,We lived

Of dreams and aspirations

Of the vanities we hoped for

Of the people we let go

Of those we aptly and dearly held close

From the stench and dark of our graves

With backs aching under the gaping stars

We'll look back and say,We lived.

Of those we loved and adored to the core

Of the ones we flattered and knavered

Of those whose hearts we crushed

Of the ones we mended with love

From the stench and dark of our graves

With backs aching under the gaping stars

We'll look back and say,We lived