Happy New Year!!! Wow. Now that it’s all over, I have time to think about my very simple holiday seasons growing up in Kenya (relative to what I witness now). For my sisters and I, the best thing was going to “Deacons” or “Njiiris” with my dad, to buy some new holiday duds. The four of us almost always ended up with identical dresses (in different sizes). Boy, was that great! Then we would go to “Bata” or “Tiger” and buy shoes. Since my dad showed up on Christmas eve, most of the sizes would be sold up, and occassionally, one had to walk away with a shoe size a tad tight, just to have something. These new treasures were not to be unveiled until Christmas day, when all the neighborhood kids would come out to show off their newest acquisitions. All of us kids would then size each other up, trying to decide who was the “smartest”. After church, we would go home and enjoy a sumptous meal…chapos, pilao, kuku, etc etc.I think about those days with great nostalgia. I never even knew that I needed to buy gifts for anyone (not that I had a dime to my name). As long as my father showed up a day or two before christmas, life was good. Here, I see kids stressing about what to buy their parents; people have christmas shopping lists a stressful mile long. I still don’t get it!
At the end of the day, we kids went home and played in the dirt and were just kids. The new clothes and shoes were fast forgotten, and the new school year threatened….
My opinion on the celibacy laws the catholic church imposes on its priests: they have created a monster. I think that if priests were allowed to marry, the sexual abuse problem that now plagues the church would not be so huge. Growing up Catholic, I knew for a fact that a lot of “fathers” in Kenya had girlfriends, wives, children, etc. Here is an interesting story on a married priest…the church never really excommunicated him.link to story.
Wow! I can’t believe Christmas is already upon us. It has been a very cheery and festive (and expensive) atmosphere where I work (in retail). Millions upon millions of dollars are being spent on gifts for loved ones and not-so-loved ones alike. My perspective of the whole thing gets a little skewed and sceptical when come January, a lot (and I mean a whole lot) of the gifts are returned “for cash”. Very, very annoying. Yes, people cash in big time on their holiday gifts, a habit I find really despicable. Since my company is well known for their liberal return policy, people will come in with all sorts of scams, like merchandise from Walgreens in our gift box. “I received that as a gift, my mother said she got it from here”; they adamantly insist.Well, enough ranting about annoying people.
Bottom line, it’s still my fave time of the year, and I hope everyone has themselves a ball!! I will.
This is a really cool concept that could eventually turn things around in rural communities in Africa. By eliminating the red tape that banks and financial institutions bring with them, this really simplifies the implimentation of grassroot projects that could help a lot of deserving rural folks. IMHO, development projects in rural areas in Africa are the way to go in order to enable people to rise out of the throes of poverty; particularly women and children. I would love to see this happen on a large scale in Kenya…I think Wangari Maathai’s Green Belt movement is helping Kenya’s rural communities in a similar manner. This idea not only makes it easy for the poor people in Africa, but it’s also really easy for us (in the USA, UK, and elsewhere) to give. By giving a minimal amount, a guy in rural Kenya can buy a tractor, open a small shop, etc. Very cool. Here is the link to the Kiva site…link to site
The first real snow fell here today. And it’s my day off work! It’s so cool to just veg out at home and watch the snow from the warmth of the house. After all these years in the mid-west, I am still scared of driving when it snows. So I am apprehensive about my drive to work tomorrow. I guess you can take the girl out of the tropics, but not the tropical love of warm weather out of the girl?
I am an avid watcher of reality TV. I loved survivor the first couple of seasons, and thoroughly got hooked on amazing race. Such a cool show (until the family version showed up). I even occasionally watch real world and the inferno/gauntlet mess on MTV (ouch!…hurts to admit that). Anyhow, my fave is Heidi Klum’s “project runway” on Bravo. The season premier was tonight, and it delivered. All kinds of insanely creative people (and I do mean the “insane” part) showcase their designing talents under intense time constraints and other pressures. Three people were eliminated in tonight’s 2-hour premier. JJR (aka my husband) likes to tease me, telling me that I enjoy the elimination part of the show the most. In my defense (though I will confess that I do love the said part of the show), the drama and the suspense is so palpable at this point, you can’t help getting sucked in…I love being one of the judges, sitting on my couch, deciding who should go…
Anyway, this show airs on Wednesdays, 10pm, (9 central). I recommend it. Highly.
OK…so this is a bit of an old (outdated) story, but what the heck…now I have access to a blog I’m telling it. On Thanksgiving day, my sisters and I, in true family spirit, decided to call our mother in Kenya. When she picked up, the conversation went something like this:
Me: Hi mom, how are you doing?
Mom: Hello! Hello! Shiru (that’s my “home” name) is that you?
Me: Yes mom. What’s going on with you?
Mom:(very excitedly) We decided to go with “macungwa” (oranges). We rejected bananas.
Me: (thoroughly confused, and wondering if people in Kenya had suddenly developed an interesting affinity for oranges) what? what are you talking about?
Mom: The referendum…we voted for oranges…against Kibaki and his bananas.
I must confess I had lagged behind sana on Kenya politics until my 57 year-old mother brought up the oranges/bananas issue in her uniquely hilarious style. I used to keep track of the goings-on, but I get sidetracked and miss big chunks of interesting happenings in Kenya. Now I’m all caught up. So I read that Kibaki now has a new cabinet. What’s different (besides dropping the king of corruption Murungaru)? Old names like Njeru Ndwiga’s still made the cut. I do not necessarily see any kind of reform here…or was there meant to be any?
Shukrani Afro-M for allowing me the honor of writing on this amazing blog. I will try my darndest not to let you down!!
Thanks - Irene.
