I knew you’d come,
I just didn’t know I’d still be home.
Here you are,
Unbound, warm, delightful,
As sure as the sun rises and sets,
You are here.
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It’s the last week of August and Covid-19 containment measures have been in effect in Kenya for 524 days. We have had lockdowns, curfews, issues and we are still experiencing the upheavals and grief.
A few minutes past midday on a sunny Sunday and I am on my second cup of coffee listening to Usher’s song, Trading Places, thinking of how best to share what’s been going on in my life in the past two weeks or so.
I got to travel to Nairobi twice, sometime in Mid July and on August 13th and discovered art and food at The Nairobi Street Kitchen eatery in Westlands.
On Writing: If there is something I have been loving this month, it’s writing and rewriting scenes of a book that I thought I would not publish but something about going back to a story you let gather dust has me loving the characters and working on completing their story.
On Reading: I have been reading more books this month. Perhaps the greatest shock to me was how brief Annie Proulx, Brokeback Mountain is, 55 pages! I nearly had a heart attack just wondering how a 2hour movie could be born of 55 pages! Other books I’ve read this August are:
- Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
- The Shadow Queen by C.J.Redwine
- Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones
- Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick
- Hush Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick
- The Ridge by Michael Koryta
- Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
I am currently reading: The Illuminator by Brenda Rickmann.
Aside from enjoying reading and writing, something that I have been deeply committed to is watching Korean Dramas on Netflix and this August, there have been awesome shows that kept me glued to my phone late into the nights and let’s just say that once you start watching a K-drama there’s no stopping until you get to that finale! So, here are some shows that I absolutely loved this month:
There are rising concerns about the spread of the Delta Variant and for someone like me who has to work in communities visiting public schools, I find myself always traveling with hand sanitizer and masks, so much so that now when I get home, I shed off my clothes and take a bath before doing anything- somehow, I find it interesting how people in the rural areas respond to Corona, one old woman told me that ‘death is the one thing all of us experience, if we live in fear, always looking over our shoulder, we may stumble and fall to our death because we look back and not forward.’ Schools will be taking a break for 3 days from this coming Thursday and I look forward to traveling home, just to have tea and evening walks with my Mom, maybe she’ll weigh in on the current book I am writing.
Have an awesome week ahead!
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For as long as I can remember, I have been responding to the name Benjamin.
A lot of people say that my mother loved her Bible lessons more than she did her own culture. So, inasmuch as I was born at midday instead of according me the name Ochieng’ she declared me Benjamin and added in my father’s last name Ooko so people could know who I belonged to. This seemed to please Reverend Father Augustus but never my father or his people and sometimes when I think back to everything that I have experienced, it seems that lighting started striking me the moment she gave me that name.
My Father, Ooko, what of him? Well, on the day I got tired of staying enclosed in my mother’s stomach, he was deep inside Nya Lela, his new wife who reminded the thing between his legs of how stiff it still could be. I remember all the men singing praises of Nya Lela as the only woman whose breasts remained firm even after bringing forth four children with my father, one after the other, you would think it was like eating and dispelling ground nuts.
As word would have it, my father saw me when I started making use of my feet.
There are things that to this date do not seem like truth but if you’d have been born in that home, under the rule of Senior Chief Ooko, then you too would believe me. When my mother told me about this, I laughed, sometimes when she would want to cry about the way he ignored her, she would go into her kitchen and carelessly adjust the logs that she fed the fire.
Excerpt from A Hundred Little Things- which is long overdue for publication!
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We had some light showers this morning and I am happy I got to stay indoors. August has come with its blessings and call for action when it comes to writing.
I did get to read a book I have always wanted to read: A Fort of Nine Towers by Qais Akbar Omar 🧡 and he narratses what it was like growing in Afghanistan, when war broke out, factions increased and what it meant to be on the run in your own home in 389 pages and towards the end he is right. He did bear this grief all his life and he passes it to the reader in such a way that it I couldn’t help but wonder how many times he broke down writing this book. If you could spare a moment, look it up online and buy a copy from whichever retailer you can access.
I am learning to call myself out on writing that needs work and this is because I got to read what I had written so far before submitting it for printing and it fell short of my expectations.
This week, I get to focus on revising that draft and following through on publication and I can’t wait to see how it’d turn out.
That’s all I have in my mind today. Have an awesome week!
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We are in the final week of this month and I look forward to more opportunities to grow in my thinking, learning and to finally commit to working out every morning- at least for 30 days.
July’s come with surprises for me; I bought more books this month than any other month of the year thus far. I traveled to Nairobi to spend some time with my absolute favorite humans. I had fun shopping for kiondos, bookmarks and brass earrings. I also came to appreciate freedom of movement when I got to stay out past 7pm without panicking that some police officer would hound me or clobber me for staying out past curfew time.
The other surprise was my patience when traveling back to Mbita and our bus had a flat tyre that took two hours to fix and I had to get to the house at 8:42pm which is way past the curfew time here.
So, I collected some snippets of things that I got, experienced and also look forward to courtesy of this month:
Stationery: I love buying pencils by the dozens and this month, I got a number of packs which I shared with some of my friends and neighbors while keeping some to myself.
stationery. I also enjoyed watching some awesome Korean Dramas on Netflix and let’s just say that of these three, I loved Healer and K2 the most!
I also came across a quote on the Instagram profile page of: BusinessMindset101 which had me stunned and I couldn’t help but jot it down:
“Jealousy can come in the form of jokes. Pay attention.”
Books: What would this month be without not one but two major bookhaul deliveries? Here are 4 titles I am reading next.
And when it comes to music, I would say that some of the songs that I have enjoyed listening to this month include:
- Million Little Miracles by Elevation Worship & Maverick City
- Butter by BTS
- Anti-Romantic by Tomorrow X Together
- Ex by Nikita Kerring
- We’re Already by Kimmuseum
I am looking forward to spending more time eating healthy, staying fit and writing more in August.
Have an awesome week ahead!
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It’s Wednesday and I am still wrapped up in a warm duvet as I type this on my phone. It’s my way of checking in with the blogging universe while doing everything I can to stay warm here in Nairobi.
I’ve been here for 3 days and I have consumed more coffee, worn more socks and sweaters than I could ever comprehend at such a time. It’s got me fully aware of how much I am sunny through and through and I know I will enjoy some heat when I travel back to Mbita soon.
Every time I come to Nairobi I love visiting places that call unto me like book shops and jewellery shops mostly to buy earrings and accessories that I wouldn’t get at a fair price either in Kisumu or Homabay. So this time around I got notebooks and pens from Miniso, body splash from a store in town and bookmarks from Hilton Arcade.
There’s something about freedom of movement that has me appreciating life pre-covid. We could breathe freely without masks, walk in and out of places without fear of contracting such a deadly virus and travel to places unhinged. Now, coming from a town where the curfew is at 7pm to a city where it’s 10pm, it’s given me more time to catch up with family while still adhering to social distancing rules and regulations and that is something I found so precious in such a long time. I truly hope that we would overcome this pandemic, build upon our health system and come August next year elect more leaders who are accountable to us and responsible in fulfilling their duties.
On writing: I have been writing and it’s good to have that going so I truly hope it’ll work out and I have to push the release date given how many rewrites I am engaging in.
All in all,it’s been a good week thus far and I hope for the very best going forward. Have an awesome week wherever you are.
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Go where you are celebrated,
It’s what they say,
It’s what I hear and sometimes on days like this,
It’s what I aspire to.
So, here I am…present in this moment, with myself,
Grateful.
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I am a Writer.
It has taken me twelve years to say that out loud without cringing or wanting to disappear. I take on a different persona online and maybe that’s why it was easier for me to add “writer” or “author” to my profiles on social media but not easily utter the word when in conversation with someone face to face. However, the good thing about life is that lessons assail you from every direction and if you happen to procrastinate, like me, then these lessons sometimes come with a nudge from gravity and late nights.
Someone recently asked me, “what can I do to be a better Writer?” and I nearly choked, because it’s a struggle we face, the desire to be better and to be acknowledged for being good, better, the best and so on. So, thinking back on everything I have been doing over the years, I keep learning that to improve as a Writer, there are six things I keep going back to:
- Write. Writers write, so whatever day you are having, you have to write something- a sentence or two, just make sure that you write.
- Read and not just your favorite writers, read widely and vastly. Magazines, journals, memos, fiction- chap books, you soon find that words are like taste or touch, they linger longer than you expected when they resonate with you.
- Observe. My Mom says that writers are travelers. It is true, for you to create a character or setting, your observation skills would come in handy. So, take time and truly listen to others as they talk, observe people in the street (without being too creepy), or at a restaurant or even your favorite actors onscreen- watch how they talk, laugh and what they do- do they tap someone, laugh while covering their mouths and so on.
- Challenge yourself. It’s not enough to write just a sentence a day, how about trying to write a novel in a month, or a poem, or writing in some genre outside your comfort zone. It does not have to be perfect, however, it is your way to seeing how far you can go and what that feels like.
- Study your craft. Well, this is one thing I struggle a lot with because I may love creative writing classes, or workshops but just attending them or following through on assignments is tough for me. What I find encouraging is that I am always learning something new from every lesson, or speaker and that in itself is way better than the assignments.
- Finish. Look, every Writer has numerous story ideas that never make it to published book, however, if you start out a story, try your best to tie up loose ends, to finish it just because there is something satisfying about completions that mean you can look back and gauge your performance.
What’s great is that these are insights I gained from my experience and they are not the only insights, if you think that’s just talk try looking up “Advice for Writers” on Google and you’ll know what your ancestors started saying long before you even picked up a pen.
I love that I get to write and can share my writing with others and hope I’ll be vastly read. Have a great weekend ahead!
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I cannot hear your voice,
Not in my memory.
I see your face when tears adorn my face,
And it hurts because I cannot remember why I forget you.
I cannot recall what it was that tore us apart,
You grace the heavens, I tell myself this because to imagine you anywhere but there is beyond my soul.
Today I saw you Dad,
I was at work talking to a colleague and there you were…across the fence, in the man talking to his daughter,
reaching out to hold her hand while smiling.
I know it was you because I couldn’t stop the tears,
I cannot hear your voice, heaven knows I have tried to hear it- recall it- feel it- sound it…everything.
The heavens call you their own,
Yesterday was not as tough as today…
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“An Activist’s work is to keep chipping away at a big problem over time, not giving up when things are hard and not getting discouraged when change comes incrementally rather than in big bursts.”
Have you ever thought of the impact your financial decisions have on the environment, economy or simply put every bit of the value chain that it took to get something into your possession?
I will admit that I cannot help but think often, but following through on my actions or changing my habits to match my talk is something I haven’t done. The furthest I have thought about a financial decision is evaluating the true cost of what it means to have a refrigerator- because since getting it, I spend more on my electricity bill than I did before I had it.
In this book, Tanja explores where our money goes, what we spend on stuff- in small and large scale and even something as important as the food we buy, clothes we wear, houses we live in, electronics and so on. I love how detailed her research in, because not only is it convincing, it is challenging- a call to action, to review our spending and investing habits.
She shares 4 fundamental questions to ask yourself to help you make better decisions as a wallet activist and these are: for whom? can everyone do this? is it too cheap? and finally What am I funding? She explores various issues in each chapter geared toward better understanding the impacts of our financial decisions and especially how companies do their very best to manipulate consumers.
Rating: 4 stars
This is a good book not just to read, but to discuss with friends and colleagues- to see oneself in the larger scheme of our capitalistic world. Thanks Netgalley for the eARC.
About the Author
Tanja is the author of Wallet Activism: How to Use Every Dollar You Spend, Earn, and Save as a Force for Change (coming November 2021) and Work Optional: Retire Early the Non-Penny Pinching Way. She’s a former political consultant and journalist turned activist and early retiree. Visit her website: https://tanjahester.com/
nilichoandika 