See. Hear.Do

Voice.

Kenyans are talking, texting, facebooking, emailing,blogging, writing, singing, saying....

And whats it all about; change,inspiration, despair, doubt, anger , name it.

At the end of the day, whether they realize it or not,time has been spent on the desire to be heard and you know what, its great!After all, let them who have ears listen right?

Well, I'm feeling kind of frustrated, cause I'm wondering whose being helped by all this debate? If at the end of all this we remain with just rhetoric , rhetoric unlikely to reach the ears or grasp the hearts of those whom it is a) about or b)for, then whats the point.
I'm afraid that something else will come along that really gets our gut and guess what we'll start talking, texting, blogging about something else.To reiterate someones point Kenyans , especially middle class, cosmopolitan, urban...seem to have a selective episodic memory.

See. Hear. Do.

I keep wondering whether debate amongst people of like mind will get us anywhere? If it's a safe way of saying that you tried. I wonder what value would him who is hungry, maimed , in hiding, isolated, alone, without; what value they place on what we are saying.
I know words are weapons for change, but with all my heart I believe they are not enough. Even the most prolific commentator lives in a world where he will have to put his pen down and engage with the society within which he is born and lives. I know some of you may disagree. For some , they are at a loss ,what else can they do?(Insert sigh and shrug here) Others may even say, that by writing you will inspire others to action, but I don't think we should settle.

I'm not saying that political analysis doesn't have its place but Kenya is going to need a whole lot more than that...I hope you get what I'm saying.By all means use your words to make your contribution, but also use your other gifts, your time, your food, your car, your money, your art, your business acumen, your strength, wisdom, to interact with those who are affected, hopefully directly if possible.Think about what you can do and then pray about it and then act in faith, Ama?

In other news, who knows if a music library ,physical or virtual, can work in Nairobi?

I hope..

'humpty dumpty sat on the wall , humpty dumpty had a great fall'

Sigh... I'm not going to bother dissecting the rhyme. What I'm wondering is why it jumped into my mind when I decided to let myself think of the events of last week.I understate when I say it was not the best of weeks for some.
Its interesting though, the way some of us remain chronically hopeful. Am I one such woman?I'd like to believe that I am,although the range of emotions I experienced last week might say different. Given the realities of this life we need infusions of hope to face whatever tedium comes our way,right?

heh, being far from home is hard. Last week I wanted to be home.

Obviously some people may have thought I was a tad irrational. Ati going home when danger literally hung in the air? Others may have thought I was a melodramatic little thrill seeker, you know getting done with my mid life crisis at 22. Whatever it was ,guess what, I still wanted to be home.Being away , apart from the usual bouts of homesickness around this season(which I will not admit to suffering to;) just didn't feel right.
It felt like I was living in some parallel universe....or three. In one, people were being killed and... you know the rest of the sad story.In another people were ok as long as they stayed home or hung out in the right places .Then there was me ,far far away going ice skating for the first time and trying to read up on inane topics like globalization.
Sometimes I didn't know whether to cry or be calm or if I was being alarmist,whether I was feeling enough grief or perhaps too much, was I praying enough,worried enough or too much ....it was just hard figuring what God wanted me to think let alone do. I felt numbish and thought that being home, may have put things in perspective just a bit. Maybe I'm wrong.

The words of the national anthem struck me more than ever today and so, yeah, I remain hopeful,tentative as it may seem. We'll get through this, by the grace of God. As for the scars,I pray we'll all play our part in helping them heal.

Many blessings this new year to you!

Oh, I must write about that ice skating event...twas one for the books!I became mildly 'aerodynamic' for the first time in my life and if that wasnt enough I couldn't keep my mouth shut as I went down; I refer here to those niggling Kenyan expressions of ours (woi, oowi, ai ai, ach...etc an exclamation mark behind every one) . Too funny!
I think my body has reached a new level of hard-oreness though, woop, woop! even though it meant I couldn't stretch for like four days...I guess thats what falling 17 times does to you huh.