TOOLS

A LETTER TO MY SMALL SISTER

Dear Sister,
Hallo, I am aware we have not had quite the textbook sister to sister relationship. However, I would like to share some life lessons I have picked along the way that might help you to avoid the pitfalls I have succumbed to growing up. so here I go:

MONEY:
Spend your money on the things you like. I understand that you have to save and all but please do not save to an extent of denying yourself the very things that you need or to an extent of being miserable. Buy oil, perfume, a comfortable shoe, a pretty top. however, save also for a rainy day. this eliminates the need to depend on people for everything you need,

TIME:
let your excuse in life never be that you do not have time. time and chance are given equally to everybody so use yours wisely. do all you have to do in good time so that you do not get last minute pressure. you had better panic early than do so at the last minute. see, for example, an assignment
- do it early, finish. this frees you and gives you time to do other things that you may love doing but somehow never get time. also, you are able to be moire efficient and reliable especially when you get to the work industry.

FRIENDS;
these are great people in our lives but never lose yourself while you are busy living for your friend. what i have realized dear sister is that you are the most important person in your life. if you decide to go for shopping at 10 pm, and your friend refuses or postpones you do what you want to do because at the end of the day it is your life you are looking at. i do not mean ditch your friends but i do mean that love yourself to the extent of not shortchanging yourself in anything.

FASHION:
wear what  you feel smart in.

BOYS;
leave them, allow them to grow.

MEN:
the  man who loves you is one who respects you and treats you like a tender flower. you will feel the need to work hard to please him but as long as you know what you are doing is right, do not compromise in any way. you will feel so good about yourself. life has a way of telling us that if that man goes a way he goes away with all the love life has to offer but take it form me, if he does not treat you as a princess, your prince is still out there.
whatever happens, do not move in with him until he has committed to be your husband.

LOVE:
here is a subject I will tell you. love is within yourself. you need to love yourself so much such that you have enough to share with those around you. do not seek to get it from people.

GOD:
always, always remember him. after all is said and done.he is all we need.
love,
Glow-big siz.

MY VALENTINE UPTO NOW.

so, well I like starting with so. I am assuming it is like this cool way of talking with people. it kind o makes them feel more comfortable. good; now that you are comfortable- may I take you through my valentine 2015. I wore black, i forgot that i could add  white, totally slipped my  mind.

The location of this valentine is a living room in a house in Nairobi. It is kind oF shuffling between the kitchen, living room, washrooms- so basically I was at home. before you start hating, I was not alone.It being a love holiday, i spent it with a person that loves me. no red candles, no dim lights, no soft music, no expensive gifts(wince) .Just time with him. today is one of the few days that he stayed away from his phone for more than an hour- it was actually the whole day. we just sat and talked and ate ''ugali''  and traditional veggies and meat and soda and cake and laughed and gad the time of our lives. just having each other without flare.
don't get me wrong, I am not hating on the flare that people put in valentine. if you go for dinner at ''Kempinskiy'' is that even the spelling? that is your treat, and since you have given to love and are loved, enjoy.
Back to me, yeah. the day whiled away in between us watching endless movies and having a great time.Well, for some reason, I had to come back to reality when the day began coming to a close. I snapped at something this person who loves me innocently did which I thought he should not have done. I now feel bad that I still snap when all he was trying to do was help. I will not pin it on being a woman and all, I am just disappointed that I almost ruined my valentine. I am tired, maybe all the giving and receiving of love back and forth got to me. but I am glad it did.

For me, what I pick is, its not Valentine the day, it is Valentine the person/ the people.
thank you my Valentine.

AM THANKFUL FOR WHAT I HAVE!!!

Today is one of those days, I went to work only to find that I was not to be there. yeah, I go to work nowadays.
Shoot, the certificates which always sit in my bag in case I get time to open my son's junior account. I conveniently removed because my bag was so heavy. So, yeah I have to go home  and then come out again to get them and then finally go to the bank and open this account which I have been planning for two months now. I will probably be done by noon so I elect to go to the library.

Let me rephrase that; I elect to go to the library, this is a journey I have been planning ever since I first came to the city to study in campus which was four years ago. Need I add that I called off a semester, so lets put it as five years ago. what do they say? better late than never.I did it!
I enter the library and head for the payment section after of course leaving my luggage at the reception. so, finally o the body of my story. the man picking the money suddenly looks up and asks me if he has given me a receipt. He is not exactly looking t me so i assume he is not talking to me. how i know he is talking to me is when the previous customer replies to the question and the man( the cashier) tells him that he is done with him. Aaaaah, I realize that he is talking to me. "No," I answer and he swiftly gives me a receipt. It is only when I give him a fifty shilling note from which he is to take his twenty bob that there is a hint of everything not being business as usual although not saying that anything was wrong. the cashier hands the money over to his colleague and asks him to confirm if it indeed it was a fifty shilling note so that he could be able to give me the correct change. He then counts the correct balance, cuts out a receipt, rubber stamps it and gives it to me. all this operation is done so swiftly and meticulously- it is incredible. i thank him and leave. as i leave, his colleague echoes what is on my mind all this time, how does he do it? like differentiate all these notes?. "Well, unajua noti zina size tofauti," he answers,(notes have different sizes). Cool, right?
So I sit down after going through the shelves of books for about ten to eleven minutes and write this piece before I delve into reading.

For those of us who are still wondering what the point is:
This cashier is physically challenged- he doesent have the ability to use his eyes to see things.My point is, I believe he sees much more than we with physical eyes can. His world may be black but it is not black for death. his world is black for power. How we take for granted all that we are and have. On that note, let me just say; Dear God, I am grateful for the gift of sight that I have and for being who I am. Let me never lose sight of who I am and who you want me to be. Father, let me always be thankful for what I have.
And you too.

BLACK AND WHITE

If I was given a chance to choose the colours for valentine especially this valentine of twenty fifteen, you guessed right- it would be black and white. I am of the school of thought that valentine is a day to celebrate love. Before you start bashing me and getting all defensive, I mean love in all spheres including visiting an orphanage. I explain this celebration thing like this, it is like celebrating a graduation. In essence what you are doing is celebrating success. It don't mean that  that is the only day you have succeeded it means that we have taken time off our lives to celebrate this one day.

Back on course, however, sticking to the explanation that valentine is a day to celebrate love, black and white are parallel colours. (I am speaking in English where these two are considered colours.)
Love is a tool so powerful able to bring different people from their various spheres of life and keep them together. Love is this glue that makes a Chinese hook up with a Kenyan and then choose to live in Qatar because they want to be together. Love looks beyond the barriers and beyond the shortcomings and always finds a way to go through the obstacles and come out at the end or go above them. Love always finds a way to give something rather than be on the receiving end all the time.
Love always turns ashes to beauty. Love is beautiful. Tell me, have you looked at a couple whose members are so different yet they fit so perfectly. You can not really explain what puts them together but after you are through exhausting how different they are, you always settle for love as the ultimate answer as to why they are together.
I probably would not choose red lest we forget that love is not vain, it is not always feisty but that at times it is humble and meek, love does not always seek to be noticed but that at times love in secret ,love in silence is all it took. I would choose black and white to celebrate love.

Black and white is my meaning of love this Valentine.

of love and lust

What exactly do you do when what you find is a combination of both love and lust. okay, i know that this may seem quite uncomfortable or self compromising. but yes, do the two ever meet? yes, i am sure they do.
what if that symbol of love is all you think about, is all you see when you eat, is all you think about everywhere you go. i say love because of the way he looks at you, because of the way he gets you, because of the way he makes you laugh, because of the way he touches you, because of the way he listens to you, because of the way he is laughs at your jokes, because of the way he tells you you are beautiful. is this not love?
but then again, you know that you are not the only one, as soon as he steps into his house, there is this woman or another. there is this woman laughing just as much as you. he looks so tender with her, and you feel that small ouch in your heart. you know that he is not yours, you know exactly what he is after when he talks about how well shaped your breasts are, but tell me is this not beauty in itself. when he talks about how nice your behind is, you know what he means, but tell me is this not the mark of true African beauty? full hips and a rich bottom?
as for me, when I look at Him, I see the combination of both lust and love. it is wrong- but cant I just have them both.Ii look at him and i believe that in some parts of this world; love and lust can be found in one.

THE HOT BLOODED SENATOR.

This comedy was staged by `The Friends Ensemble and Fanaka Arts Theatre' from Friday,8th November through to Sunday, 10th November 2013.
let me star by saying that this is a review of the last show and may not necessarily reflect the views of he show you attended. the play had a star studded cast comprising Sam Psenjen, Maggie Karanja, Joe Kinyua, Mwajuma Doreen, Joshua Mwai and thankfully new faces in the form of Yvonne Mwawuganga and Philip who must be lauded for their wonderful performances nonetheless.

The script, being a comedy ofcourse had the laughlines expected in a comedy. well, some of them worked while some o fthem fell flat with thier faces for lack of a better phrase. i must laud the delivery of these laugh lines by one Joe Kinyua. the most notable and memorable one being `I cant recall, I cnat recall'. Johua Mwai's character was lauded with these punchlines inn the script but the audience failed to notice most of them maybe ue to their delivery. the goood news is that, though the script looked rather taxing to pull off, the actors were able to give the audience a good laugh and worth their money at teh end of the day.
the actors were terrific. they all tried to do theri very best to do the script justice and all who were involved too. the co-operation to make this rather long, uneventful play to life was incerdible and they deserve a pat on teh head. the one who runs away wwith the prize however, is Veonica. ofcourse I know her personally but this is a reaction from the audience plus she did deliver all factors considered. she was the newest face in the cast, plus her character had a chance to display three personalities which were all executed beautifully- the seductress, the nun and the infiriated woman. however, I must point out the the caharacte of Fiona looked like she was holding back a litle too much. a little more vigour and sductivity on her part would have helped lif her character a great deal. the character of Hon Sepele seemed to weigh too much on Joshua Mwai an he looked like he was struggling a great deal to pull off thisb character.
the lighting on this production looked so amateur. in my opinion, there was a lot more that could have been done with the lighting bearing in mind that the auditorioum has the resources to provide an lite lighting system for a production. white light throught the production did very little to enance the execution of teh play. the last scene wwas a romantic scene depite it being in the night yet it is the exact time that the technician decided to put a bright whwite light. sadly, this is a sector that needs to be thoroughly worked out in the future. the sound was also poor to say the least save for the loud doorbell and the telephoine ring whic at some point was also late or missing. music is supposed to enhance the happenongs on stage, the music playing for this play was the same music played at Aliiance  for every other production. I honest;y wish that teh music would have been more deliberate and able to arouse the mood of the actors.

In my opinion, the costuming was above average.

The overall stagecraft was below par for a production of this magnitude. the stage manage should have taken her/his work with a little more zeal. the set should be more convincing and definitely way more aesthetically appealing. it was a senator's house but brought out the illusion of a rich bachelor's house rather than that of a senator complete with military secuiriy. the bedroom set looked like a makeshift set after the real one was lost or burnt. at the very least, it would have had at least a lampside stand and more properly arranged.
the audience reception was generally positive. all in all, i beleieve there is a lot of room for improvement especially on the production sie specifically the lighting, sound and the overll set design.thank you for proving that there is talent in Kenya.

All the best and God bless you all,God bless art.