Monday, February 28, 2005

Kenyan Blog meme

Favourite Kenyan food
bhagia - typo!!!!

Favourite Kenyan drink
Guava juice from this ethiopian restaurant in esich!! ngai fafa!!!

Favourite Kenyan TV programme
I can't remember what it was called.. John Sibi Okumu was a presenter, interviewer..kumbuka?

Top 3 Kenyan hang outs
1. Carni during rock & soul nite
2. Java hse
3. Kuona

Top Kenyan holiday destination
1. Shags
2. Coasto
3. Shags again.. lol

3 Kenyan phrases you use a lot (ati, nini, nani DO NOT count and neither does bilaz!)
1. Ati what!!
2. Ati Kee!!
3. Karimu gaka

Three things about Kenya/Kenyans that make you go 'hmmm'
1. So, what do you do for fun? (after i replied I don't like clubs)
2. It's how with you and the african clothes you wear?
3.

Three things non-Kenyans say about Kenya/Kenyans that make you go 'hmmm'
1. Kenya is not in Nigeria, or South Africa
2. Do you run?
3. When did you start speaking english, did you learn it when you come to the United States?

Three things about Kenya/Kenyans which non-Kenyans ought to know
1. Not ALL kenyans are runners or maasai
2. When you decide to call your child a Swahili name, please choice a name that you know what it really means
3. Irrespective of corruption, nepotisi, no water, power rationing...you name it...we are proud to be kenyans!!!

Complete this sentence: I am Kenyan because...
I just LOVE mathrees, kinyozis at river road & it's intrisically who I am.

And finally - list 3 members of the Kenyan Blog Ring you would like to see
complete this quiz
( i could easily be the last one here..lol )
bee



Sunday, February 27, 2005

saturday night live!

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since i can't remember when, this saturday i was away from the plantation. & i did what any ordinary person would do, i cooked. it was wonderful! i made ugali. i actually prepared ugali..very astonishing..see, i had vowed, until last week, i was never going to eat ugali ever!! especially after boarding school, half cooked, flour pouring on the sides meal. now, i ate SADzA from a friends' house. it was so delicious. it was soo soft. unbelievably soft, spongy, one would make zillions of curled up balls of sukuma wiki (kales), some muchuzi (meat sause). have that land on your tongue & chew real slowly. swallow and feel it go down.. you know what i wished for to follow it up? chilled maziwa mala (fermented milk) with lots of sukari. there are some wishes that should be kept inside the pandora box.. i mean, does anyone know where i can get maziwa mala?

i hardly cook at all. the excuse was no time. its true in some degree. full time school & work. then, i thought, maybe i just don't know how to cook. after all, there was this time i burned farmers choice sausages. lets not forget the time, i baked a pink cake and the pigs refused to eat.

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while listening to joss stone & jill scott, it hit me, cooking is painful. not the ouch, that hurt stop pinching me hurt. it's the i cannot speak, if i do utter a sound, i'll never stop crying kinda hurt. while slicing the skuma & the onions were sizzling behind me, i imaged being in my mom's kitchen and listen to her go on and on about something or the other. & there i am, timing the phone because there is a plot or another, and i want to be here. stiring the flour, i realised, i'm a grown woman with a room she calls her own.

& its scary, exhilirating, joyous & quite simply put, i miss my mom.

Wednesday, February 23, 2005

slowly, surely...

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Jill Scott - 2000
photo credit: Steven Lam


slowly & surely
walking towards beloved
enroute
through
& into me
i watched sister girl
ms. jill scott live!

see, i've been thinking
of this love of mine
watched it turn and twist in side
as i kiss one frog after another.
some that look like my prince
only is frog in disguise..

i haven't been paying
too much attention to me
you feel

these desires aside
cast me away from the love
that rests inside.

& so tonight
while la luna danced
across a cloudy sky.
the one
was right beside i
who never left
always believed.

Thursday, February 17, 2005

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if you are anything like me, wearing a good bra would be as puzzling as nuclear science. i admit, it is all so greek to me..i mean, yes, i know my size, well, the last time i measured was 36B/C can't even remember which exactly ..and for the past year or so, i've shed considerable weight on my hips & so quite naturally, on my breasts too..but still...

so today, there was a show on oprah, on what not to wear & how one can lose 10 pounds (visually) by wearing clothes that go with your curves instead of hiding yourself among layers upon layers of clothes..

im guilty as charged.

i like seeing women dressed well, its sexy & allures a certain confidence. to translate that to me..aha, now thats another thing.i really don't know what happened to me. or what has yet to happen. '

there was a time, i went through a cross dressing phase..in retro, i felt it was a way of wearing in control at a time when i felt very powerless. there was also my butch phase. not knowing how to identify myself, the butch/feminine persona allowed fludity in terms of identity..think of it as being adrogenous..

its awhole load of unlearning process. being female, for a long time, translated to being vulnerable. & i didn't want to feel or become like that..

so i'm planning on visiting victoria secrets or some boutique or another, and get some help here..hehehe this is going to be fun

the sweet redemption
more how to's
getting married & need a good bra

Wednesday, February 16, 2005

all our love

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i so love this issue of essence magazine, especially now when im single, albeit dazzed and bewildered, and still, very, very hopeful.

please notice the key word: hopeful.

now we black women are never quite hopeful that our prince/ss will roll to oursyde and sweep us of our feet. & the most, we believe if we are lucky, there will be less or hardly much baby mama drama, an honest job & doesn't live with his mama.

i am not ashamed. i'm close to 29 and i'm yet to have a relationship that lasts for over a year. once the six month mark passed with obasuyi..shush..i became hopeful..maybe shit wasn't going to hit the fan..images of me rocking a rickedy arm chair, sipping herbal tea and a dog by my side was squashed away with me.& .babies/babies & more babies..ok. maybe not too many babies..but you get my drift..si.

month #9
& this image was no longer at ease..i feel like shit you know...i'm like whats wrong with me/them/the combination of me and them

( deep breathe )

may i live in safety/may i be happy/may i be
healthy/may i live in ease

he come today...[ journal entry 01/27/2005 ]

I love you as certain dark things are loved,
secretly between the shadow and the soul.
[ XVII - pablo neruda ...thanks baby gal ]


Love gives us flight to imagine the impossible. It's no wonder even in the bible when they list the three: faith, hope and love..the greatest of this is love..

i'm a woman, ..i am not a girl, i'm not a girl betwix a child..i'm as deep as the roots of a mugumo tree, my soul delves deep into the earth ..i'm a woman, a woman who desires

ever seen a well? its round..it has perforated edges..its dark and seems endless..thats how i am..my insydes & outsydes..my femininity is my essence..my legs bear warmness, my yoni: life..im dark..deep...with rugged edges

i've been told i intimidate men..i think too much..cry too easily..make love real loud..speak of the goddess with frequency..someone cannot quite place a finger about me.... a man will see me, & want to touch, an exhibit in glass..see whats inside, probe with his fingers into my soul, woo me with words that i've heard before, intersect my thoughts with his of prosperity, sex me in the hope i'll clasp my spirit into theirs & become only theirs....until they remember themselves..remember their wives...baby mamas...the secrets that were once dusty...i see men as themselves..

Friday, February 11, 2005

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you are beautiful
even when you quizz your eyebrows
perpeturbed
and rather confused
as i whisper
how beautiful you are
perhaps it confuses
this yearning
as we dance the tango
we feel inside

you are beautiful
let me explain why

clasping my face in your palm
i feel held
i feel contained
i feel submerged
into coloures
i no longer feel drowned

you are beautiful
let me explain how

see i've smothered under
rocks
looking for that sunlight
that burns not scorches
following shadows
bearing emptiness
behind smiles
& when i turned
one evening of meaningless pursuits
i saw your form
seated
i stopped
could no search
no longer
not when in front
laid a jewel
of elegance stature

you are beautiful
let me explain when

happy smiling
or a bit bewildered
not knowing when to ask
or how
or as i ask
with not so coy intentions..
can i..
you answer with a shudder
& landscapes of aroused intentions


you are beautiful
let me explain what is

because u reach inside yourself
& unfold
layering sweetness
of sweet plantains
quivering thighs
welcome me
i feel no longer a stranger
kindred now

you are beautiful
the hows
the whens
the hows
the why

because you
simply are beautiful
02/11/05

Wednesday, February 09, 2005

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she whispers to me
as i lay one step over the other
making footprints
along babylon path
on my way
to the room of my own

she looks different tonight
contained
serene
almost..

not quite
other nights..

the night when
the veil was open
& i saw him
truly did
dancing around
in
front
on the side
above & below
inside & out

he calls me stranger
that welcomes him home
& i, well..

a reflection of i

each stroke
each touch
brought the cord
closer
from the shores
of a thousand cries

miles davis
of varied syncophation
tonight, la luna
casts a carpet
along the galaxy of stars
when time stood still

Tuesday, February 08, 2005

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the interviews

Grammy Hall of Fame

the ethiopian connection

"As we believe in what is to be, must be, it will happen in due course."

Monday, February 07, 2005

the return of leopold

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(courtesy bbc)
Confusion surrounds the brief return of a statue of Belgian colonial king Leopold II in the Democratic Republic of Congo capital, Kinshasa. It was taken down just hours after being re-erected on Thursday. The culture minister said the statue had been put up as "a trial to see if the concrete could support the weight". (more)

Sunday, February 06, 2005

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comso kenya , anyone?
thanks ory

Tuesday, February 01, 2005

it's all a mata of perception

Child's Prayer

Lord in heaven,

please listen to all thosewho are praying to you now.
Those who are sad and crying,
those who have lost friends and family.
Those who are aloneand frightened.
Help them to remember,that you are there
and you are listening.
In Jesus' name, we pray.Amen.

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( courtesy bbc)

it's no surprise that even after massive reports on the continuing slater and massacare in dafur, the UN insists that there is no genocide in place. according to the un, the sudanese government has systematically abused its civilians living in dafur.

A UN report has said Sudan's government and its militia systematically abused civilians in Darfur - but it stopped short of calling the violence genocide. It said those responsible should be prosecuted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. Where genocide is found to have taken place, signatories to a UN convention are legally obliged to act to end it. The report also said rebel forces in Sudan's western region had committed serious human rights violations. {more}

so just as in the case with rwanda, when does genocide become genocide?

"I feel bitter because the international community and mankind as a whole - we see, we look and we never learn from the past in order to plan for a better future for the next generation,"{more}