UTU

Corona virus has got the world freaked out. It sent me down memory lane and I thought that that might be a nice excuse to get back here. I typed this in February on my way to visit my family and friends. Disclaimer: I like to write, or share, I am not and I don't even think I aspire to be a writer! Enjoy https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vQDIFw_COUdt26CVIbUKJ9a_PNEuy9hNxw7InGsdg_Ww3NozsZvNHw3Jl2S1xsw_GzJ2ebPx7hIqveo/pub

Apondi peeps from behind the granary. She watches her friend Junta run to catch up with a group of girls walking to school, their bare feet skipping down the dusty path in excitement, their school bags swinging as they laugh and talk happily.  She could be with them, but not today. She does not know what to do with her blood. The insides of her tummy were knotting and scratching painfully. She had never felt like this. Why the pain? Why the blood? “I swear never to steal food from the pot,” She whispered to herself as another moment of an invisible hand scratched and knotted her insides. That was the only feasible explanation for the 3 day pains she’d had and the red stain on her school uniform. “Apondi!” someone calls out. She sees her best friend, Atieno’s elder sister Junta, stop and turn towards their compound. She must have been delayed by their lazy mother. Atieno had told Apondi how for some reason her mother would get lazy and have either Junta or her other friends do the...

 I came to France in 2001, wrapped in the heaviest coat ever. Never mind that it was September and the weather was still quite warm. We dreaded winter and it was probably what we’d prepared for the most. It was the one thing I was sure I would have to confront. The folly of youth my friends! Insouciance at its best. I wasn't afraid. I knew I would miss my people but hey, we had all been dispatched to boarding school. Four years, locked up. I didn't mind the experience. The good thing was that you made new friends, and that your school friends became friends with your home friends. You became more independent. Parents didn't have to deal with rebellious teens every single day, not that we really rebelled. I mean, French teens rebel. I find this perplexing, given that they are basically the ones ruling us. So why would a dictator rebel? I am digressing. The point is, I didn't fear separation. So to France I came, got to the airport and My lawd the first shock. C...

A mutant’s journey  The Road not taken. Robert Frost I never dreamed of being a teacher or anything really. I wanted to be an engineer like my father, and the key word here is father. But my Physics teacher told me I was pathetic. Not his exact words, but they may as well have been. He didn’t dislike me he just thought that I wasn’t cut out for it. The thing is we will never know whether he was right or wrong.  He wasn’t the first teacher to tell me I wasn’t good at something. In primary school, our Arts teacher advised me to drop Art as soon as I could (it was compulsory in Primary). He was right, I suck big time at Arts. My son could draw better than me when he was only three. Now that I think about it, could it be that the art teacher killed the artist in me? I doubt it! Even I am not able to that theory.  Anyway, after my Engineer dream was shattered, I decided I was going to be a lawyer or a shrink. I didn’t need any help shattering my lawyer dream. How ...

Le parcours de mutant ! Je n'ai jamais rêvé d'être enseignante ou d'un métier. Je voulais être un ingénieur comme mon père, le mot clé ici est père, mais mon professeur de physique Chimie m'a dit que j'étais pathétique. Pas ses mots mais ils peuvent aussi bien l’être ! Il ne m'a pas détesté, il a juste pensé que je n'étais pas fait pour ça. En fait, nous ne saurons jamais s'il avait raison ou non. Il n'a pas été le premier enseignant à me dire que je n'étais pas doué pour quelque chose. À l'école primaire, notre professeur d'arts plastique m'a conseillé d'abandonner l'art autant et aussi vite que je le pouvais (c'était obligatoire au primaire). Il avait raison, je crains beaucoup. Mon fils pourrait dessiner mieux que Moi et cela depuis qu’il avait au moins trois ans ! Maintenant que j'y pense, le professeur d'art pourrait peut-être avoir tué l'artiste en moi… non, même moi, je ne suis pas convaincu par ...

UTU .      Pourquoi       UTU   ?       Pourquoi maintenant ?     Parce qu'il n'y a jamais de moment idéal pour de telles choses, c'est pourquoi!   Parce que  ce sont les petites choses qui comptent.   Parce qu’il faut faire un premier pas à un moment donné. UTU commence dans Gem, parce que Gem est ma   Genèse . La plupart des Kenyans s'identifient à leurs tribus et à leurs régions, ce qu’on appelle leur campagne en bref où leurs ancêtres paternels se sont installés.   Dans mon cas, mes parents sont Luo /   Jokanya nam   et nos racines se trouvent autour du lac Victoria.   Non, nous ne lui avons pas donné ce nom, un explorateur Britannique l’a   fait.   Notre peuple a   appelé   c'est   Nam   Lolwe.   Nous utilisons notre village ancestrale comme une identité. La région/zone se nomme Dala en Luo. Dala veut dire mon foyer. ...