Kenya Archives - Page 3 of 5 - Thoughts and Stuff

Published 20th October 2014

Thoughts on Education

Parental involvement

When I am not listening to VeggieTales and other silly songs, I am usually reading the Onion, America’s Finest News Source. One recent article on the Onion, (it’s a satire publication) was about a teacher by the name Jon Broderick who has been reaching out to promising kids that just need a little guidance since 1996, and to be honest, none of them has really blossomed into anything. Quoting the teacher, the Onion says that “Every year, I tell myself I’m going to be the reason a struggling teenager excels beyond all expectation, and every goddamn year, I’m wrong.”

Kenya

Education Kenya Parenting Teacher VeggieTales youth

Women at Work

Published 15th October 2014

Women at Work

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” I ask my kids in my Sunday school class the other day.

Their little hands are wiggling up in the air, the mostly six-year-olds eager to share their dreams with me.

“A doctor,” one girl says, and another and another.

“A pilot,” a boy shouts, and of course there are several more.

Purpose

Education Indra Nooyi Kenya Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education KNEC Moi University PepsiCo Sheryl Sandberg Women Work Work Wednesday

Published 8th October 2014

7 Signs You Work at a Start-Up

According to the Oxford Dictionary, a start-up is “a newly established business”. Okay. But why is it that we don’t call all new businesses start-ups? Or do we? Is it even a startup or start-up? Microsoft Word 2013 thinks it’s the latter and so I agree. What I am trying to say is, the term start-up applies to more than just the tech companies by young individuals you read about every day. However, this post applies to such start-ups but in the developing world. You know you are working at a Kenyan start-up when:

Ideas

Family Kenya Nairobi Work Work Wednesday

Published 3rd October 2014

Contraception & Family Planning in Kenya

Every week I come across something that leaves my heart broken, partly because it touches on an area I am passionate about, and partly because there is so much that could have been done about it. This week it was about the sentencing of a nurse in Gachie to death. The man was accused of the murder of a lady and her baby as he tried to assist in abortion. Here’s a link to the article and this of the wife who now must be widowed and left to take care of a little baby. The lady who died in the process of abortion also left one other child who now will never see the mother again. We all have a rough idea of how that orphan will grow up. Right there, we have a child who will grow up without a Father, and one who is an orphan.

Faith Kenya

Abortion Birth control Catholic Church Gachie Kenya Kenyan Ministry of Health

Sunday

Published 30th September 2014

Sunday

I love Sundays. Sundays are the days I just chill out and enjoy the freedom. On good Sundays (most of them are good), I am lady Shiku. I don dresses. And heels. Just to remind myself how it feels like to be a real girl. And it feels good. This Sunday, I wake up later than usual. Mum does not wake me up with a phone call as usual. No, I have not moved out. Yes, she calls me every Sunday morning from the other side of the wall. When phone calls act as alarm clocks.

I am so sleepy. Why, sun? Why couldn’t you just rise a little later today?

Faith

Field of Dreams God Kenya Kikuyu Kikuyu people Shiku Sunday Sunday School

Published 29th September 2014

My First Job

The most traumatic transition I have gone through in the recent past is moving from campus life to working. That is folly to a normal adult who is used to working to earn a living but it is the truth. I landed a job this past holiday which was quite a task. I was supposed to work from eight to six with no real break in between. Half the time was spent on my feet attending to all kinds of people. The first day on the job I was so beat, I could not stand up for about an hour once I got home.

Purpose

Bill Gates Campus Education Friday Kenya Teacher Work

On Gospel Music in Kenya

Published 28th September 2014

On Gospel Music in Kenya

By Dickson Otieno

If I were an old man, I’d be termed as old-fashioned. A man who’s time is over. A guy of the ending generation. My words would be trashed in some quarters and the ‘young’ would make merry in letting me know that the new cohort does things differently. That in the new era it is the gospel ‘industry’ that thrives. And that we should let anyone thrive in doing whatever they please. As long as they insert the name Jesus in whatever composition they make, then it qualifies to be a gospel song. Try and read this to the very end.

Faith Guests

Bible Christ God Good News Gospel Jesus Kenya Music

The Masculinity Crisis

Published 24th September 2014

The Masculinity Crisis

The talk of masculinity crisis has been making rounds for quite some time now. Dead Beat Kenya has only come to remind us how irresponsible man has become. In the Christian circles where men are not allowed to sleep around and sire “illegitimate babies”, we have another sort of deadbeat men, the kind who apparently refuse to commit, who refuse to grow up, and chose to remain faithful godly bachelors. They neglect their Christian sisters who end finding no Godly men to marry, and turn to unbelievers who apparently end up breaking their hearts (and in that sense, I have numerously been accused of being a deadbeat Christian man).

Women all over will tell you there are no men left in this world.

Guests

Anthony Clare equality Hanna Rosin Kenya Masculinity Men Michael Kimmel Susan Faludi Women

Published 2nd September 2014

Serikali Saidia

The cover of The Economist this week is titled “That Sinking Feeling (Again)”. The article on the European Union notes that the collective GDP in the Euro Zone stagnated in the second quarter: Italy fell back into outright recession, French GDP was flat and even mighty Germany saw an unexpectedly large fall in output. Inflation has been falling steadily, and this August registered lowest in 5 years at 0.3%. Europe may be headed for deflation.

Kenya

Europe European Central Bank European Union GDP Germany Government Gross domestic product Kenya Robert Kiyosaki

More Kikuyu Songs From My Childhood

Published 29th August 2014

More Kikuyu Songs From My Childhood

I am back with some more Kikuyu songs/rhymes from my childhood years. I noticed lots of you loved them and keep searching. Seriously, that was the life. I made mum and dad sing them and they did, joyfully, to the amusement of my baby bro and sis who have never heard most of them before. Needless to say, I had forgotten some words. I am old, people. You should see the white hairs on my head.

Kenya

Children Youth and Family Kenya Kikuyu Kikuyu people Music Najivunia kuwa Mkenya Songs

Humans of Nairobi at the ATM

Published 16th August 2014

Humans of Nairobi at the ATM

Early this year I met a lady. A totally random lady. She made me get in touch with the scarce, yet crucial element of simply being human. Are you, or have you met those people who forget that everyone else is human? This city is full of such. This one was and is an exception.

Inhaling the air of Nairobi infuses its dwellers and residents alike with insensitivity to others. Whether the person in need is a friend or a stranger. That had been my notion all along. Until this day when this lady did something I’m yet to hear of.

Kenya

ATM Kenya Nairobi NIC Bank People

Tuesday Torrents

Published 12th August 2014

Tuesday Torrents

You know your Tuesday will suck when you cross from one county to another and find that this county decided to be totally wet this morning. Why is that a problem? Because some of us walk for miles to get to work once we alight from the bus stop. One reason why I should work from home.

This Tuesday morning, I was up at 7 as usual. Yeah, don’t put on that face. You are probably seated in a traffic jam at the time but yeah, some of us wake up that late. 😛 Perks of living along Waiyaki Way and its extensions (read, Upper Westlands a.k.a. Kinoo and its suburbs.) Anyway,

Ideas

Chiromo Google Kenya Nairobi Rain Tuesday Westlands

7 Perks of Being a Small Girl

Published 15th July 2014

7 Perks of Being a Small Girl

If you have met me, you know I am small. Very small, or rather, small for my age. I did not even know I was small until around high school. For one, my younger brother just shot up overnight. Today, he looks like the first born in the family. Secondly I bumped into my frenemy one afternoon in the green city in the sun. He probably thought I was tall and all because my status updates on Facebook back then probably gave a sense of height. Lofty and high. Ahem. Anyway, he could not shut up about how small I was after that. Since then, 2009, to date, he has never shut up about it. He digs up blog articles on short girls on sites like Thought Catalog or funny pics and drops them on my Facebook wall. And since he has some strange influence among our Facebook circle of friends, he roped other friends in in re-emphasizing my height.

I laugh out loud at the jokes. Initially, back when I was too serious for life, I’d hate the taunting. But we grow up. Even if it is not obvious on the outside. Lol. I love being short. I love it so much, I will tell you why.

Ideas

Eldoret Facebook Family Kenya Wambui Women

Wednesday Whatnots

Published 9th July 2014

Wednesday Whatnots

Have you ever been so tired you get mad at anyone and anything on your way? So tired you wonder if you are sick? So tired you want to sleep and sleep on till all sleep is gone from your system? We both know that will never happen.

This has been one of those weeks. My level of tiredness is increasing as we advance into the week. It started on Monday. I wake up full of psyche for the bright new day. I will go to work because Saba Saba Day is a ghost from the past. If you are like me you know ghosts are not real. So I walk up Ring Road confident in my belief. The road is strangely calm. I walk into the Office Park compound. The car park is not as full as usual.

Ideas Kenya

BitPesa Caprice Fries Google Jefferson Bethke Kenya Monday Nairobi People Daily Saba Saba Day Wednesday

Published 3rd June 2014

When an African Dances

By Gertrude Nyenyeshi

From the plains of Timbuktu to the waters of Limpopo. From the city of Ougadougou to the King Mswati III celebrations down South. From the Juju man village in Nigeria to the boys chasing chicken in Kakamega, when an African dances, a true genuine African, everything else must come to a halt. Whether you were pounding fufu or slaughtering a goat or in the middle of a juju ceremony, an African dance will have you stop whatever…and join in.

Any African event will never miss a true African dancer. By African event, I do not mean a formal event where you have to be dressed to impress and behave as if you bought shares from a company named Stay Classy. I also do not mean an event influenced by the West where the music and the dance symbolize nothing of African origin. Neither do I mean an event where there is no music, definitely not that. So how do you recognize an African event? Allow me, friends, to take my sweet time and narrate that to you.

Guests

Africa Dance Kakamega Kenya Limpopo Nigeria Timbuktu

Tag: <span>Kenya</span>

Parental involvement