Diary of a Single Mother: Twisted minds.....

Diary of a Single Mother: Twisted minds.....: This was to be published last year...it might have been one of those days! Well ave been off for quite a while now as I have had a crazy t...

Twisted minds.....

This was to be published last year...it might have been one of those days! Well ave been off for quite a while now as I have had a crazy travel schedule from within Kenya to DRC and now Lusaka.

Out of the 3 places, DRC was one of my most exciting places where I saw a real array of mixed characters which I would not really complain off as they were quite entertaining. Day one I reached the airport and they give out the entry visa papers which happened to be written in French. Well I guessed later on that for visitor like me who have little or no knowledge of french whatsoever, it meant that one would have to employ ( literally) someone to help in its translation, either in their local language ( some sort of Swahili intermarried with French and Lingala) which makes it very difficult to understand and/ or either English if you're lucky to get someone who can at least speak the good or broken one.

Being a lady only made my work easier and most of the Airport officials are men, therefore meant that I could take advantage of the whole situation and yes was lucky enough to have got some guy who not only knew English but the Congolese Swahili which isn't so hard to understand anyway. The drama began when I was told the guy who signs for the visas is not in and I was asked to leave the airport without my passport and come back for it the next day. I was not going to hear any of that story of going and coming back to airport, already I had bought breakfast for two people and parted with USD 20 in the name of greasing their elbows to have my things done fast enough! And trust me they were done fast, only in a slow motion way, but according to the local standard, it was fast, really fast. I stayed at the airport for almost two hours. If there was a plane that took of from Nairobi from the time I landed they would have arrived by then and got me still waiting! That was not good, not good at all. So we finally agree to have my passport photocopied and a note written and stamped indicating that I was legally in that country.And from there henceforth, I stayed two days without my passport, only consolation being I had the other papers.This is a country that you will talk to a guy now and in a spun of two minutes that guy does not know you and you never met him...therefore just to cover my back, I ensured I had at least evidence that I left my passport. On my way out of the airport, it was interesting to notice that the culture here is just dancing, whether or not there is some music ( please note that I tried looking for the source of the music, whether earphones or headphones...and there was zero) Forgive my English for now, I am still trying to get a hang of the language here which is totally interfering with my norm!

Day one: Arrival Hotel ( I am not sure the name since the one I had been advised I had been booked in somehow changed to the one I was booked in at that moment!) Being me, I only paid for one night and thanked God for Google maps. I realized there were quite a number of hotels on the same street as to where I was staying!

Day two: Assignment check out of hotel ( no name given, not even on the receipt) I finally got to another hotel which was more like God sent! Home away from home, pricey by worth the stay. Needless to stay, if you go to Congo, be wary very wary of these guys, you have to be cunning to get your way round, speak bad Swahili and pretend to love Lingala, if you know French you'll be the luckiest person ever! It's a great place to be either way :-)...ohh and I accomplished my mission, what sent me there!

Re-construction time....

Well, many months have passed...and yes I admit I have not been one of the best in terms of keeping up with this blog. I have tried, at times even diarising that I will be blogging within the course of a week and failing. No, do not look at me with those eyes, do not victimize me, at times, time flies and getting hold of it is a story to be told during a different set up and given audience. Ok, let me now justify my actions....now am feeling guilty... Anyway, the past few months have been full of not only drama for me but experiences that I will live to tell my great grand children as bedtime stories. Not only did I learn that patience and humiliation can be really hard to have but also learnt and spared sometime to keep them as the best of my friends. Dealing with one thing and then another different thing pops up can be frustrating but I learned to deal with it. I finally settled in with my books, so far so good, I will not complain that I am seeing too many figures and ending up calculating them no, I will not but somehow, I am end up seeing a lot of these and I think I have been working out my brain with mathematical stuff. I am used now. I guess you now partly understand why I haven't been seen here. So far am loving what I am doing and I have no regrets whatsoever! When I started out I thought I chose the wrong course but along the line I realized that God could have put me here for no reason, He could have allowed me to even enter that class for no reason. I got challenges but I overcame them and for what? For a reason...they made me a stronger person and made me more focused to what I wanted to achieve. About 7 weeks into the program, I broke my leg, imagine, two hairline fractures! Ask me how it happened? I fell, yes I fell, but the fall was no ordinary fall, I fell sat on my foot and yeah it had hit a stone. I almost cried out loud asking God why it was happening to me. I was still trying to adjust where I had moved and settled in as I did my due diligence as a student. Trust me, it was not a walking distance. Through His grace, I never missed a class, I attended all without fail. Problem sometime would be the concentration due to the pain. Sometimes I would wish more the class to end so I could head home and rest my foot! Somehow I managed. Christmas and new year were low profile for me, not only because I could not move out but also partly because I have exams to think about.I took a break today, a few minutes ago so I could update my diary...one day I will read through it and thank God for giving me the strength to write it as it gives me the energy and direction as to to who I am, where I have been, where I am going and where I want to be..... It might have been the toughest of year last year...but it started well and am looking forward!

A costly Crush Program......

Last time I checked I was boarding a bus to Mbarara, Uganda....yeah that is a long time like mid September. I had weighed my options, it was either I fly to Entebbe then take a bus to Mbarara, that would mean that I had to not only travel to Nairobi from Nakuru ( 2.5hours) then check into the airport ( 3hours) not to forget the traffic jam in Nairobi ( 2hours) a total of 7.5 hours) flight time about 1 hour and a bus to Entebbe ( 5 hours) waiting for the bus to get full ( 2hours perhaps) With all the above I would have spent about 12.5 hours which is equivalent to me taking a bus from Nakuru and directly heading to Mbarara, plus anyway I was tired of flying. Honestly I was tired. Well, I went to Mbarara on a Wednesday night arriving Thursday morning, straight into a training and same day back to Kampala to prepare for another training in Busia the following day. Let me just say that, the Kampala evening was the best out of the 2 night I spent traveling to and from Uganda, this is another blog by itself! I must say I felt like Superwoman that weekend.....only for disaster to strike while I arrived home ( Kenya)

Well, I had a bad feelings when I arrived in Nakuru that Saturday at the wee hours of the morning, some would call it Friday night. I somehow took my time waiting for a cab at the station, which was not normal for me. On normal accounts, a cab would be waiting for me. Well, a colleague was to pick me up but I cancelled last minute knowing the time I would be arriving hence did not want to inconvenience him. Where was I, yes the bad feeling. I arrived home, and a sudden sort of fear engulfed me, nothing of the sort has happened to me in a very long time...since I cant remember when. Somehow, I went straight to my kitchen and voila! My kitchen door was open. At  some point I tried to figure out if I had left it like so but noooo....I slowly walked towards it...what struck me was the broken glasses on the floor, and instantly I knew I had been robbed! A burglary, seriously, on 3rd floor? Back door? On quickly glancing around what I noticed was just my gas cylinder missing! Well at that point I didnt think it important to worry about my stomach. then I saw footprints that were still went. I quickly called the watchman, yes tat place has a watchman.....just wondering!I had to ask him to ask check all my rooms just to ensure the thug whoever it was, was not still in my house....Inspection inspection inspection! Laptop one missing, laptop two missing,.....camera gone...new pair of shoes gone...plus the gas cylinder!! Everything else intact...oh plus my hard disk drive!! Argh! The last one is what just "finished me" yes I say finished me, because it carried all my data! All my data and 4 years work plus all the memories of places I have been too ( pictures I mean).....It was devastating....I didnt know whether to cry or cry....I just went blank! I couldnt sleep. This is when I wished I had just spent the weekend in Kampala and came back and shortlived my house so that I could wish it to all go away!

I thought I was in a bad dream...no nightmare and that when I sleep and wake up I would go to my laptop bags and at least get my HDD!!!

Well it didnt just happen! I had to live with that nightmare for the next 4 weeks, bad dreams of someone coming back for the rest of my house stuff...consider I wasnt even in that house for the next 4 weeks, because of why...( know its bad Kenyan English, you dont have to tell me), you guessed right, I took another business trip to the land of Kabila then to I had to kiss Sata before coming back...One thing remained engraved in my mind, I seem to look at all those guys who were around me in Nakuru as thugs...imagine even my "friends"....can you blame a girl.... Police officers did not make it easier as they did not even recover the stolen property as usual, I had to even offer them transport to come examine the crime scene ( like really???) I PAY TAX!!!!! Yenyewe, that was just tops!

Costly, I must say....I had to invite one of cousins to stay in my house, had to feed her, had to try and even get some electrician put some electric sort of fence at my back, which by the way, never worked! I had to keep calling all the time to find out if the doors were locked...its was a crazy period I must say...

One thing remained, as much as I had nightmare, there is always a good ending to a bad dream....that I will tell you tomorrow and am living it now...has other dramas...but well, I must say I am coping well...trying to re-build from where I lost...building something bigger and better.......

The little great things....

I have many a time mentioned in my hang out circles that most of things in life never come easy...no they do not,you have to work hard and I mean extra hard. The last two weeks have been more like a trying time for me and full of adventure too. From being told that showering is a way to reduce weight as the skin sheds off. Wherever that came from ( as I have never had of that) to being offered a job in some foreign weird place to getting my acceptance letter for my M Sc. which all made one confused person not knowing what to take and what to rejected. Anyway I must say I have respect for those guys who do not shower, reason, they have 1001 ways of avoiding water. This is one of the latest adventure stories I have heard!!! Read the below carefully and tell me why even you shouldnt join this band wagon (lolest): 1. Showering causes weight loss why, a layer of your body ( read dirt) is shed of hence causing the weight loss. Now how does this happen. I was with the notion that unless it was hot boiling water one is using so that all the fat could have melted upon one emersing him/ herself in the hot water then the slimming session would begin but again wouldnt one be burnt during such an exercise? 2. Big people dont shower as much as they cannot reach all their body parts hence the uneven growth of some areas??? Seriously, like okay am not even sure what to say about this one...really this guy is from Mars 3. That why do we see a lot of stuff when showering ( dark stuff- read a lot of dirt)I only concluded one thing, that either this particular person does not shower and even if they do its after the longest time ever... Trying to argue the above out proved to be futile so I had to end that conversation trying to explain that I shower twice a day and I have never grown thin...and I was told that is why I dont seem to add weight??? That is the best nonsense I had heard in the longest time. Then came the job offer, this was something that even I was tempted and I mean really tempted to just take up. Packing my bags would have been easy I must say but wait, do you just wake up one day and pack your bags to a foreign country just because you have been offered a very attractive package? As a young person I would say, yes I would but as a mother I would think twice....perhaps eve thrice. Two things were happening at the same time...having this great opportunity but at the same time having an even more greater opportunity to further my career though at my normal rate here in Kenya. Furthering it by having an international exposure, yes I have been offered to present as a Key note address speaker at an international conference... I sit in various committees and of late more offers are coming up..This is a trying time and I had never in my life prayed to God to relieve me of some of the duties by not letting me turn them down but have the offerers let me know that perhaps I should wait a little longer. Well I must say prayers are a great things, for those who havent started praying for anything yet, please pray and act as you do...so far I must say all in course and am not going to travel anyway as I am here to stay and further myself locally. I know a time will come when I will have to accept or turn down the offers myself...and I cant wait for that time...for now I have been asked to wait...as I prepare myself more to accept these opportunities in the near future...just not sure how near near is...but am sure God knows best!! It has been a true marathon for me...and above all I thank God... I still know I have the scriptures to write...yes the scriptures that I talked about last time...the book that my so called followers seem to have a better idea that I read from..perhaps next time I will write about these...as I unveil another blog of my high school love letters!!!

Flowers and proposals? Hmmmm....

The past 3 weeks have been interesting ones..... I term them as interesting as it saw me receiving a bonquet of flowers for the first time ever of rare flowers. Not the usual suspects and they were beautiful. i absolutely loved them. The other thing was the number of proposals I received that ranged from I want to sleep with you to I just want to marry you...of course I did not take them seriously as usual since these are people you meet just once and they have given you a history of themselves, where they are at and what they want to do with you. I am not saying that it is a bad thing no...on the other hand I believe its a good thing...no actually a great thing since I get to hear the opinions of people that I never thought I never dreamt of listening to or even interaction with....And more or so, the beauty of hearing someone speaking their mind and heart out. I have been told many a time that I have a script I read from, not sure why and even which one, but perhaps due to the fact that I can clearly handle the other species well when am interacting with them. Of late, I have had too much of that experience. Too much that I am thinking that it would be a great idea to write a play in the name of How to Make a business partner with no strings attached!!!- In a man's world, things are normally regarded as okay when a female species responds and agrees to everything that a male species tends to put on the table. In my world, I have learnt to take the things that are put on my table and turn them to either favor me and/or the other party without necessariry hurting anyone in the business circles. Hate or love it being a woman in an influential position has its own repercussions which sometimes are not really the best considering that some in these position are well respectable people. Sometimes you may wonder how you can clearly draw the line between business and pleasure? That line it thin I can tell you....why I am telling you all these? Is it that I have fallen prey and at times decided to have more pleasure than the business itself? Is it that sometimes I get annoyed and walk out of any potential and would be predator ( business partner) and hence jeopardizing the business environment created for and by the company for this client? Well a lot maybe said and done but hello? Wake up in my world, its a balancing act, so far its been well...hence the script bit...I hear that a lot. At times getting challenged by well positioned people to either hang out with them or loose the deal. By hanging out I dont just mean going out but to the extent of sleeping with them. Ask me why I have a heart of stone sometimes, caring less about what people feel...and I would tell you its the above experience that has turned me to be so. I however to not take it home...I leave it at the doorstep of my office and when I get home...I am a mother, a great mother for that matter...strict though... Next...writing my own scriptures?

Interesting developments.....

The past few weeks have been witnessed with lots of drama partly by those I slated for myself and mostly those that others thought were to be addressed by me and only me. Well, I tried and took things as they came and finally I can rest. The part drama included overlapping on a public road, I say public because I am one that follows the traffic rules and always make the most noise when some fool overlaps. I am not indicating that this particular day I was fool, but I want to state by fact that if my foolishness did not tell me to overlap I would have slept on the road. Reason, a truck driver decided that its time the truck did some summersalting forgeting that this is a public road and if by chance the truck did not land one its many tires then, automatically it would be a disaster to everybodt else behind him...by the way have I told you this was not the first incidence of an overturned truck this past few weeks? There were quite a number an indication that either we are just careless or I dont know what is happening...anyway back to my overlapping story...So my foolishness asked me to overlap and I thanked God for that foolishness since there was more than a Kilometre of trucks on the roads and why the rush? I had an appointment? But in most cases I normally think, if one overlaps then they would have better woken up early so as not to cause problem for everyone like the rest of the guys are not in a hurry :-( I am not sure I made sense with my last statement but hey, does it matter? I am confused too..... Anyway, all in all, I was able to get to my meeting early, now the most of the drama...work related, need I SAY MORE!! Nope...now that I cant let me sign out, but will have to gather courage to write what went down someday, maybe.....just perhaps!