Honorable Mention
Friday, October 16, 2009

The Girl in the Meadow has something to say about everything or so thinks someone at Zuqka. Read at page 14 http://zuqka.nationmedia.com/index.aspx.

Labels: infamy, Nothing Really

posted by Girl In the Meadow @ 11:53:00 AM, , links to this post

Tusker Project Fame 3
Tuesday, October 06, 2009

For all pictures and further stories go to their website http://www.tuskerprojectfame.com/home.asp

Perhaps because in my opinion TPF 2 was a total flop, i hesitated watching TPF 3 until a few people were evicted. To say i didn't hear either Kevin or Nina sing. The talent in TPF 2 was simply missing and who could be blamed for watching idols. The winner of TPF 2 could not have made it to the last 10 of Idols. What happened to the winner of Idols anyway? I suspect the high cost of living and inflation in Zimbabwe caught up with his quest for stardom.

Anyway TPF 3 is totally different. Apart from one weakling called Superlito the rest of the contestants have all super impressed me. Sometimes the evictions look superbly stage managed sorry sloppily stage managed and so far lost 2 great contestants (Debarl and Leah). Anyway both Debarl and Leah lost to the game of winning 5 million. The angst that the public had that led to a facebook group "Sorry Patricia, but we wont vote for you" for not voting back Debarl, all the same, everyone has an eye on the prize and what's wrong with falling the best of the competition. Anyway that game is becoming dangerous.

Here are my false predictions;

Maureen will get evicted on Saturday for failing to connect with the public. Did you see her reaction when she was up for probation. Too much confidence sister! You are great but the public will have to vote you in for you to win. It doesn't matter what the teachers think now. Ooh and that eye make up is horrr--iibleee.

Nganga will make it to the last 3 but can't win. He could probably try his luck at the "Can you dance?". Nganga has survived at least 4 probations. Personally i like his voice only that it is not as high pitched as everyone else. But all the same, between him and Ian there is no love lost. I love his boyish charm though.

Alpha will probably win this TPF 3 then go disappear in Rwanda forever. Alpha tantalized us with a rendition of Lucky Dube's One people (or what is it called, i ain't no reggae fan!) and his voice is also great. Let's just hope he wins.

AOB

That Mitch dude is extremely irritating. Don't they have any other presenters in Uganda, seriously!!!!

posted by Girl In the Meadow @ 11:28:00 AM, , links to this post

The country i belong
Tuesday, August 11, 2009

The debate started here;

http://lovelymoney.blogspot.com/2009/08/diasporans-giving-up-on-kenya.html

Then moved here;

http://grainsofmasala.blogspot.com/2009/08/giving-up-is-not-option.html

Well i read and re-read the original post and the comments.

Some feelings came over me because i did not know who to direct my angst at. The writer of the blog, the thieves, KPLC & Kengen, the buggers on the list of Mau, our politicians,God for not letting it rain Isaac & William Ruto, Moi, Kibaki, Eddie Njoroge, Raila, the people who caused post election violence, the police who tortured people during post election violence, the careless politicians who issued haterade during post election violence, Kiraitu Murungi, the people who trashed MOU, Kivuitu, the US and the foreign countries who have refused to trade with Africa and instead ask us for proper governance, Hilary Clinton, Barack Obama, the US & even the UK for colonizing and patronizing Africa (thus Kenya) and even China for dumping their cheap imports on us poor Africans!....

As you can see I have a lot of people to blame for our sordid, sorry condition.

Once in a while i have fleeting thoughts of permanently moving out of my country to go and look for greener pastures. Then i came to this sad conclusion, it is easier to make a life ( not necessarily a living) in Kenya than any other place in the world.

Yes, i know everytime i watch news, somebody will have been jacked, Isaac Ruto will have said a statement that will make you wonder whether to smack him or just send that hangman right to his house or something will be terribly wrong. That is conveyed in less than hour, and yet strong enough to convince someone never to come back to Kenya, the land of their birth. In short, these are trying times. And yes i know every morning i have to wake up before 6 to ensure a hot shower, assuming that the water will be available:(. And yet, everyday, each day in Kenya is not as horrid as it is made to be.

I have the joy of living in my mother land. A country nobody thinks less of me because my skin is black. A country i can walk head high, shoulders even higher because it is home. A place i can travel to the country side and catch the smell of cow's dung in the morning. And truly breath fresh air. A place where food is food, not manufactured food. Nobody sells to me "organic" or is it "Superfoods"?.

Where the weather never truly changes and i don't know the meaning of sweltering heat nor snow.

What more in life can one ask for?

I know the despair that comes with a really corrupt citizenry (ooh don't blame a few) or even our wanton neglect of existing laws (Traffic jams anyone?) or even our utter selfishness and grabbing everything in sight.

But when all modernity is taken, all tall buildings, subways, highways that defy nature or the greatest architectural buildings or even greater and faster service that other nations boast of. The warmth and humanity of Kenyans is beyond reproach.

I have had clients from developed nations refuse to go back to their lands. Here, they say they have met with people with a genuine touch and focus on making a living while at the same time making a life. I would hell hate to stay in a place where time is never enough, that i could never stop a chit chat with someone i call my friend because i need to be at the work place to serve other people (hello exemplary service). Where people are governed by clocks to make MORE MONEY.

I love money no doubt for the things i can do with it, but i will not not look after my ailing aging parents, prefering to dump them in homes for the aged (where by the way they will be looked after by the illegal immigrants from a country that they think is in South Africa)

After all we have something to sell. Being Human. That is what Kenyans are and always remain.

Labels: Diaspora, Fantastic Kenyans, Kenyan

posted by Girl In the Meadow @ 6:07:00 PM, , links to this post

It's been a while since i posted something here. Been super busy (Code name for blogger's block).

Let's see.

Will be back when i have something to write:)

Meanwhile follow my twitterations here

www.twitter.com/shiroh

Labels: Nothing Really

posted by Girl In the Meadow @ 7:02:00 PM, links to this post

Conversation with Vendor
Thursday, June 18, 2009

I was buying veggies from a vendor yesterday and we had this conversation.

Me: Prices are going up every day what's up

Vendor: That is why we are not getting married

Me:ooh, why is that?

Vendor: Now, the last time i bought maize flour it was Fifty shillings, how much is it now, you might know yourself.

Honestly i don't do shopping

When i don't know something, i just smile

Vendor: Wacha mtu akae kwao na mimi nikae kwetu, tuonane Sunday and then we can pretend to be married

Vendor: Can you imagine the way life is hard, what if i have to take a child to school, the cheapest is 3k, Si nitakufa?

Me: You can't die, you just pray to God to provide

Vendor: If God was among us, i could go direct to him...you know but now i don't even know where He is

At that point i laughed, paid and left.

posted by Girl In the Meadow @ 8:19:00 AM, , links to this post

ANYTHING I KNOW
Thursday, June 11, 2009

I learnt it when I was 18 years old.

Friendships, gossips, betrayals, hip sisters, group mentality....

Her name was Elsie. Tall, slender, big eyes. She was the first gal friend I made when my dad shoved me to KTTC for a CPA course. He did everything; filled the paper work, looked for a school, paid for it and all that stuff. All I needed was to report. Which I did. It was a boarding college. My dad figured if I stayed idle I would start all those funny behaviours that teenagers pick when they are idle. So I am in these huge college with men and all that stuff and a library. So, these group of girls let’s call them hip sisters and I became inseparable. We ate, queued, went to class, washed together. We we we… gossiped. Ultimately, cracks began to show. Elsie was my best friend in the group and so we gossiped about the others, made fun of their dressing, shared family histories and problems, and I helped her overcome the fear of men because she had been sexually abused as a child. Our friendship is one I will probably never have. We went to Gikomba , drank the first beer, raved at the college dances, had our first boyfriend.

Then, hell broke loose. I don’t know what it is about gals. They started dishing dirt on who said what and how it was said..so eventually everything broke! Of all, I was closest, she is the only one who knew what I thought or even said, the fact that it was out HURT me, really much. She decided we could not be friends. At that time I could not understand what was happen. Then it all started to fit in. I was devastated. Everyone was shouting at each other, I had no friends anymore. I was devastated.

Your best friend walks in when all walk out

To say I was devastated is to understand it, these gals were my life in college. Then J happened. The first day J and I met she dissed me about my leather jacket. So I didn’t like her at all. One day she met me crying; she was worried. We talked and talked about it all. She was my crying shoulder. Then she introduced me to the library. Because I had been so obsessed with the gal power troop, I barely noticed there was a libraryL. I don’t know how I would have passed my exams, if it were not for J. So I began to study, even Financial Accounting became easy. We became friends. She is still a good friend of mine till today though time and seasons have waned our friendship, I could say she saw me through the worst of times. Few can do that.

It was not the end of friendships that devastated me, it was the lies and the betrayals. For this lesson I will be forever be grateful. I don’t do gal gangs.

Boys, bars, beer….

His name was D, a Giriama boy. He had/still has the greatest sense of humor. We met at a place me and J were having a rendezvous. It was near my home, I had always heard of it but my father could never let me go there. So I didn’t. Then there was freedom. I could hang out go back to the hostel and my poor dad (who by the way had forked out a fortune to let me board) would never know. So we danced, we partied, laughed and then he broke my heart. Yes. Terribly. It took me 3 years to get out of this one. I got sick. My friend J could do nothing to help me with this one. You know when young love strikes, it strikes hard. But at the end, I was scarred but stronger. I did not date anyone for 3 years. I learnt when you are hurt, it is better to move on. Hope is a dangerous thing. Then I met with vodka, threw up and all that AND grew up. I can’t tell the last time I threw up after drinking, I know my brands and stick to them. I don’t envy chics who misbehave after drinking too much/the wrong drinks…

H is for Heartbreak

Yup. Thing with innocent unadulterated love(?) is that when it hurts, IT HURTS.

posted by Girl In the Meadow @ 5:30:00 PM, , links to this post

QUARTER LIFE CRISIS
Monday, May 18, 2009

You know it, you have been through it. That time that you are between 25 years and 30 years of age. I am in the middle. Not young enough to be called a girl; not old enough to be called a woman.

Things start to happen;

You wanna cut your hair. I have been raising my hair for 12 odd years now. It has cost me a lot. I am suddenly tired of the dryer, the chemicals, the burning. I can't also do the horse hair.

But you still can't cut your hair. Because your insecurities remind you of the many times other kids called your head a bus. A little exaggeration, right there.

Your career (sorry your job) start to look dim, you toy with the idea of being an actress or married to a mogul and never having to work for another day. Basically you know; money is the best option.

I can't lie; I am becoming impatient with my job. The idea of quitting is becoming real by the day. Of course the insecure bird says, it's the recession boss. The idea of hustling for your own medical insurance, another job, business failure, brokenness makes you survive another day, week, month, and year.

Can anybody live with me? To rephrase, can I live with anybody?

My mother accidentally made a reference to me being married. I ignored. When watching the Wedding show (very involuntarily) my cousin asked when I would be getting married. I occasionally get bitchy so I ask her, when you are getting married yourself. She said you are the older one (gr). I ignore. What? Don't get me wrong, I think getting married is fantastic when you finally get the person you wanna get married to and it sounds fine to you and your heart. I am just not there. No hints, subtle or loud.

Illusion

My dream is to fly over the rainbow so high.

Passive aggressive

I am those kind of people who are passive aggressive. That, neuroscientists think is a disorder. It is not. It is a character trait. You are not aggressive and you are not passive. One day you have an outburst and everyone is worried. I take a lot of crap. Then one day I am explosive. What's the deal with that? Or rather I am tired of these psychologists or whatever it is they are, thinking there is something wrong with the non-conforming. To borrow from Milo (he is back!) he is the genius who refuses to be tamed. He borrowed it from KM.

Big bang theory and the intellectual

I don't know (illusion perhaps), I get myself laughing at geek jokes. I totally adore the geeky types, on Television. So what is the problem, geeks in real life are not interesting and so….

The bad boys

In my real life, I don't like the intellectual types. Not surprisingly, I enjoy the non intellectuals or intellectuals who don't wanna act it (especially those). I love people who can jump and down in a club. I am totally intrigued by bad boys. I want to know, how do you look at your wife in the eye and tell her you have been working while you slept in a hotel room somewhere with some other woman. Why? And they lie a lot too.

I am still marrying the geek (lol). Just don't make me read comics.

I stop making sense

See the last two.

Help! I can't fill my tax returns

There is something about seeing how much tax you paid to the Government could have changed your life. You gave them anyway. I feel robbed every day I don't have water or electricity. Again, is Migingo available to take the human misfits there? I am sure the snakes and snails would have a field day.

The little house on the Prairie, two children, no husband

I occasionally have the thought of living on the singlesville forever. Then I remember the creaking back, the menopause, the disappearing hairline and the folding skin. Those are misfortunes you would like to share with someone. Sorry but I am not too optimistic about the marriage things, I need counseling. Ooh blame my folks for not holding it together! It has nothing to do with law school as many misinformed people may like to imagine.

Big words

Can you believe I used the word ravenous in a conversation once?

I know the good people of the blogsphere will wonder what is complicated about that. Let me let you in a secret. It is uppity in Nairobi to use such words when you could use a non-complicated word. Trust me, I was given the look..ooh so you know a little English.

Another day I sat with other people that scored over 500 marks in KCPE and boasted of the good old days. What it was like appearing on the top 10 in the district. Someni vijana days are over. Real life is hard. It takes more of the brawn to make it. I mean like ass licking, saying yes sir when all you want to do is say F-U, and then you remember the recession. Look at Beyonce'.

Britney Spears and Amy Winehouse

Why do I like these two artistes? They are train wrecks. Seriously Amy makes great music, Britney makes great shows. They are to me, the epitome of self destruction.

posted by Girl In the Meadow @ 4:02:00 PM, , links to this post