Ukifanya juu chini uvuke booodaaaa!!!...

Sometime you got to admire how things work in some places to really appreciate the circumstances you have back home. It is never that straightforward, and as the saying goes, "The grass is always greener on the other side". I have had the chance of interacting with various groups of people in the greater Eastern Africa region and have basically marveled at the various elements of behaviours that mark our differences (hopefully these will be restricted to the non-violence type of differences).
The lifestyle of my brothers across the border in Tz has always had me curious. Kenyans are generally viewed as aggressive and impolite (...wankosa nidhamu hawa ndugu zetu!). I do agree with their sentiments to some extent, but get baffled by their behaviour as well. Truth be told, they are not the paragon of virtues they are presented to be. Like our society in the +254, they do have their bad apples and moments...it's only that they are more polite about how they handle or deal with it, and they have shorter memories than the Kenyans. The justice system there is slower than a slug, and the public officials are as corrupt, but more polite and non-confrontational as the brothaz in the +254.
Anyway for days I had been shuttling from my adopted place of work to the hotel and in meetings around Dar, and couldn't help noticing the beeline of kids from skool at around 2pm headed to what I figured was home. Now this brought my lower primary skool memories when skool ended at 1pm and the afternoon was left for extra-curricular activities in the hood. However with time I noticed that it wasn't just the young 8 and under who were going back home at 2pm..apparently across the border, skool is from 8/9am to 2pm, then everyone goes home at 2pm..this applies from kindergarten to form 6....I mean these guys should be major sportsmen and artists...what on earth do you do with all that time?....
The other thing I learnt is that they also start learning English in High skool (form 1... after class 7). And proceed to be instructed in English when learning all the other subjects (Bio, Chem, Physics, History, etc)..Imagine having to learn Spanish in form 1 and then all subjects thereon being taught in Spanish..I have mad respect for these guys, but it is not a pain worth inflicting on yourself.
This kinda explains their struggle with English even at advanced ages. Not being out to judge them, they would learn a thing or two in overhauling their system and getting children learning English at a younger age. Also not being out to judge and remind them of their apparent hesitance to join the EAC wholeheartedly, learning from the neighbour isn't such a bad thing. We can learn to be polite and they can learn a bit more industry and effort in their approach to everything.

I also happened to visit one of their treasures on the Indian Ocean, Mbudya Island. For $10 and a TZS 10k 30 minute boat ride, it is a place worth visiting.

The next instalment will be continued.....sina mutisha at the moment as they say!

8-4-4 = zero education?...

I know it's been a minute, and I felt time was ripe to write something (not corruption or theft related). I was recently drawn into a debate on the education system in Kenya and how it is not designed to be fair and to recognize the diverse talents individuals possess. The most vocal people appear to be the Artists who believe they have been sidelined by the 8-4-4 system of education.

Perhaps a trip down history lane would do some good before we shred the merits and demerits of the system. I think the system began in 1985 or 1986, and the philosophy behind it was to try and arm an individual with all round basic life skills. That is why we had such practical subjects as Home Science, Craft, Art, Music, et al.The view at the time was if one stopped at class 8, you'd be able to use your skills for example to be a carpenter, metal worker, etc....Clearly there were good intentions and who knows how it would have ended up had we stuck to the ethos of the system.
Fast forward to 2012, and the system now is set to be scrapped. "It has not achieved it's purpose", they say..."We are better off with the old system"....So what went wrong?
It is my personal belief that whichever system we employ, the results would be the same, whether it is the old 7-4-2-3 system or the American system. We Kenyans have a knack of messing up whatever systems we place to make our lives better. For instance the Master Plan for Physical Planning done in the 70s..it had envisioned the by-passes, expansion of the city to Kiambu and expanding the airport to have two runways. Plus the zoning was done properly...well 30 years later, we have a mess of a city. The 8-4-4 system has been messed by the competitive nature of Kenyans. The advent of academies and burdening poor kids with 40 books, homework, extra classes in the evenings,weekends and holidays has turned children into academic machines. How do you explain a 4 or 5 year old child being up by 4am and in school by 6.30am to "study"?....I mean what the hell (excuse the swearing) would a kid that age be grasping if up by that time? The kid then gets home at 6pm..I mean at that age they should have 60% of their time playing and getting to know the world around them...But no everyone wants their kid to be number 1 in class, go to a National School, join Med school and be a rich and successful doctor....Dreams they were unable to attain while young. Intentions are good, but we seem to be out of touch with reality....We can not all be academics, we cannot all be number 1.
Imagine for a second what would have happened if Oliech or Mariga's folks forced them to go for holiday tuition...Now like the proverbial kiosk owner in the village who appears to make so much money everyone wants to start their own kiosk forgetting they are the customers,...now everyone wants their kids to excel in football so that they make the same tons of cash. (I still think education is important....helps manage that windfall you get!).
I think this business of ranking kids and drumming it into their heads that some careers are better than others has messed up the good intentions of the education system. I am a product if 8-4-4 and was lucky to have skipped majority of the current ills (weekend classes, holiday classes, early morning preps, sack full of homework et al)....I had extra time for just random discovery and getting to know my bearings and interests....I can say I was the last one off the field at 7pm after checking out of skool at 4pm and class started at 8am not 6am. I made rock slings, had a garden, made bird traps, etc....all what a young boy is expected to do. Now the only knots some kids know how to tie is the shoelace and school ties...
Anyway enough about my rant. What we need is major change in our attitude, yes stay competitive, but in moderation. Let the kids develop "normally"....roll in the mud, have a few bruises, make wire, carton or other self created toys...it's part of growing up as a complete person. The much derided "Art" based careers are not as bad as they are set out to be. Advise your kids on all that is available, and assist them in attaining realistic goals and dreams. We are all different in some way and the differences are our strengths. If you couldn't invent something as complex as a particle accelerator, a much more simple but practical paper clip can do.

The year of the Dragon

As 2012 rolled in with much less fanfare than usual (thanks to the fireworks ban by the government as a result of the al-shabaab menace), I sit back and reflect to the year that is gone, 2011. I know this is a "time-barred" sort of thing to write about, but hey...it's the Chinese New year - Year of the Dragon!!
Looking back, I think this has been one of the most low key years in my short existence...I don't think I achieved much to write home about...I did scale Mt Kenya, made a few new friends in the process and visited some random countries, but I felt there was something missing in the grand scale of things that I may have achieved in the past one year. It was more of routine and ton-loads of stress in the process.
2011 saw the Arab spring uprising, the deaths of a number of dictators around the world (Gadaffi, Kim, et al), the birth of new borns to some of my friends and the union in marriage of a few others. Milestones I would say (others would replace the 'e' in 'mile' with an 'l'). Some switched jobs, others got promoted, a few completed school. Well I am happy for them, and as the gauntlet is thrown for the coming year, I think it is time I sat down re-evaluated with a sober mind what I should aim at reasonably achieving this year, and go for it..
As one of my friends usually puts it "..it is never that serious!" . I have been more of a slave to my work and  reduced time for my family, friends, church, etc. If I had something to show for it, it would have made sense, but a wake of stress, fatigue and unfitness does not justify the time I spent toiling.
For those of us on the grind, they have an innate wish to do what the elves below are doing to their boss, but circumstances don't allow. Though I know a pal who gathered the courage and did just that :-)...thumbs up dude...

Anyway. Before the world ends like some Mayans said some years back, I think I should just be different in 2012, and have something meaningful to say come 31 December 2012 (if by that time the world is still laughing at doomsday predictions!)

Raimz..or is it Rhymes?

I was just sitting and staring at the roof (Tuesday after lunch is mighty boring) and this lady next to me starts humming some old nursery tune (don't ask me why!..si there's a skamares tune guys dunda to in the clubs nowadays..so don't judge). Anyway as she mumbled the words, I was almost bursting out laughing...It was one of those moments you like balance the pressures edging you into laughter but you are controlling your midriff so to nullify the urge, or those "I'm about to sneeze" moments where you go like letting it out, but it doesn't.
So she goes..."Baa baa blacksheep...any any woo...."...(I know you are balancing that laughter....just let it out heh heh heh!). I did dash to some room holding my phone on my ear and laughing hysterically feigning laughter at a "joke" from the other end of the all to clearly silent line ( I am sure she doesn't know who the joke was on).

It got me wondering to myself...what on earth was that I used to sing when I was a brat in nursery school? Not that I wasn't guilty of messing out that particular rhyme..."Yessah yessah three bags fuuuu....One for the master, one for the deee..one for the little boy who Lizz down the leeee", and my favourite part..."meeeeeeh, meeeeh, meeeeh..." It was fun back then. We were oblivious of what we were saying and just enjoying the melody and the moment...growing up was such fun! It was however embarrassing that this mis-pronunciation of what appears to be common words to others actually extended to high skool and campo for some reason...I recall my pal Charles from seco confiscating and hiding some pages I tore from my biology book in which I was busy writing the phonetic representation of what my Bio teacher would say as she dictated notes in class..."golygosidic bond". I innocently wrote "golygosidic bonds". My pals were in stitches when they took my notebook to copy notes and noted the not so typo typo (if you know what I mean)......"It is glycosidic bond", I was told. How the hell was I supposed to know then (and herein comes my confession...I was anti text book reading back then as I have been most of my life..so no I didn't confirm on any text book what she was trying to put across..her dictation was enough). Anyways I am sure most people pronounce epitome as eh-pit-om forgive my lack of knowledge of how to represent sounds. So while you sound all swagged up trying to sound all Victorian and stuff, the correct pronounciation I was informed back in High school is actually eh-pit-oh-me...(gotations are in order.....had to use that one :-P)
So though I was busy laughing at the grown-ass chick singing a nursery rhyme all wrong, it's not like we master everything we think we know and understand. I keep an open mind..am a quack engineer, quack-ish accountant I think and average Kenyan (so I tell myself) then proceed from my base and try to improve myself. Life is a learning process as is language. Though it was hilarious, I think the lady needs to be cut some slack and al e-mail an anonymous link to the lyrics.

Precipitating madness - tales of a few drops of rain in Nairobi

It appears like my writing has trickled to like a post a month....well I guess I have not been given the benefit of those few minutes to let my creative juices flow and express themselves. I must say it's been a while since I was involved in those annoying traffic snarl-ups that characterise a Nairobi population sooo scared of the rain you'd think it's the dreaded Al Qaeda or their more chicken wannabe Somali counterparts, the Al Shabaab threatening an attack on them. It's as though they'd react and melt or violently react with the rain if it touched them....We are a certain percentage sodium I guess!
Friday was such a day....It rained like we was in the Amazon and the malady that the weather brings befell our dear Nairobians...My workaholic self stayed behind in the office to try and reduce my chances of having to work over the weekend by quelling a few fires that were threatening to mess it up for me. So between 4 and 7.30pm (when I finally left the office), I kept busy slaving away. I kept seeing updates on twitter and workmates calling to complain about the parking lot that our roads were slowly turning into, especially those unfortunate enough to have been on Mombasa road. I offered them the only assistance I could at the time (Mu ha ha ha ha ha ha! ....ok am working on that evil laugh..it will come worry not!)..Anyway just before I left the office I scanned the roads round the office on Upper Hill all clear I thought as I mapped my exit heading for NPC Valley road. I had no plans yet. That was to be decided once I picked someone I had promised to pick at 8pm (Only the government thinks that far ahead!...coolest but true saying that I am not sure who came up with...thanx Anonymous!) Anyway so I get onto Haile Selasssie Avenue, heading towards KNH, oblivious of the racket on the roads up ahead...The road was clear upto the National Library roundabout (or so I thought), and before I knew it I had joined the parking lot. For 25 minutes I did not move an inch and it was getting annoying. By some magic the vehicles on my lane started turning and heading back into town (the other side of the road was very empty and there is a certain liberating feeling one gets of movement....any movement!). So I decided to go back down to the NSSF junction and try going round via Integrity cCentre and use the back-route that "toklezeas" at Slims on Lenana road. Surprisingly I went through that stretch pretty fast, and by 8.15pm (yes I was late...). I was there parked on the gravel outside NPC.
Now it was crunch time...the government had to decide, no procrastinating excuse...So out came madam and the question I had no immediate answer to popped...."So where do we go?". Seeing that it was a parking lot all around, any answer would fly I thought..."Up Lenana road to Junction...maybe if we get stuck in between we can just branch off into Caribana and wait for traffic to ease!" Anyway the cars looked like they were kind of moving, so off we left to join the parking lot procession..That was 8.30pm. We were at Caribana 1 km away at 9.30pm or thereabouts and snaked along the remaining 2kms of Lenana road reaching the end of that road at like 11pm...Not that I was complaining thaaaat much.It was great company, and I honestly wouldn't mind getting stuck in traffic with the same person again.
Anyway as we were cursing our luck..it was quite late and we were still on the road. Out of nowhere a fellow suffering "mheshimiwa" , the last person I'd expect to see stuck in traffic as well pops from behind. Now him being one of the few "waheshimiwas" with chase cars and some semblance of a motorcade in Kenya, he is not used to traffic jam, let alone parking in the road like the rest of us. So his security detail, in the interest of securing the safety of their charge, were busy clearing and making way fro him (Bless you Wiper)...So like the true Kenyan, immediately his motorcade passed, we dovetailed onto the motorcade and on came the hazards as we followed his motorcade out of the parking lot...We made it to Junction in record time I must admit. That side of town surprisingly had zilch traffic. I guess everyone in Nairobi was stuck around KNH, Mbagathi, Mombasa road or somewhere on Ngong road.
Anyway, suffice to say I never went back using that route on my way home. I preferred the longer route round Karen onto Lang'ata road which took me just 25 minutes after I had dropped my company for the evening home.
Anyway heard some people slept on Mombasa road from Daystar that night, so I think Wiper doesn't just clear the rain from your windshields, but clears the road ahead for those of us stuck in traffic

P.S. I in no way whatsoever endorse the political inclinations or support any political party other than Gor Mahia which is a movement, a calling, a lifestyle and a fashion statement! heh heh heh!

Wake me up when September ends..

It is September, and like it always does, it never ceases to dish out tragedy after another. 9/11, ....ok most of them actually happened in August if you ask me, but surely in a span of a few days, East Africa is hit by two tragedies of great proportions. Hundreds have lost their lives for things that are easily preventable. The overloaded ferry in Zanzibar, the pipeline flames in Lunga lunga road.....somehow human greed intertwined with weak enforcement agencies have contributed to the two tragedies.
I however ask myself, do we ever learn from these tragedies or is it a case of "since the tree fell on someone else not me, al continue hanging around lumberjacks as they clear the forests"..Sachangwan tragedy where several people lost their lives trying to scoop fuel from a tanker did not happen very long ago....and how many times have we been warned about overloading?...That's why I respect airlines. You wouldn't see someone standing in a plane even for a half hour flight just coz there is some space on the aisle and the plane can take the weight. Rules and regulations have their own purpose and whoever sat down and put some thought into them before making them mandatory had reason to do so. The engineers who estimate safety limits and give guidelines know why they give them...don't argue with them.
However I must admit it is quite sad, human life is very precious and it shouldn't be lost just like that. We also  hear of heroic human beings as well on the other hand, like the fishermen who were out rescuing victims of the ferry disaster or the fellow who swam for four hours to reach the shore....the people who are donating blood and blankets for the fire victims, etc.
My hope is one day we would appreciate, understand and embrace the advise of professionals in whatever we do. Let the architects and structural engineers advise you on buildings, let the accountants do their jobs advising you on finance stuff, follow safety engineers advise on fire hazards and let the Electrical Engineer draw up the design for your house wiring,etc. One day we shall be at the point where we will value this advise. it is more expensive not taking it. As for now, the only thing left for us to give out is sincere condolences to those who were affected by the tragedies and a little prayer for the difficult times.

#My 5 Links

Though I never really keep my blog "out there".(I find it therapeutic just ranting on my own canvas of choice when I feel like letting out a bit of steam) Anyway, here goes......

Most Popular Post:

Interestingly enough it is my blogg on my hike up Mt. Kilimanjaro, Gillman's point, Stella's point,....Uhuru!  , I think ya'll should try that hike.

Post That Didn’t Get The Attention It Deserved:

I am not sure I should have this coz I wasn't sure I wanted a lot of attention on some of the write-ups. I tend to be cryptic in some of my blogs, maybe one day someone will find out what I was really trying to say :-)..But the vote goes to  Missionary, mercenary or misfit, The circumstances that made me write it (true story) was profoundly touching and made me question human behaviour at times.

Post Whose Success Surprised Me:

This surely goes to El Klassiko . I don't think many people are avid followers of the local derbies, but you just have to be at the stadium to experience one of Kenya's unique game-day actions. The terraces have some of the most memorable actions you'll get anywhere...

My Most Controversial Post:

Controversy you say?...Well that has to be Feb the 14th....I think it is always a controversial topic especially for some brotherz

Post I Am Most Proud Of:

I felt a sense of satisfaction (with a tinge of eeevvviiill :-P writing this one)..For ye who get bullied on the Nairobi roads, i think you would have smiled at yourself at the outcome...That surely goes to Internal combustion madness! I still smile at myself remembering the little mishap!