TREASURES, HUNTERS AND GATHERERS

Of Adam descendants, my mother has me, the first and four others of Eve descendants. For the bigger part of our lives, she has single handedly fed us and catered for all our needs until each of us is now able to fend for themselves. Our father loved his drink and was present with us only for a short period before he succumbed to liver cirrhosis and that in part explains why me and alcohol have always been strange bed fellows.By good luck for my mother and unlike many of her peers, there is no grandchild left to her care by any of us and that means that all she has been doing for close to 10 years since all of us left is to work for her own needs and projects. Another luck we have as siblings is that she is always independent, hardly needs our financial support and, but for a few of her projects that we contribute to, we are all happy to keep our resources to ourselves. However, there has always been a soft fight between me and her, that she reduces the amount of work she does or at least the number of hours she works because, as long as I can remember, she is up at 4.00 am and works consistently in her shop until 11.00 pm in the night when she usually retires to sleep. She does that 7 days a week and only breaks when she has a day out to attend an event and this comes quite rarely. Her work ethic is admirable but sometimes I feel like she is doing too much unnecessarily.

At this point, I would wish to tell a tale of 3 cities worlds apart, that I had a privilege to experience. And as the teacher I was trained to be, the formula is always from known to unknown. We therefore begin with Nairobi. Literally, Nairobi never sleeps. I once was an ardent reader of Sunday Nation newspaper and many Saturdays I would get late in CBD chasing the dream and would leave town with my paper in hand anytime from 11.00pm and like you guessed it, in those wee hours of the night, the city is usually well welled up with very many people doing all manner of things the whole night and that has been so as long as I can remember. Until today, a close relative of mine leaves her house daily at 2.00 am for Marikiti market to get supplies for her green grocery store and of course, I always bring the subject of safety in our discussions in an effort to dissuade her but that usually falls on deaf ears but I'll keep trying.

Little known to me is the city of Rome that I once had the chance to accompany a friend on their pilgrimage trip to the Vatican. Rome is as fast as Nairobi, doesn't sleep much as well and as many with their popular Italian suits, everyone is moving to different places in haste like the world is ending. What was fascinating about Rome is how the city moves more underground than over it. The city has an elaborate underground sub train network that moves millions of people across the city every minute. While in Rome, we mostly moved between Battistini and Anagnina in the subtrains, that are huge, fast and always full beyond capacity with locals and foreigners from allover the world in Rome usually for religious reasons. The colosseum, the st.Peter's square, the museums and humongous historic buildings sightseeing were breathtaking and left beautiful memories etched on my mind. Rome was simply super!!

We now land to the unknown city which we can call F, which I also got chance to visit. In my opinion , F is much developed than the former 2. Has a good bus and street tram system, is cleaner that the 2 but everything moves slowly. No one is in a hurry over anything. People don't cross roads until pedestrian lights turn green, whether there are vehicles coming or not. The city literally sleeps. Any day I woke up and left the house at 7.00 am, I was shocked to find myself almost alone in the streets. Streets do not begin to fill up until 8.00 in the morning. Shops and supermarkets don't open on Sundays so if you fail to buy yourself household supplies by Saturday, then you have to wait until Monday. There, people are not allowed to work more than one job and if so, then you split your 40 hours a week into all the jobs you want to have. For the time I was there and for the first time in my life, I learnt to sleep 8 hours or more in a day and not to feel guilty about it. For the quality of life, F is a wonderful place to live but for those interested in becoming rich, please F* off from F to Nairobi or Rome for better prospects.In F, there are days when all businesses close at 1.00 pm on a weekday to attend city festivals, businesses close at midday on Fridays to begin the weekend and as a culture no one works a minute beyond their contract time so, if my contract says 5.00 pm, it is that, and if customers are still waiting for service at that time, you tell them to come tomorrow and that is normal everywhere.

I've tried to tell my 3 cities tale very briefly because my writing space is small and my pen's ink is running out.

And so good people, let's gather behind the tent for a short conversation and I wish to ask a few questions. When will we stop this hoarding epidemic or must we allow it to catch our children as well? Why are we so obsessed with leaving riches for our children? I think we owe them only education. Let's not call it a good education coz that is a can of worms talking about private and public schools. Do we ever sit down and calculate what we need for the rest of our lives and understand how much more we need? I think Kenyans need to just slow down a little because, the hunting and gathering has reached crazy levels and that's why we steal from government, corporates and from other unsuspecting innocent people. To find someone to trust with your resources in Kenya has become hard as looking for a pin in the belly of indian ocean. We cannot continue like this or we will not have any country to leave to our children. We need to keep in mind that there is moth and rust. Your children could begin selling your hoards one after the other immediately you kill yourself hoarding.

Maybe we should work less, sleep more, visit parks more often, visit friends and family more (many of us visit only when one of them has died). We simply need to take time to enjoy our free God given life and sometimes we do not need money for that. Maybe we need to heed God's advice on hoarding, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:19-21. Or should we just continue gathering. Okay fair enough, so what do I stand to gain in the new deal?

@ Stephen Mungai

 IMAGINE ME

Imagine me being always honest about my thoughts!! Imagine me telling the truth, past, present and even in future!!! Just imagine me being human and accepting that I have limitations and seeking supernatural powers to defeat the limitations!!!! Who sir, me sir, not me sir but who? Imagine me owning my mistakes and not blaming someone else!!! Imagine!!! Just imagine me.

I wish to tell the story of Nikita whose second name is as beautiful, not adhiambo or atieno but another beautiful name from an area around lake Victoria, where her roots are traceable to. I've always had a thing for girls from that side of Kenya and as was in my high school days, Ruth was an obsession of equal magnitude for me. My alma mater is Eastleigh high school, a day school in Nairobi and while our family lived in Huruma, I had to commute to school and back custom as it were on a daily basis for four highschool years. A mention of those days well up in me very fond memories of the exciting days they were. Talk of the KBS buses that boys would board and followed a then perfected script of dodging bus conductors to avoid paying fare or the Manyangas (Matatus) of those days, beautifully decorated Matatus, Kenya's mini buses including Eliza Kid and 680, the two favorite Matatus for the boys of our time. It was a daily cup full of fun for the four highschool years. But now there was Ruth. So beautiful. I would cross fingers yearning to meet her daily on our way to school and every moment we met drove emotions of mortal desires through me in a sweet but very defeating way. I grew in love with the Luo people since then and learnt a lot of Luo language and 'alot' in the beautiful language means sukuma wiki or collard greens just in case you want to learn Luo language, which I consider the most rich, artistic and interesting of the many languages of Kenya. Ruth was by then a Student at Ngara Girls High school. Back to Nikita. Her face is so cute, white properly placed teeth accentuated with every smile she makes. She is tall, just an inch or two shorter than me. Her gait is the pattern of the warm breeze falling on beautiful flowers in spring. Her front and backside, very well endowed, like are girls from the lakeside, the work of a perfect workmanship that God is. Nikita is honestly a temptation I have to defeat everyday but Just imagine of us relaxing, our sunglasses on facing the clear skies sipping our drinks on the shores of indian ocean in a lovely Beach of Malindi Kenya...... Imagine us together on a weekend getaway in an expensive hotel in Naivasha Kenya. Guess what, I dare to make one of this plans real if life continues to be boring like sometimes it has the tendency to get. I know Nikita would love it too because I can already see it allover her eyes, the girl loves me too. The girl is single and selfishly, I hope she remains so a little longer. But wait a minute, by the way am a happily Married man and there are Kids between us. But that's all there is to it and there is no need to bore you with my less than interesting marriage stories.

I've always heard that a problem half spoken is half solved. What of a problem fully spoken? Imagine me going to God and undressing myself, my thoughts bare, body prostrate to the ground or upright to the heavens and telling God of my temptations and limitations and asking him to help me to defeat and overcome them!!! Imagine me, not pretending that all is well and not telling people lies or so, putting on a fake smile and acting holy while I hide my sinful acts against a facade of fake righteousness!!! Imagine me!! Imagine me!!! Just imagine me being blunt honest with myself, with humans and with God!!! Many times am a pretender and not honest but God keeps reminding me in his holy scriptures that, 'You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise. Psalm 51:16-17. Imagine me!! Being a human with limitations, honestly and openly owning Up to them regardless as to whether I am dealing with fellow Humans or God himself. Just Imagine me!!! Just Imagine you, Just Imagine we. . ..just Imagine us. Just Imagine.

@stephen Mungai

JEUDI DES CENDRES

 JEUDI DES CENDRES

Avant que les cendres du mercredi des Cendres ne se déposent, parlons des cendres, car aujourd'hui sera le jeudi des Cendres pour certaines personnes. Le vôtre peut être le vendredi des Cendres et un proche de votre famille le samedi des Cendres. Avant que vous n'absorbiez les ondes de choc de votre parent et que vous ne vous lassiez, un dimanche des Cendres ferme le rideau pour votre ami d'enfance. Et ce lundi est devenu encore plus bleu quand il est devenu le lundi des Cendres pour cette célèbre personnalité publique nationale qui a choqué tous les citoyens. Puis, à quel point mardi pouvait-il être noir quand il s'est avéré être le mardi des Cendres pour le gentil collègue que tout le monde aimait.
Sur la 19e Avenue de la ville de Genèse 3, ce fut une triste rencontre pour l'Homme lorsque Dieu prononça les mots les plus durs jusqu'à présent dans le grand Univers, la Bible ''À la sueur de ton front
tu mangeras ta nourriture
jusqu'à ce que tu retournes à la terre,
d'où tu as été tiré ;
car tu es poussière
et tu retourneras à la poussière. »
Ce sont les mots mêmes que nous aimons éviter, souhaiter et même éviter les conversations autour d'eux. En colère contre la classe politique, c'est pourquoi lorsque des jeunes férus de technologie au Kenya ont créé des photos et des vidéos des politiciens actuels du Kenya dans des cercueils, cela a suscité tant de colère et de ressentiment de la part des politiciens du parti au pouvoir, y compris du président lui-même, car personne ne veut penser ou se rappeler qu'ils vont mourir. Mais pourquoi ne devrions-nous pas plutôt nous préparer pour notre jour des cendres ? Nous vivons honnêtement dans ce monde comme si nous y étions en permanence. Nous trichons, nous volons, nous tuons, nous commettons l'adultère et brisons des foyers, nous méprisons les pauvres parce que nous nous considérons comme riches, nous escroquons des victimes sans méfiance et, à la manière typiquement kenyane, nous volons des innocents ou des caisses publiques et accumulons des richesses si énormes que même nos arrière-arrière-petits-enfants ne les épuiseraient pas. Et pourquoi devrions-nous le faire ? Pourquoi voler pour de futurs enfants dont certains que vous ne rencontrerez jamais, comme si vous aviez un contrat pour voler pour eux. Le mal n'a aucun sens si nous continuons à nous rappeler qu'à un moment inconnu et inattendu, nous mourrons. Nous devons nous engager à faire le bien et je pense que nous devons parler davantage de la mort pour la réalité qu'elle est et cesser de considérer Dieu comme un grand-père cosmique rabat-joie pour la bonne raison qu'au moins Il nous a dit que nous mourrions.
Permettez-moi d'être le premier à mener la conversation sur la mort. Ainsi, lorsque nous travaillons, concluons des affaires, planifions et nouons des contacts, nous devons éviter le mal et nous concentrer sur le bien parce que nous sommes candidats à la mort et que nous pouvons mourir à tout moment. L'histoire biblique de l'homme qui rassemblait suffisamment de nourriture pour lui-même et la stockait dans des greniers devrait être une « claque sur notre visage » car, alors qu'il était assis pour manger, boire et faire la fête, le propriétaire de l'âme arrive et dit : « Insensé, cette nuit même ta vie te sera demandée » Luc 12:13-21. Alors, agis-tu comme un insensé ou fais-tu ce qui est juste et es-tu prêt pour ton jour des cendres, ton jour de mort ?

@ Stephen Mungai

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ASCHERDONNERSTAG

 ASCHERDONNERSTAG

Bevor sich die Asche des Aschermittwochs legt, wollen wir über Asche sprechen, denn für manche Menschen ist heute Ascherdonnerstag. Für Sie könnte Ascherfreitag sein und für einen Ihrer nahen Verwandten Aschersamstag. Bevor Sie die Schockwellen Ihres Verwandten absorbieren und buuh, schließt ein Aschersonntag den Vorhang für Ihren Freund aus Kindertagen. Und dieser Montagsblues wurde noch düsterer, als er für diese berühmte nationale Persönlichkeit, die alle Bürger schockierte, zum Aschermontag wurde. Und wie schwarz konnte dann der Dienstag sein, als er sich für den netten Kollegen, den jeder liebte, als Ascherdienstag herausstellte.
Auf der 19. Avenue der Stadt Genesis 3 war es eine traurige Begegnung für den Menschen, als Gott die bisher härtesten Worte des großen Universums verkündete: Die Bibel: „Im Schweiße deines Angesichts

sollst du dein Brot essen

bis du wieder zur Erde wirst,
davon du genommen bist.

denn Staub bist du

und zum Staub wirst du zurückkehren.“

Das sind genau die Worte, die wir so gerne vermeiden, wegwünschen und sogar Gespräche über sie vermeiden. Aus diesem Grund haben technisch versierte junge Leute in Kenia, die wütend auf die politische Klasse waren, Fotos und Videos von den aktuellen kenianischen Politikern in Särgen erstellt. Das hat bei den Politikern der Regierungspartei, einschließlich des Präsidenten selbst, so viel Wut und Groll hervorgerufen, denn niemand möchte daran denken oder daran erinnert werden, dass sie sterben werden. Aber warum sollten wir uns nicht lieber und besser auf unseren Aschetag vorbereiten? Wir leben wirklich in dieser Welt, als wären wir für immer hier. Wir betrügen, wir stehlen, wir töten, wir begehen Ehebruch und zerstören Familien, wir ignorieren arme Menschen, weil wir uns für reich halten, wir betrügen ahnungslose Opfer und in typisch kenianischer Manier stehlen wir von unschuldigen Menschen oder aus der Staatskasse und häufen so große Reichtümer an, dass selbst unsere Ur-Ur-Enkel sie nicht aufbrauchen könnten. Und warum sollten wir? Warum sollten wir für zukünftige Kinder stehlen, von denen wir einige nie kennenlernen werden, als hätten wir einen Vertrag, für sie zu stehlen? Das Böse ergibt keinen Sinn, wenn und falls wir uns ständig daran erinnern, dass wir zu einem unbekannten, unerwarteten Zeitpunkt sterben werden. Wir müssen uns dazu verpflichten, Gutes zu tun, und ich denke, wir müssen mehr über den Tod als die Realität sprechen, die er ist, und davon absehen, Gott als kosmischen Spielverderber zu betrachten, aus dem guten Grund, dass er uns zumindest gesagt hat, dass wir sterben werden.

Lassen Sie mich zuerst das Gespräch über den Tod führen. Wenn wir also arbeiten, Geschäfte machen, planen und Kontakte knüpfen, müssen wir das Böse vermeiden und uns darauf konzentrieren, Gutes zu tun, denn wir sind Kandidaten des Todes und könnten von jetzt an jederzeit sterben. Die biblische Geschichte des Mannes, der genug Nahrung für sich sammelte und in Kornspeichern lagerte, sollte uns ein „Schlag ins Gesicht“ sein, denn gerade als er sich hinsetzte, um zu essen, zu trinken und zu feiern, kam der Seelenbesitzer und sagte: „Du Narr, noch in dieser Nacht wird man dein Leben von dir fordern“ (Lukas 12:13-21). Und also benimmst du dich wie ein Narr oder tust du das Richtige und bist du auf deinen Aschetag, deinen Todestag, vorbereitet?

@ Stephen Mungai

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ASH THURSDAY

 ASH THURSDAY

Before the ash Wednesday ashes settle, let's talk about ashes because today will be ash Thursday for some people. Yours may happen to be ash Friday and a close relative of yours ash Saturday. Before you absorb the shock waves of your relative and boop, an ash Sunday closes the curtains for your childhood friend. And this Monday blues got bluer when it became ash Monday for this famous national public personality that shocked all citizen. Then how black could Tuesday be when it turned out ash Tuesday for the nice colleague everyone loved.

On the 19th Avenue of the city of Genesis 3, it was a sad encounter for Man when God declared the harshest words so far in the great Universe, The bible ''By the sweat of your brow

    you will eat your food

until you return to the ground,

    since from it you were taken;

for dust you are

    and to dust you will return.” 

Those are the very words we love to avoid, wish away and even avoid conversations around them. Angered by the political class, this is why when tech savvy young people in Kenya created photos and videos of the Kenyan current politicians in caskets, it evoked so much anger and resentment from the ruling party politicians including the president himself because, non wants to think or be reminded that they will die. But why shouldn't we rather and better prepare for our ash day? We honestly live in this world like we are permanently here. We cheat, we steal, we kill, we commit adultery and break homes, we disregard poor people because we consider ourselves rich, we swindle unsuspecting victims and in a typical Kenyan fashion, we steal from innocent people or from public coffers and gather so huge amounts of wealth that even our great great grandkids would not deplete. And why should we? Why should you steal for future kids some of whom you will never meet, as if you had a contract to steal for them. Evil makes no sense when and if we keep reminding ourselves that at unknown unexpected time, we will die. We need to commit ourselves to doing good and I think we need to talk about death more for the reality it is and desist from regarding God as grandfather cosmic killjoy for the good reason that, at least He told us that we will die.

Let me be first to lead the death conversation. So as we work, do deals, plan and make contacts, we need to avoid evil and focus on doing good because we are candidates of death and we might die anytime from now. The bible story of the man who gathered enough food for himself and stored in granaries should be a 'cammon slap on our face' because just as he was sitting down to eat, drink and make merry, the soul owner comes and says, ' you fool, this very night your life will be demanded from you' Luke 12:13-21. And so are you acting like the fool or are you doing what is right and are you prepared for your ash day, your day of death?

@ Stephen Mungai

ALINIPA KUMBI, ALEKUPA KITI

Ujapo kwasika, mtulivu uwe

Alipenda Rabuka, nilivyo niwe

Ikujiapo fanaka, adilika wewe

Alinipa kumbi, alekupa Kiti

Kazi niitendayo, yanikimu daima

Naipenda hiyo, iwapo ni rukwama

Yangu kazi hiyo, wewe ipe heshima

Alinipa kumbi, alekupa Kiti

Manani kanipa, hii yangu sura

We heshima nipa, niwapo chotara

Kama baya kanipa, nawe nzuri sura

Alinipa kumbi, alekupa Kiti

Nikaapo pale, paheshimu wewe

Kibadangu kile, chakuhusu ni we?

Shukuru Molale, kwa ulipo wewe

Alinipa kumbi, alekupa Kiti

Hata kama mie, sikupata elimu

Si penzi langu wee, kut’ona mwalimu

Tulivyo tukae, sote binadamu

Alinipa kumbi, alekupa kiti

Kafanya duniani, tufautiane

Lengole Manani, zoteni Karne

Sote duniani, tushirikiane

Alinipa kumbi, alekupa Kiti.

AMA NIAJE WAZITO?

AMA NIAJE WAZITO?

It makes me very sad when I notice a grown up who’s unable to communicate in their own mother tongue and the excuse, one was brought up in town. To me, there’s just no reason why one should fail to know their mother tongue however orthodox the method that would be used to learn it. Save the post election violence that happened in our beloved motherland that made tribe gang up against another, I have always believed that we should promote knowledge and understanding of our tribes to keep alive the beauty of unity in diversity in our country. It should also be easier to learn other people’s languages and that’s the reason I once thought a school offering local languages would be a great entrepreneurial idea and watch this space if I don’t mint millions on such simple an idea. My appreciation of language has made the reading of my bible even more fun coz if not reading English, I’d be reading Kiswahili or kikuyu or kamba or Dholuo. But Luo has been the only challenge coz it dawned on me later on that it’s easier spoken than read; the more reason I’ve been looking for a sheng bible with no success in those city bookshops.

You cannot however talk of language away from culture. Language tends to squeeze one into the culture and the traditions of the spoken and makes one feel a sense of belonging and attachment to the culture of the spoken language.

There’s not a language that lands me in traditional and cultural home like sheng does. This is the reason Juliani remains my best musician of all times coz of his ability to juggle words and give me a concoction of words that inspires me  nisiogope hell, niogope kutoka hii dunia sijakamua kenye mola alitarajia. For this reason I joined the bandwagon to make sheng an international language. This is the language of the Kenyan youth the bulk of who are city dwellers. That’s why Omosh and Oj of Tahidi High, then MaDVD of Machachari have won the best TV actor at Chaguo la Teeniez awards over the last three events; because they speak sheng, they are admired and well able to connect with the youth who are of course our leaders of tomorrow.

But this are not times when sheng was the language of lazy youths who sit down mitaani to fantasize like Ayeiya put it, ‘’Lack of vision among the you makes…’kazi ya maboys nikuamka wakae baze waanze kuvisualize…..zao ni ku-imagine…imagine umetembea tu tao upatane na briefcase iko na ten million……mwingine anajibu…hiyo ni uraaadi……hiyo dream yako usiachilie.’’. This aren’t times when sheng was for thugs kushika fe, ukapi na kuchapana nyongolo na kutrade gadgets za magendo imbo. It’s no language of people with potential lakini hawaoni past tumbo ego inafly tooo lowwwwww…… low..low..low.

This are times when sheng is a force for change to reckon with; to be used like Mbusi of ghetto radio is doing to change our mentality; like Juliani is using it to encourage us to take responsibility and be agents of change for the betterment of every sector of our country and the world at large. Yes it’s time to say, ‘walitudharau…..aha…aha…aha…who’s laughing now? Exponential potential……wanadrown kwa machozi zao, tunaogelea kwa jasho zetu……who’s laughing now…Tuko na exponential potential. It’s time to get out of the pond into the ocean….yaani. ’vision za ku-swim kwa ocean, hii papa….imefungwa kwa aquarium, purpose….si four walls za church….stadium status’  zitaendeshwa na nani ka si sisi, zitanunuliwa na nani ka si sisi, tutabadilishwa na nani ka si sisi, simaanishi mwengine ni wewe na wewe na mi-mi. Kama si sisi sioni.

That’s just the reason sheng should remain and let language teachers teach English and Swahili and leave sheng alone and not force kids to unlearn it. It’s our way of life and our connection to new inspiration for the youths to take responsibility over their lives and our country.

But for our sheng language assasins like postbank, this’ what my friend had to say,  "JISETI NA POST-BANK." I don’t think that some of these marketers actually know what they are talking about. "Kujiseti" ni kujiingiza kwa noma. Mfano katika sentensi...Sikujua kwamba Juma angejiseti na huyo dame. Next time u r looking for a promotion sheng, call the Shengists...N I am one of them.’’

But some words from Sir God are worth considering, ‘’ Saa juu ya hii story, God alipenda world sana mpaka akageiana Mtoto wake wa pekee ndio kila msee atam-believe a savike, asilost laini apate life ya forever’’ (John 3:16).  This is the strength in life that God has given us and so He says in 2 Corinthians 12:9 ‘Lakini akanishow, “Grace yangu imekutosha mzeiya, juu nguvu yangu huwa made perfect kwa weakness.’’ ‘Kwa hivyo naweza do kila kitu through Christ mwenye ananipatia mahinya.’ (Philippians 4:13.)

That only means we have exponential potential and we must shout it atop roofs in sheng, a language we best understand.

Ama niaje wazito?