SEMA NISEME

One Sunday morning,
I turn and turn and turn,
It’s @dawn and my alarm goes on
I try to get out of bed but still I feel sleepy
My lovely brother knocks my door twice
He wakes me up and we join hands for a morning prayer
As he walks out my mum calls my name
Reminds me that we are riding to church in the same van
I step to the living room and my sister embraces me with a warm hug
I proceed to take a bath
When I walk from shower everybody is at the table room
A delicious meal has been prepared by my mum and sister
We all sit and enjoy our meal

We ride to church and sit on the same bench
The sermon is good but I can’t wait to be with my family @ home
We listen to country music which is dads’ preference
Later in the day we go to play soccer with my siblings
We get home tired and refresh ourselves with cool drinks
Night time comes and we are ready to retire to bed
Few words of wisdom from mum and dad to the family
This marks the end of the day yet the life continues
As I get to my room, I leave mum and daddy at the couch
Holding each other, as they watch the TV
I admire the love of their long lived lives
Get to my room and enjoy my favorite movies as rest in bed
Its time to sleep now
What a lovely day
What a great day spent with a loving family
I miss my family
I love my family
What a wonderful family
However how apart we are to each other
I cherish the old good memories

Lastly, you never know what it means to be with your family,
Until you live in a far country for a long time
Enjoy every moment with your family as much as you can,
Learn to forgive each other and bear with one another
There is no perfect family but there is a loving and caring family
Long live peaceful and joyful families
S.K.M

Landing in Diaspora
The evening comes and I rush to JKIA airport
More than 50 friends have come to see me off
We take photos, hugs in bounty
I look at my mother and I see tears in her eyes
She is both happy to see me off to further my studies
And sad to know I will be gone for many years
My dad is speechless and so are my other siblings
I take my bag and proceed to escalator
I wave at my friends and start feeling lonely and lost
My mum is left looking through transparent mirror at airport
I board the plane and the journey starts
I try to sleep but I can’t fall asleep
The attendants ask what I would like to eat or drink
Unable to hear the accent I say yes to everything
Despite learning English since kindergarten,
I feel my English is different from hers
She brought raw broccoli
And I try to taste, I almost threw up
That was my first time to taste raw broccoli
It tasted awful then, but I like it nowadays
The journey is long and tiring, my first time to fly
My first time outside my country, what an experience!!

We land at London
Am so fearful and I sit for hours waiting for the next flight
I board the flight and we land at Chicago airport
I sit next to my luggage at the bench waiting for flight to Louisville
A white man who worked for airport security sat beside me
He engaged me with questions about my nationality
I was ready to teach him Kenya
He made me feel very comfortable as he welcomed me to Diaspora
The moments were so good that I felt very relaxed
I decided to walk around and see more on the airport
Meanwhile, I left my luggage at the waiting area and walked around
(Little did I know that it is illegal to leave un-attended luggage)
I bought some cakes and a drink
As I sat down an airport officer started questioning why I left my bag
I said, “This is my bag and nobody can take it at the airport”
As we talked several police officers arrive and it became a scene
Lucky enough the flight attendant that I was “teaching” about Kenya,
Came and pleaded with them that I didn’t know bags must be attended all the times
After this episode I went to check about my flight,
It had left 5 minutes earlier
I was shocked but I maintained my cool
No more flight to Louisville for that day!!!
I felt shivers in my spine cord
I was like OMG! Ngai fafa! Mungu wangu! What can I do??
Airport officials realized my agony,
They allowed to board in airport hotel
A 300lb guy (who missed flight as well) offered to assist me to settle in the room
We boarded a shuttle to the hotel
I got to the room and this guy came to wish me a good night
He terrified me to death coz I was afraid of getting raped by a 300lb person
Anyway I woke up the following day and proceeded to airport departure area
Departed and arrived safely at Louisville
A Brazilian couple picked me from airport to school
They were nice people and bought me the lunch
I was well received by the cross-country team
I have the welcome poster they had made
One guy wrote “to be the man you got to beat the man”
He was the best runner in the team and he scared heck out of me
I was the only person with different color in my team
I was taken to Wal-Mart to buy my necessities
I grabbed u number of things
When time for paying came I thought my good friends had my back
Anyway I paid and we proceeded to a restaurant
It was so hard to order any kind food
Everything sounded French to me
The food came and I tried to eat the “new” foods
They drove me to my room and left

I contemplated whether to sleep or sit down,
As I sat down in the room;
A 270lb dark guy walks in
His neck tilted to the side as he talked on the cell phone
He was carrying a basket full of clothes
I expected a welcome from my new roommate
His shorts were half-way his butt nearly falling down
He placed the basket down and started walking out
I took the initiative to introduce myself
He told me his name and walked out
I was left wondering, O.M.G! Is this real?
You know I come from a society known for our hospitality
It was strange for someone not saying hello
Anyway he was nice guy somehow introvert
That night I did not get any sleep
An experience I will never forget
My brother called me and we spent hours talking
The moral of the story is
If you go to a new society be prepared for any eventuality.
That was me and tomorrow it might be you.

By Wangari Muraguri

I am sure we have all read or heard of the Parable of the Talents haven’t we? No? Ok, I will break it down in a nutshell… Some rich man was going on a trip. Before he left, he gave 1 of his minions 5grand (ok they called them talents at the time but money sounds better…ching ching!), another got 2grand and yet another one got 1grand. Rich man then headed off and after a long time came back and asked his minions to settle their accounts. The one who got 5grand had made another 5 so brought back 10, the one with 2grand had also made another 2 and brought back 4 but the one with a grand did eff all with their cash (buried it in fact) so he just brought back a grotty, moth eaten grand. He got a real telling off for being soo lazy and useless and even the grand he had was taken away from him and given to the one who had made 10grand.

I always thought it was unfair of the rich man to tell off the lazy/useless minion, I mean its not like he lost the cash, he did bring back what he was given but as I have grown older and thought about it more, it makes sense.

In life, we are all given talents – I am not talking about the amazing talents of the child prodigies who can play Bach at the age of 3, or swim like Michael Phelps or master the heart like KK (remember him?) - No, I am talking the basic things like common sense, the ability to make friends, listen, love, and even laugh. These are our God-given talents. Most of us are so afraid to use ours – we are afraid to love because we fear we will be rejected or laughed at or get our heart broken. We are afraid to start new projects/businesses because we are afraid to fail, lose money or go bankrupt. We are afraid to make friends because we are afraid people will discover we snort when we laugh or that we spend a disproportionate amount of time applying powder to our noses otherwise they shine so bright you can see us from the moon. So we bury our talents – we close up our hearts, we squirrel away our money and we sneer at anyone who tries to be friendly.

But then, there are others who take their talent and use it. Michael Jackson was one of those people. Granted, he was ridiculously talented but there are others who are as talented maybe even more so but are never heard of. Or don’t shine their lights so bright.

Michael shone.

He started to sing aged only 8 and he gave his life over completely to his art. He wanted to reach the world with his music and he did. He broke barriers, he touched lives and he brought ridiculously good music to us all. Today his name is as ubiquitous as Coca-cola. Yet, he was a seriously flawed man. There was the plastic surgery, the really dirty business with the children, the lawsuits, bankruptcy, Bubbles… there is soo much that was wrong with him. And we laughed at him, we rejected him, we jeered. But we also loved him and most of us will acknowledge that he touched our lives in one way or another. For me, music will be forever intertwined with Michael, I remember hearing his songs from when I was a little tot, I remember the ceremony of watching his videos (which never disappointed, Remember The Time for me was especially special) and even today, his music sounds just as fresh as it did when he released it. He was amazing. And if we are to be judged by how much we used our talents, Michael can expect to hear “Well done, good and faithful servant” and as far as I am concerned, it will be truly deserved.

Rest In Peace Michael.