I'm an aunt!

I do not have a child. I plan to have one when am in the region of 30 years. My mother thinks this is way out and with what she calls a good reason; I will be too old! really? I don't think so. But that is not the reason why I opened Snippets of a diary today.  My sister gave birth to a baby girl the other day! Am an aunt!!. 

This last few days I have been involved in aunt duties, including baby-sitting a days-old Kristine- thats her name, and taking care of her convalescing mother. Our female kith and kin came to town too to deliver crash courses on BABY. I have learnt many things about babies and mothers in two days than I have in five years! It's about time everyone had a distraction....

Baby could not have arrived at a better time, what with godsend milk promos like buy one packet get one free on the streets!

Color me pink

And why pink color for girls, or blue for boys, am yet to find a plausible explanation to. But pink is slowly becoming the color theme in my life. Heck! I look for pink every time I want to pick anything!

You can try this at home...

Turkanas treat their goats like luhyas treat their chicken. Daughter A has come home to visit, a goat is slaughtered. Visitor X comes from goodness knows where, a goat is slaughtered. Long lost grand daughters like me pop in for a few days, empty handed mind you, and goats are slaughtered. When people get 'thirsty for meat' like an uncle of mine puts it, a goat is slaughtered.

Every now and then, as part of male bonding,  men eat a goat together. It can be men from the same age set, family, in-laws, or brand (Turkanas do not have clans - common misconception). Reasons range from plain dude central to getting to know the newest person planning to join the family. This is done either in some one's homestead, or in the bush while goats are being herded. I got to witness this at my grand mother's home in early January, it was a spectacle to behold. here it is in simple D-I-Y steps.:-)

You will need: 

1. To be a member of the akiriket- the semi-circle of respectable men.
   
2. N'gakui - leaves for making the akiriket 
3. A sharp abarait for every man on the akiriket  
   
4. A male goat
   
5. Firewood (already stacked ready to be lit up) Assign a kid to start the fire while you get the goat ready
6. A spear
   
7. One or two younger men than you on the akiriket - to do the roasting donkey work for you

Step one: Spear the goat. Single strike.  Time required 60 seconds, 30 seconds to mark your spot and strike (usually between the first and the second left rib)and another 30 seconds for it to kick about and die. Do not volunteer for the job if you have never done it successfully before. 

 

Step two: Lay the goat on the spare leaves in front of the akiriket and remove the offals. Put the the intestines aside. Slice the bile, and if you are having your roast meat fiesta in the bush, hang it on a branch of a tree near you. If the fiesta is happening in someone's homestead, then give it to the woman of the house to hang in her kitchen wall. (Time requiered 60 seconds)

    

Step three: Lay the goat on top of the bonfire, and keep turning it after a half a minute or so. You want all the fur  burnt and out of the way. Meanwhile have one of your watu wa mikono divide the intestines equally among every male on the akiriket to clean (by this I mean remove goat poop). This is poured in front of the akiriket. Poop from the rumen is poured  on the right side of the goat pen's entrance if your fiesta is happening in a home stead. Give your piece of intestines to whoever is roasting the goat to roast it for you (Time required 9 minutes). 

    

Step four: Remove the goat from the fire, cut into equal pieces for everyone on the akiriket, start with your right which is where the oldest person is sitting. If your fiesta is happening in the bush, remember to send the right hind to the lady of the homestead where the goat came from. (4 minutes)

* Treat the intestines like you would a dinner dance. 

(Women do this too, especially during marriage ceremonies, but its like cooking my favourite dish and inviting my girlfriends over).

A post that that never made it in time.

Welcome 2010

It’s the last day of 2009. And I’m looking forward to 2010. This week I have been doing a little stocktaking on this year. It’s been a so-so year☺, good things have happened to me in my personal and family fronts. Speaking of achievements, I haven’t fared well on new-year resolutions. In fact I never have. My resolutions usually have a one-week shelf life. I have resolved not to have any other new resolution for this year. I wish you luck with yours if you have.

I have been done with Loitokitok since the 6th of Jan. And I’m back to Nairobi. Started the year in a helpy-helperton mode (don’t keep the requests coming, my hands are full, thank you very much:-)). Other than that, there is nothing much going on in my little life. Have a nice weekend. (Is it just I seeing this? Nairobi is devoid of sound valentine cards! please drop the cheesy lines.

What is in a name?

O'loitokitok in kimaasai means a land bubbling with water. Loitokitok gets its name from the several springs found in the area. After several weeks in this area without seeing this famous springs I set out looking for them.

Loitokitok is one very cosmopolitan town. Its predominantly Maasai, followed by Kikuyus and Kambas, then a sprinkling of all the other communities (I even met a third generation Turkana family living in Loitokitok!). Mama Elvis, my neighbor, tells me Loitokitok was heavily forested until as recently as twenty years ago, when Maasai land owners started actively selling land to outsiders.

I followed a foot path out side my house to some hills south of my house. What a beauty this place is! The rain is slowing down and the once bare land is now covered in beautiful green folliage. Vast areas have been cleared to make way for shambas. You can tell from the exotic trees in the area, the few odd indigenous trees in the area, and sadly tree stumps in the middle of shambas.
A little forested area caught my eye, and I walked over to it. I was told its Kawele springs, it was my first time to see a spring and I spent some time th

ere. It has been covered with concrete for protection, and fro

m the inscriptions I could gather the construction was sponsored by AMREF and that Nasepa Welfare Association 'take care of it'. I chatted up a herdsman who was watering his huge grade-ish cows and he told me Kawele Springs is gradually drying off. It used to take a minute to fill up a twenty liter jerican. He also told me that Kawele is not the springs that supplies Loitokitok with its water, and pointed me in the direction of it.

Nalemuru
Along Nalemuru River is a deep gorge that houses Nalemuru springs. I remember being hit by several distinct emotions. One was a feeling of awe at the beauty of the gorge. The other was the calming effect the trees and the sound of the river flowing below

had on me. Its cold in Loitokitok but there was a bunch of kids

engaging in swimming mischief at the small waterfall.

The week that was

It was a kawaida week. My life in Loitokitok is pretty much routine; I go to work, eat, sleep, and write a little once in a while, Oh! And I go over to Ark 2 Hotel every evening to watch Storm over Paradise:-), all tv-lovers without a tv set converge there. On Wednesday I learnt some Behavior Change Communication games – almost a week later my arms are still aching from throwing balls, catching balls and running, I really should try to exercise more – but it was fun. Have you ever been happy you got out of your house? I did on Thursday. I wanted to find out what is beyond my house. That story will be blogged some other time.

The new road is almost reaching Loitokitok and new shuttle ma3s are starting to ply the Nairobi-Loitokitok route. Nairobi has never been so accessible. Finally I can finish work on Friday afternoon, hop into a mat3 and go back to ‘Naisanity’. Being the late adopter I am, I should be the only Non-Loitokitokian who is yet to sample this civilization:-), that’s why Saturday morning saw me on a Secret Admirer bus to Nairobi.

Speaking of Nairobi, I did not do much of what I planned to do – it was Jamhuri day, most places were closed. The city was pleasantly deserted though, you could walk in peace. Pictures from the Kenya Burning Photo Exhibition are on display at the Hilton hotel Park and walking through it I could almost hack the poignancy in the air with a machete! There weren’t any nice movies worth going into; there is a Jim Carrey one coming soon called A Christmas carol and I’m a fan of Jim Carrey. That makes it number one on my must watch list

I have a day trip tomorrow to a town called Rombo. If it’s interesting enough for Snippets of a diary I will tell you about it.

Meanwhile you have yourself a nice week ahead.

Crazy about blogger widgets

I have spent this whole weekend changing the outlook of Snippets of a diary. I have also installed a few fun gadgets here and there to make sure you have a good laugh while in there. Check out the baboon pondering about some things in life. There is the funny quotes area with some really hilarious and witty quotes. And tips on whitening you pearly whites:-)! I think I was hungry at one point, that is how come we end up with a Burger game at the very bottom. while down there get a dose of inspiration from the daily inspiration area.



Have fun.

Of lives past and occupational hazards

The tens of deja vu sensations I have been getting all my life have convinced me that I'm in my third life. I am also convinced I was a garbage-collector in my last life, and some occupational hazards transited into my present life. That explains why I’m a pack rat; I do not like throwing things away. It also explains why I love going through discarded stuff (and looking through the trash when I can get away with). I stumbled upon a joke the other day and it made my otherwise bland week. Here goes:

Dear Tech Support:

Re: Installing a husband

Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and noticed a distinct slow down in overall system performance, particularly in the Jewellery and Flower applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0.
In addition, Husband 1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs such as Romance 9.5, and Personal Attention 6.5, and then installed undesirable programs such as NBA 5.0, NFL 3.0 and Golf Clubs 4.1. Conversation 8.0 no longer runs and House Cleaning 2.6 simply crashes the system. Please note that I have tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix this problems, but to no avail.

What can I do?

Signed
Desperate.

Dear Desperate;

First, keep in mind, Boyfriend 5.0 is an Entertainment Package, while Husband 1.0 an Operating System. Please enter command: ithotyoulovedme.html and try to download Tears 6.2 and do not forget to install the Guilt 3.0 update. If this application works as designed, Husband should then automatically run the applications Jewellery 2.0 and Flowers 3.5. However, remember, overuse of the above application can cause Husband to default to Grumpy silence 2.5, and Happy Hour 7.0 or Beer 6.1. Please note that beer 6.1 is a very bad program that will download the farting and Snoring Loudly Beta.

Whatever you do DO NOT under any circumstances install Mother-In-Law 1.0 (It runs a virus in the background that will eventually seize all your system resources.)

In addition, please do not attempt to reinstall the Boyfriend 5.0 program. These are unsupported applications and will crash Husband 1.0.

In summary, Husband 1.0 is a great program, but it does have limited memory and cannot learn new applications quickly. You might consider buying additional software to improve memory and performance. We recommend Cooking 3.0 and Lingerie 7.7

Good Luck
Tech Support.