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Showing posts from 2015

40 days of positive affirmations

        The universe is alert and abundant – Sophie Ngugi The law or reproduction and creation dictates that something produces more of the same, a human being produces another human being while a bird creates another bird, a lit candle lights other candles and multiply the light. We apply this concept everywhere in different ways. Positivity breeds more positivity in life and vice versa. Somehow many of us recognize this as ‘common knowledge’.  We tell each other either to console or encourage about being positive. Some will call it hope, having hope for better or that having faith that all will work for better. However, this is not easy and often than not we allow for the pessimism, nega t ivity to rule over and shadow our desires and dreams. Last week I felt inspired to work on my positivity in a more proactive ways in what I called “40 days of positive affirmations”.  I had experienced some moments of self-doubt over the weekend and while driving to work on Monday mornin

Reflections: a year later by God’s grace

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“If the only prayer you said was thank you that would be enough.” ― Meister Eckhart Today is exactly a year since I became immobilized and started a journey to recovery. The journey started in Yei South Sudan where I was working then as shared in previous post . By the time I arrived in Nairobi I was so exhausted that all I wanted was to go to my house and sleep. However, my friend encouraged me to go to hospital immediately and be sure that the first aid I had received was okay. My brother Jose, my sister in law Patricia and niece Bakhita had come to pick me from the airport. We proceeded to Agha Kan University hospital emergency. On arrival and giving the brief history about what had transpired I could see the skeptical look on the faces of the medics “this was done in South Sudan? Okay let us do another X-ray”. After X-Rays the attending doctor could not hide his surprise. “Well it seems they have done a pretty good job of reduction”. My non-medical definition of reduction was t

Reflecting on a year that was: He will make a way

“ God will make a way, where there seems to be no way; He works in ways we cannot see ; He will make a way for me ” Song by Don Moen The probability theory is one that we learnt in school and apply every day. Sometimes the odds are against you. You reason out using logic and it seems there will not be a way out. Other times small actions make a big difference and we only realize so when looking back. When I woke up sluggishly and only warmed the water instead of boiling it was not a thought out action. As I shared in the last post I slid and fell on water. Sometimes wonder, what would have happened if the water was boiling hot.  And I was in that pool of water, scalding? That did not happen, and I believe in Godly interventions, and that was one of them. As I sat in the car outside the hospital in pain and wondering on the next step I was thinking about home and my family. I was not sure how or what to tell them. At that moment I was more worried about how they would react and

Reflecting on a year that was: A journey not planned for

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“Sometimes you wake up. Sometimes the fall kills you. And sometimes, when you fall, you fly." Neil Gaiman “The day I shall never forget” was a common title for essays in primary school. Usually this would entail some fictional story about some great holiday that one had or some major scary occurrence. I wonder why I never ventured to writing fictional novels! By the time I wrote all those great compositions and scored high marks in English (I am not just doing the “when I was in school” this is real…ask my teachers) I had never experienced really momentous days. Usually it was fictional and a creative mind I did have! Since I enjoyed reading novels at an early age, I could write many fictional stories and enjoy the moment of being in that story. As years go by, real life experiences become more momentum and there are many more days “I shall never forget.” Today I woke up thinking about of a real life occurrence that happened about one year ago. It was a Thursday morning

Waiting for your turn might be forever

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"If Rosa Parks had taken a poll before she sat down in the bus in Montgomery, she'd still be standing."- Mary Frances Berry Few weeks ago I was conducting field monitoring visit in one of the program sites. I was seated in the office catching up with some work when an elderly man entered the office. He was a community leader who I had met earlier on. We were reintroduced and he greeted me enthusiastically. He didn’t understand English and I did not understand his local language so we ended it with just greetings. He then went out and I thought that was it. Shortly after he walked in again, this time not alone. He had a young man with him and he seemed to be the one directing the young man. He pulled a seat for the young man and there they were! Seated in front of me! He had just called himself for a meeting…with me…without my notice. The young man was the translator and we spent some minutes chatting. By the time he left I was quite amused. His cultural orientation e

Normal rape!

“There is nothing normal about a crime, just acceptance of abnormality”  “Rape is normal in Kilifi, lawyer tells magistrate” that was the headline of a newspaper article. (See link )  I opened the link to be sure what the article was all about as what was appearing in the headlines could not make sense. According to the article, a lawyer was defending his client right to bail and justifying that rape was normal so there was no need to retain his client and refuse him bond. He verbalized that to the magistrate to the shock of all who were in the court. To hear such a comment from someone who would like to be referred to as a ‘learned friend’ is disturbing. He was expressing what he believes, rape is normal! Rape in very simple terms would be forceful sex. In this case according to the newspaper article the rapist had forced a 15 year old into his car, defiled her and then bought for her emergency pills to avoid pregnancy. A pregnancy would link him more to this girl so this ‘small’ iss