Guess who I met at Quality Supermarket on Saturday and who chatted with my Mom, sis, her kids and I as we wrapped wedding gifts for our friends. He had to chat with us after Mom told him we were whispering about him and how we had seen him on TV. Former army spokesman, Major Felix Kulaigye. He said, "I hate being recognised by people when I have no idea who they are." "As a public figure, expect that to happen to you all the time," said my Mom. "As soon as I saw the number plate, I knew there was an unusual person around," I said to him. "And what is special about my number plate?" he asked me. "Well, it's different," I said. (It had SSE and some other funny letters or numbers) "If that is what it takes..." We then let him wrap his gift first since he was there before us. He thanked us. Played a little with my nephew and niece and said 'bye ladies' as he was leaving. After Quality Supermarket, guess who we saw at m...

Is it really true that the U.S.A., India, China, Europe, Argentina, and New Zealand can fit into Africa? And that Zambia, Zimbabwe and the DRC have the potential to feed the world? Someone saw the River Congo for the first time and took a long time to realise it was a river because of its massive width. I want to see it. And the Niger. And Zambezi. At least I’ve seen the Nile. Is it true that the DRC has 90% of the world’s cobalt? Is there any country in Africa which has no minerals? Is it true that Asia and Africa were the first homelands of Judeo-Christianity?

I love these Radio Ad Voices: 1. Hakeem the Dream, Capital FM Hakeem has a melodious and lively voice that is pleasant to the ears. 2. Dr. Mitch Egwang (Uncle Mitch) Uncle Mitch has a fast talking and humorous voice. (By the way, even when he is speaking French, Luo and Luganda. Not that he has done adverts in these languages.) 3. DJ Ronnie, Capital FM DJ Ronnie’s mellow, smooth, deep and powerful baritone voice makes you feel safe. 4. Ernest Wasake, Vision Voice Ernest (Dennis and Esquire’s brother) has a clear, cultured and silver-tongued voice that grabs your attention and makes you picture a man whose looks would turn heads. If you asked me, he sounds more like Dennis than Esquire because the latter’s voice has some tranquillity in it similar to that of a modest man. 5. Hussein Lumumba Hussein’s voice is slightly nasal. Like someone with a cold and yet at the same time, it’s with clear pronunciation. He still sounds smooth when he speaks French, Swahili and Lingala in normal co...

Imagine me as a radio news reader, a news tale before me on paper, complex words in teensy-weensy print for the Obama Times . Create mentally a picture of my Facebook friend whom I have never met and who owns the Obama Times, turning over pages where I should read, since I seem to use so much effort in reading the long sentences. Then I stumbled on the word Tsvangirai and pronounced it like I have heard it on the news chang-girr-IGH (-ch as in church; -ng-g as in finger; -irr as in mirror; -igh as in high). The pronunciation of this word has stirred up public and media interest, inside and outside the BBC, because of different opinions of how the Shona -ts v cluster should be pronounced in English. Then I awake. I send a text message to my friends about the dream, and one of them responds, 'Maybe there is something to the dream. Email your Facebook friend about it and see.' However, after flipping my mind through my dream, I realised that dreams can be a sham. There should h...

Let me brag today. After all, it is not every day that I have reason to do so. My Dolls & Photos She is one of the few people who have met my dolls, Sarah and Tina. I still have that photo Daddy took of my sis, her, Alpha (her brother) and me holding Tina and my sister’s doll Kate. The photo was taken the day Daddy bought Tina and Kate. I even have a photo of Alpha and her when she was barely a year old and used to call me Thiamali - a name that her Mom still calls me by sometimes. At the time that this photo was taken, her Mom was a nurse at Kaimosi Friends Hospital in Western Kenya, and my Mom a teacher at Kaimosi Girls High School. However, her stay in Kenya was short-lived as her family returned to Uganda a year later. I have another photo of my Aunt, her brother, my Sis, and me taken at the Ambassadors of Hope children’s home in Luweero when she was twelve. Her Early Songs & Humour We always loved it when she and Alpha visited us. She was only three years old, but I looke...

Yesterday, at the Wandegeya traffic lights crossing, I noticed a stray dog beside me. I was amused at the way it stopped patiently with the rest of the pedestrians and crossed the road together with them at the right time. That left me thinking, ‘Was the dog just copying what the pedestrians were doing or was it aware of the dangers of crossing the road while vehicles were still moving?’ According to research by Friederike Range and Ludwig Huber, of the University of Vienna, and Zsofia Viranyi, of the Eötvös University in Budapest, dogs, like human infants, do not simply copy an action they observe, but adjust the extent to which they imitate to the circumstances of the action. Normally, dogs prefer to use their mouths when faced with a task of opening a container by pulling a rod. However, in the study, a female dog was trained to open the box with her paw. When the other dogs observed the female's action, they imitated it in order to get the food. However, the dogs imitated selec...

I can’t sleep ,  My thoughts deep  Stunning, shocking,  How all sin,  Even the saint.  I can’t sleep,  With qualms deep,  Hush-hush tales,  Not to trail.  I can’t sleep,  On loads deep,  Feeling sadness, misery  For life’s tests,  For life’s woes.  I can’t sleep,  I can’t alienate,  Life’s woes.

He loves to be captain, To take risky commissions, Ponder all solo, Solo finding life that will keep him lured, For passion’s in being lured. He’s useful here, He’s useful there, Then conducts lone speeches for later. It is called relevance It is called astuteness To think of next To think of dawn. Inspired by his post.

I cannot believe how much I like Les Wanyika music compared to my childhood days. Perhaps it was my brother who disliked them more when we were growing up in Kenya for he made sure he always came with his own music from school (Kings College Budo). He banned Swahili Service in the house unless Leonard Mambo Mbotela was on with his Jee huu ni ungwana? I remember as children we used to imitate Leonard Mambo Mbotela with his live football commentaries “Kadenge na mpira, Kadenge na mpira, anachenga, moja, anachenga mbili, anakuja katikati....wasikilizaji, wananchi, mashabiki ni...(gooooooooooooooooalllll!!!)X3” English Service did not go well with my brother because he said it played outdated songs. The radio never left my Mom’s bedroom but once my brother was back home from school, it would be in our room. I seem to remember my brother saying that President Moi had stopped any Kenyan radio station from playing Western music. Today he is in the UK but Mom says he has tried his best ...