resurrection

Not sure where to start. Except that I have been far. But never thought I would end up here.

Highlight:
Sitting in a Jamaican restaurant listening tothe Jamaican chef, a large freckled beautiful woman asking the Buddhist monk about his sex life.

No. Really.

She asked him about his sexual urges.

His answer in very very very broken English...after he chokes over his cup of ginger tea:

"Morality"

The monk in his long burgundy gown stands talking to the chef for a while. We all stop and listen.

"If you haven't had alcohol you will won't want to have it. If you haven't had sex, you will not want to have." (interprets the restaurant owner, another beautiful and loud Jamaican woman.)

"But it is like...when you wake up in the middle of the night...you are hungry...for one very big... meal," says the chef.

Our Buddhist monk turns pink as he laughs. He says he has the urges. But is is about self-control.

He sees the humour.

I am not sure if the humour is in the Buddhist talking to all 6 of us Africans/Jamaicans about his non-existent sex life. Or whether it is in the fact that we have cornered this man of faith (cloak and all) and from his very very broken English, I am getting the interpretation through a very thick Jamaican accent as I chew on my plantains.

He tells as he is the last of his lineage. He will have no children...as his grabs his groin to further emphasis his point.

I'm sitting on an orange stool, plantain in right hand, staring at a Buddhist monk grabbing his groin at me.

Life. I kiss it tenderly with wind chapped lips. It's winter again.

Lowlight:

Pictures of my dead brother online. The last of his lineage. He will have no children. Stories of the fire in my heart, my country, burning - a few weeks old but nonetheless speaking of a murmuring violence. False hope over resolution.

Life. I hold it closely, as the wind blows away my hot, salty tears.

Africa is overpopulated

Last week saw a conference in Atlanta for women entrepreneurs. There was a speaker who showed a demographic chart which seemed unimpressive. Until tonight. He was talking about entrepreneurial opportunities around the world in terms of populations and thus markets. He showed projections of world populations in 2010, pointing out that China and India would have the largest populations. He also showed Africa's population. As the only competitor to India's population. YES. Read Africa. Not Kenya, not South Africa and not Sudan. He compared Africa's population growth to India's population. Continent vs country.

No surprise?

Africa is the second largest land mass. That is 11,668,545 sq. miles or nearly 31million sq. km. If you are a visual person:


So we are overpopulated right? Hence why we are dying of drought right? Look at the following map:



It is distorted by the size of the population in that area, i.e. the thinner the area the smaller the population. Notice Africa and its neighbor India.

Kihumbu Thairu puts it well in his book African Holocaust (not online for sale - look for it in Kenya). As Africans we are opening ourselves up to depopulating our lands. And if you haven't read it either, get The African Civilization. I'm no longer smiling with the foolish naivety I had.

In my opinion, we need to be having more children. Have as many as you can take care of and don't fall for the myth that a two child family is a sign of progress. Our overpopulation comes from stretching our resources and not replenishing them. That is where our focus should be as opposed to birth control and curbing family size.

Think how empty Africa is. Think how resourceful it is. And think who will own it 50 years from now. If we continue at our current trend, our children, yours and mine will be a minority and squatters.

Guess who the land will belong to.

pounds

Heeehehhee.

I have put on a few pounds. But I don't notice it. until someone points it out. It is almost like when you grow breasts.

It happens so gradually that one day you look down and realise just then that there is an obstacle in the way of your feet. If you are so lucky.

So how fat is too fat to be cute...and on the flip side how skinny is too skinny to be sexy.

I have been both sides of the scale. A couple of months ago, I was being asked why I was losing weight.

Hey my jeans still fit, if anything, they fit better! And I have a nice parcel in the back.

moment of pause

Gladly I took a break.

Hopefully I am back for a while. I recently got back onto a flight labelled BA headed for my second home. Landing this time meant that I did not see the excitement I naively had when I first got here.

The roads are still wide and the cars even more rounded and longer. but it is second home...atleast it welcomed me that way the last time.

I was also going through the last few post, they has been alot of change.

A moment of pause.

So where's the next party?

Senegal

Nanga Def!

As I was beginning to settle into being back home, I was whisked away by a longing to a corner of the world called Dakar, Senegal.

But gladly. For about a month my life may chart a direct course toward my becoming more knowledgeable on Africa. It is different. HOT!! Infact I may have suffered from heat exhaustion hence a prescribed dosage of codine and paracetamol and mandatory rest.

I visited Goree Island and was torn inside by where my brothers and sisters were sent off to plantations. Standing at "The Door of No Return" I felt a growing anger at mine and my fellow human's forgetfulness at the classification of my family as animals.

No pictures. Go there.

There is a man there. Who knows alot about the origin of Africans and about the untold history. About the

Kebra Nagast

and places I have never heard of...I'm ashamed. I will be travelling back to listen to him.

Peace.

vjsdyruwivnrhifaflll

I could not think of a subject. I hope this does for now until further notice. Anyone with suggestions on a suitable title for today's post, please let me know.

I'm still hurting from June's death. But its funny how the world expects you to go on. Then again, who said it would stop.

I had a nice day today. The sun was shinning. It was cool, colder than I would have liked but nice nonetheless. I was taken out to lunch by a new friend. A young Kenyan man. Gorgeous. With locks on his head. MMMMM...

When I came back I told another gorgeous Kenyan man, dark skin and clear mind about my lunch date. We sat and talked about love, marriage and the stuff relationships are made of.

I believe in polygyny AND polyandry.

For one reason. It was not a denial of the fact that it is human to be interested in more than one person.

Both men, beautiful, in and out. Intelligent.

Then I began to think about expanding the boundaries, what small close knit communities do...in breeding. How islands are populated. Female companionship. More than companionship.

Who makes the limits to what a person can share with another? Is it me and the person in the relationship, my religion or my family?

Then I realised that I was wasting time thinking about this when I could be getting to know my two Kenyan men better...and maybe...

June Nyanchoka

Sometimes we take the ones we love for granted. Sometimes we take our love for them for granted. If I could go back to next week I would. I would so that I could see her again. Just so that I could let her know that the fight we had sometime back did not affect our friendship. To let her know that what she has done to keep our other friends together is remarkable.

My friend, my dear friend died in a car accident on Sunday morning on April the 2nd 2006.

June I love you and miss you...yet you don't feel too far.