Tips and Tricks on Improving Blog Writing Skills

It was never in my wildest dreams to become a blog writer. For me being a writer sounded boring and I was sure I did not have the proper skills to do so but I have proved myself wrong. I read my first fiction book when I was around 10-11 years and it became my hobby not knowing that I was picking up writing skills.

I have a blog now, it is unbelievable to me and I have learned a few things since I started writing:

At the beginning I used to let my friend read my post in draft to see her reaction and get feedback

Reading is the key; you have to read newspapers, magazines, books

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MSG - Slowly Poisoning America or the World?

I recently bought some spices and as usual being on this side of the world I have learned to read the labels and nutritional facts before I ingest myself with unnecessary chemicals. To my surprise I saw MSG as one of the ingredients. I knew MSG is not good but did not know the real facts so I dived on the web. There are so many articles and I was shocked to learn what really MSG is. I immediately threw the spices in the trash. I would have decided to be ignorant and use the spices anyway but my intuition told me otherwise.

I’m sharing the article with you so that you become informed just like me. If you are living outside America you should look out for your local spices brands and processed foods. For Kenyans some spices which may contain MSG could be Roiko, Maggi and such types.

MSG - Slowly Poisoning America

Author Unknown

I wondered if there could be an actual chemical causing the massive

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Papers vs Integrity

Some people believe that as long as you don’t have a paper qualification whether it’s a certificate, degree or diploma, then you are not qualified for the job no matter how much experience you have. Or others think that your high school grades actually determine the future path of your career.

The worse thing would be if one of those people is your parent or guardian and they make it very clear that they know what is best for you and they are not going to waste money on areas which they are so sure that you will not succeed. So you either have to do things their way or no way or maybe your way if you can finance yourself. That will be almost impossible especially right after finishing

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Don't sit on Tortoise

A warning sign at Haler Park in Mombasa Kenya, formally known as Nature Trail. You cannot sit on the Tortoises, one of them is more than 100 years old called 'Mzee'. This is the same place where people get to feed Giraffe, I'll be posting more photos of this place later.

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People of Belize

Belize is a country in Central America and has a population of about 300,000 people. It is bordered by Mexico on its north and Guatemala on its west and south. The people of Belize include the Creoles, Garifuna, Mestizo, East Indians, the Mennonites and Mopan/Kekchi Maya.

English is the official language although Kriol dominates all languages; other languages include Spanish, Maya and Garifuna. The Spanish spoken was adopted from the Spaniards from Spain when they came to colonize the western hemisphere. The accent is a bit different from the Spanish Spain but it is basically the same

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Henna Drawings/Art

They are also called tattoos but I prefer using the word drawings because I always associate tattoos with so much violence and where I come from we don’t call them tattoos; just drawings. I saw women in my community doing henna drawings as young as I could remember and I was really fascinated.

I started doing my own drawings on paper at a very young age and I remember the first person I did henna drawings on I was around 7 years old. No one taught me how to draw, I just did it and until now there are so many henna artists in my community who started just like me, they were not taught they just picked up a pen and started drawing.

Doing the Henna art is not my profession, it's a hobby. The henna

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Haiti in Brief

The first time I saw Haiti was on BBC news; that was several years ago. There was a disaster in Haiti, I cannot recall what it was exactly but I remember seeing Africans and the poor living conditions. I immediately knew that there is no country in Africa called Haiti, in the news it said Caribbean. I knew Caribbean was somewhere in South America, clearly I was clueless. The first thing that struck my mind when I saw all those Africans was ‘what are these Africans doing in a foreign land, why don’t they come back home if the living conditions are so bad?’ I felt so bad for them.

I actually knew a bit about Haiti while living here in Belize because there are Haitians here and more after the recent earthquake. I now know the reasons why the Africans are living there is because it is

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Forwarding Email Notes

So you think you know how to forward an email? Here are self-imposed rules by allowe:

After you click Forward, edit the message to remove the name and email address of everyone on it. As messages are forwarded, the addresses build. If that email hits any computer with a zombie virus, all those addresses will be extricated and everyone mentioned will receive even more spam.

If you forward to more than one person, put all the email addresses in the BCC: field so recipients see no other addresses. (If your email program doesn't show a BCC: field, google for "[your program's name] BCC field" and learn how.) You can tell who does this because their "TO:" field says "Undisclosed Recipients. "(Old Fogie Note: BCC

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Good Luck Emails

Have you ever received those emails or messages that threatens you either at the beginning or end that you must forward to certain number of people or all your friends and if you don’t something bad will happen to you? Or even worse gives you an example of some bad luck that struck previous people when they deleted the email after reading before forwarding it? I find these emails to be very offensive and after receiving them and forwarding them myself for sometime I decided to break the chain.

I thought, first of all, why would anyone send me an email that promises to bring me bad luck or threatens me? And I said to myself it is just an aggressive way of popularizing a silly idea. Someone has found a way of threatening people whom they don’t even know and

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Chicken Qaesadillas

250gm diced, Skinless, boneless chicken breast
1 tablespoon ginger/garlic paste
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 tablespoon oil
1 green sweet pepper
1 red sweet pepper
1 onion
2 tomatoes cubed
10 (10 - 12 inches) wheat flour tortillas
½ cup (4 ounces) cheddar cheese
½ cup Monterrey jack cheese or any cheese you like
1 cup sour cream

Toss the chicken with ginger/garlic paste, ground back pepper and salt. Roughly chop the sweet pepper and cube the onion. Shred the

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Interesting Encounters

I’ve had some interesting encounters with people here in Belize but this one I must share it. I was having a conversation with a Belizean then as usual right away he asked where I’m from and this is the conversation;

Anony: Are you from Nigeria? You have an accent

Dirishani: No, are there so many Nigerians here?

Anony: Yes

Dirishani: Did you know that Nigeria has a very high population; it stands at around 140 million.

Anony: What? Really!? Such a small Island with so many People?

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The 'N' Word

Back before I traveled out of Africa, I had no idea that the 'N' word was such a strong negative word and is a big deal to use it. I’m even afraid of writing the word in full because I feel I may offend some people and that is not my intention. You know, back in Africa we see in the African-American comedies, movies and songs, they call each other the N word. So I really thought it was a cool word and most people still do so in Africa.

After traveling to the Americas, OMG! It is a big deal. Someone could

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Growing up....the Kenyan way

I see that I have more traffic here in Belize than anywhere else so far. Maybe you are wondering who this lady is. What does Kenya looks like? Is it part of Nigeria or South Africa? No it's not, it's a sovereign country. Do all children grow up like the way we see in CNN? Let me tell you briefly the normal growth of a child in Kenya, not in the countryside or rural areas but in the major towns where most population is.

We start at kindergarten/Nursery at the age of 2 or 3 for 2/3 years then we join primary school for eight years. When qualified we join high school for 4 years then university for minimum 4 years. This is

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Rice Pan Cakes

**2 cups rice
2 cups coconut milk
2 teaspoons yeast
½ teaspoon cardamom
¾ cup sugar
Vegetable oil
Concave shaped small heavy griddle

Rinse rice and soak it overnight in water

Remove rice from water and place it in a blender jug. Add sugar, cardamom, 1½ cups coconut milk, yeast and thoroughly blend the mixture, checking every now and then to see if the rice particles are

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Market in Mombasa

One of the oldest farmers market in Kenya located in Mombasa

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Mombasa Aerial

An aerial view of a section of Mombasa from an office window. The circular house is a car parking tower.

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Where is the Passion?

I remember when I was in high school, my dream was to become a nurse because I believed I was good in science subjects and I would spend the rest of my life without being jobless (financial security), and could work anywhere in the world. That is how we are brought up being hammered in our brains that education is the key to success in life which is very good.

Having traveled the world a bit, I try to learn, inform and educate myself, I normally reflect and criticise myself from time to time. I saw one thing that I did not consider when it came to selecting career when I was

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Cerviche

I/2 Kg Shrimps/Prawns shelled and deveined
2 cloves garlic paste
1 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons oil
1 tablespoon lime juice
4 Tomatoes
1 Onion
4 chillies seeded and deveined
I cucumber skinned and seeded
4 tablespoon white wine vinegar
Salt
Corn Tortilla crisps/chips
A Bunch of fresh cilantro/coriander leaves  finely chopped

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