Voting Behaviour: Everyone Has a Box

Now that the elections are around the corner for Kenyans, do you already know who you will vote for in the coming general elections? Is your choice of political party influenced by your personal reasons or a set of external factors? Are you one of the late-deciders making your choice in the moment you see the ballot paper?

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Should I Buy Those Cheap/Fake Sunglasses?

Many times when walking along the streets and in some stores I have been distracted and pulled by the cheap sunglasses stand. They look sleek and always convince myself nobody would even notice I’m wearing cheap glasses. The thought of any damage that can be cause by them is normally out of question, does not even ring my mind. Just out of curiosity I wanted to find out how cheap are those cheap sunglasses? Will my eyes be damaged from wearing such sunglasses? How does the eye respond to different light conditions?

The eye regulates the amount of light entering it by adjusting the size of the

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Kenyans Love Money

Except me of course :-)

Immediately after launching my blog two years ago, I embarked on a mission to connect with other Kenyan bloggers. The task of finding my fellow Kenyans with similar interests as mine proved difficult. I was eventually disappointed and resigned the search after realizing there were none.

I have never come across a Kenyan who blogs without the ulterior motive of making money at the end of the day (I mean Kenyans who live in Kenya not outside). Kenyans do not see any point of starting and maintaining a blog just for the sake of blogging.

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What is High Fructose Corn Syrup?

I have been hearing all the buzz about High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) and just like everyone, believed what I see in the media. But then there are always conflicting advertisements made by the producers of HFCS to confuse the consumer. Amid the confusion I decided to read the facts and make my own decision.

I knew HFCS is not good for anyone's healthy and doctors have said it over and over again. It is absolutely not natural; natural product is the one you consume straight from nature, one that doesn't need to undergo any chemical procedure to transform it.When you eat any food that has HFCS you become hungry again within a very short time

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The Native Americans

The Native Americans are the owners of the American continent and were the only occupiers of the continent before the European Christopher Columbus discovered it accidentally on his way to India. He ended up calling the people Indians believing that he was in India.

Most people are curious to know about Belize, Central and South America in general because very little is known about these places. They want to know how the people look like, even I was curious the first time I knew I’ll be traveling there. I wanted a preview of how life is there, what is the culture and such things.

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Traveling the Alchemist Way

After my arrival in Kenya, most of my friends were excited to see me as well as envying my opportunity of traveling half way around the world. They were telling me how lucky I was having traveled and got to know all those countries. I did not fully agree with them.

There is a big difference in the way people used to travel in the olden or if I may say ancient times compared to modern days. During ancient days all you needed was a bit of savings to take you to the next stop and maybe u have to stay there, work a bit

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Origami

We all remember doing paper folding during our early stages in school, the popular ones being paper box, ball and plane. In Kenya kids are taught the paper folding art in Nursery schools during which children are very young to learn and take anything that is so diverse seriously. So it normally stops there and most people take it as a children art. I never knew that very complex structures and models can be made using a flat sheet of paper.

The history of origami is under debate. Unlike other art forms, paper degrades quickly leaving no artifacts to suggest where origami originated and who first invented it.

Origami is believed to be a Japanese compound word which means “paper folding.”

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Ugali - Kenyan Staple Food - is Tamales in Belize

There was a time I was watching Oprah and she was talking about the poor Kenyans and their staple food Ugali. She pathetically said how people eat ugali and that it is just a corn meal. What she missed or was not told is that ugali alone does not make a complete meal; eating ugali on its own is like eating pasta without sauce, or potatoes without sauce, of course that would be tasteless.  Ugali is normally eaten with a sauce and greens most preferably; the tastier the sauce the more enjoyable the Ugali. Okay back to ugali in Belize.

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Martin Air Experience

I’m now back in Kenya after a couple of long arduous flights. This time I travelled with Martin air. Immediately after buying my ticket I was frequently on their website checking on my flight status which I did not get. Instead got information on other websites which troubled me alot.

I was able to find Martin Air flights status from another website  as well as their ratings. So many people were complaining about their services from their seats, seating arrangement, flight delays and so on. I was worried and wondered what I’ve got myself into especially because my ticket involved several connecting flights. There was nothing

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Customer Service in Kenya

Just as I was glad and happy to be back in my country Kenya, I always get a quick grip of reality of how normal things are. I wanted to have internet right away so I decided to restore my previous cellular phone numbers which I had a problem remembering as I always stay in Kenya for a short time before going back to Belize.

I walked into Airtel office and ask for assistance at the first counter and was directed where to go. So I went to the sales lady and following is the conversation we had: -

Airtel: (Just looking at me without even smiling or saying hello, her energy told me ‘Just tell me what you want my time is more precious to serve you’)

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Racist? Just a Cover Up of Who You Really Are

Whenever I go to the farmers market here in Belize, I avoid going to stalls served by ‘African/Black Belizeans’. When I do they serve me assuming I’m a Belizean based on my looks. But as soon as they realize I don’t understand creole, I immediately become their subject of mockery. They talk about you when you are just standing there waiting to be served and try to exploit you anyway they can.

One time I was at the market the vendor tried to give me less change because they know how confusing currencies are when you are in a foreign country, only to pretend to be embarrassed when I told him I’m still waiting for my full change. This happens several times.

You will think that because these people are so wrapped up in their strong African/black history, they will welcome you with open arms and embrace you once they realize

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Kenyans Were Given Animal Feeds by the US Gov't

In the nineties there was drought in Kenya and as a result there was shortage of food especially maize (corn) which is highly consumed by many communities. (In Kenya we call it maize, if you say corn people become confused because there are different types of corn (e.g wheat, oats, barley) and maize is one of them, corn is the family name, it is like calling a pistachio nut when we know there are different types of nuts). As a result of the drought, the US government was generous enough to donate corn to the Kenyan government.

Just as the corn was received, a politician who was holding a rally told Kenyans that the corn donated by the US government is specifically grown to feed cattle in the US

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I Do Not Celebrate Valentine's Day

Valentine is around the corner and the media has already begun advertising their products. Stamping in our heads ideas of how love should be celebrated; chocolate, roses and dinner date is a must. It used to be that everything must be in red but not anymore.

Whether you decide to celebrate or not, here is a brief history of Valentine’s Day: -

It originated from the pagan customs between the 3rd and 4th  Century B.C. when the Festivals of Purification were celebrated in Ancient Rome between February 13 and February 18. This was also the time of a Fertility Festival which celebrated a young man's rite of passage and involved animal sacrifices and fertility rituals. During the celebrations the priests would sacrifice a dog and a goat, smearing the animal blood onto the foreheads of two virgin youths of noble birth who, clad only in a goatskin thong.

The names of willing young women were placed into a box or urn and drawn

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The Menonnite and Amish Communities

I’m sure there are a lot of people who have no idea who the Mennonites or Amish are, leave alone knowing their existence. I was one of those couple of years ago; thanks to traveling I cracked out of my shell.

There is a Mennonite community here in Belize located in Spanish Lookout in Cayo which settled in the 1950’s.  They normally go to Belize City on Fridays to sell their products and navigate freely without anyone staring because they are Belizeans and form part of the Belizean culture - this is one good thing about Belize, a multi-cultural country.

Who are the Mennonite and Amish?

Both the Mennonites and Amish originated from Anabaptist movement

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The Swahili Roses I Know

Growing up flowers were a major part of our lives and I started seeing roses as young as I could remember. The smell of the roses was unique, just one rose inside a room would fragrance the whole room and you don’t have to place the rose under your nose to smell it.

When I went to high school I got introduced to another family of roses which looked beautiful than the ones my mom used to bring home. The petals were firm and the colors were rich but had no smell at all. Even when I placed the rose under my nose still could not get any smell and that

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The Coconut Grater - Lessons in Life

Sometimes back in Kenya I ordered a local man who makes coconut grater (locally known as mbuzi - meaning goat) to make me one. Big one just like the old ones, because you can sit comfortably on it when grating coconut.

This type of grater is very old; I guess more than a hundred years, because it is displayed in our Mombasa museum - Fort Jesus. In fact I have never seen anything better than it for processing coconut at home. Earlier we were made to believe that it was used by either the Portuguese or Arabs during those times and we are still using it today. But if you look in the recipes for both the Swahilis, Arabs and the Portuguese, the Swahilis utilize coconut in almost all their recipes and I think the others actually adopted it from us.

The man brought the grater after 2 days and he made it just like the old one

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Is Emotional Energy Transferable?

Do you believe that emotional energy is transferable verbally and written? It’s not only human energy but from my experience almost everything in the world has energy and it always affects us. For instance the picture of Belize River in my blog I posted earlier, I remember very well how I felt when I was there. It was like everything else around me stopped and the river was speaking to me. It was so calm so beautiful so peaceful and after staring deeply I also had the same calm feeling. When I took that photo the energy was also captured and is now transferred to whoever looks at it.

So what is it about this energy? Something that is intangible, something that is possessed by both living and the non living (so we think) like the sea?

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Do Africans believe in Obesity?

Yes we do, although it is always a compliment when someone tells you have gained weight, there is a line when you cross, you are considered obese or fat. In Kiswahili language we have some of the ugliest and disgusting names for obese and very thin people that anyone becomes offended when used to describe them.

For a Swahili woman to be a total package she must be curvy and her legs and arms must be smooth and rounded, no hard muscles protruding like with the western women. Muscles on women is considered very ugly, unattractive, unsexy and repels men.

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Memories of My Grandma….

She refused to eat any type of margarine or artificial butter; she preferred the real butter made from cow’s milk

She never used any kind of hydrogenated fat for cooking; she always used ghee which is also made from cow’s milk

If you talk with her and use an English word, she catches it and deciphers it

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Drowning in Sweetness

For some time now I have been wondering why I have sweet cravings, because I never have this in my country, Kenya. Then I realize it’s the food I’m eating that is different. I hardly eat anything sweet for days. Unlike when I’m in Mombasa Kenya, there is always something sweet for breakfast and sometimes for dinner because we eat very light in the evening like in the morning.

I like ice cream and have found few Caribbean brands here (in Belize) which I like. Then a Belizean told me I have to try a particular USA brand because it’s the best of all

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