Are You Dying for the Hit?

The reason I started blogging is to learn and share my experiences, what I knew before and after exploring the world a bit I believe I can say so. I expected to have some readers of course, maybe one in a day at least.

I was surprised of the rewards, I have many readers, more than I anticipated and my writing has improved so much.  I never knew my writing would impress so many, thank you for reading my blog over and over again and always appreciate your comments.

What turns me off when it comes to blogging are those people who want to be friends with you then beg you to click on their blogs and back-link them. I mean, they are

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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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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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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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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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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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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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Products Recall in the US

Products recalls in the US happen so frequently that it’s annoying especially because most of the products here in Belize come from US.

The FDA (US Food and Drug Administration) recall products several times in a month and I ask myself why these products are released to the public before they are properly inspected? This month FDA will give approval of a certain product, after several months the product is recalled. Is it because products are no longer tested on animals due to animal cruelty and instead are tested on us?

When products are recalled no one alerts anyone here in Belize and they are definitely not removed from the store shelves. It’s up to the consumer

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How Were Languages Formed?

I was looking at the slide show on my blog and observed the picture of the old Farmers Market with the huge ‘Market’ letters on the main entrance. It took me back and reminded me how languages were formed. Recently there has not been invention of any new languages; we have schools to learn any language of our choice. But before we had formal schools people used to travel and had to find a way to communicate with the communities they came across. Adopting new words from different languages to ease communication was one of the major ways; at least I know that is how Kiswahili was formed. There are Portuguese, English, Indian and Arabic words in Kiswahili language.

The farmers market was build during British colonization. The locals

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Assertive Behaviour

Most women in the west perceive women from Asia and other parts of the world as being submissive and believe that is the main reason some western men like such women. Being brought up in Africa, we are taught to respect other people and to be tolerant towards them without compromising our values, we are taught to be assertive.

It is surprising that even when the modern western woman sees herself being articulate and non-submissive she still suffers a great deal of self esteem and is very self-conscious of herself. I wonder what we would see if one day we are given

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Belize City in Belize

Belize City from the Caribbean sea shores. It is clearly below the sea level.

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Charities: Do They Reach Those in Need?

I see everyday in the media the ‘celebrities’ and other individuals proudly acknowledging their efforts in helping eradicating poverty in the ‘third world countries’ and I applaud them for that. When I hear the amount of money they donate and give out to charities, I go bananas. I ask myself where does all the money go?

If you give your donations to big organizations then most of the money goes to processing the donations and by the time they reach those in need, more than half of it is gone. That is why others opt for NGO’s (Non-Governmental Organisations).

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101 With a Terror Attack …..Part II

….continuation from the previous post.

The first time we (Kenya) fell victims of a terror attack targeted to the Americans was in 1998 when the terrorists hit US embassy in Nairobi Kenya. At that time the embassy was one of the many offices in the building. Unlike now the embassy is on its own building and compound with a very tight security. When the attack happened, it was so surreal because I had never heard of any bomb attack in the soils of my country, only what we used see in the television and movies and never thought  it could happen to us.

When we later on learned that it was targeted to the Americans, it didn't make sense

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101 With a Terrorist Attack Survivor in Kenya

I was talking with this lady in a beauty salon, chit-chatting while she was servicing me. As the conversation progressed and felt free to talk about anything, I noticed that she has scars of what looked like deep cuts and burns on her arms. I asked her what happened and she told me she is a terrorist bomb attack survivor of a hotel that was hit by terrorists almost 10 years ago in Kenya. She told me that she used to work there and the attack was so sudden. She went ahead and lifted her blouse to show me the marks and scars on her
belly.

I wanted to know if they were compensated - of course I expected them to be – they were injured while working. A beach hotel being their employer, I thought they must

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Violence Aftermath in Kenya

After a post election violence or any kind of violence in my country Kenya or any so called 'third world' countries, there are travel bans in all developed world embassies. Tourist are scared and warned to stay away. Funny enough there are no bans imposed on the developed world countries after terror attacks. In fact tourists are encouraged to visit to see the after math.

When I was on my way from Belize to Kenya in Jan 2008, the officer at the Immigration (not Belize, in other country which I was in transit) was surprised  and thought I was crazy to be going to Kenya because they have seen in the media there

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