Wow!
I just can't explain what I feel upon discovery of this blog that I started four years ago...and completely forgot about. Talk of priorities.
Well, the past four years have been quite a bunch, I must say...straight through campus, worthy travels, jilted lovers,vast experiences, friends and foes made in equal proportion. Life.
In reconnection with this blog, I feet that I should perhaps give a little account of whats been up and about over that time.
Over the years, I developed an insatiable crave for booze and other stuff that would make NACADA cringe in disgust, thankfully I got over both. In tandem with these 'discoveries', I landed myself into very interesting company, most of which was driven by love for either weed or booze. I then deteriorated down to a level that even I had never thought I'd sink to, but hey, who does?
I managed, with some help, to get a job at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and man! That is where the cash came in droves. Made new friends with people who both tilted my choices to ruin, and development. Notably was this guy, Davy, who really made my time at the airport. In between shuffling passenger bags for delivery, ensuring customer satisfaction and dodging a menacing boss, (who really had a penchant for making us uncomfortable), we made quite a substantial amount of cash-by our standards.
At this point, I must say that the cash was never put into any good utility...though I can say that I used a great chunk of the cash to teach myself about the kind of friends I had made and the destructive capacity of reckless alcoholism.
The Next Endeavor.
At some point, life happened and I quit working at the airport, then went back home.
I had to go complete my educational program in college in order to get a certificate, that would declare me 'learned' after spending a whooping 17 years of my life within the confines of strict facilities in the name of getting an education,only to be given some piece of paper,with embossed calligraphy and some verbal declaration of 'power to read'- REALLY??? True definition of mental slavery.
All through the following two years I toiled, broke loads of sweat shuffling between class and home where I assisted dad in the family business. The last of the two years is one that evokes lots of memories, both good and bad, beautiful and ugly.
It all started with the demise of my beloved grandma-God Rest her soul- when we somehow developed a tight bond with my step-brother. I do not really want to delve into the details of our bonding but we just clicked. After several tales about step mothers, both by family and friends bent on instilling fear in my poor little soul, I finally came around to the fact there are never ex-siblings or ex-parents...only ex-wives. To deny that wold be an exercise in futility.
We did tour the country with my brother... our escapades landing us in such zip-codes as Rhino conservancies, plain old water parks, adjacent countries and interesting cultures to say the least. We made connections with interesting people of varied character, experienced different cultures and learnt valuable lessons all along. I particularly single out one such venture that saw us go to Meru, just out of curiosity.
Meru
The trip was awesome, a cocktail of natural scenery, up the hilly Nyahururu terrain and down the scopes of Mount Kenya, into the luscious green scenery that marked the vicinity of Meru county. We booked at some hotel next to the Kinoru Stadium whereby drinks and meals were the first pleasantries we asked for. When you go to Rome,do what the Romans do. This must have been what inspired me to ask for some khat from the locals, given the region's fame for production of the same. The effects of the herb motivated my desire for a night out, a venture that saw me almost elope with a damsel in distress.
Unfortunately, we had to leave the following morning amidst hefty empty promises to the lady of coming back for her. The trip back was quite the proverbial sting.
First, we ran into an accident scene at the Tharaka Nithi bridge...the sight of blood often sickens me to the bone. I had to try heaving that memory off my mind for the better part of the journey back. I am not a superstitious being but when you see blood at the onset of a journey...prepare for a spate of debacles through it. We got to Thika town where we cooled our heels for the night in preparation for the following day's journey.
Up and early, we got up and started off, for we wanted to make it home, almost 300km away by nightfall, given our vehicle's heating state. With this in mind, we unanimously decided to take a route that would shorten the distance by about 15%, plus allow us to circumvent the city's hectic traffic. So off we went into Gatundu South, way into the fertile terrains of Kiambu county with its gorgeous hillside scenery and straight into The Giacharage Rhino Conservancy. This is where the real hurdle was. With the aid of Google Maps on an Android device, we proceeded for about 20 Km through the park, and even insisted on going on where roads gave way to footpaths. We had to pay the ultimate price. Into the park we insisted our drive,while ignoring the gut feeling within to turn round or even ask for directions...we solely trusted in Google Maps, a feat in vanity. 24kilometers of dusty road, unkempt bushes and sights of mounds of rhino and buffalo dung, we found ourselves at the end of the road, facing an electric gate... that would supposedly lead us out of the park. No one had the courage to one,get out of the car in fear of the wild animals and secondly, apprehension of touching the electric gate. We hadn't come this far to die in some neglected park. So we turned round, back to the route we came from. Dust found abode both in the vehicle and its occupants,the sun mocked our path with menacing heat, as if it was bent on punishing our vain attempt at finding a shortcut.
We ate a sizable humble pie and had to ask for a way out, a few directions from the locals (that we had ignored earlier) led us out of the murky labyrinth of intertwined earth roads and onto the tarmacked highway. Alas! The menace was done. Pulling into a service station along the way, the car-wash attendant insisted that we get vacuumed via a well worn out hose-pipe, thanks to the density of dust on us. All that is well ends well, another day on the road. We stopped over at Nakuru for the night. Tomorrow would take care of itself.
Home at last. We decided to go rest for a while before we embarked for the journey back to Kisii for duty.
To be continued....
I just can't explain what I feel upon discovery of this blog that I started four years ago...and completely forgot about. Talk of priorities.
Well, the past four years have been quite a bunch, I must say...straight through campus, worthy travels, jilted lovers,vast experiences, friends and foes made in equal proportion. Life.
In reconnection with this blog, I feet that I should perhaps give a little account of whats been up and about over that time.
Over the years, I developed an insatiable crave for booze and other stuff that would make NACADA cringe in disgust, thankfully I got over both. In tandem with these 'discoveries', I landed myself into very interesting company, most of which was driven by love for either weed or booze. I then deteriorated down to a level that even I had never thought I'd sink to, but hey, who does?
I managed, with some help, to get a job at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and man! That is where the cash came in droves. Made new friends with people who both tilted my choices to ruin, and development. Notably was this guy, Davy, who really made my time at the airport. In between shuffling passenger bags for delivery, ensuring customer satisfaction and dodging a menacing boss, (who really had a penchant for making us uncomfortable), we made quite a substantial amount of cash-by our standards.
At this point, I must say that the cash was never put into any good utility...though I can say that I used a great chunk of the cash to teach myself about the kind of friends I had made and the destructive capacity of reckless alcoholism.
The Next Endeavor.
At some point, life happened and I quit working at the airport, then went back home.
I had to go complete my educational program in college in order to get a certificate, that would declare me 'learned' after spending a whooping 17 years of my life within the confines of strict facilities in the name of getting an education,only to be given some piece of paper,with embossed calligraphy and some verbal declaration of 'power to read'- REALLY??? True definition of mental slavery.
All through the following two years I toiled, broke loads of sweat shuffling between class and home where I assisted dad in the family business. The last of the two years is one that evokes lots of memories, both good and bad, beautiful and ugly.
It all started with the demise of my beloved grandma-God Rest her soul- when we somehow developed a tight bond with my step-brother. I do not really want to delve into the details of our bonding but we just clicked. After several tales about step mothers, both by family and friends bent on instilling fear in my poor little soul, I finally came around to the fact there are never ex-siblings or ex-parents...only ex-wives. To deny that wold be an exercise in futility.
We did tour the country with my brother... our escapades landing us in such zip-codes as Rhino conservancies, plain old water parks, adjacent countries and interesting cultures to say the least. We made connections with interesting people of varied character, experienced different cultures and learnt valuable lessons all along. I particularly single out one such venture that saw us go to Meru, just out of curiosity.
Meru
The trip was awesome, a cocktail of natural scenery, up the hilly Nyahururu terrain and down the scopes of Mount Kenya, into the luscious green scenery that marked the vicinity of Meru county. We booked at some hotel next to the Kinoru Stadium whereby drinks and meals were the first pleasantries we asked for. When you go to Rome,do what the Romans do. This must have been what inspired me to ask for some khat from the locals, given the region's fame for production of the same. The effects of the herb motivated my desire for a night out, a venture that saw me almost elope with a damsel in distress.
Unfortunately, we had to leave the following morning amidst hefty empty promises to the lady of coming back for her. The trip back was quite the proverbial sting.
First, we ran into an accident scene at the Tharaka Nithi bridge...the sight of blood often sickens me to the bone. I had to try heaving that memory off my mind for the better part of the journey back. I am not a superstitious being but when you see blood at the onset of a journey...prepare for a spate of debacles through it. We got to Thika town where we cooled our heels for the night in preparation for the following day's journey.
Up and early, we got up and started off, for we wanted to make it home, almost 300km away by nightfall, given our vehicle's heating state. With this in mind, we unanimously decided to take a route that would shorten the distance by about 15%, plus allow us to circumvent the city's hectic traffic. So off we went into Gatundu South, way into the fertile terrains of Kiambu county with its gorgeous hillside scenery and straight into The Giacharage Rhino Conservancy. This is where the real hurdle was. With the aid of Google Maps on an Android device, we proceeded for about 20 Km through the park, and even insisted on going on where roads gave way to footpaths. We had to pay the ultimate price. Into the park we insisted our drive,while ignoring the gut feeling within to turn round or even ask for directions...we solely trusted in Google Maps, a feat in vanity. 24kilometers of dusty road, unkempt bushes and sights of mounds of rhino and buffalo dung, we found ourselves at the end of the road, facing an electric gate... that would supposedly lead us out of the park. No one had the courage to one,get out of the car in fear of the wild animals and secondly, apprehension of touching the electric gate. We hadn't come this far to die in some neglected park. So we turned round, back to the route we came from. Dust found abode both in the vehicle and its occupants,the sun mocked our path with menacing heat, as if it was bent on punishing our vain attempt at finding a shortcut.
We ate a sizable humble pie and had to ask for a way out, a few directions from the locals (that we had ignored earlier) led us out of the murky labyrinth of intertwined earth roads and onto the tarmacked highway. Alas! The menace was done. Pulling into a service station along the way, the car-wash attendant insisted that we get vacuumed via a well worn out hose-pipe, thanks to the density of dust on us. All that is well ends well, another day on the road. We stopped over at Nakuru for the night. Tomorrow would take care of itself.
Home at last. We decided to go rest for a while before we embarked for the journey back to Kisii for duty.
To be continued....
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