"You Look Beautiful, You are Fat!"

Some of the things that people are telling me as complements are ridiculous, like how fat I've become, how short, and generally how I've changed. I gained at most 4kgs in the 3 years I was away, and I'm surprised it's so noticeable. My response, "yeah? thanks!" while thinking 'that's what happens when you spend most of your day indoors sitting in front of a computer'. And that's the kind of life I'm looking forward to here. Some of the comments border on the absurd, like how I now have a behind, have calves (? the back of my legs, as in 'riu ona wina tukere').

Halafu I think the American ego may have rubbed off on me kidogo. I think hukos the customer is spoiled while here it's not always the case. Like, you could buy stuff and return it up to 90 days baadaye lakini hapa, it's not necessarily the case. I was so pissed jana when the driver in the ma3 I rode in the morning turned around when he saw a tow truck (break-down). I think the ma3 was not fully insured. Leo, they told me '40 bob tao!' and gave me back 50 bob back after I handed them 100 bob. But the driver later gave me the ka-10 bob. Halafu coming from Gigiri, they said '20 bob Odeon!' only for them to say kuna karao huko mbele and decide everybody has to shuka. Me, I asked for 10 bob back, some others refused to shuka so they took us to Odeon.

Overall I'm happy to be home, seeing, family, relatives and friends. I'm especially glad that my niece who was 3 months young when is excited to have me around, and I can forge relationships with my nephew and others that were born while I was away. I'm also making new friends, and that, too it's exciting.
Of course I've disappointed some people coz I didn't bring them the latest gadgets, and had to expalin hata mimi I did not have most of them. Neither am I dropping dollars/shillings everywhere, if anywhere at all, since I have to preserve my reservoirs. It's hard work explaining the life in America as seen on T.V versus in real life. Of course there are questions about Obama and my answer has consistently been "Obama is the next President of the of America".

At Home with Self

I got to Nairobi Sunday night. So far I'm liking it. Exept that on my first full day it rained sana and ma3s were scarce.
I haven't started tarmacking yet, in fact I go to my shags kesho to properly catch up with my folks.
I've met a college friend today and interesting to see how many people are trained as teachers but are going to different fields, yours truly included.
I haven't signed for internet at home yet, so I'll keep this short.

My $0.02 Take on Stato's Siasa

I am no US political commentator or expert but I hate the way the GOP is using terrorism and war as a political weapon. McCain use of his Vietnam POW experience is getting tired with me. He apparently used the term 'fight' 25 times at his nomination acceptance speech, with little in the way of what he will do to solve America's current problems.The last part of the speech ended with something like 'stand up and fight! fight! fight!' to a very enthusiastic crowd. At one point it felt like I was watching the Olympics with 'USA! USA!' everywhere. Almost like its the dems vs USA. Obviously I favour Obama but I may be biased seeing as it is his father was Kenyan. Not that it matters. If I were American at this point in time, I would vote for Obama. Primarily because the economy is screwed up, things are so worse off than they were during the Clinton time and it so feels like he has a plan to make America strong.

But as a Kenyan, I'm all for someone who can ship them jobs to Kenya or any other developing country for that matter. Outsourcing, and democrats hate that.That, plus really free (and yes, fair too, too, it doesn't have to be either or) trade, would do more for development than more years of aid. It's always interesting to see what side of the political divide seems to really care about global povery and how they plan to deal with it. As part of the international community, I favour America drilling oil on her own land. Juu if the war in Iraq (assuming it was about oil, not wms) and conflicts in many other oil-producing countries is anything to go by, I think 'drill baby drill' combined with renewable energy would do more to end such conflicts than the current energy situation in America. Well, at least as far as Stato is concerned?

Can't end without one more rant-did they (have to) go all the way to Rwanda to get someone showcase Cindy's personal commitment to charity, or did they look for her here? I'd hate for my unfortunate calamity to be used like that.