Mutheu and the half-weave

Mutheu comes from a family
of models, She is the only
lass I know to ever look fine
in a weave (image:
http://www.antiagingresults.org)

She is a beautiful girl, that I shall not deny you the liberty of knowing. She is also slim, almost pencil thin, and tall, and light. The time may be just ripe for her to hit the circuit, not that one, the modelling circuit. Her name was and still is Mutheu, though have not heard from her in months.

I would be lying to you if I told you that her mother had raised a family of girls, for that would be an understatement. A more accurate statement would be calling her a mother of models, for she would pride her homestead in having the highest number of beauties per family. The girls numbered about three or four , in a single parent family, with no brothers.

The family owned and ran a couple of popular salons, and she therefore grew up to be an expert in matters of the hair. This I had told you in another post, where I said that Mutheu was the only girl that knew how to look hot in weaves - those wig-like contraptions that Kenyan women have taken as a license to have pathetic hair days and get away with it. I still maintain the claim.

One peculiar thing with Mutheu, though, was that no matter how hot the weave looked like, you would rarely spot her in a completely done one. In jeans, mostly black ones and open sandals that showed the frayed ends of the jeans and her yellow-ish skin tone, you would catch the promising and luring tone again above her waist, exposed by those few inches that her top missed her waist by. Her head would have a weave on one half, and her old hairstyle on the other half.

The weave was usually done in a creative manner that showed an expert had not been through with her work. Probably she had to interrupt the work on her hair to work on another client, or to do the book entries before she closed the salon. The salon was located on a back alley, a place I frequented , not for the familiar image of rubbish that Kenyans love dumping and leaving at their doorstep, but for the even more familiar greeting and smile from Mutheu.

On an even better day, she would be manning the family owned hair accessory and beauty shop, on another of the five streets. The great thing was that an alley, no, two alleys joined the street the shop was on and the one the salon was on. You checked if she was in one, and if she wasn't you used the alley to get the other.

While others would call it stalking, I prefer to call the habit of passing by where she was coincidence. No? , OK, let's call it putting effort into our friendship. I mean, I knew a little bit more about her than the other lads who crowded the beauty shop at times. This was despite knowing her later in life, than the other lads who she had probably known earlier in primary school.

Other than her beauty, she happened to be one of the few ladies from our region to ever make it to the few competitive spaces in public university. So yes, she had the brains too.

I doubt if you are likely to spot her today with her signature half-weave, as that she reserved for our town, and ladies, please leave the weave to Mutheu, or at least have her do it for you.

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Dar mpaka moro (part 1)

Briefly about Dar
Dar es salaam is an expansive city on the Indian Ocean coast. The city has a peninsula (for the geographically challenged, its a piece of land that juts into the ocean) and a few large islands which are protected marine parks. The Tanzanian government and the people appear to be appreciative about Nature and protect it well. There is also the famous resort of Zanzibar which is tow hours away. In comparison, Mombasa appears restricted by the islands and the Likoni channel which have restricted northward development of the city. Dar es salaam is on the mainland, and even appears to have a larger harbor. You are likely to spot more ships near Dar es salaam, probably due to the harbor and distance from the pirate stricken shores of Somalia.

Dar es salaam, once the capital of Tanzania is quite distant from many areas in Eastern Africa. Dodoma is now the country's capital, but Dar remains the financial and social capital.

Nairobi to Dar by Road
Catching a bus from Nairob…

In a Westernised World, Covid-19 is the Perfect Pandemic

Over the last more than 100 years, the world has undergone numerous advancements. Human beings have been to space and the moon, we have powerful nuclear bombs and nuclear energy, bullet trains, planes that fly half around the world, and we can now treat and cure hundreds of diseases that tormented our ancestors.
Yet, despite all these scientific advancements, the world is being ravaged by a pandemic. Worse, one that can be eradicated by people just staying home for 3 weeks. What went wrong?
Well, it is important to understand that the world, by nature, is destined for pandemics.
Forests get extreme wildfires, wild animals get almost wiped out by diseases or drought, and human beings get pandemic. Drought too was once a problem, but the wonder that is the modern supply chain means shiploads of grains and all sorts of food can be easily moved from one part of the world to another.
Pandemics, like wildfires, droughts and much more are nature’s way of introducing chaos into a system.

Dar mpaka moro (part 2)

This post has been continued from Dar mpaka moro (part 1)

Exchange Rates: 1 Tsh = 0.58 Kshs , 1 Ksh =17.2 Tshs (note to divide rather than multiply fractions/decimals)

Arusha is the capital of the East African Community, and might be referred to as Tanzania's third most significant city. Arusha also marks the end of Tanzania's dry region, quite small compared to Kenya's expansive Northern and Eastern regions.

You will also notice the presence of Traffic lights at major junctions and round abouts, a difference from Kenya's preferred police controlled junctions. However, motorists will at time jump the lights. Be warned though that Traffic Police might be present and will not hesitate to fine you. Overlapping , a common aspect of road behaviour in Kenya is taken seriously in Tanzania, it may land you a Ksh. 10,000 fine and/or a jail term.

Our bus did not stop over at Arusha, which though is quite a large town. Arusha is on the slopes of Mount Meru, one of Tanzania's m…

Beers in Kenya: A sober opinion

Note: This is a dated post and has since been mostly passed by events. SAB Miller beers including Castle and Peroni are no longer widely available in Kenya after their exist. Sirville Brewery was bought out by Brew Bistro before being permanently shut in a tax dispute. Kenya is a land of milk, honey, beaches and taxes. I have penned, or is typed, a newer post here.

I have had a short beer swigging stint in my life. It has however been long enough for me to share my opinion of Kenyan beer. Interestingly, over the course of sharing such opinions with other drunkards connoisseurs, I have found that we all have different views as to what beer is the best, which one makes you too drunk, or which one gives one free, extra hangover for every hangover you get from it.
For starters, like everyone else, I discovered that beer isn’t as sweet as it looks like in those adverts that show golden barley swaying in breezes, happy men smiling and toasting chilled, foaming glasses of beer as a deep voi…

Why Newspapers Should Shift to Digital Sales to Survive

The digital world is a very different one for newspapers, and this explains why many have shut down.

The ones that survived took some time in the wilderness before figuring it out.

Yet the ones that are transitioning seem doomed to repeat the mistakes of those who have been ahead of them.

The first problem with digital news publishing is competition. Print newspapers are near monopolies. Setting up a newsprint plant and investing in distribution vans is very costly. You therefore end up with a handful of papers or even just one for a certain geographical zone.

Dennis Kioko

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