My right knee has been acting like a cantankerous cry baby. I gave it painkillers. It didn’t give two-hoots. It rolled in the grass with spurts of tears and got itself locked in a thorny shrub. That was another invitation for it to wail even more. It stamped its feet and cried, “I want my…

There’s an elderly woman on the flat I live in who’s terribly afraid of me. She’s probably in her early 70’s. The look on her face whenever she sees me gives her away. It’s one of utter fright. It makes me chock on my laughter. She gives a look of absolute fear, panic and an…

If my writing reads like a child’s doodle, it’s because I feel like a kid again. I’m learning Deutsch, a language I couldn’t say a word in at the beginning of this year. Not even five months ago. I’m doing the a,b,c’s and 1,2,3’s. The do re mi’s and A for Apfel and B for…

I folded my clothes and placed them in my suitcase. It’s a bag that can fit two bunches of matooke, a cook stove, molokony and food that can last a month. It isn’t my case to start with. It’s one of those things that stays with you and eventually, by the natural process of passage…

The craziest I’ve seen a woman do was when she stopped our taxi in Nakawa. It was about 8:00pm. I was returning from class. She got out of the taxi, asked the driver not to leave her behind. She went into a trench, pulled up her skirt, pulled down her undies. She squatted in that…

I watch the yellow sun making its ascent up the sky when we get to Elementaita. It is cushioned between two pockets of foamy clouds the shape of mountain ranges. They reflect silver and gold and orange on their edges. The rising sun is an attraction. It’s majestic. It’s a marvel, one that draws your…