countryboysays

I remember the first time I saw her… I must admit, it was not as I had pictured it. T’was a hot, sunny day (I could have sworn the doomsday environmentalist’s prediction had come true, no ozone layer or something like that). She was in blue jeans, a T-shirt and sports shoes… I was in black jeans, a blue shirt, and sweating like a pig… She was not across the road from me; we were on the same side of the road… When our eyes did lock, she had that look that said, “deodorant, buy some”   We went about crossing the road and midway through, she fell into a manhole… When she did emerge, I bet she regretted that deodorant idea… Nairobi sewer lines… God bless’em hahahaha….   But for some reason (blame it on my upbringing), while everyone else burst out laughing, I extended a helping hand…   And in that rare moment of kindness to a total stranger, I saw something in her eyes, a gentle sense of being… and I will never forget that smile, a smile that said sh...

No such thing as low interest rates. We have all seen the ads 9.5% interest rate, 10.5% interest rate, 14.5% interest rate…. After the ads I must admit I hated by current banker, I mean here is another bank offering loans at 9.5%, 10.5%, 14.5% and my bank is offering the same loan at 18.5%??? Ridiculous Immediately I went out to find out more about the seemingly cheaper, more affordable loans. On the surface of it, the loans were legit and to my surprise the offer actually held water. Then the old adage ‘ The Devil is in the detail’ the proverbial fine print in small caps and equally small font came to bear. I discovered the KBA APR calculator and from it my eyes were opened.   The calculator is available for download on various app stores ( http://www.cost-of-credit.com/index.php/site/downloads ). According to The Kenya Banker’s Association APR which simply stands for Annual Percentage Rate pricing mechanism, will enable consumers to compare different bank loan c...

There she was, about to hang as a strange Muthongo (white man) tried to bewitch her with his strange black cloak and funny half-bald haircut. He raised a cross with a small idol on it, pulled out a piece of cloth and bewitched her with some water from a funny cup. Holy water, they had told her.   She just found their customs strange… why would you bewitch someone before you kill them?   Even stranger was the fact that this white man was speaking two different tongues…   ‘In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti, ’ the white man said.   According to another muthongo, very few white men understood the strange tongue, which she remembers hearing during a mass in kasoneki (Catholic).   Then the other muthongo whose head was covered in a gakonia (Sack) walked up to the gallows to pull a lever that they had told her would open a trapdoor and hang her…   She flashed back to her wedding, she was so shy, so innocent all those years ago....