The Musings of Kajuzi!

When i left my well paying job early last year, i was so excited about walking this self-employed, founder and director journey. I mean, i had just won the US Embassy pay it forward challenge, i had been selected as the Africa Matters Ambassador, i had been accepted into the YALI Regional Leadership Center and i had just gotten an opportunity to work with the Global Peace Foundation. Things were great, and were looking even greater. I was on a roller coaster. Fast forward to September, the dreamy phase was over, and most of my engagements were winding down. The little funding we was dwindling down and the real work was just beginning. In addition, i found myself living in my baby sisters house as i struggled to get the organization activities in Kilifi running. I transitioned from an extra busy-body who was hoping from counties to countries, to someone who spent the days and nights slumped over a computer trying to make sense of everything. I stopped going to places and me

2018 was a strangely tough and wonderful year for me. For the most part it was my year of liberation, the year i found freedom, the year i found myself and the year i truly searched and thankfully found God. For someone who has always had a responsibility on my shoulder (black tax is real my friends), who has always been held down and back by one reason or the other, whether real or imagined, 2018 was the year when for the first time i found myself with no responsibilities and no obligations but my own. It was a strange and scary place to find myself and for the most part, I did not handle it so well. I mean i went and left my job, left a town i had grown to love, left friends i had gotten attached to and also left a career i had taken 5 years to build and excel at! It was the year i started an organization, built an amazing team, revived a past business, did my first consultancy gig, made some great partnerships and friendships, learnt new things, took great risks and got great

Adam Levine famously sang that 'the best laid plans sometimes are just a one night stand.' I loved that song, Lost Stars. There are many times i have wished i was that random girl who could decide to go watch a live band at Mocha-Locha barely  20 minutes to 5 pm on a Friday evening,  just because a dude said he has 2 extra tickets. The girl who would take a guy's hand and see where they wake up tomorrow. But i was never that girl. I have always been the girl who makes a plan, and then spends half the time worrying that things are not going according to plan. I never do things for the sake. I always have the big picture in mind. I have this constant need to know why i am taking certain actions and what they contribute to the larger picture . I have been told that i never do things that are not for my own benefit in the full circle, which apparently comes off as selfish and narcissistic. :( But don't get me wrong, i am not all BOOORING... I am at the same t

The past four weeks i have had residence in the busy, bustling and ever moving Mumbai. Bombay, as the locals call it, is a mix of contradiction, promise, pain and a huge population, which the residents have gotten so used to that nothing, not even the flooding and possible death and displacement of fellow Indians in a neighboring state, fazes them. To them, that is just another Tuesday. The day i arrived, as i exited the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport at 3am in the morning, i was greeted by a  huge presence of small house structures with blue rooftops lining both sides from the airport entrance for a long way out. The slums. In the still quiet night light, mixed with the uniformly arranged street lights and a sky so high up, i was filled with awe as I stared at the scene ahead expanding into the city; the tall buildings and bridge silhouettes seen from kilometers away gave a sense of a city seeking to be discovered. 'Its beautiful.' I whispered as a sigh of exci

How Can Art Foster Sound Leadership? A Musical Concert by Dowe Music in Collaboration with the YALI Network. Performance: Dowe Music Led by Douglas Guest Speaker: Maureen Changawa- Community Development Worker & 2017 Mandela Washington Fellow “Art testifies to the power of imagination, the unique capacity of humans to project, to dream and to reflect things not only as they are but as they could be”- anonymous It was around 2:30pm last Friday, the 19 th of January, when I walked into the Kenya National Library Services- Nakuru Building to an Instrumental live performance of the Kenya National Anthem by the Dowe Music Team. From The ground floor, you could hear the soul lifting blend of about 8 instruments playing our national prayer in a somewhat sombre tone. It was beautiful!  This was the beginning of an amazing concert of spoken word, music performances and discussions that focused on the contribution of Art to Sound Leadership, in our communities and t

Let me start with Good News... I made the cut for the 2017 Mandela Washington Fellowship!!! Yaaayy!!! 😂😂😂 And Yes, this is a big deal guys... you even get a license plate for it! Hehhehehe! At the Georgia State Revenue Authority... Yes i got a Mandela Washington Fellowship car license plate :-) It was a Monday Afternoon in January, i was in a matatu at the Mololine booking office at Odeon in Nairobi, waiting for the shuttle to fill up so that we could start our journey to Nakuru. I do not remember why i was in Nairobi on a working day, but am sure it must have been a good reason (Disclaimer: I do not skive work..under any circumstances 😉 ) I remember it was really hot but i could not open my window because...well, because it is Nairobi, and therefore i could not wait for the shuttle to fill up. As i was sitting there, preparing myself to sleep through the journey, i received a call from an unknown number which, i did not pick. I know it is bad habit, but generally my ca