The Musings of Kajuzi!

Three years ago today, a colleague of mine pulled the Mrs. so and so card on me and it took a while to register that she was actually referring to me. So i politely batted my eye lids and asked her if she could refer to me with my REAL names please! heheh! To be honest, I forget am a wife sometimes! It took me exactly five years and maybe some days to move from stranger- to friend- to girlfriend- to fiance-and eventually wife. I sometimes wake up and stand in front of the mirror to look for changes that scream wife and so far except for the eruption of some chunky bits almost everywhere imaginable and the ring on my finger... I have not seen any, nor have i produced a following to prove that i am. I feel like it was just the other day this guy was darting lines my way that were just so hilariously lame that i actually fell for him. Just the other day.., and now here we are. Turns out i am Wife Material after all. And,  it isn't running to the kitchen once th...

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 a...

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...

When you grow up with practically nothing,  you learn to appreciate the little things,  little joys and little victories.  Maybe too much even.  You become satisfied with the little progress you make in life,  maybe because you think surely the Lord has been good enough to me already... So you pray little prayers,  asking for little things and wonder why the Lord is not answering.  And you think maybe if you reduce your request a little,  then God will give it to you. But.., have you ever thought that the reason God is not answering your prayers is because your request is too small for a God so big???!!! My dears,  learn to not pray small prayers,  they set limits. If you pray bold prayers,  God will do bold things in your life. Don't settle where you are,  if you'll dare to Ask,  God will bless you indeed. God can lift you out of that place. He can put a new song in your heart. He can put a spring back in your step....

  “There are moments in life..,when life hands you the gift of perspective. Sometimes, we forget to show our appreciation.., And, sometimes, we forget how far we’ve come. But life always has a way of nudging you to remind you about these important things.” ― Cassia Leo , Bring Me Home Well it has been a while.., and i am not sure whether i still have the touch for this, but i felt like coming back. To my first love. So lets play catch up.. What have you been up-to?? Anything new? I see some of you got new opportunities, jobs, acquired new wheels, moved towns and even countries, got hitched, got your *litos, ran marathons, trekked mountains, swam with dolphins, flew with eagles, revamped their looks, went back to school, earned another certificate, learnt a new skill, made new friends, overcame addictions, revamped their image, awakened their consciousness, touched lives, and changed the world in whatever small corners they are in. You go to socia...

I had an interview last week. One of the very few interviews where my head was straight as I prepared for it. Mainly because at the beginning of this year, I asked my dressmaker to make two official suits for me. Just in case. I had a feeling I would need them. Or rather I had planned to need them.And i did. So, there I was, fully prepped, my papers in order, my outfit ready. Only one problem.., shoes.  I have always had a love hate relationship with shoes. I cant stand physical pain at all. And more so on my feet. And somehow shoes and pain went hand in hand in my case. But that is not the only reason why I love hate shoes. The only time I remember diligently wearing shoes was when I was in high school. And that was mainly because for whatever reason, my feet really smelled horrible. (I guess mainly because, I had only a few pair of socks that took forever to dry whenever I washed them, and so was forced to wear wet socks more often than not) Apart from that period,...

I just had to find the dictionary to be sure. And mystery is defined as something that is difficult to  understand or comprehend. Talking of mystery somehow reminds me of a song by Kenny Rogers. I think I first heard this song when I was in high school. At my uncles place in buruburu. I remember thinking, wow! So powerful a message in so little words. And I fell in love with it. It talks something about knowing when to hold on, fold out, walk away or when to run. It has been said that a wise person always holds his cards close to his chest. Arms folded, palms on chest I assume? Recently, my folding resilience was tested. I had to look people in the eye and pretend that nothing was going on. Hide critical information. Participate in forming plans that I knew I would not be executing. And not give a clue away. I had to be mysterious. Well, I think I may have pulled it off. Of course, coupled with me ending up with sweating palms,  smelly armpits, trembling legs, anxiety, a...

I arrived at the booking office so early. My bus was leaving at 11:00, and 8:00 found me seated waiting. I was restless. Well at about 10:00 one of the bus staff approached to inform me that the 11:00 bus had been cancelled, so she was to fix in one of the early busses. And the available one was the 10:00 bus, almost last seat. I was furious. But accepted nevertheless. What was I to do? And so I boarded the bus. After pushing and heaving with my luggage to the back of the bus, only to find someone already on the seat I was to occupy,  I was almost exploding with anger. I mentally prepared for a fight... and nudged his shoulder. Instead, he looked up, beautifully smiled and asked 'Forty-one?' I looked at his face. A young man,  maybe in his early to mid twenties. Beautiful eyes and lips. Symetrically perfect face and chiselled cheek bones. Handsome. I could not help but smile.., my killer smile, 'Yes' I replied. 'Sorry,  I am leaving. Just a minute' ...

A few months back, a group of friends and I were on a fun weekend in the Kenyan highlands. It was the usual crowd, two couples and one or two singles. I was one half of the couples. Now, my friends and I are a crowd of people that most of the time do not know how to hide things.  We say it as it is, laugh as loud as we can and get mad like hell when we have to. We are honest people, falling somewhere in between civilized humans and drama queens. And in such a crowd, it is very normal once in a while to witness disagreements and various bursts of emotions among ourselves. Not too bad, though, because we always find a way to work them out. And that is exactly what happened. A couple of disagreements here and there. And I thought this was very normal behavior. Until I met this very beautiful couple who were so in sync and agreeable to one another that it was unbelievable. For the week that I was with them, this couple worked side by side without even as much as a questio...