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Showing posts with the label Val Muthony

Mteja 2

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Let's rewind to 1:00 PM when she had texted:   “Souley,  go to this place in Ngara,  ask for a guy called Musyoka.  He has the samples.  Just call me when you get there,  I’ll guide you.” Simple, right?  Now it’s 2:44. I’m here. I’ve found Musyoka. He’s chewing miraa, eyeing me like I’m slowing down his evening high.   “Oyaa,  niko na samples.  Si useme venye madam alisema.  Ni hizi ama zile?” I freeze. I don’t know. I was told to wait for her instructions. I try to call her again. Mteja. I text. Double tick. No blue. I even WhatsApp call her, desperate moves, you know? Musyoka is now shifting his weight like a man about to disappear. I try calling her again, muttering under my breath,  “This woman will be the end of me.” Then the rain starts. Nairobi rain doesn’t fall, it attacks. Boda guys scatter, hawkers scramble to save their goods, and I’m there, hunched under a mabati shade, holding a phone that won't ring, wit...
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LIVING A DOUBLE LIFE.

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One day I was sitting in a room with my then two friends, and I remember we were puffing on Manchester cigarettes one after the other talking about life.  As I drew my hands into a box sachet to pull another cigar out , my friend, Max, looked at me and asked me a question that made me look into my life. He asked,  "Val, why do you live a double life?"  And before I could even think of an answer, my other friend Zue said,  "Sai unavuta kuvuta,  the next minute billboards ziko all over Nairobi  zikiread  (niko smoke free)  na picha yako apo"  I looked at them with guilt then uttered some gibberish words  "me siishi double life.”  I immediately took my bag said goodbye to them, and left. As I was walking to the house I had rented not so far from school, I got myself into an inner talk and asked myself so many questions like  How did I get here?  What led me to being in a situation where there are many images that I portray t...
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