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Showing posts with the label Val Muthony

Stories from the banking hall

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  People out here are angry, really angry. I know this is no way to start a story, but relax it's heading somewhere, I promise. It's a chilly morning and I'm at a bank waiting for my turn to be served, service yao ilikuwa imeanza kusumbua from Monday, but hey, that's a story for another time. I could feel like I was a bit out of place, you know? because the last time I remember I was in a bank was many years ago, when I was on campus, paying for my fees. Mzazi aliniamia bana, alijua ningepata guts, temptations za kukula fee ingekam, ningejua venye ningeilipa. So where was I?  Oh yes, there is this guy who is seated like 2 or three seats away from me, bigger and older than me from the looks of it, looks like a business man, or in lay man terms jamaa wa madeals. After a few minutes waiting, he starts getting impatient, and frustrated so he starts complaining, why is the service taking so long, can't they go a little faster, and so on and so forth.  I'm seated ther...

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...