Recently, I’ve been getting hit on by the watchman at work. I try to remain friendly – I could need his help one day –  but it reminds me of when I was younger, and I thought that I was doomed to be hit on by […]

I’m slightly disturbed after reading an  article about the growing popularity of cosmetic surgery among Nairobi’s upper middle class. The article was full of horror stories of procedures gone awry which was bad enough, but one quote gave me pause. “And the most common procedure among Kenyan men was lip reduction— making lips thinner.” Whaaat?…[Read more]

I visited my old high school this past weekend. I walked through the old haunts and smiled at their jauntily ambitious nicknames: Bahamas, the 20-foot square piece of lawn where we’d sun ourselves on Saturday afternoons, and Infinity, the landing at the top of the stairs to our four-story dorm building. I’ve realized, my high school was unknowingly [...]

Early this year, I set out some goals for myself. I wanted to walk more. I wanted to learn French. I wanted to take care of my hair. I wanted to go out and do interesting cultural things in Nairobi. While these were all things that I knew would make me *happy*, sticking to them was [...]

We all do it. A lot of times, we lie about it. I’m talking about mitumba. Sadly, the state of our local clothing industry is far from the point where I would be inclined to buy Kenya build Kenya. Well, I might be content with an abysmal lack of choice in tea towels from Nakuru textiles, but [...]

It’s going on to March. That means that most of our New Year’s resolutions have faltered, if not gone down the drain entirely. Chips have won out over those healthy salads you brought in to work a few weeks ago. Your brand new gym shoes have been kicked under the bed and forgotten (on purpose). It [...]