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Thursday, June 2, 2016

Hand In Glove


         When we met it was magic. On both sides – his and mine – don’t get me wrong, this was not a simple twist of my vivid imagination. Neither was it an exaggeration. The first time he hugged me I felt it, HOME. I was home, in a place where I was free to be myself, to let go, drop my body-guards – those tough tall handsome ‘built’ black men who look a little like Will Smith in MenInBlack – Police reflector-sunglasses, black-suited, white shirt, black tie 6ft tall body guards - who all women employ to look after their tender souls – I sent them packing. For I’d found the man with whom I could be realest with, cry, laugh out loud, curse, kick rocks, be clumsy, be me – and for the first time in my long, long life, I wasn’t scared that he’d run when he saw ME. No, this MAN was HIM. Not even ‘it’. He could hold me with one hand and protect me with the other, my delicious man, and he SAID SO, said he’d take care of me for ever, because in this deen, when you die you don’t drop your life partner but you meet them in Jannah. So wowsa.., I’d met myself. in. a. him. Myself. I was so free, we had everything, everything in common. Talk until midnight and beyond, on phone and later when we lived together, oh, hours and hours and hours of talking - I was so free in my skin, pimples, no makeup, specs on, hair wild, curly, natty, terribly beautiful in it’s un-comb-ability. When he spoke my heart would slow down to a gentle mellow beat, when I laid my cheek on his chest my breathing would match his, when I spoke he’d listen, he paid attention, my thoughts where his, and he’d surprise me by saying, ‘hey, I know how you feel…’ when I tried to hide hurts; and even when I farted uncontrollably like a car back-firing accidentally, he would shout ‘oh oh StinkBombs coming’  and laugh… So, I wasn’t scared that he’d run because isn’t that what we’re all scared of? That this person who you’ve fallen down the ‘Alice in Wonderland’ hole may be turning around and disliking you when you let your guard down? He was me. I was him.
I’m talking to you’all now, to my daughters, my two gorgeous women from my sacred womb. And to all the other beautiful Melanin princesses who are reading and will read this, to their mothers, Queens, Regal, beautiful in Melanin skin.
When you meet your glove, don’t let anyone tell you it’s not for you. You know it in the bones of your fingers, in your skin, in your heart, in your toes which will curl, in your hair which refuses to straighten. He’s the one. Don’t wait, don’t put it off, what on earth for? Shhhh….. let me tell you something..
We’re of the earth, we can stand in the sun on a noon day in January and feel the joy of the sun on our full faces. We don’t wear hats, we’re not frightened by that orb in the sky, we know it, our bodies know it, we thrive in Africa, in this air, and soil and dust and mud, in dry hot stunning spells and in the torrential storms where water takes over the our entire world from dark wet howling wailing night to cold drenching day, Africa of vast open spaces where wild animals roam, Giants of the Earth, the Elephant, the Giraffe, the Rhino, the Hippo, SIMBA!! - beasts so large, they defy the mind when you see them, they’re untameable. Shhh…. Can I tell YOU a secret? You’re untameable too.

Take you out of your free territory and dump you in a box,
 … and you’re as sad as those maimed creatures,
 in Cincinnati Zoo.

..‘umewekwa box’ they sneer, ‘umeingizwa kwa box’ - killing the tangible delight you held and tasted, when he found you - yourself in his form. So you run, because they’re killing the light airy spaces, you’ve climbed out of the box, they’re trying to put you back in it. Nail it down. Bury you in their contained Matrix lives.
But we believe the reality of the box and doubt ourselves.
Too good to be True?

The African saying is,
“If it’s so good, it must be true”

Learn yourselves my darlings, and I’m going to tell you something else.
That man, who tells you you’re gorgeous, believe him and don’t doubt -  don’t be like a hag, arguing about anything and everything and making a fuss over nothing and everything. A hag is an ugly creature that comes from the far North East and has no place in this vast untamed land. Who are you? You’re Princesses of the land. And your mom? She’s a Queen. Who is the King? Did you all believe in that lie of the White Queen in the story ‘Alice in Wonderland?’… “…off with his head!” she’d scream, yet she was the Queen of Hearts?
That’s NOT our story. Don’t ever, ever, when your man gives you his heart, don’t cut your man’s head off – that’s his brains. And eyes. And mouth, nose and ears. He knows you by thought, he sees your beauty, your natural self with his eyes, he kisses you deeply, loves you with his mouth and knows your scent with his nose. When you have his baby in your womb, he’ll press his ear to listen to his child within your belly. Don’t cut his hands off, that’s how he’ll feed you, don’t cut his feet off, that’s how he’s going to go out and look for work.
The African man has few words to others. With his wife, if she lets it be, he will giggle and be him –behind the closed door. African Queens, do I say true? In public, he will be stern, forbidding, a judge, a leader, King, Magnificent, Beautiful. Behind closed doors and curtains, he may tease you, run around with you, or the kids, tickle them, do all those ‘foolish things’.  My son hugs me repeatedly at home. I’m cooking in the Kitchen and he walks in and silently hugs me. Finds me in the sitting room, sits with me and holds my hand, kisses my hand too if I’m teary. But in public? He’s all cool and dashing and ‘chilled-out’, my 5ft11 Prince.. you get?
But we often don’t ‘see’ this man when he says, “I wish to love you all my life”. We often do the ‘unAfrican’ thing, and listen to ‘gossipers’ and ‘rumour-mongers’ and ‘spiteful others’. Always they come in the form of an angel of light “…but what I’m about to tell you is good for you, don’t get me wrong..”
My Melanin Princesses…. Hush. Shhh….Did you know that Shaitan is often described as a ‘Lightfilled white robed seductive being’? He’s neither dark nor ugly..
Even if I, as Queen, as writer of this that you’re reading, say ONE bad word about your man, your glove – it’s one too many. Listen my beautiful daughters - if you’re told ONE bad word about your glove, it’s one too many. Don’t throw the glove. Put aside the speaker of the words…Look at the stars tonight, are they all set in a straight line, do they all twinkle and sparkle in the exact same way? Yet in their clusters and strange shining they’re majestic and beautiful and enthralling. So too is a man’s love, strange, majestic, beautiful and enthralling. Let him do his magic with the help of his God. Why cut off his head, his hands, his feet and leave, in it’s place a mutilated torso that could only SIT there? Because as women we have words, and our words are rich and alive – we’re Melanin women, so what we SPEAK gives birth. If we bless, it’s blessed. If we curse? Oh my - Horribly so, horribly so. In our right hand is life, our left is death, which will you choose? Only we, the melanin woman, the African woman - have the Mitochondrial Eve gene*.
My daughters, my Melanin princesses,  watch your words, your words to your man, your words to your daughters and sons. Your words to your mother. The Mitochondrial Eve gene is the gene of creation. Of the gods. So alive and rich and powerful are our words that we have been commanded in the wisdom books, “It is better to be silent when angry”.  Don’t speak in anger, hush baby….Shhhhhh!
Let him love you, this glove, let it fit, don’t look for the ‘what if’, there really isn’t one. Nothing is built in a day, even that glove took a while to make.  If this glove fits, don’t let anyone tell you it’s not for you, this glove, if it fits and you feel like you’ve come home, it’s like you’ve met yourself in him. …. When that is real, when the sun shines on you and you’re humming and vibrating and all so alive and sparkly inside, when your heart dances a triple beat when he calls, or when he says something stupid and you laugh for a delicious while.. don’t let anyONE tell you that he’s not the person for you.
A short tale about Time. When you go shopping for that shoe, that teaspoon, that spice, why? Because you need it on that day, or week, as an ingredient for a dish you want to cook, or the shoe - for a special occasion. What if you went to the shop, and saw what you were looking for, and picked it up, and the shop owner, the attendant, the whoever, sauntered over to you and said, ‘hey… umm… please put that back. You see, I know you want it, but let it stay there a while longer so that others can see it, but we’ll mark it as yours. Yes, it’s yours, but let a few other people see it, come back…. Hmmm… in 6 months?’
Shhh – listen Princess, don’t squirm -  It’s the best I could do to bring you off the top shelf of the mental rack. Who says when the time is ripe or right for you and your man? You may meet him today and someone suggests you should hang out for a while and meet others… I’ve never really understood that shit. If you find whom you want, why you dragging it out, playing hard to get? We’re graceful Gals. If it’s no, it’s a straight up no. If it’s yes, then get in there and start the process of laughing and living with him. Why you waiting? Live today as your
Last.
Don’t take back to him, or to anyone for that matter -  the hatred of another. Don’t carry it back oh no! It’s not, never was a Melanin act, it’s ‘taught’ do you know that? We would walk bare foot in the earth of our gardens and get mud or sand [inbetweenourtoes],  or touch trees or lie under clouds in the savannah and shout to the gods. We would look for water and immerse ourselves in running streams or oceans, today in swimming pools or private bathtubs or drench ourselves under cold showers to remove the toxic burn of poisonous words from our souls. Why would you allow yourself to be a VESSEL that carries a special kind of hatred and putrid death, from one person to loved ones, to your (g)love? Because words that do not heal and give growth do the opposite - they kill and destroy. No no, don’t be a CHAMBER, a vessel that carries death to another, the one whom you love? Why care what another thinks of your LOVEs? It’s non, absolutely non of their business. Ever - So Don’t. Carry. Death.  Don’t be a Messenger of Death. Ever. Just don’t. Take it to the trees, to the sky, to the grasslands, to the streams, rivers and oceans. Stand in the rain and scream it out -  It will find it’s way back to the source - that’s the job of the earth, she has the ability to recycle bad back to good. My daughters, melanin Princesses reading this -  don’t be lied to. Just one drop is enough poison. Taking just ONE accusation back to him is death. See our men’s weapons. A single bullet. An arrow tipped in deadly poison. See a snake bite, the sting of a bee, the bite of a zika-mosquito. You think you, the African woman who has the original DNA of the HUMAN RACE within your rich, lush ovaries, you think one word from you won’t kill? Take it from me, it will. It plants a dangerously mutating seed of death.

“Why is she listening to that rot, why is she THINKING/Meditating on that rot?” he will whisper his grief, not to you, but to his God, and trust is a hard thing to rebuild. Be wise Melanin Princesses and Queens, be wise.

‘The calabash that holds the beer to ferment,
you cannot use it for the goats milk –
the milk will sour’

Don’t look for the faults my beautiful girls, a glove when it’s new is beautiful. As it grows older it may begin to tatter, but it’s still YOUR GLOVE and will keep your hands warm – if you begin to pull at the threads to see the workings, you may be left with just one very long thread and no glove.
Don’t look for the faults my beautiful girls, let him always be your HERO. And he will be. Don’t compare to other gloves, no… that’s not African, we take what is ours for OURS. Why should we make notes? That’s private shit. I’ll tell you a secret, right there is where discontent begins, the nasty seed that grows alarmingly quick, a weed that chokes, a foreign object stuck in your throat – DOCTOR DOCTOR, you shout, He’s choking to death on a tiny fishbone!
To my daughters from my womb, to my other daughters, all beautiful princesses, and to all Queens. Let us be:
Magnificent in beauty, in thick thighs, wide hips, big bums, plump lips and CURLY WILD hair;
Fiery, with love of OURS – husbands, sons, daughters, sisters;
Graceful. in speech, in our beautiful lilts and strange accents that make you lean in closer to listen, graceful in work, in our walk – a slow graceful sway of the hips – stop marching, you’re not in an army.
Queens and princesses – be generous in Love. In Laughter. In Life.
And finally, be REGAL. After all, you’re a Melanin Princess, soon to be a Queen. This then is your inheritance. Don’t loose it, don’t sell yourself out, or sell yourself short;  grow into your self, make your HerStory.
 

Nyakio N. Munyinyi for the XpenSieve Report© 2016


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* SideBar: Scientifically, the African black woman [melanin skin] is the only organism that possesses the mitochondrial DNA that has all variations possible for every different kind of human being on this Earth (the African, the Indian, the Middle Eastern, Pacific Island, the Eskimo, Native American, Samoan – The Island people, Aborigines, Japanese, Chinese, Albino, The European) When the DNA of a black woman mutates, all other types of human beings come about. You can research this topic & it is true. This is called the “Matriochondal Eve Gene” and is found ONLY in BLACK women.
Out of the Black Woman, it’s MUTATED. Get it? The original PURE gene is the one found in the AFRICAN WOMEN.


Sunday, April 10, 2016

A Muslim Mothers Fear


Disappearing Youth. A Muslim Mothers Fear.
It's real yo'all... it's real

I’ve never felt so vulnerable and afraid.
The corridor was dark. All the doors were closed shut. No light poured out from the slats above the door. It was dead quiet. I was inside the belly of #Kasarani Police Station. And that’s when I realized I was in deep trouble, and the voices in my head began to shout out real loud:-
“Girl, the Battle doesn’t belong to You, Give it over, give it over… “, and the duas and prayers began tumbling out of my mouth in silent, but urgent whispers.
My girl, my daughter, was in a cell, somewhere in Kasarani. I knew where, because she’d called me, screaming, “…come, come to Kasarani, they’re taking us to Kasarani..”,  she kept saying, until the phone went off.
So I got into my little bug, and drove, blindly, manically, wondering wtf, straight to Kasa. It was 7:33pm. I’d spoken to her earlier in the day and we had a dinner date, she was going to come home after her 7:20 lecture. Not many people know our private life, so I’m telling yo’all, I have RELATIONSHIPS with my adult offspring. We have dinner at least daily, to catch up and ‘bonga’, chit-chat, laugh and bond. Then I either drive her back to her hostel in USIU, or she takes a long moonlight walk…
So when she first called me at 6:58pm that Thursday, I honestly thought she was calling to confirm our dinner. It’s routine. It’s so fucking routine, that I simply hit the green accept button, and already had a smile on my face that was wiped out by the shriek which rent the air, “Mom come to my room now! The Cops are here, the same ones that took that guy, the Kasa Cops! They’ve come with GUNS, mom… cooommmeeeee!!!!”
I heard GUN and froze.
Then my brain went into warp speed and I put 2 n 2 together, and when it clicked, I became very very scared. The previous month, she’d reported what she thought was a strange act. On her way to class, she saw 2 men emptying the wallet of a student she knew was not of Kenyan Nationality. He was then forced into a car that drove off in yes - a cloud of dust. Terrified and concerned for the Student, she went to the USIU security and told them, hey, I’ve just seen a USIU student put in a car forcefully that then sped off. They were shocked, and knowing the caliber of students that study in USIU, told her to report to Head of Security. He wasn’t in [It was late, around 7pm..] so the Security team escorted her to Kasarani Police Station where they reported the occurrence and were given a number from the Occurrence Book.
Let me tell you something about that Occurrence Book.
That BOOK is deep. It’s a deep book that records FACTS. With an OB number, you’re KING. Or QUEEN. Because your statement has become FACT. If you DON’T have an OB number from a police station you may as well be writing fiction …. Your statement doesn’t hold a drop of water. Period.
So, the unknown person was reported as “unknown male forcefully put in car reg no. XXXXXXXX, TIME: PLACE: DATE”.
Thinking no more of it, she continued with her studious life.

I can see the cogs in your minds turning round about now….

Yap. Mine too. So I drove, prayers spilling silently from my mouth, phone in ear, dialing everyone I knew, I’m going to Kasa, they’ve taken my daughter, not sure what is going on, but she’s with her friends.
I got to Kasa at 8:06. Parked, rushed to the reception to find my daughter and 2 other girls being frisked by a surly, angry female plains-clothes. She kept hitting and pushing the 3 girls, shouting at them. The girls weren’t exactly silent either, shouting back in sailors language that would have made my ears pop but instead were replicated in my mind. WTF… Like really? I stared. Mute. One by one they were body-searched, cell-phones confiscated, shoved and pushed towards the cells. But my daughters’ wild eyes calmed down a little, in relief, when she saw me. Her eyes got wetter, she said, “Mom”, in a little girls voice, then turned to her friends and said, “It’s okay now, my Mom is here”.
Crap.
Me?
Sigh….
Shoved, pushed, woman-handled, the cop thrust them one by one through the door that led to the cells, then shut it with a clang. She came out to where we watus stood. I looked at the short sullen girl in front of me and asked, “..So … now what?“
She asked, “…what what? Go home… we’re keeping them for the night…”
“For what crime?” I asked.
“Mama, skiza… enda numbani. Rudi kesho. Hawa waStudents watalala hapa”.
“Fine. What’s the OB number…”
And she looked at me, ice-cold dark eyes; and a horrid slow smile spread on her mouth but that parody of smile didn’t get a foot near her eyes.
“Ask at the desk – there..” she pointed one way, and turned around, showed me her back, walked away in the opposite direction -  outside -  into the cool dark night.
Standing alone.
I turned towards The Desk.
I was scared as fuck. Alone in Kasa, asking for the OB number because my daughter and her 4 friends were in cell, and the cops on duty were stone-faced.
Si sisi tuna-andika OB, that’s the arresting officer to do….,” I was told from behind bars at the Desk.
So, where were the arresting officers?
“That woman you were talking to”, I was told.
Crap.
I went outside.
She retorted rudely, “It’s not me, why are you talking to me, go talk to my boss.”
I went back to The Desk. Where’s her boss?
Cute male cop looks at me and vomits the words, “Office No. 3” and points to a corridor. I walk down that-away.
The corridor was dark. All the doors were closed shut. No light poured out from the slats above the door. It was dead quiet.
I was inside the belly of #Kasarani Police Station.

I couldn’t find The Boss.
OBVIOUS..
Yes, yes, I can hear you shouting it loudly in my head.
I knew I wouldn’t.
But how to fight the system?
I tried the lock. So they wouldn’t say he was inside in the dark. The.door.was.locked.
I walked back to The Desk. I asked them, politely, He’s not there. The door is shut. What do I do?
They pointed to a bench. “Kaa hapo. Subiri
Did I have a choice?
Nope.
So I sat.
And sat.
And waited.
And waited.
Commotion. Drunks walking in. Cops with guns bringing in criminals. Matatu touts, pokoz… men shouting, cops shouting louder, nyamaza! Ingia hapo! metal doors clanging shut every few minutes, people reporting stuff at The Desk… voices, loud, commotion, incessant noise. A female cop comes and stands near me...”I’m looking down, her shoes are so bright and polished… “Mama… uko kwa line?” I shake my head.. “haya, songa hapo mwisho…” I get up and move to the end. The line gets shorter and shorter. Every man that passes, I ask the cop behind The Desk with my eyes… is that the boss? He shakes his head. And the answer is No.
No.
No.
The line gets shorter.
And shorter.
Miss Sullen Cop saunters past. I rush to her. Where is the boss? I asked. She sniggered… Mama, nilikwambia, enda nyumbani…
I shake my head and went back to the bench.
The line got even shorter.
Then I was the only one on the bench.
I was alone.
And I got very scared. So I called a ‘peoples’, do you have a ‘peoples?’ I do. You should. He makes stuff move & shake, so I called, and spoke a mothers words of fear down the line;
Asalaam Aleiykum… they’ve taken my daughter, but they haven’t recorded it, and they’re telling me to go home and come back tomorrow….”
“…. Sister, Don’t leave! Sit there. We’ll work on this…!!”
What happened was, a simple hash tag on Twitter was started.
#FreeNoni
And the calls began to flow in to my phone.
Where is she, where are you, why hasn’t she been booked in, don’t leave, demand your rights, you CAN’T LEAVE, we’re going live on air, where are you again? What’s her name, who are you…. 

Let me say this.
Boss showed up.
Wewe ndiyo mama wa huyo student USIU?’ he asked, standing infront of me but not giving me space to stand up. Intimidating tactics. No. It wasn’t going to work with me.
Yes. I stared up at him.
Njoo..
I followed him to his office. Some girl and a young chap behind me. I asked them, who are you, she replied, ‘Xxxxx’s cousin’.
“USIU?”
“Yes”.
Phew. Strength in numbers. Little did I realize they’d turn on me like a pack of hyenas.
We went into the office. The boss asked us.. who took this to the news? We looked at him blankly.
… So, we have to book them in, but you know, we didn’t have to… you could just have asked us what to do. They’re drunk and high…", The Boss man in a Kenyan-flag cap says.
Drunk? My mind screamed, DRUNK?? MY DAUGHTER DOESN’T DRINK!!
Alarm bells began to go off in my head.
My phone rang, I recognize the caller. Relief..
“…Nya, where are you? What’s happening…”
I walked out.
“… with the arresting officer…. He’s head of something…. “
“…where are The Five, people are asking….”
“…in a holding cell.” I replied.
“… which station?”
“Kasa”
“Chick. Are you sure? Because, no they’re not. We’ve been calling Kasa, and the answer is they are NOT there, they’re not in the OB, they’re not being held there.”
“…let me go back and listen to what the arresting officer is saying…. I’m IN Kasa, they’re here”.

I hung up.
Fuck.
My heart. In my throat.
This effin’ system.
No.
No.
They’re here. My daughter is in the holding cell. The Five cannot be just disappeared.
I went back to the Boss.
Found him shooing out the other two.
Wewe mama, uko kwa Social Media?
No, I took a phone-call. And my phone is almost dead. I’m not on Social media, I answered, politely, my friends yes, not me. Serene looking, mind in turmoil, I turned to TheCousin. What’s happening, I asked?
Dunno…
Nyinyi, rudi Front Desk! Tokeni hapo! We were shooed out to the front desk. Sat back on the bench. Time dragged. It was a hot night. I sweat under the hijab.
Commotion.
[My stomach growls]
My phone adhan goes off.
What, it’s already Isha? I felt like I’d been here for hours.
1% charge. Phone blinks irritatingly.
I begin to switch my Sim card from Phone Dying to Phone Spare.
Commotion.
“MOM!”
I look up, The Five are out.
“Stand here! Get in single file. March. To the office!” Sullen surly female cop is barking instructions.
I notice another man. Huge.
Cap on head. Looks like an aging overweight basketball player down to the jeans and upmarket sneaks.
In the commotion I slip in towards my daughter. She wants to cry, I tell her NO. She grapples for my hand, holds it tight.. “Mom, I’m scared…” she says, eyes wild. “shush” I soothe….
Heart in mouth.
Mouth in Heart.
Sullen and Surly, the female UC notices us holding hands, shoves my daughter. I tell her, hey, stop.
But apparently, contact with prisoners ‘…isn’t allowed’.
I let go.
They enter the bosses ‘office’. The door is shut on us. Wtf. I open it. Surly Cop, hostile: “Mama, ni nini?” I want to know is all, I said, I’m the mother. Cold annoyance in her eyes. Mama wa nani?
But I’ve TOLD HER.. sigh, I repeat and point “Her”
Sawa. Ingia. They relented. Then began taking fingerprints. Writing names in a book.
What are they doing??? I asked air....
“we’re TAKING FINGERPRINTS and writing the names in the OB..”
“What CRIME are you taking the fingerprints for…?”
“Mama… Una swali nyingi sana. Usijali. Si tumewashika? We’ll tell you later..”
“Umm…. No, please, tell me now”.
“Why? Why do you want to know?”
“Because I’m the Mother… I have a right.”
“We have arrested them. These are BAD CHILDREN. We have a right to take them off the streets”.
Streets?
Warning bells go off in my head again…
“Streets?” I ask….baffled….”you went into my daughters ROOM in a hostel”.
sasa Mama, fanya hivi. Wewe toka inje, tumalize hii kazi. You have too many questions, let us do our work….”
Out nii nja.
FUCK.
Back outside on corridor.
FUCK.
Phone rings.
I fumble, grope for it.
Unfamiliar number...
“Hello”
“Is this Nya?… my name is DUDE and I’m with THIS.ORG and I’ve just called KPStation and they have absolutely NO record of any USIU kids, I’m sorry, they’re not there…”

Let me say this, I had no clue who DUDE was. None. My brain was still in the office that I’d just been thrown out off, and here’s some DUDE from some ORG. telling me that my child is not in the station?

“I don’t know who the EFF you are but don’t tell me that MY DAUGHTER IS NOT HERE”, I shouted, pissed as hell, “ I’m IN Kasarani, INSIDE! INSIDE! and MY DAUGTER had been here SINCE 8:00PM! I’M GOING TO HANG UP NOW!”
..or something like that, it could have been worse, I dunno. I was livid.
I disconnected. Walked in the night air. Became calm.
I went back to The Bosses office. Opened the door. They’re fingerprinting The Five. Good. I keep quiet. Miss Sullen lady cop glares at me. I stand beside the door. I’m amazed I’m NOT tired. The Five are finger printed. The three cops begin joking and laughing.
Huh?
I whisper to them, don’t give up. It’s on Twitter, #FreeNoni is trending…
Sullen Lady Cop overhears, ‘..what nonsense is that, what is trending? Haha…stupid..mutalala hapa
The Five wipe their fingers on a Skull cap [Marvin] that belongs to one of them. They’re escorted out.  You can go home now, Boss says to me, We’ve booked them.
For what? I ask.
Four counts.
What four, I ask?
Resisting arrest is one, and the other is they were caught with weed.
That’s two.
Fat guy hesitates….
We’ll add.
You’ll WHAT?
Mama, all this can go away.
I look at TheCousin. I look at FG [FatGuy]. I look at Boss. I don’t bother looking at SullenChickCop.
Boss looks at the ceiling, tilts back his chair. The office is quiet.
He speaks, authoritatively. “You know this is the Drugs& Narcotics  office. This is a severe crime. Very. If booked for possession, you can get up to 7 years in jail and the bond for possession is 200,000. It’s not good. If they go to court, they can be expelled from school. Not only that, but even if they get a degree, they will never be employed because they dealt drugs in University”.
Fuck.
Fuck.
Fuck.…. My mind.
Jeez.
Potato in throat.
Heart in throat.
“Is this about money, how much do you want?",  I ask, calmly.
We are going to be nice. If you give us cash now, we can release them quickly.
TheCousin asks, “Do we get a receipt?”.
My head whips to look at her.
Whips back to look at SullenCop.
FG speaks up.
“If you give us cash now you can go home with them”.
It’s a game.
I’m so in.
“Not 200, “ I interject, “… that’s not possible right now. ATM’s can give out up to 40k, but aki, tuko mwisho”.
They laugh.
Even SullenCop laughs.
I don’t crack a smile.
“100”
“50”.
“Minimum 20”
“I have 10”
Sawa, you give us 10 you go home with her now.”
“Mpesa?”
“No. Cash”
“I meant, where can I find an Mpesa?”
“….across the road”.
“My phone needs charge..”
“Charge it here”.
I did. Right there on Bosses desk. While we were waiting for it to charge, they got chatty. Made jokes. The Boss said, “Mama, wewe ni mpole sana, why is your daughter so hostile?”
[Dumb fucks, you barge into her room with a gun and no warrant, you expect her to SMILE AT YOU and sing “Welcome Back” in Harmony with her bhestees? You slap her across her face with your big meaty hand and you want her to SMILE?] But I didn’t know this. Thank God.
So I just said, quietly, just know it’s impossible for my daughter to be drinking.
FG says with a smirk on his face, Apana, you parents don’t know your kids.. You leave them there and you don’t know the rubbish they do..
Warning Bells…
Migraine coming. I pray to it, wait…please, don’t hit now…Sweet Brown's gif repeats itself in my brain 'I don’t have time for this..'
These guys had NO IDEA who my daughter was. Thought she wasn't Kenyan, thought she drank, thought I'd leave her there, thought wrong, wrong WRONG...They had no idea what she had gone through, her battles in life, her gains, her wins, her beautiful grades, her relationships with peers, how others looked upon her as a heroine who’d won the war against alcohol and WON, her brilliant future, the fact that she comes home to mama every TUESDAY AND THURSDAY for Dinner…..
I kept quiet, and they spoke. Especially FG. He spoke shit about her. Lies. Placed her in places where it was impossible for her to be, because you see, he didn’t know I could see through the crap. I let him talk. And talk. When people throw shit you've gotta let it DRY. Then you flick it off. Don't go smearing that shit when it's wet. I guarded my heart, prayed inside. Refused to let his nasty talk sink in, I had work to do yet, I couldn’t, couldn’t break or snap, no, not yet. I kept repeating, when you get home…
My phone charged. Got to 16%.
Darling Readers, I went across-the-road. The MPESA transaction is on my phone. Withdrawn from a dingy little MPESA joint across-the-road from KPStation.  I cried. I was in a hijabi. It was late night. Drunk men shoving me, calling me Waria, slurring to me through rotten breath and peering through unfocused moist eyes, poking my shoulder with dirty grubby fingers that that had probably held their parts when they peeed..poking my shoulder, seemingly concerned - what was I doing out at this hour? -   Luckily I was with a friend of my daughter’s, a friend who’d come all the way to the police station from across Nairobi. Unlike the phone caller, he’d insisted and barged his way through the Front Desk and had found me in Room 3. So I had a male presence. Thanks be to God. I withdrew 10K. As I received it, I got a text message from a strange phone. Message said, [We’re in the office again. Signed by my Daughter.] I received it at 11:01 pm, March 31.
I told the friend, ..'they’re back in the small room'. We got into the car, dashed back to the station with the 10K.
I could smell, taste, breathe freedom. I could see her and me, free, out of there.
Back at the station, Winter had come. The Ice was everywhere.
Nobody was talking. Jokes had vanished, disappeared, gone, MIA. TheCousin was abrupt, she said, we were thrown out of the room but The Five are back in there.
I tried to get in. They were being fingerprinted. AGAIN. The Boss man looked at me cold and hard, no smile. “Mama, umefanya nini? Ngoja inje!”
I went outside, to the car park, there were people in the driveway. Oh my, PEOPLE, at this hour! I wasn’t alone, they could only be the parents or guardians. But my pleasure was short lived, for there I was told, this is ‘baba so and so’. Foolishly, when I said hello. I received ice. He was cold. So cold. You’re the social media woman, he barked.
What? My mind went blank.
I’ve spoken to the arresting officer in there, let me tell you, these kids should SPEND THE NIGHT in here. We come back on Saturday to remove them. Why were they drinking and making noise? I am a TEACHER, it’s so hard to teach these stupid kids nowadays. You know, they don’t care, we pay fees, we pay money, we save, take them to the best schools, they DON’T CARE!! Acha walale ndani…”
“Umm… they weren’t drinking…”, I tried to tell him. He moved away from me, his arms crossed tight across his chest. “Who are you, the POLICE say they were found with bhangi and drinking and making noise and having a fight…” he said as he walked away. Foolishly I followed…
“Nooo…!”
“Who are you?” He barked, louder, he turned his back on me and faced the other parents, closing the circle and keeping me out.
“They were in my daughters room, they weren’t dri…..”
“And HOW DO YOU KNOW? I tell you, I’m a teacher. NO! THEY were drinking. They should stay in THERE AND LEARN a LESSON! I HEAR THEY’RE ALL DRUNK…”

Wtf is this nonsense, like really? Shouldn’t men protect women? I’m a parent, why is he shouting and being so hostile to me. Gaii. 
LS
Life Sucks.
Then you die.
Don’t ever wait for applause when you do good. Don’t.…
….. Disheartened, I drifted away to the Station and noticed The Five being escorted back to the Holding Cell. I tried to talk to them but SullenCop and the FG stopped me from addressing them with a terse, “…rudi kwa offici”, So I went back, alone, to The Bosses office.
“I went to get money from Mpesa, I have it here,  who do I pay, where do I get a receipt?”, I stated, once inside, but his demeanor had frosted over.
Forget your money. What did you do? Who did you speak to?
Nobody. My phone died. I charged it on your desk so I could withdraw MPESA. Who do I give this 10K to, I want to take my daughter home.
Well, he said, Ice in his voice, you spoke to someone and this thing is ‘trending’ all over Twitter. And it’s gone to the top office. Your bad. “Your children”, he spat out bitterly, ‘… have been BOOKED! It’s YOUR FAULT that their fingerprints are now on RECORD for Cannabis. Shauri Yako! It’s your fault! You shouldn’t have gone on social media you stupid woman.. umefanya makosa sana mama, makosa kubwa sana..”

Umm… I hadn’t gone on social media, personally that is.
But all #KOT did was demand #FreeNoni. Or release her. Simple.
That’s it.
People may de-cry #KOT, but when and if you need action in a hurry, #KOT is the fastest engine in Kenya. Period. I had NO IDEA what was going down on Twitter, all I knew is, my peeps hadn’t let me down and that this story was ALIVE.My daughter wasn't going to disappear.
But, ask yourself, why is it a recurring habit in Kenya, that when our leaders, or people in leadership, men who are in charge of ‘things’ that ‘matter’, why is it that when some of these bullies and predators get Light shone on them, when they’re in the Spot-Light, why do they begin to say the problem is the person bearing the torch? It’s never their actions that get them in trouble, it’s always the whistleblowers fault? Why do they shout, Dim the lights like I’m driving down a highway at night with my headlights in full beam despite the oncoming cars? Why do bullies say, kwanini una ni mulika?
My phone rang. I picked it wearily. "Yes?"
"Go home now, we have the OB number, The Five have been booked. Go rest".

I walked out of that Room, and went back to the Front Desk, and the female cop there looked at me and said, “Hongera Mama kwa subri yako. Shukran. Sasa, enda nyumbani upumzike, rudi kesho mapema. Rudi na chai ya breakfast, na nguo zao”.  Mama, congratulations on your patience, go home, rest, come early tomorrow, bring them tea and their clothes.
I looked in her eyes and almost wept, she was sincere. She couldn’t tell me more, but for me it was clear, thank you for holding on, your Five are now safe, they won’t be spirited away to another place at night, you can go, you’ll find them here in the morning, not disappeared.
I walked out of the Police Station past Midnight, on the morning of All Fools Day, 1st April, 2016.
I walked out the same way I had walked in over 4 hours earlier.
Alone.
It was going to be okay, for us.
But.
I cried, and cried and cried, all the way home, and I cried when I got home, for the countless mothers in this country, in NEP and other counties, who go to the Police Stations to report their missing sons or daughters and are told, ‘….we don’t know what you’re talking about’, And I cried, for the countless mothers who are later given their children’s remains, and told, ‘…. but, they were Al’shabaab.’ Because Al Shabaab means The Youth in Arabic. And yes, they die in Al Shabaab, in their Youth. That's a TRUTH. And we mothers cry and say yes, they died Al Shabaab. And I cried because of the men who can help us, but instead, they turn their backs on anything and everything Muslim, not realizing, the pain is Kenyan, the pain is human, the pain, is every PARENTS pain.


---------------------------------------------------------------
PostMortem: What I found out this past week:

When they were taken into Room No. 3 at 11:00pm, the Five were profiled. Height, Weight and Features taken. Down to size of nose and length of neck, nose, limbs. 
And also kept telling my girl, ‘you’re not Kenyan, you don’t look Kenyan’….
This is a young girl. Brilliant. In University. Being told by ADULTS IN AUTHORITY that she’s NOT KENYAN….
It’s sad. So sad.
 -------------------------------

  • 1.     If you or anybody you know is arrested, it is your RIGHT as a citizen of Kenya to be told by the arresting officers WHAT you’re being arrested for, and an OB number is IMPERATIVE. Foreign Students are granted Temporary Citizenship for the period of their studies and can also apply for an ‘Alien ID’. They look the same as Kenyan ID’s but the Nationality of foreign student is marked on the card.
  • 2.     The Arresting Officer must tell you his or her name if you ask.
  • 3.     Have a number or numbers of people you can call immediately and tell them the name of the POLICE STATION you’re being taken to. Make sure they follow up instantly.
  • 4.     If you pay out any money to the police, you must get a receipt. If you don’t get a receipt, that’s a bribe and whatever happens, happens. You cannot report it. [Caveat emptor].
  • 5.     Note: In the past year, more USIU students have spent a night/nights in #Kasarani Police Station than any other students in Universities countrywide, combined. There is an average of 5 students ‘arrested’ and/or ‘incarcerated’ in the Kasarani Police Station, whether written in the OB book or not for ‘petty crimes’, per week. It’s the new ‘hazing/baptism’ for USIU students.
  • 6.     Foreign students ‘caught’ with drugs are immediately deported back to their countries. The fear is real.
  • 7.     Going through a Court Case while at USIU for a ‘Bhangi’ charge is time-consuming because of the current courts system. It's a slow wheel, which, even if it's efficient, it keeps students away from STUDYING/attending lectures. Telling a lecturer that you’re attending a ‘bhangi’ charge means risking dismissal from USIU.
  • 8.     Every Thursday, without fail, there is an arrest of USIU students on some petty issue. Either ‘wrongful’ parking, ‘loitering’ or the all time favorite – you guessed it – ‘bhangi’.
  • 9.     Student hostels are barged into at will any time of day or night. There is NO PRIVACY.  The ‘officers’ say that they were informed by ‘other students’, ‘the caretaker’, ‘the guards’. Nobody follows up, but in this case, we did. No such ‘report’ was issued by ‘other students, the caretaker, the manager of NLP’s hostel, or by the guards. When asked, they looked shocked.
  • 10.  Plainclothes police around USIU dress in better clothing than some students.



See you’ll soon.
Keep Safe. Be aware. We’re in Kenya guys, we’re in Kenya.


Reposted with permission from A Running Commentary © April 2016

[Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to A Running Commentary© with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.]

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

A Tribal Girl’s Journey through the Seasons of Depression




1. Alcoholic Tings

[My first Sober, if not somber, Christmas]
 
I quit drinking 754 days ago, on the 30th of November, 2013 to be exact. I joined AA 3 months later - It wasn’t a radical decision I made to actually quit drinking, no, rather – I did it because I had no choice due to an emergency under-the-knife operation and having to swallow antibiotics and other drugs for about a month for healing. When the doctor informed me about requiring the procedure about a week before this that November, I looked at him askance, and almost told him to go fuck himself - December without alcohol for an alcoholic?
Dude…
But I restrained myself from insulting him… [I WAS going to be out COLD under him in the very near future…] and told him instead to book the “Theatre” for the 2nd of December instead of the following day, murmuring excuses about I-don’t-know-what, I hobbled out of his clinic and into the nearest bar – nearest to my home that is, for minimum-staggering-distance.
And then the Depression hit.
That’s the thing about Depression and this Tribe of Depressives. You just don’t know when, or how, the Depression is going to take a hold of you. It doesn’t, to steal a line from a fellow Tribes-Girl, ‘..walk up to you looking all dark, tall, handsome and oozing sexy n deliciousness, lean down, nibble my ear, and murmur in a deep throaty tenor, “Hey girl, you’ve got gorgeous tits, can I fuck with you..?”
No. Depression does one of two things. It creeps in slow and slinky like a tide at sea, actually no - it’s more like a giant 7ft tall by 7ft wide garden snail, creeping in and leaving a trail of disgusting mucus behind it, squashing the life out of you, filling your heart and mind and limbs with the cold mucus, slobbering and slathering you in a numb helpless dismay where nothing is right, nothing.
Or, like that day in November, it just comes up to you and hits you on the head with a 100kg sack filled with rotten tomatoes and nasty smelly eggs. And snail slime.
The pain is unbearable. It’s pain in the head, pain in the heart, pain in the limbs. And there’s the weight. Heaviness of the head, heaviness in the heart, heaviness in the limbs. And it doesn’t go easy. Non-tribe people say, ‘…wish it away’. Fuck them… I wish.
So I drank. Alcohol eases the pain, oh yes it does! It makes the heavy numbness leave you and you believe that you CAN-Do-anything including Obama. Most Tribes people of this ‘Depressive Tribe’ are also quiet, shy and retreating, but Drugs & Alcohol give you an awesome sense of bouncing manic confidence, and voila, you’re sooner tap-dancing on tables and you’re the freaking party girl of the night and everyone thinks you’re the gutsy-est person ever. It’s better than Facial Foundation for black-head cover-up, no lie.
A few days later I realized that “this wasn’t going to work” after I had just called my favorite boda-boda-guy*1, and asked him for a home-delivery of a Litre of Whiskey – straight to my 4th Floor Penthouse apartment. In a panic I shot off an email to a gorgeous friend who lived out of Kenya and he promptly informed me he’d come for the entire month of December, to baby-sit me, kind of, after the Operation. I knew he would, where nobody else had even one second to spend on me, so horrid was I, always in and out of depression, moody and unstable, and now this looming procedure to have inner parts of mine removed. But BusomBuddy wanted to spend time in Nairobi as well, so I had a ‘home-nurse’, so to speak..
But before he confirmed, I got worse news. My X who in my mind I called The Devious Devil, [but aren’t they all? X spouses?] … sent me an email demanding that the kids must go over and stay with him for Christmas, brusquely pointing out that he wasn’t about to take NO for an answer. The entire month! 35 – 36 days! And he lives over 1000 kms away, well 917kms to be precise, a 13 hour road trip or an hours flight away, problem being the flight empties bank accounts. I had no heart or energy to argue and my blue funk sank even lower, Depression dug his talons into my spirit and soul ever harder. In retaliation I sent off a quick retort that X should ‘take-them-then’ before the Sunday when I was due to check-in to the hospital. “I’d rather they were away than here when I get home,” I lied, so upset was I. Yes, Tribes people have a habit of shooting themselves in the foot. Always. Depression lies and tells you that you’re good for nothing, that you’re stupid, daft and dense [a contradiction, as Tribe members are highly out-of-this-world-intelligent beings], Depression whispers and convinces us that we’re use-less, bad at everything we touch – the negative Midas touch belongs to us, we’re failures, ugly, a nuisance, too fat or too thin, never perfect at anything, lousy at work, lousy spouses, lousy parents, lousy to parents, disrespectful, not thankful enough and just plain rotten. Circles of depressive thoughts that run through our minds over and over again in horrid leery cycles.
And yet at the bottom of my broken bleeding heart, all I really wanted was my family around me as I recovered, but admitting that meant I was weak-minded and needy, sentiments I detested and loathed with my whole being, so I practically shoooed my kids off, dropping them off at the Silver Springs Hotel Impala Shuttle Stage on a freezing cold forlorn morning, so they could overland to KIA and take the 540flight to Dar-es-Salaam from there, asking them to check if they had their passports once, then twice, then thrice, fretting and making a motherly nuisance over them, then went back to the apartment I called home; and I remember wailing and crying like a baby in the lowest of depths, wandering around the emptiness and echo-ness and hollowness of teenage-less rooms and praying and asking God to not wake me up from the Operating table, so hurt was my heart.
Well I’m here aren’t I, He didn’t answer that one.
I’d drank like a loony that whole week before the operation, stopping only 2 days before, and knowing it was a ‘semi-stop’ or ‘pause’ for at least 30 days, but also knowing that maybe, if I hit 30 days, I could maybe do 31, then 32. But at the pit of my stomach was the unbearable question lurking like a dark specter in the shadows, how would I manage the PAIN? The Depression? A few months prior to this, at the end of October, I had just completed in it’s entirety a 3 month course on Life Counseling. I was equipped, I had been told, to handle the whole wide world, sober and fresh. And here I was, less than a month after graduation - thrown into this deep end of whole-wide-world, sober.
My Bosom Buddy answered my email when I was already back home after the Op, to say that he would arrive a few days before Christmas, but I was alright, drugged from my brain to my toes in pain medication and nicotine, watching Series day and night, curtains shut, on meals that were boiled and tasteless – post Op foods. Yuk. But so high was I that I got 2 fully SHADED tattoos done in the same afternoon as well as the horrid act of chopping off my 5 year old-gorgeous blond dreadlocks. Just before he arrived, Bosom Buddy reminded me that he couldn’t stand the smell of cigarettes and that in order to be considerate to him, for him to stay with me, I would have to stop smoking.
Fuck.
Desperation.
Well, I could stop for 2 weeks, yes? No? [bobs head Indian style].... the extent of things people of this Tribe do…. so for 3 weeks, I had no smokes, no alcohol. But I was still on those prescription painkillers, and let me tell you, those things give you a high that’s most definitely not legal. Still, somehow, that’s how I spent my first Christmas ever, SOBER. I won’t lie and tell you it was all rosy and gorgeous because it wasn’t. I was half out of my mind most of the time in a stupid depression that I covered with laughter and silliness. And that thing of being without the kids during Christmas? It was painful and heart-wrenching and I cried every single time I took a shower – showers disguise the sound of the soft wails and hiccups, and tears can flow and mingle with the stinging hot shower jets of water, when you can’t quite tell if it’s the shower water or tears on your face, and you can let rip, bang the shower walls with your clenched fists or slap the walls with the palm of your hand and sit in a forlorn wet puddle on the shower floor, naked, wet and dark inside.
They tell you that Alcohol is all about triggers, and avoiding triggers, and knowing your triggers. That’s all true. What I didn’t know was that my trigger was Depression, simple. I am a total Tribes-person. So every time I felt Depression knocking, I’d go running and looking for a happy cure – a good long sweet alcoholic drink, the higher the proof the better - it would numb the pain and horror of Depression. Fortunately, I’d been warned off Fucks – not giving, or receiving Fucks. Now that was one weird convo, but it’s a story and part of Chapter 2, also known as “I’m Leaving, On A Jet Plane, Don’t know When I’ll Be Back Again”- title copied from the song of the same by Peter, Paul and Mary in the year, 1967. Nice Song.
Yap, so since I’d been warned off fucks, I didn’t go down that path, but many do. As a Tribe, we’re prone to get low. Lower than normal people. And a quick solution is – a fuck. If it’s a good one and permanent, excellent. But sadly, due to Tribal temperaments, they are mostly non-permanent, kind of like a flying fuck, always drifting and gliding away silently; try and get that. We’re not like normal people period. So, we get low and we get lower than normal people. And when we go lower than our normal low, we usually panic and look for a pick-me-up. So let’s say normal people go low at -1. Tribes-people and Alcoholics can go as low as -10. Then they look for a drink. Or a high. Or a fuck. Whatever, who gives a fuck… and they’re up there in Cloud9 with everyone else for a time. But then, the high wears off, and where do they land?
Yap. -10.
Everyone else lands on -1.
That’s a huge problem. And you can’t tell by just looking who is Tribe or who is an Alcoholic always, which is why the happiest people commit suicide and you wonder how you couldn’t tell. Well, we can, sometimes, but sometimes we’re also so stuck in level -8 we can’t even help ourselves. Sometimes it’s easier to stay drunk. Sober is hard. Really hard. It’s the strongest that survive, because you get to take a long hard look at yourself and ask those nasty truthful hard-as-a-teenage-girls-tits questions. And those tits – sorry – questions - were up there in my face come January 2013, after BosomBuddy left for places out of Kenya. I waved him off then went home to ponder over how I felt – SOBER. I remember playing Pinks’ SOBER hit over and over again loudly, dancing by myself in a happy-ish manic glee. And I reminisced and decided on how to glue the pieces of my life back together, and in the process discovered that many were missing. Not only missing, but the question loomed, did I really want them back? And learning about circles and moods and that the trick is to know that Depression will always come calling [it’s a Tribe thing, remember that] and the aim is to make the repeat of time-circles bigger, the low-depths shallower, and the times in depression shorter.
So I went into a nice-ish mood, a good one, playing Naughts + Crosses with my life and coming up winning most of the time. I read many a book and prayed a lot too – to a distant GOD whom I knew loved me though I felt he was far-far away in a Peter Pan World, somewhere beyond the Third star and Jupiter and sometimes throwing Angel dust my way.
What a far cry from my former ‘religious days’ when I was a devout Church leader.
But my psyche had been severely eroded by a DMV relationship and it’s mishandling by probably well meaning but uneducated church members who would say I wasn’t ‘holy’ enough is why I got beat and depressed. Actually, in 20 years, I didn’t meet a single Tribe member. I remember once on a sunny lazy afternoon, with bees buzzing in and out of open windows of her cottage, confessing to a fellow woman church leader, reclining in her home on a deep burnt orange luxurious sofa, sipping sweet cups of Masala Tea and snacking on triangular pieces of crust-less bread slathered with real butter, ‘Honey, I need a psychiatrist or some such person to talk to, I need to look for a ‘detox’ or ‘rehab’, I feel like I’m going mental…..” and she looked at me and laughed for the longest time, while slapping in amusement, her meaty thigh with the flat palm of her hand, a dull thick sound, and gasping, ‘YOU? A REHAB? DEPRESSED? ALCOHOLIC…? NEVER. Go take a looong drive to Naivasha or to the Rift Valley, clear your head.. you’re fine….”, as she wiped the laughter tears off her eyes with her sleeve.
I also remember, once-upon-a-time in my university-hood, when I had locked myself up in my bedroom at my parents home for about a week, depressed, morose and not getting or feeling any better, I looked for and approached my mother [who never had patience for what she called my moods]… but in desperation I asked her please, could I pleeeeease see a psychiatrist or psychoanalyst? And the answer was a resounding NO. “You’re the luckiest girl in the whole world, you’re just plain SPOILT by your father..” and she fastened her lips together in a prim unyielding pucker that reminded me of prunes, and that was the end of the matter. Well I kind of carried that forward like a math equation, right into my church going-Bible-thumping Youth-Leader days when I believed that my moodiness and low-lows could be cured by ‘Positioning the Engine of Smile” in front of my thoughts and plastering said smile on my face. Add a bucketful of shitty violence in a 20 year marriage, and it’s a wonder I didn’t kill myself via alcohol.
So there I was, praying to an unseen god and looking for answers in the books and notes I’d made the previous year while this studying the phenomenon called “Life Counseling” and really sorting my bits out, I mean like …REALLY. I was happy. Content. Serene. Sober. Cigarette Free too! I was giving lectures and standing on podiums in front of hundreds of women proclaiming the goodness of ? that I had stopped drinking, smoking and all fuckery… and looking absolutely amazing to boot!
My son had began to fall in love with me again, I could see it in his eyes, that look that he’d give me when I walked into the apartment to see if I was sober. He’d come up to me, reaching my chin, and hug me, as well as unobtrusively sniffing at me and my clothes to see if I was ‘drunk’… but months passed, and nope, I didn’t touch the dreaded drink and his love grew and wound itself round me like pieces of gossamer thread, very there, but oh, so fragile!
And January and February came and went and there we were, at the end of March, and one cold morning I picked up my vibrating phone without caring to look at the caller.
As Tribes people we know how to avoid certain calls. Either you put a different ring tone, or if not, you look at the screen for a long couple of seconds before you decide to put it back down, face down. Face down stops the incessant ringing tone, thank the gods for that invention!, but yes, we avoid certain people with a merciless manic glee, knowing that if you pick that call, you will pay with hellfire. Well, that cold morning, I was still under-cover-of-blankets in my darling warm bed, feeling all gorgeous and sexy, warm and oh so sweet. So I stretched out lazily, gently pressed the green button on the smart phone screen and said Hello in a sultry tone, eyes still half closed. The voice froze my mind. Instant brain freeze. And I couldn’t hang up, or be quiet, or pretend that I hadn’t heard. Fear galloped through my veins, followed swiftly by a staggering desire for an alcoholic drink to stop the fear, to stand up to the fear, to get courage to stand up to the fear, to stop the numbness, the seeping cold that had somehow kept away from me for so long. This thing about Triggers is that they’re exactly that, Triggers. No warning, it’s like KABAOW! And you’re a stinking putrid diarrhoea mess.
I think I wandered about in the apartment for a bit, worried sick that I would give in to this desperate need for a drink, but I soon gave up and called the same boda-boda guy, who was so shocked at my request for a home-alcohol delivery, he actually hesitated. I heard it clearly in his soft gasp. I also asked him to come with a 12 pack carton of cigarettes. Immediately after that I called a person who I knew was a strong member of AA. And wailed like a baby. Gone was my confidence, gone was my self control, gone was my total understanding, gone was my graceful delightful spiritual self, gone were the days of calm, here was Fear with a big letter F, staring at me with a rock hard unyielding face and I was petrified. How could I face this particular fear – face to face – sober?
Well it turned out I didn’t have to. The AA member dropped everything she was doing and came to set up camp at my home, and she refused to leave. She allowed me the cigarettes, but gave the unopened Litre bottle of Whiskey that I’d been staring at on the kitchen counter top with a quiet frantic desperation - back to the boda-boda guy as a free gift. She sat with me, held me, spoke to me, and told me not to allow myself to be overcome with fear, cooked me food, covered me up in a blanket to stop my fear shakes. And I began to understand that I had to let go of past hurts and not sink in the miry clay pit of depression, or if I did, to know that there was a way out of this concentric circles of endless consuming Depression – and that I could get out of it, and away from the Alcohol. And that I needed to talk to others like me. Like me? I asked my friend who said I needed to go for an AA meeting, disbelief and the neediness and desire of the numbing pleasure of alcohol ruling my tongue for the taste; yes, she replied, like you. And the next morning, early, she called for a Taxi Cab, and took me to my first ever AA meeting where I said, with tears running down my face;
Hello, My name is Nyakio, and I’m an Alcoholic.


The Beginning.




*1 boda-boda-guy – motorbike rider, who can be hired at a fee to deliver home shopping; mostly for fast transport in urban areas, or out of way places where public transport is not accessible.
 
 
 
Nyakio, for the XpenSieve Report© December 2015
 
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