Favorkhaoya

  The day before Thanksgiving Saying thank you is a word my mother taught me. My teacher reinforced the lesson with her ruler meeting my hand, and my dad showed it to me. Thanksgiving, on the other hand, is a word my pastor insisted on while quoting Thessalonians 5:18, which says, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Today, I have a new meaning for Thanksgiving. Ps: This article is entirely based on my experience the past few days and first-person accounts of information; kindly research further before quoting it or any of my sources. Have you ever read an article that sounded like a dear diary entry? This is it. This week, Charm was happy coz he got ready for church in thirty minutes. He was on top of the world, the kind that suggests that I was the reason he would get late for events we went to together. So, since Barney Stinson was my best character in How I Met Your Mother, I took that as a challenge. My high score so fa...

  So, it's 12.07 am. If our world was still the same as 3 months ago, you would be dragging me to bed right about now. I would complain how much you are a sleepy head, and you'd remind me I would love the head ad get if we went to bed. I would get excited and run to bed. Only to realize I did not refill the water bottle in the morning, you'd go get some just because you know I can't sleep dehydrated. By the time you'd be back, I’d be all covered up and you'd tickle me and I would laugh, laugh so hard that the upstairs neighbor would give me funny looks in the morning.   Btw that one time I went to get the orange hair dye she asked me "huyo mtu wako mpole ni mfunny?" It's 12:22 am. I would be lying on your arms. Looking at the ceiling board panting like a pregnant gazelle. You would wrap your hands around me and I would take advantage of that opportunity and attack you. I would win this round! I always won the last and first round; in your words,...

I'm going to try to be as honest as possible.  Part one of my article ,  Small Girl, Big America,  created some fear in some of my readers, and I am sorry about that. Please note that those were my fears on my second day in America, not a reflection of what I feel right now. I am pretty sure you remember how big and scary it was for you on your second day in high school.  It felt the same, but then it felt better after a while, right?  Anyways, just know so far, I haven't seen a gun, a serial killer or a racist police officer . When I do, I will let you know 😉 Sunday 6th October. My birthday was a few days ago. I turned the age that aunties start asking for you to bring them a son and uncles start talking to you in parables; lots of parables involving cows and boots. And my grandma has started talking to me about birthing hips and what to wear around their "husband." For the first time in my life, I had no plan for my birthday. Last year, it was my firs...

  One thing I have learned in California is that a car is not a luxury item! It is a basic need! My first week here, I wanted to buy sodas; I walked for 46 minutes! 46 whole minutes! I saw the distance from Google Maps was 8 minutes; I assumed 8 minutes’ walk. Little did I know the 8 minutes was time for people driving. Do you know what those 8 minutes look like? It was like driving from Kitale town to Kiminini or Karen to Ngong! And I walked! At the end of the day, I was exhausted but proud of myself. I promised to buy a car as soon as possible.  But since I haven't bought a car yet and I need groceries, I guess I have to find alternatives, no? Wednesday 5.31pm The mall I am going to does not close until 11pm. So, I can actually leave for the mall in the evening. My Kenyan side is struggling so much to reconcile the fact that going to the mall at night is okay. In fact, not my Kenyan side; this is more of my father's daughter's side. One day, I was taking him a...

Today, I laughed with my Uber driver! Do you know how surprising that is? Laughing with an Uber driver, a fully-fledged laugh! Not one of those laughs you have to be polite! No -not those ones! A hearty laughter! The kind that starts in your stomach, through your chest, and then to your mouth! Then it ends with a smile as wide as the river Congo and maybe, just maybe, a twitch in the eye! I had that today! For you to understand how significant a milestone this is, I have to take you back to my home country! My home county and my hometown. As a matter of fact, let me take you on a particular Saturday morning. Pinney had come to visit me that week abruptly. She told me she had come but didn't want me to alter my week in any way to accommodate her (her way of saying, I want to be alone in your place). When you have friends for as long as we have been, sometimes you know being a safe space is giving space literally! I did that faithfully! I went to work, came back in the evenin...