P.W. Kimiri

Re-reading the side effects of wisdom teeth extraction and yupp, phantom pain is there…

a woman wearing a green dress and a gold necklace is sitting at a table ALT: a woman wearing a green dress and a gold necklace is sitting at a table

God is such a dad to me. Really asked Him to minimize my exposure to someone I could not avoid. Now for 7 out of 8 months, they’ve had to travel thousands of miles away. They’re happy to be away and I get to experience peace until the situation is fully resolved. Win-win.

This is not new or revolutionary for anyone who has been an immigrant or lives an observant life but I still get surprised when someone has two English names. At some point, someone made the decision to drop part of their heritage to assimilate or survive or whatever their reason.

I was seeing how being Indian and rich was fine to date a Jewish girl but Polish and middle class was also OK. Being black required you to be super smart, athletic AND rich to be at par. Asian had blocs FOBs, assimilated, and natural born. Same for the Slavic and African immigrants.

Between August 2003 and June 2003, I got a crash course on mid-west American culture and so many different cultures. Because I lived in the unincorporated area of an affluent area and tested out of the ESL track, I was largely invisible, giving me front seat to class and race divides.

Thankfully, I went to a well-resourced junior high school that required all students to be able to pass the standard US government test before high school. After school, for two hours, my homeroom teacher would sit with me and my fellow jjc and we’d learn the facts AND the nuances as she was Slavic.

It also never occurred to me that European Americans would have English middle names. I thought everyone’s middle name was from their dad’s or mum’s ancestry. At first, I thought, English middle names make sense given the Boston tea party and assumed everyone’s great-great grandparents were English.

Flashback to my first month in the US at 13 when someone pointed out that I would say “I went to *the* hospital/the mosque/the temple” but never “the church” because we only had one each of the former listed so everyone in my town in Kenya knew which one I was talking about. 🫠

Moving the to the US as a teenager was probably the best and worst thing that happened to me. My eyes were opened and my possibilities were now unlimited by the sheer moving to another country. But I also had rose colored glasses about a nation I left behind as I was not yet fully aware of its ills.

He was raised by a single mother. Never knew his father but is named after him. The family is pressuring the new wife to take his name. The name of a man neither one of them has met. People, what are we doing? Are we being serious? Why is his last name seen as his and not his father’s?

If someone dies as a result of you not responding to a work email, there’s a bigger systems issue at play. And mayhaps you should be looking for a new workplace.

That email-meetings job does not directly save lives. Take your leave days. Take your sick days. Turn off your work laptop on your days off. Turn off your work notifications.

It astounds me how many humanitarian colleagues worked on economic inclusion but did not have personal finance literacy. We spend a lot of time pouring out, but there’s little contextualization of into our own lives. And it makes sense because I only have it based on my parents.

If they are picking fights all this week, you already know why. Go ahead and make some alternate plans.

I’m competent at Salesforce but at what cost?

Pulling out a Bible onstage to make a statement then clamming up when asked to act like Jesus and posting your “neutral” side when you’ve had to rethink your response is well…a choice 🥴

He’s doing well now. Married, sober-minded and works with high net-worth individuals who enjoy the anecdote whenever we meet professionally and they ask how we know each other. He did not waste his youth and now we can laugh about it.

His parents charged it to the game and just said he could live at home but should never ask for anything past a need. I just asked him what side of the mountain his parents face when they pray because such patience to not crash out.

The following week, the dad decides to visit the admin offices to lodge a complaint because of the name omission. The house of cards come tumbling down. Thousands of dollars gone AND his son let him and his mum spend all that money coming for a fake graduation!

Parents are upset because they wanted to keep the booklet as a keepsake but they go ahead with the rest of the celebrations. All his school friends are puzzled that he’s also “graduated” but don’t say anything because all’s well that ends well. They assume he worked it out.

When the ceremony is over, the man just walks up to them and he’s acting like all is fine and gaslighting that he was there, they just missed it. Like he has the degree cover and everything because the degree will be mailed after he clears everything with the university.

Meanwhile his parents are in the bleachers looking at the convocation booklet and the man’s name is not there. They saw him walk in and waved to him. They miss their son on the screen because of course they are discussing amongst themselves what could have happened.

Come to find out man made a whole production. He not only did not say he he was kicked out, he pretended he was graduating. Got a gown from a classmate who was not going to walk because he needed to go back home. Then took his place in the line and walks on his behalf.

Man tells me that his parents had come for his graduation and were disappointed in him. I probe he nonchalantly says that he actually had been kicked out of school for not going to class.

OK? So they came to his graduation and found out he was kicked out. I’d be angry too.

The only living testimony I know is an unnamed family friend who came back from the US at the same time as me. I could not figure out why people (older folks) had some weird energy around him so I asked. Just making sure he wasn’t on the run.

Grew up being told that we were at risk of over population. Now we’re at risk of now having enough children. Sorry, personally I took the first warning seriously.

a man with a mustache is wearing a suit and tie and says `` yeah , you right '' . ALT: a man with a mustache is wearing a suit and tie and says `` yeah , you right '' .

Me: Pitching techies to create a version of a fitness watch but an anklet version cause frankly I prefer them
Response: Like an ankle monitor?
Me: You know what…let’s circle back in 2026.

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Kenya Power did it’s big one with the verification of staff. Now if only Kenya Police could take a page out of their book and have their staff standing out in traffic wear their badge numbers.

Found an irregular mole today. Also had some hair growing on it. Heart pounding as I begin to think about a dermatological referral, I gingerly touch it to ground myself that this is real.

Chat, it was chocolate with fuzz on it.

Lesson: scan your body after you eat chocolate lying down.