To be a Nairobian is a commitment because it is a city that teaches you to take nothing for granted. I sometimes think of Nairobi as a childhood crush that developed into a committed relationship and every time we meet after long stretches apart, a sense of closeness and attachment is restored.
Author: OP
Oyunga Pala is a Kenyan writer, curator and editor. This blog examines the texture of everyday Kenyan and African life and the challenges of modernity and disillusion. The writings commonly feature the struggle of the Kenyan male to maintain integrity in contemporary society.
A Maid In Europe
It is your first time out of the country of your birth. Your first time on an airplane on a trip overseas carrying a brand new blue passport. It had happened so quickly. As your mother escorts you to the Jomo Kenyatta International airport, she says, look at God and you cannot help but agree…
Raising A Pandemic Baby
Parenting psychologists generally assert that the first three years of a child’s life are foundational. How many fathers become absent in the early stages of infancy only to return bearing gifts and engaging in remedial parenting hoping to catch up on lost years over a series of fun weekends? Gabor Maté explains that children have an attachment need and in the absence of a nurturing adult to attach to, they tend to fill the void with a peer group.