The Reception Centre

         This small boy decide to make a 'run' for it only to be caught.

No one leaves home unless home is a sweaty voice in your ear saying leave,run away from me now,I don't know what I have become,but I know anywhere is safer than here-Warsan Shire.

I'm sure everyone knows that there is an ongoing war in Yemen,that honestly I didn't know much about apart from the fact that some people fled Yemen and came to Somalia either through the entry points at Bosasso or Berbera and it was this surprising turn of events,which I have been told is called reverse migration(I am obviously hanging out people who know some serious stuff about migration:-)) as always it was Somalis going to Yemen.I now know more about it thanks to google and in the unlikely event someone else doesn't know about it,it's  a fight between the Yemeni government and the Houthis.The president is fighting his enemies(I'm not too sure if they are enemies of the state or personal enemies), the 'enemies' are people called the Houthi,they were able to push him out of Sanaa(he fled), which led to the president seeking support from Saudi Arabia,who then formed a coalition with 9 other Arab states and started airstrikes and shelling...................................and the war began and is ongoing.

Berbera is basically in another country :-) and I cannot say much about it.But Bosasso is in the hood :-) so to say,and therefore a lot of times you would see/hear the updates on how many Somalis,Yemenis,Djiboutians have come in through this port and even a special task force was established and they would meet often and always send the minutes from these meetings and I thought what I wouldn't do to sit in one special task force meeting to see what people talk about when they are on a special task force, same thing for those meetings held at the president's place which is truly the house on the hill because I would love to see the Villa Puntland and there is no other way this could happen.

The road to Villa Puntland aka the president's residence

Villa Puntland-The closest you can get without an invite :-)

There is a transit/reception center in Bosasso and I figured it wouldn't be a bad thing to see it, so I asked a friend who has access(but as I later realized anyone can get in) can we go see and they say, I don't know what you think it is but its not a 'let's go see' place but after I insist they agreed and we went.

At the reception centre initially people were provided with cooked meals as they arrived but eventually they were/are being given cash so as to buy food and use to purchase other necessities they might have.They were also provided with beddings, water and hygiene kits.

The food collection area.

I have always thought (secretly ofcourse) that the refugee agency does not do much but in this case they have done good, because all the Somalis who wanted to go back to their original homes were provided with transport and those remaining at the reception/transit centre are being relocated to the IDP camps and new shelter had been constructed for them.They (the refugee and food agency) are in the process of closing the reception/transit centre.

These children making the best use of this visibility board :-)

Tahreeb

A section of the Bosasso port.

Tahreeb is the Somali word for migration and its migration across the sea what is called illegal migration but the peeps working for a certain agency X call it irregular migration because as I have been told saying illegal migration is de-humanising the people who do Tahreeb.

The first time I heard of Tahreeb was this time we were travelling for work from Garowe to Eyl because my job really is a never ending road trip(I joke) and normally there are not so many people who are walking on foot but this time there was a lot of men walking and I ask the guys who I was with, who these guys are and where they are walking to and they tell me, they are from Ethiopia and are walking to Bosasso, so as to cross the sea into Yemen and then either go to Saudi or decide to walk through the Sahara desert to other places in search of a better life.

I was in recently Bosasso and by recently I mean Jana :-) :-) such a beautiful town and when I was planning to go I said to myself, amongst all the things I will do I will try and find out more about Tahreeb and how it works.I got some information and here goes the Tahreeb story(from talking to one person),first a lot of the people who make the journey are Somali,most of the Ethiopians once they get to Bosasso see how beautiful it is and decide to wing it in Bosasso by doing casual labour at the port mostly.

Goods at the Bossaso port.

 The journey between Bosasso and Yemen is a 12 hour journey and it costs 70USDs.Its big business as there are boats of varying capacities the smallest being one that is able to carry 50 people and the largest is able to carry 200 people and,every night atleast one boat makes the journey.Its a business partnership amongst different individuals:the man who gets the people who want to make the journey,the guy who works at the port who closes his eyes to the boats that make the journey,the boat owner and the guys in Yemen who wait for the boats on the other side.

The people who take this journey include women who have small children so the guy who is responsible for getting 'customers',also buys a a lot of pampers and slippers because apparently they are the best shoes to walk in,if the 'customers' decide to walk  through the Sahara dessert into the promised lands.

All this in search of the elusive happiness that we are all searching for and if there is anything I have learnt happiness is in the small things,never the big things, like me and my mum eating cake and yoghurt at Afia milk and spending crazy amounts of time there because my mum eats slowly!!(and Afia milk is no fancy joint at all) but so much happiness goes on in that place,me finding food at my place that I had forgotten was there :-) and my nieces-Maryam and her charming smile when you walk in the room,Sokor who runs to greet you and her love for her small sister :-). All these you can get without making a journey somewhere else, to the unknown which we all now know is not too good.

A lot of Somalis have relatives living abroad,who probably sell the idea that other countries are better as they provide better education and business opportunities and this has to be why a lot of people take the journey because they want to be able to have these better opportunities and some even sell their property to send their sons abroad.What they don't realise is that they can make it happen without leaving the country,It may take longer but it will eventually happen (atleast I think so).Also the guy mentioned the way Saudi's are haseed(his exact word) and they will deport you back,if they get you and that the Yemen government was really nice and allowed a lot of Somalis to stay there freely.

of Hip Hop Literature and Cipher

I recently learnt there is such a thing as hip hop literature, what is the world coming to right? and because I know a lot of parents with really young kids ranging from a few months to 5 years their biggest concern when you start listening to loud/barely audible music is,stop listening/watching music infront of the children you'll spoil them really? and for others which is a more valid concern wacha kelele utaamsha mtoto.For these parents this idea will be a bad bad one but give them say 10 years and they will love it(maybe?).

There is a school, it's in another continent basically another world but still it is a school and it has a class called hip-hop literature and they use very recent music to discuss issues facing the society :-). If I was asked to make a suggestion in the curriculum( such big dreams :-)) I would say add it as a part of school extra-curricular activities because we are a serious nation that does not take education lightly and it can't be made part of the mainstream school work.

It will probably be the club with the most students considering how much music high school kids listen to and how much time they spend cramming them lyrics or is it dem lyrics (ha ha ha),calling themselves names of singers on their social media accounts, Abdul I see you, ati Alsina, disowning us like this, for a man you have never met :-). I'm sure teachers will have fun and will so dearly love this class because there is no way those guys who used to listen to Banjuka whilst seated on top of ladders outside the hostel could have suddenly evolved to non-music listening persons because its something you do not outgrow, but because you are teacher there is no way you'll sing along to Nae Nae with your students because you are the adult!!.In this class you can surprise them with how much better you can dance to Nae Nae than them ofcourse before discussing 'serious' songs like Diamond's Nitarejea

Eleza mbona Diamond kaamua kwenda Dar-es-salaam? (the role of men in the society, which is what by the way?)

Mbona wamekosa mavuno msimu mzima?(pass the message of planting trees and taking care of the environment)

Je Diamond alirudi nyumbani kutoka Dar-es-salaam (La hasha!)

Mbona aliamua kubaki Dar-es-salaam ?

Forget about using examples to teach,question and answer,presentations and all those old teaching methods there is the new method called the cipher which  guarantees no student will sleep in class,do assignments for another subject or simply day dream, but how do you use it to teach say maths and those difficult subjects is the big question.

If you have sometime listen to Kendrick Lamar and prepare to have your mind BLOWN!!

Taking Stock 001

I'm sure a lot of people know Miss Sharon unless of-course you are living under a huge rock............................. who is she you ask? Kenya's number one fashion blogger who at some point broke the internet :-). But just incase you do not know her, this is the lovely lass and her blog is called This is Ess.

In her blog she does posts called taking stock each month and she says this taking stock thing is a great way to pause and really live in the moment.So here goes pausing and really living in the moment.

Making:Plans to go to Bossasso before the year ends :-) just for the fun of it,to experience the heat the town is known for,see the famous port,eat Bossaso fish and find out if it's really true the sun rise at 4 am in Bossaso.

A picture of the port in Bosasso taken by a friend.

Cooking:rice and potatoes(pilau viazi) with pilau masala because how else does it move from rice and potatoes to pilau right?

Drinking:less and less tea.I am winning this tea addiction battle(on most days at-least)

Reading:Nice girls still don't get the corner office. 

Wanting:more than anything to be able to go for the Ted-X in Mogadishu,but what are the chances of this happening-zero!

The organizers of the Ted-X Mogadishu keeping it at 100!

Playing:Peak which is a game that is supposed to make your brain sharper,each day you play four challenges and it ranks you on four categories;memory,language,mental agility and problem solving.The challenges that I like the most so far are word a like and baggage claim,As for the game making one sharper I cannot say but its very easy and fun to play. 

Wasting:Nothing really.

Sewing:Honestly I cannot remember last time I sewed anything.

Wishing:I could find a way to recover all the photos in my phone that I somehow managed to make unreadable and now all I see is black boxes and question marks in place of the images.

Enjoying:Snapchat (really late I know) but I decided to check it out the other day and so far I am liking loving it.

Liking:Kai Davis's spoken word videos.

Loving:my new kiondo such epicness :-) :-).

Hoping:to kick-ass at work and deliver on my impossibly many tasks and even bigger dreams(read outcomes) of the project.

Marvelling:at UNFPA's pictures and stories against child marriages as part of their voice in the 16 days of activism against gender based violence. I have put the link here-http://www.unfpa.org/16-girls-16-stories-resistance

Needing:To learn how to make those sugar coated kaimatis and to probably cook nicer/harder to cook fancy food once in a while.

Smelling: Food as I am writing as I cook.

Wearing:Dirac

Following:A lot of stuff/pages/accounts,the newest thing being Zayn Malik and Gigi Hadid's affair(hidden affair?) to see how long before they break up because we all know they are going to right? (hides), the shame of admitting you follow celebrities and happenings in their lives.

Noticing:Time flies, just the other day Sokor was the girl on the left and now she the girl on the right, MashaAllah a full gashanti(not full but maybe 0.001% of a gashanti) long hair,pierced ears and all.

Knowing:That life is about spending it,as much as possible with your family and friends

Thinking:I need to start preparing for stuff long in advance and stop last minute things, as in I need to say my goodbyes to procrastination

Feeling:Grateful for all my blessings

Bookmarkinged:A course on Acumen called measuring social impact,which I now realize has written assignments.I was thinking it's those online courses you listen/watch videos and khalas but shock on me when they e-mail to say submission deadline is less than a week to go.It seems really nice despite requiring participants to submit written assignments.

Opening:I'm just focusing on finishing this and then feasting time :-).Plus I have learnt that I cannot multi-task.

Giggling:I'm not giggling at anything currently but earlier I watched the real househelps of Kawangware :-) :-),comedy at its best( for me atleast because there are certain persons who wonder why people love it)

I'm not fair but I am lovely :-)

How cool is that title :-) :-). It could have been I am dark and lovely but this is much better in relation to issue in question.

I have come to the realisation that I am really DARK or my skin just became darker, because in the last couple of months more than anything else, I have received advise to lighten my skin! from different people, friends,family(yes they refuse to accept that dark skinned people are part of them) and acquittances.Some even decided to introduce me to diana.

Person X: Do you know diana?

Me:I know like two Dianas, the Diana you are asking about what does she do?

Person:I'm talking about Diana the face cream.

Me: Ok.What about it?

Person X:Do you know it?

Me:Yes I do.

Person X:Then,why don't you use it?

At this point I was tempted to go into this what is wrong with you and can you mind your business rant (in my head I did) but what I said, 'I'm happy with my skin and how it looks,I honestly do not see the need to lighten it'. Instead of letting it go the person adds 'Rahma you know you are a husband-seeker(really like does this word even exist) and men want light skinned women.

The worst is that he even gets my name wrong and I think whatever, if you cannot say my name correctly your opinion does not matter and even if you did and this was your opinion still it did not matter.

Me:Even if its obvious,that the lady is using skin lightening creams like diana?

Person X: Yes, why do you think all this women are using skin lighteners?

I gave up on this conversation and kept quite at this point.

A while ago I was having the same conversation with a friend who is team light skin and she tells me; 'You know, you are such a nice person, but you have to try more beauty products because for some reason you believe in marriage and love/want children (she thinks marriage is over-rated and as for children,she is still thinking :-)) and men are very visual and before they know you for this nice person you are, they have to find you attractive enough and being light skinned apparently is a huge part of this being attractive thing!

I probably bought eyeliner and lip-gloss after this but lighten my skin, I just cannot convince myself to do it,I will be lying to say I have not tried it before, I felt so insecure and was worried when I met people I knew because am sure after they saw me they always thought she bleached her skin!!!

Sometime(ok all the time) I come home from the field,people go like the sun must be crazy there your skin looks burnt/darker and I have to explain the heat and why my skin is darker and they suggest that maybe I should try some skin lightening cream,after which they always say, you'll be come prettier, really? because beauty is only light skin.I refuse to believe this theory of black skin might be beautiful but light skin is the right skin because beauty is such a subjective thing and one thing cannot be used to define it.

Coffee stories

Give me tea(ok a lot of tea) and we will be such good friends you'll be surprised :-) :-) that's what tea is/was to me,my source of every day happiness. I have considerably cut down my tea intake for reasons like tea is fattening!!!!, sugar and milk is bad for you people…………………………..and  started drinking green tea which in theory is supposed to help in burning body fat and has a lot of health benefits, some months of drinking it, I do not notice any burnt fats but maybe inside all the fat is gone :-).

I love tea all sorts of it, apart from iced tea  and because I am me and I have a story behind almost everything here goes the iced tea story……………………………..One random day I decided to pass by my brother's work place and say hi, he decides  aibu za kupiga story kwa ofisi haewezi, apparently you just cannot finish your stories (5 minute story) at his work-place and the way I was prepared to  pretend I’m there on business if the need arose, I could pull a potential customer act very easily :-) inquiring about business products in case his colleagues passed by, but he refuses to trust my acting capacity. Lucky me on this account as  it meant free drinks and food(read cakes), I decided to try iced tea.I live in very hot places so cold town and very cold drink honestly my body faced the risk of shrinking from the sudden change in temperature and freezing liquid being fed to it and to make matters worse I sat directly under the AC!. I got so cold to a point I started shivering (it was that bad) and Murshid laughed so hard at me and my weirdness.

Coffee is the drink you drink when meeting up with the peeps who live in the city under the sun because  apparently they only meet over kahawa and never chai (why?) and since I have become a ka-small celeb, my village stories are so interesting people buy me cakes to hear them :-) :-) (if wishes were horses or in this case free cakes, I would be one happy person) this is not true(that I have suddenly become interesting to listen to), during these cake eating hang-outs, I have to find interesting things to add to conversations outside village stuff and therefore mostly I listen and laugh.Also I am a home-body and rarely go anywhere but sometimes I take the trouble and go to tao (always tao never anywhere else, again why??) to go drink coffee,eat cake and mostly laugh with some peeps that can make anything a story and a funny one at that, as a result of which I have had my fair share of coffees mostly lattes which are really just tea, then I discovered smoothies :-) :-) and the joy they can bring (life’s little pleasures) and basically bid coffee goodbye at said meetings and thanks to them, I found out what a Malindi Machiatto is :-)..........................There is this person on facebook that posted this picture a while ago and captioned it Malindi Machiatto is bae.

And sometimes I just understand things wrongly, so when I saw this picture  I thought that she went to Malindi,drank a machiatto and the said machiatto is Bae ( and I remember thinking what is this?? And how do I have friends who say things/people are Bae.This word is too new school ama? ) and that was end of this..................................Then I found out Malindi Machiatto is a drink that you can actually drink in Nairobi,see what living in the bundus does to you, you become the person who gains new knowledge from menus and its not bae, nothing close because apparently bae is the new equivalent of love.

I have some friends(1 friend really) who LOVES coffee and tell me things like iced Mocha is the real deal,when I told her my iced tea story and the argument of tea and coffee were always meant to be drank hot so why start this iced tea,iced lattes,iced mochas thing and at home chai ikabaki kwa birika nobody drinks it until it warmed, but she informs me that iced Mochas are meant to be drank in Mombasa where its hot and you are there feeling all touristy(her exact words) and because she lives in Coasto I'm sure she knows what she talking about, but what about all these people living in cold places drinking iced mochas are they committing a crime against those who came up with this iced tea and iced coffee idea??

Outside all this fancy variations of coffees there is Espresso!!!!! The real kahawa tungu.If you ever wanted to pull an all-nighter drink this coffee you will stay awake the whole night as in no sleep at all!! and you’ll realise that 1 hour at night is like 5 hours during the day and that they are people who are online at 3 am at night, you will see them online and will not dare chat because you do not know what's keeping them up at that time because it can't be to do random chats on WhatsApp.

Lesson to this story (trust me it wasn’t pointless) if you are not a coffee drinker stay away from black bitter coffee served in really small cups and especially if it’s in the evening and that iced drinks that are variations of drinks normally drank hot are to be taken in coasto when you are there and feeling all touristy.

Books and Poetry :-)

So 2015 I figured one of the things I would do is read a book a month. I have mostly stuck to this and so far I have read 7 books. YASSSSSSSS this is like 80% achievement, ok 77% but if you round this off its 80% right? And I still have time until December Insha aa Allah to make this 100%. There is the notion that is sold to all of us that the more you read; the better you’ll write (assuming you write for a living), you’ll be able to have intelligent conversations with people. I agree maybe you could do these but it depends on what books you read.

Most of the books I have read have this year are love/romance themed plots (nothing to do with me and my taste in books), I read based on recommendations so maybe I’m hanging out with the wrong people or does this say they think I need to learn a thing or two on love or worse they think this is what I want to read!. People why wouldn’t you recommend serious books, on topics like I don’t know maybe- how to move a country from a third world economy to a first world economy things that would make me more informed.

I wouldn’t say I can now write about love( I can maybe do two paragraphs of fiction-I joke, but I can write about Sokor and Maryaney-the two little gals who have stolen my heart  :-) :-) )  or hold intelligent conversations around this (I’m not too sure such a thing exists), I’m still unable to add anything meaningful to awkward conversations(mostly normal until it gets to the season of love part) when people talk about activities they do during the rainy season and they list serious stuff like increased sale of livestock, sale of milk, planting and then they add and it’s the season of love, So dry season is what?.  How easy is it to say ‘You know, I know these two people; Obinze and Ifemelu and they loved each other so much so, that they stayed for 13 years without seeing each other, no talking/any communication for most of this time and she came back to Lagos when it was hot and dusty (clearly Jilaal) and he bought her a cold drink and they picked-up from where they left :-) :-). Trust me I am an ‘authority’ 7 books is no joke there is  nothing like season of love at-least in these books I have read nothing of this sort exists’. Would they believe me and my arguments based on the stories I read, I highly doubt they would.

But all is not lost despite reading books that haven’t added to me being able to either have more intelligent discussions or write better, I discovered Warsan Shire and fell in love with her writing (so much so that anyone I know gets a daughter I’m campaigning they name her Warsan which means the one who brings good news).She makes me a better person, ama the line is; she makes me want to be a better person? yaani she speaks for me and to me through her poems.

With this said allow me to introduce you to the epicness that is Warsan Shire's writing, because of her I now have a books of poetry wish list-Teaching my mother how to give birth, Salt, Nejma and Bone. If high school literature did anything it made poems complicated as you’ll read poems and will be required to identify stylistic features used, hidden message in the poem and like all the time what I thought was the hidden message was wrong  :-( , therefore I did not like poetry much, because we all couldn’t think like the English teacher and her word (marking scheme?) was final and there was no room for you to explain what you thought.

Warsan Shire writes so very beautifully, below are some of her quotes that I currently like but if you (I'm assuming someone actually reads this :-) ) have sometime google her and I promise you’ll love her as much as I do, if not more.

Af Soomaali

During the Obama visit to Kenya and Ethiopia in July a lot went down (big things that I’m sure have been written about), including Kidero's grass that my mum tells me some guy formed a song about  and that Kidero says he planted the grass in preparation for the pope’s visit so everyone should just shut up.I watched only one of the Obama speeches because 44 minutes on you-tube over really slow internet cannot be easy and to make up for all the missed speeches I watched Julie Gichuru’s ariririri so many times.

Obama unleashed this line about people and their  identities....... 'And at that airport, as I was trying to find my luggage, there was a woman there who worked for the airlines, and she was helping fill out the forms, and she saw my name and she looked up and she asked if I was related to my father, who she had known. And that was the first time that my name meant something. (Applause.) And that was recognized.

Then there was this spelling mistake by the Ethiopians(one Ethiopian?)

 A spelling mistake on such a high profile visit was a huge over-sight, but that’s not the main point,have you ever met any Ethiopian who does not speak Amharic/Tigrinya/afan oromo or all, even the guys with PHDs will have a distinct Ethiopian accent and call me village but I’m worried for a lot of people I know who only know how to say hi in their ‘languages’ and the rest is just too deep for them to speak and they will sit in their houses and converse in English, and what worries me the most is peeps with young ones who they take to fancy nursery and KGs (this is most definitely a good thing) and talk to them in English at home (the not so good part).25 years down the line they might have those big degrees and fancy jobs but they will wish they spoke their language because I know a lot of people in this predicament including my brother(no fancy schools involved) wishes he learnt Somali because the big rollers that are in his area of work(Isli) speak Somali and there is no way you will tell an old rich man,Adher bank with us and convince them, when half the time you are telling each other say that again?  And he works with a really big bank and they expect him to bring in these big customers how? you ask, Taking them for chai and selling business products in Somali.

With this said I think that probably in the next 25 or even less years there will be a very big confusion in what language is my language considering the number of inter-marriages happening and people having babies with people from other tribes and cultures, maybe the kids then should speak both the language of their mother and father :-) or some hybrid languages say Meru-Maasai (Miss Sharon and Lonina :-) :-) ),Kalenjin-Kikuyu, Kamba-Kalenjin, Luo-Kikuyu……………………………………..

English is one of those things you’ll learn whether in KG or Primary school, it’s a must, wether you speak it flawlessly or with a heavy accent bottom line is you’ll learn it so why start when you are 3 years only.................So classes in own languages should be introduced ama?

Like I found out there are Af Soomaali classes.

Stay Weird

 

So about a week ago I turned a year older and probably this last year has been one of the most tearful years in the recent past for reasons that are best left buried (outside I'm generally very happy) but sometimes when I'm alone and allow myself to go into this dark places in my life,I don't know what to feel,I have spent many nights just thinking what am I doing with my life and the conclusion has been mostly...............'Rahma what is wrong with you you should be grateful for the things and opportunities you have' so more gratitude lists and all the others I want(think I want) will fall in place in their own time.Here is to things that I know now and weren't that clear to me before:

I have learnt when you are younger there is a lot of noise in your head and probably the need to impress but with time the noise drops and you realize there are very few people who you could truly impress and these ones will still be impressed by you even when you give your most incoherent thoughts/you are at your worst.So do not sweat the small stuff.

Death happens to people you know and love,it does :'-( ,at some point I thought it doesn't and that its only for people you didn't really know but some people that I spent my whole life with,loved truly and they in-turn loved me passed on, what remains is memories and especially of the last day you saw each other and the thing that haunts you the most is should I have hanged out more with them or laughed with them more, and that the term the living dead is real and you'll sometimes seat down and talk about them like you expect them to just come back the way some people go for a long time and never call but show-up and say niaje!!!!!! and tell you what went down and how much you have lost weight since you were last together.

The most important thing that you need to work on is your deen and your relationship with Allah because look at it this way he does not need you,so by keeping within what he wants is that you'll be the only one who benefits by going to Jannah and having blessings here and your struggles being made easier.

Whatever you do, do not chase anyone,if they are not willing to hang-out with you,talk and spend time with you out of their own free will, walk away, its that simple. Not every you like will like you back but a lot of other peeps will be happy to just be and sit in silence with you, therefore forget about those who you have to think before you say anything to and later when you go home you go over the conversations to think about did I say the right thing, that I have come realize is too much effort to put in friendship/relationship.There are things to work hard this include work and school but not friendship/relationships.

Keeping your word is key.I'm a procrastinator yaani over the years, I have perfected this art and that I would start working on some very important things at 10PM the night before they are needed in the morning is not below me,with this last minute you simply do not put out the best product(I'm using this word in the loosest meaning), therefore plan your time better and do what you are meant to be doing and if you need any motivation just remember even Beyonce has 24 hour days and she constantly delivers good music and being known as that person who doesn't keep their word cannot be a good thing.

That there are people outside my family that I will protect with all I have because they were probably supposed to be one of us but strayed and we met later when we had these identities of who we are but still we want mostly the same things and have mutual respect and understanding for each other(Hello Miss Katra :-) ).With this said your family are most likely to be the only people who'll stand by you in the event something happens both good and bad things so keep them close.

Most importantly do not conform to what society expects you to be stay weird(your own kind of weird) laugh at things that only you find funny,make analysis of people's pictures and watch random videos on you-tube and get into conversations about them, say what is on your mind and is reasonable and if you are me and take forever to understand things own that and accept that this is you and do not say yes when things are unclear :-)

Tea joint Stories

The view from the nicest tea joint :-) that is housed under a tree

You know the way you sometimes see people so much and you basically do not have any line of stories you could pursue outside how are you? because you haven't known each other well enough to know do I talk about serious stuff or do I just be my random self and talk about Miss Sharon and how she is killing it.As I figure this out, meet the truck aka my saviour, each time we go for tea which is everyday for about an hour, I think about who left it,why,why they never came back for it, why nobody took it, why its still here in this state and nobody is using it mostly, I discuss this with myself in my head......................so I'm sitting there not doing any conversation and the situation is not awkward me with my truck thoughts and them with their stories :-).

Tea is one of the things I love so when I visit people(those who know me well enough ) they'll give me nice tea or ask me to make the tea myself(it happens too many times) and generally we use big mugs........................what I do not understand is this small tea cups with no handle, are these supposed to be tea cups or for cold beverages?? but when you go to Rome Eyl do as the people of Rome Eyl  do and in this case sip your tea from this very small cups,that could easily be two gulps but I have an image to maintain so small sips :-) :-).

Sometimes we go to tea joints in the village near the sea and eat fish samosas with the tea go to the beach and take pictures :-)