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.