The Murumbi African Heritage Collection.

Taking a selfie with the man of the house.

'On our first date I took her to the art museum at the art institute,I was trying to impress her,to show her you know,I was a really culturally sensitive guy and it worked! Giving tips to the young men out there'-President Obama

Have you ever gone some place and you become so so impressed until the expression on your face gave you away,No? Not many times?? then you should definitely pay a visit to the Murumbi African heritage collection and best believe your jaw will drop.It's conveniently located in town next to Nyayo house(what is also known to me as 'ile place ya passport', because villagers will always be villagers I guess) so you can't miss it, but be sure to go when you have a lot of time because there is so much to see and read.

Joseph Murumbi was Kenya's second vice-president who was an AVID art collecter and thanks to him we now get to see and appreciate all these amazing pieces he collected and learn about different African communities.There is this story about the first piece of art that he bought when he was in exile in Morocco (I am not too sure about the country but I think it's Morocco) and the seller was so shocked that an African man at a time that was so colonial, I am sure Africans had no much rights was buying a piece of art that he gave him it to him for free ☺☺.

There is so much show-cased from all over Africa but what you'll notice is that he had a soft spot for Lamu and the Turkana because there is quite a number of items from Lamu and the Turkana. Each item displayed has a note explaining it,therefore a crash course in history and culture is what you'll get,which is pretty cool if you ask me.

African Currency

Just before we went to this exhibition we were having this discussion on how money is the root of all evil and the way we should go back to barter trade but what we couldn't agree on was what exactly we own or have that we could barter with,if in-deed this impossibility could happen.Then these art pieces to explain african currency happened in my life and suddenly I figured all the beads I somehow own (Hello Maasai market) can be currency :-) :-).

Jewellery!!!

When you look at this picture,do you think Turkana? I am guessing no but as I found out,the earrings and necklace that have leaf like features are worn but Turkana women.

Everything Gold

Gold coins

'Gold is extra-ordinary,for thousands of years people have desired it and sought it out.esteeming it the most precious of all metals.It is a prized possession in all countries,in all cultures and in all ages of history,nothing compares to Gold'-The explanation card next to all the Gold items displayed

Silver

I am thinking when someone is getting married,one of the things they might have to worry about is what necklace will I wear,or should I even wear a necklace but if you were Ethiopian Harrar you will have no such concerns because that huge neck-lace in this picture is a wedding necklace.


The executioner

This picture of the executioner that brought about a long long discussion on; why the person who made it ,made it,why Murumbi bought it and if the items at the heritage collection were sold who will buy it and why.To cut a long story short we agreed some white person(I know this makes us look really bad) will buy it and take it back to their home and say the way us guys are backward but seriously though what do you make of this executioner brass piece? See I am becoming artsy :-) :-) knowing it's a brass piece ha!,going to exhibitions has it's 'benefits'.

Wildlife

What's an art collection in Kenya without pictures of wildlife right?.In addition to show-casing Murumbi's art collection,other artists also show-case their work at the Murumbi African Heritage collection and these paintings and cars are by an artist called Richard Onyango.

When the founding fathers were young

Julius Nyerere!

I looked at this picture before reading the caption and thought it was Uhuru :-)

If you haven't been to the Murumbi African Heritage collection,what are you waiting for,it's 150 bob only per person and believe me,you will be a different person after visiting it.

Nairobi Whispers

Nairobi evenings.

'One hand in the air for the big city,street lights, big dreams all looking pretty. No place in the world that can compare. Put your lighters in the air, everybody say yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah-Jay-Z's Empire State of Mind.

Nairobi is our big city and the place a lot of people go to; to study, look for jobs,visit and hustle try get rich. I am told if you are street wise it's your city but if you are not, woe unto you. For me it is errand town, because each time I visit I have these lists of all kinds of things to eat,see and buy, also people give me lists each time, because when you live in villages, Nairobi becomes your 'New York'. 

What I realize though is me and this city can be friends on condition that either of these two things happen; Nairobi slows down a bit or I learn to be more Nairobi-ish, since the chances of the former happening are zero,it seems this villager might change her ways just a bit and turn into a 'city person'. But Nairobi is really a village, a Maasai one at that :-) so it can't be too hard.

What makes Nairobi,Nairobi?, a lot of things but for me and on this particular time.......................

Celeb Town

Most Kenyan big-names live in Nairobi (key word being most not all), and therefore because this is their home chances are you might see some of them doing their normal every day activities.On Monday afternoon last week in the CBD I saw Wanjira and Joe Miano going for lunch (I think) because it was around lunch time and it was near Lonhro house which is their office.I also saw Harith Salim near Nation centre and here is the thing Nairobians don't care or they have just seen too many celebrities to even take note.People are busy minding their business not caring one bit about these celebs.Not even a back-ward glance to say 'Did I just see that person!'

The Natural hair movement

The Shea Moisture products in Super-Cosmetics.

Nairobi is listed as a natural hair friendly city which is a really good thing because it says more and more women are now more comfortable with their God-given hair. What I noticed however is not a big number of women are rocking their natural hair and I think I know why people are falling off this bandwagon, have you seen the prices of products to take care natural hair!!!!!!!!. On my list of things to get was a considerable amount of  natural hair products but I went to Super cosmetics and ended up buying the same products I currently use.The Shea Moisture line of products and Jamaican black castor oil have such good reviews online that they were top of my to get list but a conditioner for KES 2300 and in that small bottle, wacha tu, my current one works just fine.

Music and Matatus

Dela and H_ART the band's Adabu video playing in a matatu

The number 9's and their music eish!!!, the drivers are the official DJs and everyone is made to listen to what they love, luckily they are mostly good songs and some even have videos,like I saw the Thitima video on a Matatu and thought interesting and on the Sunday Nation I saw an interview of the guys who did the song, meaning the song is new and quite a hit, so commutes can be useful I guess :-D :-D. It's not all good music though because I have had days I almost got off a matatu because crazy loud music that you don't care for can really get to you.

Strangers

Nairobians have some deep trust issues, Try talking to the person sitting next to you in a mat-95 % of the time they will give you cold stares and worse when someone who has a child sits next to you and you spend maybe a minute looking at their child, they will even change seats but the other 5% make up for the 95%, like there is this one time I set next to a drunk Raila supporter who kept calling Raila Baba and told me the craziest conspiracy theories being planned/employed by the government.

Style and Fashion.

I read some   a lot of fashion blogs, therefore although I am mostly in my buibui or dirac, my mind is a fully evolved fashion analyst and I look at people and think transparent tights and crop top, what?? you don't read any fashion blog and I see others who have read all the blogs and are killing it on the streets.

Nairobi has people with all kinds of style and by all I mean people who wear next to nothing when it's hot to people who have sweaters and boots on at the same time.

Fries,cakes and all the junk.

Point Zero :-) :-)

Nairobi I love because of the many many did I say many places to eat. There was this one time I decided I will give up eating fries and did for a while but one day I was walking in the town and all I could smell was fries and only fries and suddenly a magnetic pull was pulling me and I found myself seated with a plate of fries and my heart was doing a happy dance at 10 am in the morning.I am not alone though, I realized this because I actually saw people in a fries joint called Jambo fries at 4 am in the morning I am not one to judge but boy am I glad there are others who eat fries earlier in the day than me.

Changing rooms

A sign in a clothes shop(near the changing rooms)

I said I read Kenyan fashion blogs right? I am also Muslim so what they wear I mostly cannot wear but what is to stop me from going to a shop and trying out all the pencil skirts, short dresses and tops I know I will never buy.All I am saying is an afternoon spent trying on clothes you know you have no intention of buying can make one very very happy :-) :-)

People Watching.

So I have this bad habit of people watching(sometimes).My trip to super-cosmetics had a silver lining, I saw this mother and her daughter and they were both Naturalistas. I assume the girl is home for the holidays and therefore they were re-stocking on their products and they had the largest of each ORS product available, the deep conditioner,mayoinasse and leave in conditioner.They were infront of me at the till that's how I saw all this and also heard the mum telling her daughter who might have a serious hair regimen for a girl her age because she looked to be between 16-18 years.'Mum lazima u deep condition nywele weekly'. If Nairobians were friendlier I would have given this natural hair winning duo handshakes.

You know the way people say 'my local' meaning a place they normally frequent, in my people watching I saw this guy who has a true 'local 'judging by the way he sat with the hotel's 'chef' and they had a conversation that went like this:

Guy at his local: Kilonzo ni we ulipika hii kuku?

Kilonzo(the cook): Kwani unafikiria ni nani mwingine?

Guy at his local asks the girl who mans the cash-till who made the chicken and she says in a Swahili accent-'Ni Mama,Kilonzo kazi yake ni kuwasha jiko.

This is Nairobi for a villager who kinda likes it and spends very little time in it :-) :-) and each time learns/sees something new about it.

A thousand words

At the start of the year I made this resolution to write one post each week and I have tried to do this as much as I could but sometimes I just get real busy and the Noisy Villager takes a back-seat.'Busy' also means I didn’t do anything interesting but in the spirit of regular writing and sharing stuff here goes pages/accounts online that I have been loving.

If you read this blog sometimes or know me you know of my INSANE love for Sharon, Beyonce, and Warsan Shire. Seriously anytime I have free time I am mostly either watching Beyonce's videos on YT, Sharon on her blog,Our 2 cents, her YT channel and looking up Warsan news or poems.So let's not talk about these three because they will forever remain my constants, I LOVE them and so should you :-)

Instagram accounts I currently love.

Instagram because it's the social media site for sharing pictures because unlike Facebook and Twitter you cannot just post words on this site.I know everyone already knows this but just in-case someone didn't then now you know :-).Also because the title of this post is making reference to pictures being worth a thousand word so it will only be right to talk about accounts that mainly share pictures.

Khadija Farah

Some pictures from her account

Why I love her account: She has the most beautiful pictures and most importantly she is such a story teller and her captions are really nice stories,she is passionate about refugee issues in Kenya,elephant conservation and show-cases many beautiful sites in Kenya. Prepare to be bitten by the wanderlust bug after visiting her page.

Ben Omwaka

Some pictures from his account

Why I love his account:I first took note of his account when he was doing a daily photography challenge and used to post the most beautiful pictures for this daily challenge. I am not sure which challenge it was but I know he might have won because he is photography game is at 100%.The other thing I love about this account is the adventure him and his friends get to go to and share on here makes you want to part of his friends :-). Also I think it's a good account to visit to look for ideas of how to take pictures,key words being ' looking for ideas' and not stealing his style.Visit it and you will thank me :-)

The photography on WFP's twitter account.

WFP delivers food aid to either very insecure places for their staff or places they can't reach by any other means also famously known as air-drops :-)

Why I love this account: I know it technically isn't Instagram but the pictures here are the best,well according to me they are some of the best pictures I get to see. It's not below me to go this page just to look at old pictures and  re-read the stories there. So follow them maybe.

Poem Heaven

The happy start :-)

The sad ending :-( 

Why I love this account: Let me just say this I am a lover of quotes and spend time on Pintrest reading and pinning quotes so an account that is solely dedicated to quotes had to be here.Why I love this one the most, it has the corniest quotes ever!

Anita Gaitho

Anita!!!!!!!

Why I love her account: Anita just got a baby.............................stick with me there is a reason why her just having a baby is important,she also looks really nice.Now here is the thing in the past once you got a baby,you could let go,eat all the food you want and become a 'mama' but things have taken a turn for the worse people (ha ha ha-no guilt free cake eating ever!),girls are having babies and coming back looking better than they did pre-babies in the words of Beyonce-'strong enough to bear the children, then get back to business',what Beyonce forgot to say is 'and get back to business looking like you are coming back from some holiday and not having a baby'.

These are the 5 accounts I am really liking currently,I hope you like them or some of them or just one of them.Also let me know which ones you love/like.