A Dreamer's Dream

I watched this video, A Dreamer's Dream from Tyrese Gibson (with Blair Underwood and Jill Scott) and it gave me hope. Hope that there are still people who care about problems facing mankind. Are we still being judged by the color of our skin not the content of our character? Are we still filling up jails and making people millionaires? Are we still fighting each other and breaking down our marriages? Are we still complacent, waiting for someone else to fix what's wrong? What can we do to change it? It's things like standing for what is right amidst adversity, paying teachers well, justice systems that actually work or simply showing up to VOTE. Although this is a video drawing from Martin Luther King, Jr and from an American history perspective, the message is the same for any country. This message rings true for my country, Kenya. The message is the same, we are not each other's enemy!

KENYANS, what legacy can we leave for future generations? Do we still want to squabble between which tribe(s) are best suited for top government positions? Do we want someone from our own tribe as the President OR do we want a motivated President, a VISIONARY, someone who will build this country's infrastructure, make us a force to be reckoned with?  My vote is for the person who delivers that...I really don't care about the color, tribe, or sex.  Those are blinders that make us fail to see a person's character!


What dream are YOU dreaming?  I leave you with these words as spoken in the video...

"Staying home as a person of integrity on election day in 2012 is as much of an insult to Jimmy Lee as it is to your existing and unborn children who will ask you in a not too distant future, 'mother or father why didn't you show up for me?' "

Registering to VOTE!

A new voter registration exercise was kicked off on March 22 and will last 45 days.  All Kenyan citizens over the age of 18 are required to obtain a new voter card. As luck would have it there was a registration desk set up at Kilimani Primary School, on Arwings Kodhek Road, which is on our way home.

There was one person in line in front of us so the wait was like 3 minutes…gotta love that!  The registration process was easy because the Registration Officers complete the scantron forms for you and all you have to do is produce a valid National ID card or Passport.  The only information they asked from me was my postal address.  

My left thumb print was requested on the form and the front side of my voter (elector’s) card plus two signatures on the form. They had a rag and some methylated spirit to wipe the purple ink from your finger!

All that was left to do was laminate the card…that’s where it got funny.  I saw the laminating sleeves so I assumed that they would hand you the card and a sleeve and ask you laminate it yourself.  Well, they were like "no, we can't let you do that".  So I was like, where is the laminating machine? You guessed it - no laminating machines…This is Africa… so the lamination was done motherland style using a hot charcoal iron circa 1870.   It’s the little stuff like this that remind me that I am in Africa...home:-)  She had to put the card between sheets of newspaper and then iron on top.  She burned the one from the guy in front of me but mine was done perfectly!

So here I am, a bona fide card-carrying Kenyan voter!  Now all I have to do is figure out which one of these clowns in Parliament I should cast my vote for!