01/01/2023
(Borrowed: Mungori Kirea)
Edited by Mungori K N.(B.ed. Hons)
I took a long walk in our village on Friday afternoon (2 days ago)... It was the first time I was walking around, at home, in over a decade, maybe even two. And I noticed one beautiful thing: All the homes where the kids went to school in the 1990s and early 2000's are doing great!
The kids, now in their late 20s, 30s and early 40s, have transformed their parents homes, built new houses for their parents (huge block houses), themselves they have built huuge huge homes and houses... and in almost every home, where the kids went to high school, college and campus, cars are parked under trees and new metalic gates punctuate their fences.
These homes had, mostly, grass thatched mud houses... a few, had semi-permanent houses... no fences no gates. The fences were sisal plants or maaraka/mitunguu trees. Right now, they are block fences allover, or barbed wire fences or well laid eucalyptus fences. In short: education has transformed their lives in one generation. Young men (orphaned - father died etc) are buying land and building nice homes for their mothers... Educated ladies, now married, are transforming their parent's homes from a distance... These guys are now doctors, lawyers, engineers, high school teachers, businessmen, police officers etc...
Conversely, the homes where the kids played hide and seek with education, or the homes where the kids went to gikonyeene for the local mugaaca brew instead of going to school have mostly remained the same... dilapidated homes, no cars, no fences, one or two malnourished houses etc.
My point: EDUCATION is a great thing. Don't let that talk of: 'kusoma sio kila kitu', 'masomo haisaidii siku hizi...', 'watu wamesoma siku hizi hawana kazi...', 'degree haina maana siku hizi'... get into your head. Education is a wonderful wonderful thing. It is a great equalizer and great ladder in social mobility.
Happy New Year. Have a positive and educated 2023. Push your teenage kids and teenage cousins to make the right choices in education this year. Those who have gotten this new social placement equally shoulder a payback responsibility & should not be accused of misplaced pride for pointing out corrections here or there.
God bless my people to know you better this 2023.