Mine is not the "single story" blog

A few months ago I came across a great talk on the TED website, by the Nigerian author, Chimamanda Adichie, in which she notes that if we hear only one person's story( for instance about their culture,country) you may end up misunderstanding many things and assuming that one story applies to all.

When I started this blog i tried to come up with a name that resonated with me at the time and how i felt, for instance, being African is what i relate to the most, it is who i am, on a deeper level if you ask me where am i from i will tell you i am a Kenyan, born to a Ugandan Father and a Kenyan mother, but brought up in Kenya. What do I see myself as, you may ask? I view myself as a part of the human culture, first and foremost, then as an African, then by my actual roots which is partly Ugandan, partly Kenyan.

The same goes with the images and depictions you see of Africans on TV, don't assume one story tells you the story of the African continent as a whole. there are so many sides to the african continent and the african people, the fact that we are all africans does not mean we all have the same stories to share. What you see from the media is simply a fraction of what goes on, on the ground.  in fact for a long time Africans were not able to share their side of the story to the world, instead other people told it for us. This is now slowly being challenged with more accessibility to the internet, people lending their own voice to what is going on in the continent.

As I type this blog, im sharing my own personal story, do not let the blog title make you asume that I speak for all African women, i do not. This is my own personal journey that i seek to share with the outside world and more as a self reflecting too for myself. You're free to share you;re thought and give input as well.

Listen to the TED talk here:
Chimamanda Adichie: The danger of a single story | Video on TED.com
















 

My First Pregnancy

It was in Nov 2010, that I first started having my symptoms. I didn't think anything at first, as I just had the urge to belch a lot and it just would not come out, but as soon as I could, I got instant relief. I couldn't explain it. My husband's advice was, "you know what works for me darling, a bottle of ginger ale....that always helps me burp". So off we went and he bought me some ginger ale, needless to say, it didn't work. This symptom went on for about 2 weeks at which point I called my mum back in Africa, (please do not think Africa is a country, I'm just omitting mentioning where until I'm more comfortable with sharing info online), my mum said she suspected I was pregnant. I was quick to dismiss the idea because I had taken the morning after pill when I had suspected that we had not been careful..... I didn't tell that to mum of course, she would have freaked out as she is still very traditional and really wanted grandchildren, even though she had 4 grand children already.

So I tell my husband, mum's thoughts and we go ahead and get a pregnancy test done, and bam! Yes I'm pregnant. I was so shocked. Of course you know we had to do a second and third test...even then my husband insisted no we have to do a blood test.

We finally accepted it and while it took us a while we were happy. It was not that we were not happy about the baby, we were happy, i guess we just felt we wished we would have been more financially stable.

So i found out in December that i was pregnant and broke the news gradually to the rest of our family. i told my sister first, i knew she would always be there to support and would help me not to freak out. My husband told his older sibling first and we thought it best to tell our folks in January.

Stay tuned for more of this story in the upcoming entries.