I haven’t blogged much since I moved to Japan. There are two reasons for this – the first is, I’ve felt quite self-conscience about representing Rwanda while I am here. At one of the goodbye parties I attended before I left Rwanda, I was even asked to signed some kind of oath that, read, “I…
hashtag family first
In light of the recent terrorist attack in Paris, and the fact that it received more global attention than the countless others that happened around the world, I saw one person tweet about how all lives matter and deserve equal attention. I suppose this is true for God (although, even He seems to have some…
head of the household
Today, I learnt about a new term (well new to me): “lead parent”. In essence, the “lead parent” is the one who is more active or physically and emotionally present in the child’s life. You know, what is traditionally the mom’s role. The other parent is also active but more focussed on their career (or…
brand new
Imagine something terrible happened – or horrible accident or unspeakable crime – and as a result your face and body were been badly mutilated. You then meet an extraordinary doctor who has the skill and talent to completely transform you. Using a combination of plastic surgery and modern technology, she will be able to restore…
Africa’s Hair Story
This image and text above are from a book called “Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America” (I know – that’s a lot of puns!). Although it was written primarily for Americans of African decent, I found it also has lessons for me, as an African whose nation has a fairly recent…
a timely gift
My man is having a tough day at work so I asked what I could do to help. Please note I am in Japan and he is in Rwanda, so I have certain limitations. I suppose, aware of these limitations, i.e. that I couldn’t for example, just stop by his office, or send him a…
representing… again
(After I wrote this post, I found a similar one I’d written two years ago, called “represent” – hence the title, representing again) There is a phrase that’s become popular among Christians – “You may be the only Bible some people will ever read”. Now that I’m in Japan, I often think that I may…
security blanket
This post is, in some ways, a follow up piece to the “as the day you were born“. Recently, I watched a YouTube video where they filmed a young woman walking through the streets of New York city in two different outfits to show the reactions she drew. In the first part, she wore in…
Community Spirit
I found this interesting to read, seeing as I’m a Rwandan who lived in the UK and is now living in Japan! In my experience, the more urban you get, the more individual-orientated your culture becomes. For example, I was stunned by how “individual-orientated” people generally were in London, when I was there about 5…
not the sunday I expected
You know how sometimes, you leave home to go to church… But end up buying a second-hand guitar… With the money you had withdrawn to pay your Internet bill… Or, does that only happen to me? (The reason I didn’t go to church is, I arrived at the place I thought church would be but,…
cheap art and noble pirates
I am an artist. Did you know that? I don’t have a degree in art. It’s not even on my LinkedIn profile. But it’s true – I am. I worked it out when I was a little kid – probably at the same time I was taught what the word meant. That said, no one…
brother from another mother
I’ve spoken to a couple of other African students who’ve studied abroad and have said that they experienced this too: You are walking through the predominantly white town or city of your university, and you see another black person coming down from the opposite side of the street. Your eyes meet and you give each…
I tried to warn you 