Category Archives: Kenya
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7 Things to Do in & Around Mwanza
If you are anything like I used to be, you might think that Mwanza is a small, sleepy, upcountry town--in the guise of a city--with few interesting things to do in and around it. After spending a few days in Tanzania’s second largest city, I’ve changed my mind: I now ...
African Barrick Gold Tour, Day 2: Community Development Projects in Buzwagi & Bulyanhulu
After spending the first day of the tour visiting African Barrick Gold's open-pit Buzwagi mine, and a few community development projects in the nearby area, the second day of the tour was...
Bacardi – White, Black, Gold?
When I say ‘Bacardi Rum', what image comes to mind? If you are like me, until very recently, I pictured a bottle of clear liquid with the words Bacardi written across it. Is that what you visualized? Well, you wouldn't be very wrong if you also envisioned...
Body N' Soul Gym, Kilimani, Nairobi
I am thoroughly in love with the gym I go to! I have been a member for over four years and, truly, I can't imagine what would ever make me go elsewhere! I love Body N' Soul, that's its name by the way, because it is extremely clean, has a lot ...
Durex Play 2-in-1 Massage Gel
Hmmm...today's post is going to be just a little raunchy because I would like to tell you about a great sexual find that I made recently. If you are uncomfortable with discussing sex or things related to it, then I suggest you read no further...
Olepolos Country Club
Before I made it out to Olepolos Country Club, I used to often find myself in conversations like the following: Speaker 1: Yesterday, I had a great day hanging out with friends at Olepolos. Biche: Olepolos? Where's that?...
Road Trip: Mugumu (Mara) to Arusha—Tanzania
I am chuckling at the title of this post. If you knew where in Tanzania Mugumu and Arusha were--and what lies between these two towns--you'd understand why: the title of this post is a huge understatement for the experience I'm going to share with you...
TEDxDar 2011--Who Killed Zinjanthropus?
It occurred to me recently, during a phone conversation with my cousin Vive, that though I had talked a lot about TEDxDar on Facebook and Twitter before it happened, I never came back to you, my blog readers, to tell you how it went...
The Eat to Live Diet: Lose 20 Pounds or More in Six Weeks – Safely by Dr. Joel Fuhrman
We are now done with the first two months of 2009. How are you doing with keeping your New Year's resolutions? What were your New Year's resolutions this year? Were they the usual: quit drinking or...
Touring Northern Tanzania (Mwanza, Mara, Butiama, Serengeti, Ngorongoro & Arusha)--Twitter Roundup
As those of you who follow me on Facebook and Twitter might know, I spent the end of last week visiting Northern Tanzania--Mwanza, Mara (including Butiama), the Serengeti National Park...
What’s Dating Like in East Africa?
Hmmm…Riiight. Like I can even attempt to answer that question with any sort of authority. Although a friend recently called me the East African Carrie Bradshaw during a late night Facebook chat (you can imagine the kind of stories we were swapping 
), I’ll have to decline the title because it’s simply not true. Nonetheless, I have recently realized that I have been on at least one date with men from each of the five East African countries (and had relationships with men from three of these), so neither am I entirely clueless on the subject. Continue reading
Have your Say…
I love to hear from you, dear reader. I love it even more when, in your comments, you tell me about a product, service, or establishment in East Africa that I know little about but that hopefully, I can try for myself one day. Last month, I was pleased to receive my share of such comments. In case you missed them, allow me to share a few of these with you.
Early in July, I received a comment from Timmy, who had recently purchased a Toyota Vitz. Here’s what he had to say about his new car: Continue reading
Has Fiber Made A Difference?
Photo Credit: Jurvetson
Some would be embarrassed to admit it, but I am going to give it to you straight up: I don’t watch, listen to, or read the news. It’s not that I like to be out of the loop; rather, this is a defense mechanism that I developed after first being exposed to the gruesome, horrific, doomsday nature of news in Kenya. After spending many troubled nights feeling like the world was a horrible place, nights on which coincidentally I had watched the evening news, I put two-and-two together and decided to forgo having my finger on the pulse of current events, in favor of being a calmer, happier, more positive Nairobi resident. This defense mechanism eventually spilled over to all forms of daily news including newspapers and news on radio, as well as to other countries (well, except for Uganda, where I find reading The New Vision a real pleasure…but I digress).
How do I keep abreast of what’s going on in the world, you might ask? My response to you would be: if something is really important and worth knowing about, then people will be talking (and blogging) about it, so eventually I’d find out somehow. Take, for instance, the advent of submarine fiber optic cable to East Africa. Continue reading
The Secret – Really the Secret to Life?
It’s been 3 years, give or take, since the release of The Secret – the popular film and book. Produced by Rhonda Byrne, an Australian television writer and producer, The Secret was hugely successful with DVD sales reaching higher than 2 million within the first year of its release and book sales reaching higher than 4 million within 6 months of publication. In 2007, this success earned Rhonda Byrne a spot on Time Magazine’s Time 100, a list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Here in East Africa, the phenomenon that was The Secret was not lost on us. Bookstores across the region (at least in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda) brandished huge displays advertising the book, and within 7 months of the film’s release, I (living in Nairobi at the time) was able to get a copy of The Secret’s first edition.
Chances are that many of you, my readers, have already either watched or read The Secret. Today, I would like to share a bit about The Secret with those of you who haven’t, while engaging those of you who have in a discussion as to whether “the secret” contained in The Secret is really the secret to successful, joyful living. Continue reading
20 Hottest Blogs in East Africa
Recently, I had the pleasure of spending an entire week with one of my favorite cousins who was visiting from Kampala. We hung out and caught up like we used to way back in the day when we were both still single young females (I am still single; she’s married with two kids). We talked about everything under the sun, and of course, because she’s an avid reader of ChickAboutTown, we also talked about blogging and about our respective experiences in the blogosphere.
During one such conversation, my cousin let on that she now reads blogs regularly and that she discovered a couple of the blogs she reads through my “The Chick Behind the Blog…” post. I was surprised and pleased. The blogs that she mentioned are ones that I enjoy reading, and I knew her life must be richer for reading these blogs too.
It got me thinking. Although I never read blogs before I started blogging (don’t ask me how I decided to start blogging – call it divine inspiration 
), I have since become an avid frequenter of the blogosphere, in general, and the East African blogosphere, in particular. Why the East African blogosphere? Well, mainly for two reasons. First, the subject of my blog is East Africa so I tend to attract East African readers. It’s only natural, therefore, when these readers also happen to be bloggers, to be curious about their blogs and to find my way to them. In the 2+ years that I’ve been blogging, I’ve come to know and love my fair share of blogs in the East African blogosphere this way. The second reason is a little more intentional. Reading East African blogs helps me keep informed about everyday living in the different countries that make up this region. There’s nothing like reading blogs to find out what’s truly on the hearts and minds of a people.
And now to today’s list. With the endless number of blogs across the East African blogosphere, how do I choose which blogs to read regularly? Honestly, it’s quite simple: I don’t. Instead, I let someone else do the choosing for me. What?! Yes, you heard me. To figure out what blogs to read in the East African blogosphere, I turn to Afrigator, an African social media aggregator. Continue reading
Who Exactly is Mr. Price?
I can still remember the day when I first became aware of Mr Price’s existence. The year was 2007; I was driving along Ngong Road in Nairobi near Prestige Plaza. I looked up to see a huge banner announcing the opening of a home furnishing store called Mr. Price Home at the Westgate Centre in Westlands. I found the idea of a home furnishing store interesting and made a mental note to check out the store the next time I was in its vicinity. Continue reading
Thirsty for Dawa
I’m feeling thirsty. No, not that kind of thirst – water can do nothing for me right now. I mean THIR-STY thirsty. Catch my drift? (It’s Friday, don’t think too hard! ) So…this evening, I’m going to take inspiration from all the honey and lemon that I have been handling for my hair and make a Dawa. What? You don’t know what a Dawa is? Continue reading
Ramblings about Bridal Showers
Hi…so did you miss me these past three weeks? Please excuse the silence – it’s just that I got caught up in a flurry of activity related to a cousin’s wedding. You know how weddings can be. But how so exciting! This wedding was particularly exciting for me because it was the first truly Tanzanian wedding I was attending in 18 years. On top of being a great opportunity to catch up with the Tanzanian side of my family, I was looking forward to this wedding because I knew it would offer me a chance to attend some typically Tanzanian wedding functions for the first time. Of particular interest to me was attending a kitchen party.
If you’ve not heard of Tanzanian kitchen parties before, basically, these events are a sort of bridal shower where the bride-to-be’s close female friends and relatives get together to “provide her with all the necessary qualities and material things she needs to be a proper wife to the man she is marrying”. On top of the gifts she receives, mostly household items (and of course kangas), the women present offer the bride advice on how to have a happy marriage based on their own marital experiences. Sounds harmless enough, no? Yes, except that I’d heard that kitchen parties, despite being an all-female affair, could turn extremely wild and racy. This, I wanted to see for myself! Continue reading
So Soft and yet so Hard…
I’ve been told by some people close to me, recently, that I am rigid. The first time I heard this, I was shocked and sure that the person I was talking to had it all wrong. On second thought, though, I see where these people could be coming from. About certain things in my life, I see no compelling reason to compromise (at least not for the most part) and so, in these areas, I stick to running my life exactly as I see fit. One such area of my life is sleep. Continue reading