IF

This is one of my favorite poems

IF.....


IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

If by Rudyard Kipling

Fishing for names …

It’s amazing how much a name means. Check out the different posts on 48days.net asking for suggestions and comments on business names, website names etc…

They say a persons names is the most beautiful sound in their own ears…And tat lead me to todays [post which responds to your question son names…

In my last post I reffered to my sister Akoth and my brother Ochieng and a number people a few people wrote to ask about the my brothers and sisters names.

Well those are names from the Luo community found in Kenya and in smaller numbers in Uganda and Tanzania in the regions around Lake Victoria. The Lango and Acholi tribes of Uganda are considered as clans of the Luo tribe since their language is similar to the Luo language, dholuo.

Historians believe that the Luo and other Kenya nilotic tribes originally came from the Nile regions of Sudan, entering Kenya through Northern Uganda. Upon their arrival in Kenya, Luos settled in the present day Nyanza province, where they neighbor the Kisii, Luhya and Kipsigis tribes
In the Luo community , the last names are related to the time of their birth in the astrological, seasonal sense. Consequently, many people have similar names.

Luo names follow an order pattern of
(1) a Christian given name (these used at least for the past two generations),
(2) a personal surname (selected from among over 50 "special" attributes, usually relating to the circumstances of a birth, see below), and
(3) a patronymic, the child’s father’s personal surname (a woman assumes her husband’s at marriage). Thus, e.g., Margaret Awino Odada or SCelestine Ojwang Oranga.

The commonest Luo “personal surnames” are as follows (O- always indicates a male; A- indicates a female; about 85% of Luo names include one of these). The meaning is indicated, when well known and accepted.

Luos name their children at the time of day that they are born, for example: Atieno is a girl born at night, Akinyi is morning, Achien'g when the sun is high. Akeyo is the name given during harvesting, and Apiyo and Adongo are twins, with Apiyo as the name of the first to be born. The first letter of a name also indicates gender: 'A' signifies a woman, and 'O' for a boy. For example, Otieno would be the name of a boy and Atieno for a girl, both of the same name.

And so my name -Yvonne Achieng Otieno – Achieng my name means when I was born it was shining – “Chieng” means sunshine while the surname Otieno is my fathers name. My father was born at night.

This is a picture of me tryin to spraed some sunshine by painting the walls of Mama Fauzia Children's Home in Nairobi during a cherity outreach program.

Akoth my Sister was born was raining while my brother Ochieng was born at noon day - it was a lovely sunny day.



More on Luo Culture

Food
The staple food is kuon, commonly known in Swahili as ugali, a type of bread made with maize flour. Ugali is usually accompanied by vegetables, meat, fish or stew. Maize is the main source of carbohydrates for the Luo, but rice is also common. It is inexpensive and grown in the Ahero, in the Nyando division area, which is close to Lake Victoria in the Western region of Kenya.

Another popular dish is nyoyo, which is a mixture of boiled maize and beans. Typically consumed after a hard day of work in the fields, nyoyo is often eaten with stir fried vegetables, tea, or porridge.

In Kenya, the Luo are known as the lovers of fish(Thus the Batik paintin of the fish ) . Fish is plentiful in the region located around the second largest fresh water lake in the world, Lake Victoria, and can be purchased inexpensively from the right fishmonger.

Leading Elephant....

If you ever question the importance of leadership…read the story of Echo the Elephant ….

Because of lack of leadership Echo’s family has already split into 6 groups…… For all of them, except for her sister Ella, Echo was the only leader they have ever known”

But who is Echo?

Echo is the the Matriarch elephant perhaps the most famous of elephants that have ever lived in Kenya’s Amboseli has died.

Echo thought to be one of the oldest matriarchs in the country, died at the prime age of 64. She was born before Kenya attained independence and survived the horrors of poaching in the 70s and 80s.

She has been the leader of her family for over 36 years and through all of the research, books and media attention that has focused on her, she has become an icon for elephants

Echo is known from numerous films, including 3 BBC productions. Amboseli’s elephants are perhaps the most studied and of the 1,500 elephants in the park each is known by name.

Watch Kenya’s NTV’s Peninah Karibe story which features the life of Echo , Kenya’s Amboseli celebrity elephant here: http://www.ntv.co.ke/News/-/471778/596074/-/s7lxioz/-/index.html


Because of lack of leadership because of her death her family has already split into 6 groups……

Here are some facts on Elephants

Elephants do grieve their loved ones and it is evident that she will be missed. One of the most moving displays of elephant emotion is the grieving process. Elephants remember and mourn loved ones, even many years after their death. When an elephant walks past a place that a loved one died he or she will stop and take a silent pause that can last several minutes.

While standing over the remains, the elephant may touch the bones of the dead elephant (not the bones of any other species), smelling them, turning them over and caressing the bones with their trunk. Researchers don’t quite understand the reason for this behavior. They guess the elephants could be grieving. Or they could they be reliving memories. Or perhaps the elephant is trying to recognize the deceased.

Whatever the reason, researchers suspect that the sheer interest in the dead elephant is evidence that elephants have a concept of death and right here is where I think …like the Psalmist …Marvelous are thy works Oh Lord…! All wisdom cometh from the Lord and is with him forever. The sand of the sea and the drops of the rain And the days of eternity who shall number ? The height of the heaven and the breadth of the earth and the wisdom , who shall search them out ? Wisdom has been created before all things and understanding of prudence from everlasting …


For More on elephants see: Unforgetable elephants http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/unforgettable-elephants/echos-family-tree/4488/


Also see: http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/05/10/kenya-world-renowned-elephant-matriarch-dies-in-amboseli/

Have any great quotesor stories about leadership ? Fell free tro send them in or comment...

Learning to get up like a giraffe....

As a child my parents sending my elder Sister – (Akoth) , my brother (Ochieng) and I to the duka (store). On our way back, we often held a mock Olympic races (Kenya is popular for long distance runners) to see who would get home first. We had a designated start point for this race. Being the youngest of the three I had never been first I remember this one occasion when I really wanted to be first and I tried to get a head start by rushing ahead of my siblings…My sister tried to stop me by calling after me, but I was all focused o being first. The more Akoth called my name, the faster I walked ...at some point I just started jogging for fear that they would catch up with me…ad yes for a short while…I looked like I was going to win!

Phew! I thought…First at last! And right before I the finish line …POOF! …I fell! And this was one of those falls where you look like you are diving into a pool…;-(

I dont know what felt worse…loosing or the laughter that came from Akoth and Ochieng.

Actually, I do. Akoth went ahead and told me to “Bight the dust.” And right then I went to my dad sobbing that Akoth had told me to eat dust!!!

When Dad inquired from Akoth if this was true. Akoth gave a full account of what had happened. Bringing an end to our ‘Olympics’ and a two lifetime lessons aside from not making it as a Kenyan long duistance runner...:-)


One:. cheating may make you foisrt for awhile....but not for long! I have a scar on my knee that reminds me that.

Lesson two from Dad's words: “Yvonne, next time you fall down, just get up.”

And thus today’s inspiration from Giraffes on Learning to Get Back Up …

Bringing a giraffe into the world is a tall order. A baby giraffe falls 10 feet from its mother's womb and usually lands on its back. Within seconds it rolls over and tucks its legs under its body. From this position it considers the world for the first time and shakes off the last vestiges of the birthing fluid from its eyes and ears. Then the mother giraffe rudely introduces its offspring to the reality of life.

The mother giraffe lowers her head long enough to take a quick look. Then she positions herself directly over her calf. She waits for about a minute, and then she does the most unreasonable thing. She swings her long, pendulous leg outward and kicks her baby, so that it is sent sprawling head over heels.

When it doesn't get up, the violent process is repeated over and over again. The struggle to rise is momentous. As the baby calf grows tired, the mother kicks it again to stimulate its efforts. Finally, the calf stands for the first time on its wobbly legs.

Then the mother giraffe does the most remarkable thing. She kicks it off its feet again. Why? She wants it to remember how it got up. In the wild, baby giraffes must be able to get up as quickly as possible to stay with the herd, where there is safety. Lions, hyenas, leopards, and wild hunting dogs all enjoy young giraffes, and they'd get it too, if the mother didn't teach her calf to get up quickly and get with it.

The late Irving Stone understood this. He spent a lifetime studying greatness, writing novelized biographies of such men as Michelangelo, Vincent van Gogh, Sigmund Freud, and Charles Darwin.

Stone was once asked if he had found a thread that runs through the lives of all these exceptional people. He said, "I write about people who sometime in their life have a vision or dream of something that should be accomplished and they go to work.

"They are beaten over the head, knocked down, vilified, and for years they get nowhere. But every time they're knocked down they stand up. You cannot destroy these people. And at the end of their lives they've accomplished some modest part of what they set out to do."

The story on goraffes is Adapted from "Illustrations for Preaching & Teaching from Leadership Journal Baker Book
For more information on Giraffes in Kenya see

The picture above is my Dad drawing a Girraffe on white material which is the first process in batik making.


Kenya loosing Giraffes: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/apr/22/kenya-giraffes-maasai

Giraffe Centre : http://giraffecenter.org/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1

Flamingos in Kenya

Flamingoes are popularly found in Lake Naivasha in Kenya.

As a child, I always thought Flamingoes were the size of an Ostrich. However this changed once when we went for a school trip to Lake Naivasha in the Rift Valley province of Kenya.

What didn’t Change is how beautiful I thought this birds are.
Of all my Dad’s painting’s Flamingo’s rank’s at the top of my favourites….

Here a liitle mre facts on Flamingoes…

Flamingos feed with their heads upside down, using their bristly tongues to filter particles from the water. Their specially-adapted bills turn down at each end, giving them an 'upside-down smile'.

Physical Description
Flamingos are wading birds with long legs and webbed feet. Their bodies are slender with long, thin necks, large wings and short tails.

Their plumage ranges from white to pink. Some have crimson or black touches on the wing. Their colour comes from carotenoid pigments obtained from their food. They have bare faces and a large triangular bill with bristly tongue.

Flamingo ankles are very high on the leg so it looks as if their knees bend backwards when they sit down.

Distribution
Flamingos occur in the Americas, Africa, Southern Europe and Asia.

Habitat
Flamingos inhabit shallow waters, usually at lake edges.

Diet
Flamingos are filter feeders and use their specially adapted bill and bristly tongue to sift minute molluscs and crustaceans from the water.

Behaviour
Flamingos flock in large numbers. They are seen in long, curving flight formations and in wading groups along the shore. The flamingo stirs up organic matter by wading through the shallows, sieving out the organisms with its bill.

They have a characteristic one-legged stance, standing on one leg while they rest the other.

Reproduction
The nest is a tall tower of mud in the shallows of lakes or lagoons. Both parents incubate the egg (sometimes two) for a month.

Downy white young leave the nest in two or three days. Adults feed them by regurgitating partly digested food.

The young take up to two years to obtain the distinctive adult coloration.

Life span
Typically 15-30 years, but they may reach 50 years in captivity.

Statistics
They are about 80-150cm (3-5ft) in height.

About the Artist

The most inspiring story I have heard about Zebras is that there is no single Zebra with similar stripes...I mean there stripes are like ourfunger prints or oour ife stories....all our stories are unique...Here s=is the story of Dad , Martin Otieno...and how he started Batik.

Enjoy ...

Orphaned at the age of twelve.Martin was forced to live with his auntie in Jericho ghetto in Nairobi ’s Eastland’s. While in Nairobi MArtin discovered he had a talent in football and played for the Methodist church in Jericho . However, during weekdays He sat outside his adopted home enviously watching my teammates to go school.

He explained his misfortunate to a church minister. Touched by his plight the MINISTER Mr. Allan Sadler took Martin to the Young Men Christian Association (YMCA) for an interview.

He passed the interview and was immediately admitted to the institution. Allan Saddle paid all the school fees on the spot. He also got Martin a sponsor from Brazil who paid school fees for the whole course-craft and home industry. Martin chose to specialize on Batik art.

While undertaking the course, Matin was choosen as best in class. This earned him a bicycle from the then German Ambassador to Kenya.

He used the bicycle to commute to school.

Martin am married with five children.

Read More about Dad- Martin in future blogs