Today is all about answering questions from my namesake, Tony, who runs one of the biggest websites in Naija according to Alexa, Naija Ecash. I also answer the most interesting question I have received so far, from Mo Ma. These answers definitely don’t show me in the best light, but you asked and so I answer…..

If You Have any Questions You Would Like Me to Answer

Then please read this post, where I talked about this little question and answer session.

Tony asks:

Which is your favorite website?

My Answer:

This really depends on what I am after. I learn best by watching videos and so you can find me on Google Videos looking for videos on all sorts of topics all the time though I am currently obsessed with finding Timothy Ferriss and Jay Abraham videos. Some sites I can’t mention here

Considering my freelance work as a blogging consultant and freelance writer and all the projects I have to get done, I spend huge amounts of time on Rentacoder.

I also spend a lot of time on:

a) The Blog Mastermind website and forums.

b) Yaro Starak’s latest posts on blogging.

c) Searching for podcasts on Itunes.

d) Reading stories by a man called Jon who I met a while back.

e) Leaving comments on gal africana’s and Kelly’s blog.

f) Searching for information by Jay Abraham and Timothy Ferriss and so on and so on and so on.

Tony asks:

Which is your favorite movie?

My Answer:

I actually did a post on this some time ago on 7 Movie Classics. Add to that list:

a) Get Smart – Steve Carell is pure comedy, pure comedy, no one else can make fun of himself so well with such a serious face.

b) Pretty Woman – Go fig, I am simply drawn to this storyline.

c) Short films by Roy Ston Tan : I got a chance to catch this guy at the Melbourne International Film Festival two years ago and adored his work.

d) Great Happiness Space: Tales of an Osaka Love Thief: Any movies that explain succesful relationships or relationship tips that can help men, I like. There is a lot to be learned from this movie about “hosting clubs” in Tokyo.

e) La Vie En Rose: Not this movie specifically but movies like it that take me back in time and draw me into a world separate from my own. That having been said, La Vie En Rose was pretty powerful…….

Tony Asks:

Where are you going to spend eternity?

My Answer:

If there is indeed a hell, I think the way I live is a clear indication that I am going there. As I go, I will be thankful for all the blessings I received while alive, but I think if we are to peruse the good book on all the verses that discuss how to get into the “Book of Life” I am clearly not on that guest list.

I find it hard to believe in an eternal hell, I must say. A temporary hell, yes. But a permanent hell, when there is a God who is pure love and made us in His own image……this might be outside of my own understanding but the concept of hell just doesn’t add up. Here’s to hopping that John was just a raging schitzophrenic.

Mo Ma Asks:

What is an incubus and how exactly does the state of Woody Allen’s over-easy omelet threaten world peace as far as the Solomon Islands and Elephant Seals are concerned?

My Answer:

Hey,

For the next few days I thought I would try something a little different.

What’s that Mwangi?

You can ask me any questions whatsoever and I will attempt to answer. At the moment I won’t put any rules or restrictions on what you can ask and I’ll see how we go with that.

This is a Multimedia Site

When writing the question, make sure you specify whether you want your answer in:

a) Writing

b) Audio

c) Video

How to Ask the Question

Leave a comment below or email me at masmilele(at)thedisplacedafrican(dot)com with your questions and I will answer them as best as I can.

What to Do with the Rest of the Day/Night

Have a phenomenal day or night,

Mwangi

Before I Get to the Main Attraction

1) For some reason, the sidebar of the website isn’t working as it should, i.e. on the homepage, it isn’t there, it drops all the way to the bottom of the article. I am aware of the problem and am on it and thanks for patience dealing with that.

2) I am going to be interviewed on Capital FM next week and for any of you who are fans of SARFMRADIO in New York, they called me and asked for an interview too, so look out for me on that too. Yay! Too too blessed.

Back to the Script

As I spoke about a few days ago, the Displaced African (tDA) was talked about on one of the largest radio station’s in Kenya, Capital FM, during their show, Urban Nites. Thanks to everyone who showed much love and to those of you who asked for a recording here it is:

The Displaced African on Urban Nites

There are some areas where there is brief silence and brief music, that’s just to give the track some breathing room before the talking starts, once you press play there is no need to forward for the entire duration of the track.

Some Thoughts

The folks at Capital did me a huge service not only because they put me on the air, but because they:

a) Made the website sound much bigger than even I thought it was, which now gives me super morale to keep moving and growing to expand and beat these expectations.

b) They gave me a lot of ideas for articles that need to be written.

c) They reminded me what this blog is all about, which I sometimes forget.

To stay a part of the tDA as it continues to grow, make sure you stay up to date via either free email or RSS updates. To learn just what RSS is, click here.

Be blessed and bless others,

Mwas

Hey,

Just received the email about 15 minutes ago. In about three hours- on Tuesday 1st July 2008 at 3 a.m. (GMT +3h)- I am going to be on the show Urban Nites on Capital FM in Nairobi, Kenya.

Capital FM, for those who don’t know, is one of the largest radio stations in Kenya.

So please:

1) Listen in

2) Show your support

3) Say a silent “Yay!” with me and

4) Say wassup and thanks to Linda of Capital FM for showing the website some love: Cheers for that

To listen to Capital FM live on the Internet click here

Three Part Article

This weekend I will be taking a trip and will have some time to think and reflect, so I thought I would ask y’all to help me reflect.

Part one: What Do You Want to Read?

As I approach article number 150, and readership continues to slowly climb, I thought I would take some time out to ask you all what you want to read. So, leave a comment or email me privately by clicking on the “email the author” link at the bottom of the article and let me know what articles you would like to read?

Don’t let the limits of logic impede you, if you can imagine it and you want to read it, let me know about it. It might be something that I have wanted to do all along

Part two: What Have Been Your Favorite Articles So Far?

Again, leave a comment or email me, but please let me know which one or two or three or 7 articles have you liked from this blog so far?

Part three: Ways I Can Improve this Blog?

Even a sentence answering any of these 3 questions would be great but ideally, a paragraph or two or seven. Remember, I started this blog with the intent of doing some good, so help me serve you better.

Be blessed and bless others,

Mwangi

Gaaddzoooks! I am the fastest talking person I have ever listened to. Thank God I know this early, now I can learn-how-to-speak-slow, and I don’t have to learn this one day when I have a radio interview organized with the largest radio show in some country.

Anyway this is the guy who is teaching me how I can make a living writing the Displaced African (I can’t recommend Yaro highly enough.To learn more about Yaro check out his free book, Blog Profits Blueprint). Give me feedback on how I can improve my interview technique, I am currently in the process of trying to get into the media and I want to make sure I am the best interview subject EVER.

Now that you have seen my face, you are free to stalk me as long as you stalk me bearing gifts

Back to Business: Brain Drain vs Brain Circulation

Check out this article from Out of Africa about Africa’s brain drain. I think the quote below definitely takes top prize as sobering thought of the day:

DESPITE a general upward trend in economic and social growth in Africa, massive brain drain continues to its take toll on the continent, with analysts claiming that it has the same effects as the slave trade and is worse than colonialism.

From the same article, I got this BBC news report: check out the ideas on brain circulation: yet another model worth emulating me thinks.

To stay connected to the thoughts of someone who talks so fast, subscribe by RSS or join the free email list to get daily updates.

Mwangi

Thanks to Grace Kerongo from Nairobi Star for giving this up and coming blog some exposure, I really appreciate that. The email interview is pasted below. Grace’s questions are in plain text and my responses are in bold.

First up, huge thanks for interviewing me. My first interview ever and I am very excited. Hope it is of interest and benefit to you.

So it it true what they say? That bloggers are constantly on the net?

I sleep and then I am online. I think I am probably a novelty but I spend three quarters of my waking time on line.

1. What do you mostly blog about?
I am still not sure what I blog about. It started out as a general resource guide for Africans in the diaspora but as of just a few hours ago I thought I would tighten my focus and begin writing a resource guide for young Africans living in Australia. So, in short, I am still testing things out to see what fits best.
2. When did you decide to change the flow of your blog to political issues? If not, why stay away from politics?
I try to completely stay away from blogging about political issues for a couple of reasons:
1) I am relatively ignorant: I am not one of those people who is on the daily nation and standard daily and never have been all my life. Therefore I don’t think I can bring much to the discussion, especially when compared to people who are on the ground and knowledgeable like Kumekucha, Kenyan Pundit, What an African Woman Thinks and M of Thinker’s Room.

2) I am not interested in it: I am just not naturally drawn to discussions about politics and political strategies and backstabbing. I much prefer to hear and learn about psychology and how people think and feel react based on underlying psychological triggers.

3) Pretty much anything I had to say had already been said: Log on to Mashada or check out the blogs above and the superficial knowledge and conclusions I came to regarding the political situation had already been expressed and expounded on.

3. Most blogs broke news and ran scoops on news that newspapers did not have till later on. Did you have any scoops on your blog?
No! No scoops from me. I got all my information from newspapers, the blogosphere and my family back in Kenya.

4. Bloggers were accused of being propagandist, for using blogs as hate machine. This was from the onset of Post Election to the current period. Any thoughts?
I think this was not restricted to the blogosphere. Here in Melbourne, Australia there were smses circulated by Kikuyus declaring that an uncircumcised man can never be president and I know What an African woman thinks (http://wherehermadnessresides.blogspot.com/) wrote a little bit about that. The blogopshere definitely spread some hate and I avoided any blogs that I felt were spreading hate like a plague. The place where hate was simply unavoidable was Mashada.com and Kumekucha and I fully understand why Kobia had to shut the place down for a while, it all got a bit too much.

5. Blogs were segmented into two, Pro-government and Opposition, which side were you on?
One of the benefits of being ignorant and not participating in the typical political debates is that I can honestly say, neither. As far as I can tell all the big parties in the general election are cut from the same cloth with minor variations between them.

6. Did you receive threats from the readers who visited your blog or anyone else for what you wrote on your blog?
No! I don’t think my blog mattered enough yet. The only abuse I have gotten so far is for writing an article critiquing the African view of Obama as far as politics are concerned.

7. How do you control the comments posted on your blog?
So far there has been no great need, almost everyone has been pretty civil and I have had no need to block out anything other than commercial spam.

8. How is your blog helping the current situation in the country, after the post election crisis?
I think if there is one thing we cannot overlook it is the absolutely beautiful outpouring of love and support that came out of the blogopshere and the Kenyan web community in general. Initiatives such as Ushahidi, that can really help give power to the marginalized and change societies if properly used and operations such as Mama Mikes, Operation Saving Brian, I have no tribe amongst others all came out of this tragedy. In addition to that, a lot of bloggers were willing to step up and talk about things like tribalism, class, wealth disparity and other issues that are really at the core of all this. I have just realized that this wasn’t the question but I think it is worth saying.
I don’t know what my blog’s role will be in the coming months considering how far I am from home, other than to promote any initiatives and people I find doing good work who need to get the word out there.

9. Who are your biggest posters or blog visitors. Are they Kenyan here or those abroad?
Abroad. Interestingly, at present most of my readers are from the States. As I tighten my focus to talk more about Australia and Australian immigration I expect my demographics to change.

10. Did you experience the post election violence in any way?
Not directly, I was 1000s of miles away. My aunty and grandmother are Kikuyu women deep in the heart of the Rift Valley and we were on the phone with them every single day because for a while they could not sleep and there was a very real threat that the neighbouring Kalenjins would kill and displace them.

11. Is there an association of bloggers that looks into the conduct of bloggers that out step the line?
I don’t think so. I think this would take away from the spirit of blogging. Even though a lot of hatred was spewed online during the crisis, I don’t think that censoring blog content is the way to go….my opinion may change, but at the moment, that’s how I feel.

12. Where are you based?
Melbourne Australia and sometimes Sydney Australia.

13. Did your hits increase, immediately after the the election in December?
My blog started up during the post election violence. Some of my first articles were about the violence, so I guess technically the answer is yes.

14. And finally, what are your real names and what do you do…beside blogging?
My name is Mwangi and I blog. When I am not blogging, I sometimes work as a disabled or aged care nurse and have a small business online.

Mwangi, please feel free ask for clarification on any questions you don’t understand.

Cheers!
If you need any more information, don’t hesitate to ask!

Before you read this, make sure you have read: Part one, Part two, Part three and Part four of my African immigrant story.

PART FIVE

Late 2006

The film school that I was my first choice University accepts me and I jump straight in to the course in the middle of the school year.

My focus is still all on the party and I fail every single subject including documetary film making where I try to make a film on African drinking habits while drunk.

Still have delusions of grandeur. Obsess over them almost every waking minute but doing nothing to move closer to them. They’re slowly fading away.

Discover that with male-female relationships once a certain level of emotional comfort and physical intimacy has been reached, you are no longer “just friends or acquantances.” It’s as though you own a piece of each other. I discover this when I try to get intimate with two women at the same time and remain “just friends”. Messy and immature. To both of them: I’m sorry.

When my family returns from visiting Kenya they find bottles of alcohol, condoms, pregnancy kits, holes in the walls and morning after pills. Gives you an idea of the type of Christmas I had.

Party lifestyle for me hits its peak probably around June, slow decline has already begun.

Early 2007

The life of hedonism becomes less and less exciting for me.

Rejoin film school and actually try to do well this semester. Make a short film, which you can check out on Youtube.

Learn the basics of film such as editing, using a camera and writing a script. Idea of building a Pan-African movie production company continues to grow.

Attend PUA workshops(Google it!). Fascinating. Become obsessed with their literature and their way of thinking and viewing the world.Eventually become jaded by their general lack of fulfillment in life and an underlying misogyny and fear of women that I detect.

Meet three women who I genuinely like because of their kind hearts and genuine spirits-and they are pretty hot too: One of them hardly remembers me and the other two hate me.

Second Half 2007

I am completely disillusioned and bored with my party lifestyle. In my quiet moments, my delusions of grandeur thrust themselves in my face.

After watching a T Robbins interview with Larry King I decide to take drastic action. I disconnect my phone number and in no time flat, with a little money take off for Sydney to make my production house come true.

Sign up to join a film school that is also a production company. They charge $10,000 for a year of study. Knowing that I can’t get parental support for it and with no way of paying the entire amount upfront, I do not enter the school.

Btw should you ever do what I did, it is only corteous to tell the people around you, you are leaving. I left a lot of good people without saying bye or anything. To all of them. I’m sorry.

I remember to always be mindful to thank God for all he has blessed me with.

Around the time I settle into Sydney I get robbed and most of my official documentation is stolen.

I end up homeless and jobless and searching for a job while listening endlessly to personal development tapes in my car.

Eventually, after 5 years, PUA workshops and a lot of experience, I realize that there are simply people in this world that I cannot get along with, hard as I might try and I have to tolerate and respect them.

Drinking begins to become pathetic: I never intended to drink on my own but I end up doing that. One day I go to a girl’s home and abuse the living hell out of her (insecurities, oh insecurities). Shortly after my drinking makes me miss a flight I was supposed to take back to Melbourne to visit the family. Lying alone and hungover in my car the next morning I vow that I will never touch another drop of alcohol and I must learn to live a life where I don’t use it as a crutch: Defining moment!

Attend a Tony Robbins seminar where I get fire shot into my soul and learn a lot of valuable mental skills.

Decide to experiment with eating no animal products. Health benefits abound, I lose 5 kilograms in two days! Lose some puss pimples, stop feeling bloated and feel a slightly higher level of energy Decide to keep going. Still going!

Come back to Melbourne to start up an Internet business because:

a) People making money from Adsense.

b) I control my working life and can work at night (as I am now)

c) I can use it as an excuse to interview people I admire and want to learn from and model.

d) I can use it as a launching pad for my movie production house (stay tuned).

e) I can use it to help people who are just like me: immigrants who showed up here without a roadmap of what to do.

Try to start blogs on Google. Run them for about 3 months.

Register the Displaced African domain name on Wordpress.Sign up for a membership site to learn how to blog as a business and begin working and thinking about the blog night and day.

Become a ferrocious student of the Internet, blogging, Internet marketing and technology. Still a student to this day!

First Half 2008

This chapter is still in the making. All I intend on doing is building a life that will matter long after I have left this Earth. I am not content with simply saying, I came, I lived, I loved and I died. I want to die with pictures of me deeply embedded onto the walls and in the hearts of people throughout Mama Africa, not because I am a great guy-I am not too bad, if you want to know-but because I brought something special to my home that didn’t exist before I brought it. Because I served and lived in some unique way and now Africa is better as a result.

There is so much I have not put into this story that it’s not funny. However I hope this “brief” timeline of my time here in Australia will put a lot of the stuff I say into perpective. Now you know me and now you know my blog. Enjoy your stay and I hope it’s of benefit to you.

Be blessed and bless others,

Mwangi

If you haven’t, please read: Part one / Part two/ Part three/ Part four /

Before reading this, please make sure you have read: Part one, Part two and Part three of my story as an African immigrant

PART FOUR

First Half 2005

• Get rejected by film school, and too lethargic and lazy to show up for acting school auditions. Get chosen by my third choice University where I am to get a Bachelor of Business (Entrepreneurship).Selected course because my mother has a Masters in it. Follow in parents’ (father had a more general Bachelor of Business) footsteps. Mother asks me if I’m sure I don’t want to pursue acting. I say, “I’ll be alright.”

• Among the caliber of people I am with in business school:

a) CEO of Nissan is mentor

b) Young, high flying Entrepreneur is one of the lecturers

c) Have regular successful speakers coming in such as hundred-millionaire Andrew Giles who founded Hitwise.

d) Young people who have been in business successfully for years

• Feel I am with good group to learn business. Feel like everyone, including myself, is very tactical about who they associate with.
• Make good friends with some Greek guys and help one of them start up a business, which runs to this day.
• The other Greek guy introduces me to CDs of Malcolm X. Have began reading leftist literature including Noam Chomsky and he is also a fan so we connect on that.
• Join the local Uni Socialist group and begin to learn about the history of grassroot struggle. Only attend one meeting of the group because I still feel lonely.
• Become obsessed with reading leftist literature and listening to leftist thinkers such as Noam Chomsky and Michael Parenti.
• Silmultaneously begin reading business books such as Richard Richard Branson’s autobiography (If you like business stories, BUY THIS BOOK! Reality is stranger than fiction) and the E-myth by Michael Gerber.
• Try reading Karl Marx book, the Communist Manifesto: great ideas in it but kinda boring.
• Discover one of my favorite thinkers, theologians and speakers of all time who reaffirms my faith in the church, Erwin Mcmanus.
• Decide I eventually want to own my own African production company which I’ll use to push forward a positive Pan-African identity: Defining idea!
• Realize I am not too bad at the whole busines thing: Don’t mind writing up marketing and business plans and do it competently. Don’t mind doing the research and the work neccesary to get a business going. Idea of working on a business if I see the sense in it doesn’t scare me: Cool!
• Sign up to do play with theatre group where I did the Wizard of Oz.Play the Puppetmaster in Pinnochio. Do a good job. Get nominated for the same award that I lost last year and win!
• I finish the semester but not before the loneliness and isolation hits me again (It took me 5 years to discover this is why I kept dropping out and leaving things so cut me some slack. I didn’t know why I was doing what I was doing) and I defer the course.

Second Half 2005

• Drop out of school and stay home.
• Listen to leftist professors and study the diplomatic history of the US, a bit of UK and a moderate level on Africa.
• Discover people such as Biko, Lumumba (Patrice of DRC not the Kenyan lawyer), Nkrumah, MLK, the Black Panthers, Che Guevara, Malcolm X among others who were important to Civil and human rights in the world. Inspired and fascinated by them.
• Daily routine for a while: Wake up, listen to leftist thinkers, watch some dvds, cook and sleep.
• Begin listening to more and more self help tapes.
• I keep on obsessing over plans for my future but have little idea how I will get there. Just feel tired and worn out.
• Do my first adult play, where I actually have to kiss a girl (blush, guffaw and draw map of Africa with my feet). Perform it at two short play festivals in country towns. At one of them, get deep connection with audience and can do no wrong on stage. Win award as Best New Actor and get $50 (I’m rolling in it now, lol!).
• Try out amateur wrestling and Olympic weightlifting because still obsessed with looking like an Adonis. Don’t feel any human connection at the training institutions.In spite of that, discover two sports I will pursue in future to develop strength and coordination.
• In an effort to make money I try to become a door to door salesman of car servicing vouchers. The job isn’t scary at all really. Regardless, I make less than 10 sales over 4 weeks and decide it’s not for me.
• Go and get trained as an aged care nurse and begin working immediately. I don’t like the monotony of the job but like talking to old people, they keep it real!
• Only friends are my few fantastic Kenyan friends: things about to get a bit shaky though.

Early 2006

• My cousins come over from Kenya to study and we have a house full of young people: Chaos ensues.
• Almost immediately me and one of my cousins (Big up, K) hit the club scene hard in spite of the fact that we are not that wealthy.
• Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. Go to the Village and hang out with the athletes-a lot of them are great guys who are way too obsessed with carnal pursuits. My obsession with drinking and sex begins to hit an exponential upward trijectory. Become an overactive social creature who gatecrashes as many parties as I can.
• Rejoin University but end up dropping all of my subjects except an elective subject: Creative writing for which I attend one three hour class every Thursday. Means I only go to school one day a week, spend the rest of the time working as little as possible and partying as hard as possible.
• Lose my virgnity when I, and am not even bragging here, have the most fluid flirtation session I will ever have in my life. I am one of six people she is juggling at the time. (Sweet girl, but at this stage of life I want my virginity back!)
• Try to become a conniving, manipulative playa type but it really doesn’t suit me too well, and I am too broke to live it up anyway. Though I fool around a few times, I set the record, as far as I know for the man who can “sleep (like with eyes closed and dreams) in the same bed with the most women,” without any physical connection. Expression begins to be formed: “Mwangi boils the water for others to bathe!”
• Attend quite a few business seminars where I have the double honour of being the only African and the only person under 30. Learn a lot from some of the finest business thinkers.
• Also attend free lectures and talks from a wide variety of thinkers including neuroscience and technology. Learn the expression: “As human beings we all feel as though we are Angels trapped in the bodies of beasts!” Metaphor still resonates with me today.
• As a result of being a bad friend and lying to cover for someone else, I lose my best friend. He was a good man, and what I did was wrong (if you are reading this, again, sorry A)

If you haven’t please make sure you read: Part one / Part two/

Continued on: Part four /Part five

Before you read this make sure you have read: Part one and Part two of my story as an African immigrant

PART THREE

Second Half 2003

At times I am a very dramatic, loud,flamboyant and entertaining person. Did a few plays back home. Decide to try out for the school production. Get the lead part because the only other person who tried out is in the final year of high school and they don’t want to give him heavy workload. Great vote of confidence there.

My life, without friends and energy of people to feed of, is an empty void. I decide to fill this void by studying and actually trying to pass at school. Begin developing study habits such as reading a paragraph of a book, closing the book, rewriting the paragraph as I understand it and seeing if the two ideas correspond. Some of these habits stay with me to this day: Defining moment.

Studying isn’t enough though I am doing a lot better at school. The loneliness and isloation makes me feel like dropping out again. Drama teacher tells me, “If I want to drop out and live like an adult, then I must be man enough to see the production through.” Decide to stay.

Put myself mind, body and soul into the rehearsal. Hide behind the characters and the music and the play hoping I never have to come out. Begin to shape up into a very focussed actor who can assume a character and ‘become him’.

Write out a business plan for a school cafeteria that I will run and profit from. The school principal quickly shoots the idea down.Darn it!

We perform the play: Some of the best days of my life. I do a much better job than I ever expected. People actually admire and respect me. The audience likes what I am doing. I matter! I discover one of my greatest passions in life: Defining moment

Begin watching ‘Inside the Actor’s Studio’ and begin to love understanding how actor’s work.

Buy my first self-help book by Tony Robbins. The book has great ideas. I am looking for a quick fix and so don’t put any of the ideas in the book to practical application for many years.

Buy more meditation books, this time from the hippie days. Fail to meditate and achieve Nirvana, again.

Still working out obsessively and getting no results.

Still trying to live a life of significance and feel like I’m getting nowhere physically though I mature tremendously psychologically.

Go through a phase where I am ashamed of my race. Visit the dermatologist and he tells me it is in my genes: Accept it and decide to make the best of my race from then on.

Steal money and pay to be taken through a private meditation session. Relax for about an hour and feel pretty chilled afterwards. Use the rest of the of the stolen money to watch Charlie’s Angels in the cinema’s gold section.

Try working in the church audiovisual department. Great job, but loneliness and isolation gets to me and I leave.

Begin to dream big about being one of the greatest creative minds and servant to my home of Africa: Defining idea.

Drop out of school a couple of months before the end of the year. Run away every school day to the local bookstore where I read books and magazines all day long until my parents and principal discover I have been running away.

Parents don’t put too much of a fight. My father visits Africa and I decide to follow him.

Kenya is fantastic. Missed the feeling of actually being able to talk to someone and form a connection. Talk to everyone I meet and have a fantastically, simple, agenda-less holiday in Kenya. Return to Australia fresh as a battery.

2004

Transfer high schools and end up in a mid-performing high school where on first day we find people smoking outside the school office.

In my first week (again!) get voted in as captain of a sport’s house for the entire school. Don’t show up for meetings! Play sports like I’m paid to be bad! Don’t really care! Hand over my captain badge to a friend of mine who wants to be captain real bad!

Take up five subjects for my final year of high school: Drama, Psychology (only boy in the class), Further Maths, English as a Second Language (it’s my first language but as an immigrant I can take the subject and it’s easier so……) and Dance (only boy in the class)

Quickly realize that by Dance they don’t mean the rhythmic movements of Papa Wemba and Awilo Longomba but instead mean ballet, jazz and contemporary (you ned a tutu for all three).

Take dance lessons in hip hop to see if I can catch up and maybe even get an A+ in the dance exam. Realize that short of a dancing-queen-John-Travoltaesque (you see girl africana, -esque it’s catching on) miracle, passing Dance is never happening. Drop out of dance class and end up doing the minimum subjects allowed in Melbourne schools: 4.

So energetic from coming home that skate right through this year with a nice, steady, comfortable work/study routine.

Begin hanging around other Kenyan immigrants my age: Feels good!

Discover that there is a professional wrestling school – WWE style- right next to my home and I’m in the same class with one of the referees. Referee promises to set me up with training to become a wrestler. One of my Kenyan friends disuades me telling me that one day I will meet an angry man who will knock me upside the head with a chair and make my mind slower than a tranquilized snail…decide to put my WWE plans on hold.

Do well in high school but worse than expected especially in Drama where I expected a pefect score for my one man performance of a South African Freedom figher that moves people to tears. Content but not elated I accept my mark and best student award in Further Maths.

Join a theatre group where I take on the role of the Scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz. I take playing the melodramatic character seriously. Nominated for a theatre award ( I lost) and sign up with a casting agency. They give me extra work on a TV show and an ad and I get to do a modelling gig on the ourtskirts of the city- the picture at the top of the blog is from that modelling shoot.

Join the Young Australia Broadway Chorus at the semi-advanced level. The Chorus is meant to train musical theatre performers. The training is fantastic. Just like in my first high school production I learn to my dismay, “ I was blessed with a good voice but no skill on how to use it.” The loneliness gets to me and I don’t enjoy the dances we are learning so I drop out after one term.

Realize yet again that I get a lot of admiration and female attention when I perform. Crave that feeling even more.

Try out for the church choir. Again….got’s the talent but no skill. Tell me to come back when I have the talent thing worked out.

Spend my weekends with my Kenyan friends just bumming around and talking. Feel very safe and very comfortable with my friends. In spite of that deal with some minor issues such as mutal friends who decide to slit their wrists when they are in a bit of a bad mood and drunk Maori who gate crashes our party to show us a tattoo where he remembers all the people he has killed.

Watch a friend of mine have more women throw themselves at him than a trampolene. Disgusting to watch as some of us have to work hard in the corner singing, “Can I be your tennis ball,”, to every white girl we see.

If you haven’t make sure you read: Part one / Part two/

Continued on: Part four /Part five