United we shall stand

Horror, Anger, Sadness.

Horror for the lives you have taken,

Anger that you could be so heartless,

Sadness for the families torn apart from such unnecessary deaths.

You killed men, women, children.

You destroyed lives.

You have tried to pull us apart,

But will not succeed.

Kenya has united as one;

Race, religion nor class plays a role.

We will stay together, we will support each other and we will win.

There is no justification to what you have done,

It is cold, blooded murder-

You cowards.

Nothing you do will tear us apart.

Thoughts and prayers to those that have left us,

Thoughts and prayers who survived the attack,

Thoughts and prayers to all Kenyans affected.

Do not lose support, do not give up.

United we shall stand.

I am proud to be Kenyan;

That magnificent place I call home.

My thoughts are with you Kenya

Sadness fills me today as I follow the events that unfolded at Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi. After receiving a message from a friend of mine early this afternoon telling me there were shootings in the mall as a gang was in there, I immediately sent my mum and dad a message to find their whereabouts. They were safe. They had been at the mall only an hour prior to this tragic event; they could have been part of it. Shock spreads through me.

I feel sick to my stomach, and tears keep appearing. How can people do this? I know things like this happen all over the world, but when they occur at home, it becomes a reality. It is such a traumatic thing that has happened; many people have been injured either by bullets, grenades going off, or by trying to escape. There are so many different news reports at the moment, and none of them say the same thing; so it is difficult to know what is actually going on. Everything is purely speculation at the moment, and as far as I know I don’t think there is a reason as to why. On the news channels, there are many reports from scared witnesses, but at least survivors.

Images are being released on the various news channels; all traumatic and heart wrenching. Peoples’ privacy should be respected, it isn’t necessary to publish pictures of the wounded; but at the same time that it is what sells. The public want to be kept up to date with the ‘now’, and bad news sells. It’s competitive for a news journalist and you must be a strong person, or immune to a certain things to be able to take such disturbing images. These images and the ambiguous stories however cause panic among many.

Following the news throughout the day, the situation hasn’t improved. Apparently there is still a hostage situation. All GSU and police forces are surrounding the mall, acting careful because of the civilians inside.

I tremble at the thought of it. This is one of Nairobi’s most popular and one of the newest shopping malls. This is where I go when I am home; this is where my parents and friends shop. All the pictures that are being displayed, I have been there. That is why this is so scary to me. Even though my parents are safe and my brother is in Cape Town, I just wish we were all together in the same place-I would feel more comfortable and more at ease. My heart goes out to all the families that have been torn apart today. One of Kenya’s radio presenters died today- RIP. She was young, talented and a soon to be mother; her life was taken away from her too soon.

Other information that is going around is from a survivor- who said at the time they didn’t know where their children were. However, they acted like adults; they were calm, and pretended to be dead so the shooters wouldn’t shoot them- what clever children. The daughter saved her brother by pushing him out the way. When I read this, I thought of my own brother. I would take a bullet for him, but I hope we are never in that situation. I thought today that it could have been any one of us in there, and that thought gives me a knot in my stomach. I am so thankful that it wasn’t.

To all of you that were there, and are there still; my prayers are with you. I hope this nightmare soon comes to end, so people can try and recover from this. If you are reading this and are in Nairobi, I urge you to please donate blood. There are many that need it, including children. Doctors are also needed as the hospitals are filling up quickly. Please though, everyone, stay safe and away from that area. This is a time when the population needs to come together and help one another. I can’t from here, but I am certainly thinking of all of you and praying that none else will be injured.

Baby Steps

So it’s been quite awhile since I last posted, and a lot has happened in that time.

I have a passion for writing and I want to write. Since the beginning of last term, small opportunities started to come my way. It all started when I applied to be a journalist for the uni newspaper Die Matie. The editor liked what I sent in as an application, and next thing I knew I was being given a story to cover for the next issue. Excitement overwhelmed me! That morning when the paper was due out, I left my flat early so I could get to my building early to grab a copy of the paper... not only did I run to the BA building, when I got there I took 4 papers and where I was I started to look through it-“ where is my article”???I thought to myself. Because I was in such a hurry I actually skipped past it unintentionally. So now, shifting carefully through it page by page, there it was “Fine Dining in the Botanical Gardens" by Michelle Purchase. I don’t even have words to describe the adrenalin rush I felt at that moment- all I wanted to do was a happy dance, but seeing as I was in public I opted against it. I have had a few articles published since, and the feeling doesn’t go away.

However, that is not my only good news. Through contacts I was able to get through to the editor of The Month Magazine and my first article was published on their online blog a couple of weeks ago. At that moment I had taken my next step. Writing for Die Matie is great, it is a first step, but only people at the university read it. Writing for The Month, although it is a limited audience that are there target market, it is one step more.

I finish my time at uni in 8 weeks; it is exciting but daunting all the same. I don’t feel that my time in South Africa has come to end yet, there is still too much that I want to do here. But I now am faced with the problem of a work permit and a visa. I cannot stay here unless I have a job offer, and then who knows how long the process of applying for the visa is going to take... So next week I am going to see someone to try and get some professional advice.

I don’t plan on trying to apply for the most popular and well known magazines (not at the moment anyway!) because I know it’s going to be extremely difficult. Most jobs require a certain amount of experience, and I do not really have enough. I am rather going to try for the smaller ones where I have more of a chance of getting something, and where I can build my experience. 

It's going to be a tough and rocky road, but I won’t give up.