PRESSURES OF CHRISTMAS

Well, well, well, Christmas is here. Yeah!! Pop the champagne, throw a party, cook dinner, visit places, have fun…but wait! Christmas is not the end of life. How now?

Just the other day, I was headed home with a friend and on the way home, we decided to stop by the streets of Nairobi to do some “mitumba” (second hand or "imports" as my friends and I like to call them) clothe shopping. We went ready, along the streets of Ngara. Shop we did, along with hundreds of other young Kenyans who frequent the area. We stopped at one stall (I don’t exactly know what they are called, you know, the wayside sales, I assume they are stalls with invisible walls).

After stopping for three minutes to admire some “button” earrings, I started feeling dizzy. My eyes became watery and I inhaled a stingy choking gas. I panicked. Rape and drugging came first to my mind. I turned to my friend and asked her if she was experiencing the same. She was worse. She had taken out her handkerchief thinking that her cold had suddenly become severe. We literally disappeared from the said “stall”.

This got me thinking, to what extents are people willing to go to earn an income this festive season? How many people are under pressure to buy that chicken (I have many Luhya friends), or that present, or throw that party and worst of all, host uninvited in-laws (and other relatives) with unrealistic expectations…

During this period, most of us are under pressure and where this pressure came from, I know not. When we were young, Christmas was special since it was just a community affair, no pressure to buy gifts, as long as the annual chapatti and kuku (Chicken) was present (and juicy cola for drinks). So whatever happens, I never feel under pressure to buy wrong and expensive gifts, just share the joy and laughter with family and friends….

Back to the shopping, I told my brother about it and he said that it must have been tear gas. Well, I’m not convinced, I believe someone was trying to drug us and steal from us to get off the pressures of Christmas.

Don’t give in to the pressures of the festivities. Remember, it’s your life. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR from the author's desk

twitter: @deekareithi