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This coming Saturday evening, I will be attending the “Passion Driving Development” exhibition – that is huge! Huge because I never get out at night. I am one of those people that you will have to have a very good reason to get them out at night.
I am not just attending this event because my friends Verah Okeyo, Myra Anubi, Sandra Ruong’o, Barbra C. Amondi and Tom Otieno are exhibiting. This is beyond friendship and loyalties. Actually I have a lot of friends who do events but I am never really as excited as I am about this one.
You see, my awesome friends want to prove to the world (mostly to Kenyans) that it can be done. That you can make money from blue collar jobs. That you can be a fundi wa mbao “and make the bed you and Vera would lie on making babies.” That you will not be the only consumer of your products. That she will not look down on you because you did not go to university and study journalism like her. She will not care that you do not have the law degree she had dreams of before she got hit by the media bug.
I was talking to my friend (I like to call her “big sister from another mother”) who is back home on holiday from Germany where she works at a university. While taking her on a tour of Kisumu we started talking about the unemployment situation and how everyone wants to be a doctor, lawyer, teacher bla bla bla…She told me in Germany some kids just want to make concrete blocks for a living and they make good money out of it. In fact she says it’s tougher getting a blue collar job (unless you are self employed) than to get a white collar job.
Myra, Sandra, Barbara and Tom just like Verah have a background in the media. All with the exception of Barbara are active media practitioners but with a great passion for various forms of art.
Paintings and Jewelry are what make Myra tick.
Photography turns Sandra on.
Barbara bakes Kisumu’s best cakes.
Like Sandra, Tom loves to tell stories from photographs. At this exhibition he is telling a tale of love and conflicting cultures.
But they are not the only exhibitors. There is a team of designers with great outfits on display and sale. I met a young designer called Shamim the other day. She does bridal clothes in Kisumu, if you have a wedding coming up and you haven’t settled on a designer then come check her out.
Then there is the science journalist with a passion for sewing….who would have thought!
We all know Rosemary Odinga. To be honest she was just another Odinga until I heard her speak during her late brother’s funeral about two years ago. We all fell in love with her spirit. What you probably don’t know about her is that she mentors young boys and girls through a foundation she runs. If art, photography and fashion don’t turn you on then come and listen to her this Saturday at Acacia Hotel from 7PM as she challenges us on how we can turn blue collar jobs into careers young people pursue and make meaningful living out of. It’s will be the best spent Ksh. 1,000 this month!
(No time to talk about the Free cocktails)
BTW my blue collar job is farming. That is what I will leave radio for soon.
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