A Positive Quote for Now

"We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty."— Maya Angelou


Book Review: "Left to Tell" by Immaculee Ilibagiza

Book Review
by
Copyright ©
Picture related to the title of the story
Holding Ilibagiza's Left to Tell.

When I first read "Left to Tell" in December 2009, it moved me in a way that no other memoir had. I've felt the same when re-reading it over the years. It's simply the best memoir I've ever laid my eyes on.

Ilibagiza begins her story with how she grew up in rural Rwanda. Hers was a blessed home: loving brothers, a hard-working father and the Proverbs-31 kind of mother. And I liked the way she described Rwanda:
She is so breathtakingly beautiful that it's impossible not to see the hand of God in her lush, rolling hills; mist-shrouded mountains; green valleys; and sparkling lakes.
Come 1994, her life was torn apart when genocide struck her country. She fled the blessed home she grew up in, and her whole family was killed, except her oldest brother, Aimable, who was in Senegal then, pursuing his master's degree.

Luckily for Ilibagiza, she survived the genocide, landed a good job, met the man of her dreams and moved to America. What's most inspiring about her story, though, is how she forgave those who had torn her life apart.

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Also check out "Echoing the Reverend: A Story of Forgiveness".
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Dan: The Man Behind the Smile

A True Story
by Thuita J. Maina
on Apr 12, 2022
Copyright ©
Picture related to the title of the story
Daniel Karanja, or Dan for short, a close family friend.

At the turn of the millennium, I heard two jokes Dan cracked. One was him teasing someone that their torch lit dimly like a cigarette, and the other was him saying they had so many rats at home they'd started giving them names.

Haha! Dan could be hilarious! But it wasn't until 2006, when I joined our hometown Catholic youth group, that he became my friend. He was our choir master and a National Bank employee.

He was also a fan of soccer, and Liverpool FC in particular. As my friend, I gave him a copy of a software program I created for the 2006 World Cup fixtures. I was an IT student then.

We lost touch, Dan and I, when I enrolled at JKUAT in May 2007. But we reconnected when I included him in my mailing list after I took up writing as a hobby in 2011. He never wrote back, though.

But one day in 2013, he surprised me with several rib-cracking emails he forwarded. I laughed so hard that I asked him, half in jest, to send me money to cater for the cost of treating my cracked ribs.

A few years later, in 2016 to be precise, I ran into him as I was taking a walk in our hometown of Kiserian. He was surprised to see how big I had grown, which spurred me to lose weight.

After that chance encounter, I started seeing him more often. I soon gathered he had left National Bank and was now running a shop in Kiserian, where I dropped by to buy a few odds and ends.

Once when I went to the shop, he told me he appreciated the emails I used to send him, especially one on "Tactical Maneuvering." He is such a good friend for him to have mentioned that to me. May God bless him abundantly.

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Also check out "Winning Friends, Winning Life".
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Bible Quote

"Always be full of joy in the Lord; I say it again, rejoice! Let everyone see that you are unselfish and considerate in all you do... Don't worry about anything; instead pray about everything; tell God your needs and don't forget to thank Him for His answers. If you do this, you will experience God's peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand."

~ Phillipians 4:4-7 (TLB)

About the Author
Name: Thuita J. Maina
Marital status: Single
Lives in: Kiserian, Rift Valley, Kenya
Mission: Inspiring the world to godly living, one person at a time.

Just for Laughs

There was this drunkard called Azoge who loved drinking at Josiah's Bar. On being told a certain Hon. Nanga was flying to America to be conferred a law degree so he could be admitted to the bar, Azoge replied, "Why fly all the way to America to be admitted to the bar while you can get into Josiah's Bar any time?"

~ adapted from A Man of the People


The 7 Deadly Sins
  1. Pride
  2. Envy
  3. Gluttony
  4. Lust
  5. Anger
  6. Greed
  7. Sloth

Author's Note
I am learning to treat life as a journey, not a destination; I have therefore given up the things that weighed me down and I am now living my life to the fullest because the tomorrow I had always hoped to live my dreams may never be mine.

Fun Facts
  1. The fear of having no cell-phone service, running out of battery, or losing sight of your phone is called Nomophobia, reportedly affecting 66% of people.
  2. A single Google search needs more computing power than it took to send Apollo 11 to the moon. The Apollo computer was less equipped than a modern toaster.
  3. Besides being some of the biggest names in the tech industry, HP, Apple, Google and Microsoft have another commonality. They all started in garages.
~ from Codingforum.net

Health Tips

"So many of us take for granted the wonderful construction of the human body and the workings of its various parts. Some of us even expect it to function efficiently with less than the minimum care and attention. Learn as much as you can about your body and how the care of it can give you that greatest blessing of all—good health."

~ from Your Body (A Ladybird Book)

Wonders of the Modern World
  1. The Simplon Tunnel
  2. The Sky-scrapers of New York
  3. The Boulder Dam of Colorado
  4. The Panama Canal
  5. The Golden Gate Bridge
  6. The Taj Mahal at Agra in India
  7. The North Sea Oil Drilling Rigs

The Kind of Leaders We Need

"My life in politics was a joy. I loved campaigns and I loved governing. I always tried to keep things moving in the right direction, to give more people a chance to live their dreams, to lift people's spirits, and to bring them together. That's the way I kept score."

~ Bill Clinton

Scientific Marvels
  1. Space travel
  2. Heart surgery
  3. Fibre-optics communication
  4. Concorde
  5. Radios
  6. Computers
  7. Anesthetics

My Supreme Desire

To borrow Elbert Hubbard's words, my supreme desire is to radiate health, cheerfulness, calm courage and goodwill. I wish to live without fear, hate, guilt, worry or jealousy; to be honest, natural, confident, clean in mind and body—ready to say "I don't know" if it be so; to treat all men with kindness; and to meet any loss, failure, criticism and rejection unabashed and unafraid.



Greatest American Presidents
  1. Abraham Lincoln
  2. George Washington
  3. Thomas Jefferson
  4. Franklin Roosevelt
  5. Theodore Roosevelt
  6. Woodrow Wilson
  7. Andrew Jackson

Finding Peace in Turmoil

"Moses' rod on the ground was a frightful serpent; in his hand, it was a marvelous wand. Thus are tribulations. Considered in themselves, they are terrible; considered in the will of God, they are honors and pleasures."

~ St. Francis de Sales

Toughest Colleges to Get Into
  1. MIT
  2. Princeton
  3. Harvard
  4. Yale
  5. Stanford
  6. Brown
  7. Columbia

Why You Should Trust God

"Men and women who turn their lives over to God will find out that He can make a lot more out of their lives than they can. He will deepen their joys, expand their vision, quicken their minds, strengthen their muscles, lift their spirits, multiply their blessings, increase their opportunities and pour out peace."

~ Ezra Taft Benson

The 7 Greatest Scientists
  1. Albert Einstein
  2. Isaac Newton
  3. Galileo Galilei
  4. Nikola Tesla
  5. Aristotle
  6. Archimedes
  7. Charles Darwin

You Matter

"Always be yourself. Never try to hide who you are. The only shame is to have shame. Always stand up for what you believe in. Always question what other people tell you. Never regret the past; it's a waste of time. There's a reason for everything. Every mistake, every moment of weakness, every terrible thing that has happened to you, grow from it. The only way you can ever get the respect of others is when you show them that you respect yourself and most importantly, do your thing and never apologize for being you."

~ Unknown

The Most Industrialized Nations
  1. United States
  2. Japan
  3. Germany
  4. France
  5. United Kingdom
  6. Italy
  7. Canada

Keys to Success

"...in his effort to withstand temptation, to economize, to exercise thrift, to disregard the superficial for the real - the shadow for the substance; to be great yet small, in his effort to be patient in the laying of a firm foundation; to so grow in skill and knowledge that he shall place his services in demand by reason of his intrinsic and superior worth. This is the key that unlocks every door of opportunity, and all others fail."

~ Booker T. Washington

The 7 Social Sins
  1. Politics without principle
  2. Wealth without work
  3. Pleasure without conscience
  4. Knowledge without character
  5. Commerce without morality
  6. Worship without sacrifice
  7. Science without humanity

Cherish What You Love
"Cherish your visions, cherish your ideals, cherish the music that stirs in your heart, the beauty that forms in your mind, the loveliness that drapes your purest thoughts - for out of them will grow all heavenly environment, of these if you but remain true to them, your world will at last be built."~ James Allen

The World's Largest Cities
  1. London in England
  2. New York in the United States
  3. Tokyo in Japan
  4. Berlin in Germany
  5. Chicago in the United States
  6. Shanghai in China
  7. Paris in France

Benefits of Optimism

"In terms of success, optimistic people out perform their pessimistic colleagues. Research shows that they are consistently promoted higher and make more money while working fewer hours than those who think pessimistically. Optimists also contribute more significantly to social progress. It is the optimists who start and run successful companies, who win elections and carry out reforms, and who make breakthroughs in the realms of science and technology."

~ Pepe Minambo

The World's Greatest Lakes
  1. Caspian Sea in the Commonwealth of Independent States, C.I.S. (formerly U.S.S.R)
  2. Lake Superior in North America
  3. Victoria Nyanza in Central Africa
  4. Aral Sea in C.I.S.
  5. Lake Huron in North America
  6. Lake Michigan in North America

Demonstrating His Love

"Take your communication for instance - the way you address others. It ought to be with loving, gracious and edifying words. Never talk people down. Never use words that hurt and demean people. Communicate excellently with others without destroying their self-image or making them feel sorry for themselves. Talk to people in a way that they never forget the excellence of your words, the love and grace of Christ that you communicated. It's how God wants us to love."

~ Dr. Chris Oyakhilome

World's Longest Rivers
  1. Missouri-Mississipi (U.S.)
  2. Amazon (Brazil)
  3. Nile (Egypt)
  4. Yangtse (China)
  5. Lena (Russia)
  6. Zaire (Central Africa)
  7. Niger (West Africa)