Creating Something

A True Story

by Thuita J. Maina

on Aug 14, 2018

Picture related to the title of the story — *Image from Pinterest.*

Ever since I was a child, I've always wanted to create something. When I was nine, for instance, I tried making a piano from a carton my parents gave me. I soon abandoned the project because I didn't have the know-how to make one.

And when I was on a school holiday in 2004, I tried using an old sufuria as an aerial, or as a satellite dish as I like to think, to make our then analogue TV display clear images. The experiment didn't work.

It was during those years that I fell into an argument with Symo, my kid brother, when he told me that everything that could be invented had been invented. When he couldn't take it anymore, he asked me what hadn't been invented yet.

"Of course if I mention something," I retorted in Kikuyu, "it means it has been invented. It's that which has not been invented that I can't mention because I don't know what it is."

Symo, who has now changed his view, wasn't the first one to think everything that could be invented had been invented. Way back in 1899, Charles H. Duell - then a U.S. commissioner of patents - also thought so.

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Also check out "Rich in the Things That Mattered".

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Favorite Teachers: A Schooling Journey

A True Story

by Thuita J. Maina

on Aug 10, 2018

At Naru-Moru Primary School, it was Mr. Mureithi who taught us science when I was in Standard 4 in 1997. He liked taking us to the fields, and when lunchtime neared, he'd release us one by one with questions like, "What is photosynthesis?"

At Kunoni where I finished off my primary school education, it was Mr. Oketch who taught us math and science. He had a passion for the subjects that shone through in his lessons, which he spiced up with stories.

At Starehe Boys' Centre, one of the teachers I liked was Mr. Martin Moore. He had a habit of beginning his lessons with fun facts. But my classmates' fondest memory of him were the extra credits he gave for answering questions well.

At JKUAT, I liked Prof. Paul Njoroge who taught us Communication Skills in our first semester. He became a good friend of mine when I gave him a copy of Tony Buzan's The Speed Reading Book. He in turn lent me four books.

The books were John Marks' Science and the Making of the Modern World, Bill Clinton's memoir and biographies of Nelson Mandela and Joseph P. Kennedy (patriarch of the legendary Kennedy family).

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Also check out "Miss Alice's Vibe Check".
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