5 ways to keep your feet free of athlete’s foot this cold season.

If you are a man, do you wash your feet or does the water in your karai get finished before you get to the ankles?

If you are a woman, do you really wash between your feet every time you take a bath?

If your answer is, ‘sometimes’. Then you have probably had to suffer two weeks of fungal infection between your toes.

Your feet smell too, a mix between bread dough and a cow shed. Quite an unpleasant state of affairs that we want to try fix especially with the cold season setting off in such unpredictable weather.

1. Wash your feet.
   
   

You will need;

• Clean warm water,
• A pumice stone. I use the black variety.
• A srubber, you can cut off a piece of gunia and burn the sides to stop it from running.
• Soap, and water to rinse.

Scrub every part of the foot, use the pumice stone for the bottom, then rinse.

2. Dry your feet.

If you only dry your body and let the feet dry as you go, you need to make serious lifestyle changes. Get a special towel for your feet. Feet are feet, so unless you are a clean freak, get a darker color so you don’t have to wash it every day.

3. Avoid infection

Wear the right shoes for the right ground. It beats common sense to wear open shoes in wet weather.

• Wear the right size of closed shoes to avoid too much sweating.
• Wear cotton socks to absorb moisture.
• Don’t walk on bare feet in public bathrooms.
  be like this.

4. TLC for feet- Foot baths
   
   

• Throw in a tea bag in warm water and soak your feet for 10 minutes. Tea has components that can reduce the possibility of athlete’s foot.
• Lemon. Pour in the juice of two lemons in your foot bath and soak for 10 minutes. Lemon has essential oils that leave you feel feeling soft and fresh by balancing out the bacteria levels between the toes.

• Vinegar bath. Apple Cider Vinegar or white vinegar will work just fine.

5.  Get rid of bad habits

• Change cutex regularly, and wash your feet before applying a new coat.
• Wear a clean pair of socks every time.
• Trim your toe nails often, a straight clip is best.
  

• Clean inside your shoes when you come home and let them dry before using them again.

5 ways blog to keep away SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder)

I am on a personal challenge to blog about things that pass through my mind as I go along. Cold months are not my most productive months. But I gotta keep my mind active otherwise the winter blues might take over. I came up with 15 categories.

food

travel

pop-culture

entertainment

technology

human interest

household

literary

sports

General knowledge

Fashion

African fashion

Animals

Personal growth

Arts

I have managed to come up with 75 possible blog entries. Look out for topics like in technology 5 photographers you should meet.

In human interest, 5 arguments you have probably had with someone this week

In Health and fitness (this I just added, it was in human interest) 5 work-out songs to get you moving regardless of your age.

In pop-culture you will find, 5 colors you never thought could do for your wall.

If there is anything unique you do, you could get featured too in the 5 rare people section, so let me know what it is you do best- 5 honest tailors,  short girls who don’t wear high, heels.

Finding God: But, God is not like a father…

“At least not to me,” I say to myself, going over the printed text again.

-God is like a loving father ready to hold our hand whenever there is trouble-

“Yeah right.”

I don’t get it, I cannot understand this. How can God be like A father, or any human? I refuse to accept it.

BUT, I want us to get to the part where it says God hears the prayers of those that pray from the heart. I want to learn to say a real prayer without mixing it with my imagination and half created stories. And I want to tell God I know he heard my vernacular prayers, long long ago before I could pray in English.

So I nod and say “yes, God is like a caring father” and blah blah , but I’m only saying what I’ve heard people say and the photograph on the page does paint a picture of how a father should behave..

But I have a loud question in my mind.

Why can’t we just say. God is wise, and clever, and kind. Like your best friend, and always ready to pick out thorns out of your foot like the grown up relative who wonders why you’ve been limping for a week and decides to get you out of the misery.

If it said, -think of a nice person, now that is how God is like- I would get it right away.

But here it says- He is like a father-

This will take a while.

So let us find this father and get a comparison. And of course the father doesn’t want to father a grown up, and something about having had sex with your mother a million years ago which doesn’t qualify him for such a title that I am seeking..

God will have to wait.

Until the clods of blood from my internal wounds find a way out, else we’re done for good, and I’m off to North East Germany, or somewhere..

But I meet a girl that makes room in her wardrobe for my clothes and says – you are welcome to stay- but I am not ready for that kind of benevolence so I escape.

Then an old man, not known to me a month before, he exchanges my indo-mee for high quality bean noodles and gives me a pork recipe. And I stop being so frightened and cold..

Soon I am surrounded by people that don’t care that my teeth are the color of my skin and I have an accent.

“God is greater than our hearts and knows all things” she showed me the text when I began to fidget.

-God is greater than our hearts and knows all things- That is reasonable enough.

He knows I cannot call him father.

But he knows I know exactly who is.

I see him, his image in those that choose to wear it. God is like a father, true. A father that really loves his children. Not just, any father. But to me, he is:

My friend, My God. And we are cool.

What do content writers do?

Every organisation relies on brand popularity to know if it is a success or a failed venture. In order to stay in the game, an organisation needs to be in touch with its target audience.

This is the digital information era and new as well as well- established ventures are starting to find out just how important the internet is for their well being. That is in terms of marketing, selling and passing information. That all this can now be exclusively confined to the internet and have a business running successfully is no longer unusual.

Just as one would be mistaken to dispute that this digital multitasking age is a passing fad, it would be wrong to assume that web content can be provided, managed and monitored by just anybody in the organization.

A person might know everything there is to know about a company, but be incapable of online content presentation.

 An example: A company’s communication person decides to copy paste what appears on their newsletter to the “Home” page of their site. About 5, 000 word count.

Humh..Seriously, who has the time to scroll?

Web content is not print journalism. 

Have you noticed how newspapers present their online news? My point exactly.

When you think of Web content, think of a marketing campaign. Less  words, more visuals. Newspapers understood this early enough.

Then there is this big word that we content managers will throw at you just  to see if you know what you are paying for; Search Engine Optimisation ( S.E.O).

What this entails is, there is a way content for the web should be presented. And this is not just about grammar and punctuation.

"mango breakfast''

When you search “breakfast” on images, what do you expect to find? Anything, coz we all eat lots of things for breakfast, including coke and kangumu and that is an individual choice. But if you search breakfast+mango. You might get something close to this. A search engine will sift through all the teas and coffees, mueslis and kway teo and find something with mango in it.

Articles for the web need to be succinct enough so they can come up easily on search engines. See this article(http://goo.gl/DZd40z). Repetitive? That is one method of S.E.O.  Check out this article (http://goo.gl/g5QJPc.) For this one I used links as well as keywords, so far it has received 77views, a lot for a very low key blog like this one.

In summary what do content writers do?

1. We combine text and visuals to create short, fun articles for you website.
2. We optimize articles so your website does not come on page 16 in a search engine.

 I re-wrote this

Socializing the introvert- Claustrophobia

I have always loved small spaces, like John from Ally Macbeal, I need a hole where I can crawl in to get away from the rest of the world.

When my little cousins came to live with us, I looked for a bed sheet and draped it across the room to separate-MY side from HER side. In high school; my aunt, her child and nanny moved into the same bedroom. To me, I had been kicked out, there was no room for me.

Uncle cleaned out a store room and said we might use it as an extra room. I found a mattress and relocated right away, but he said the room could fit two beds. I put a padlock at the door.

Mean, right?

And selfish too

But I can explain.

I need space and not in the true sense of the word. I could be in a big room with only one other person but it still feels crowded, especially if the other person loves the sound of his voice.

When there is two of us in a room, this is how the space is shared out.

And I cannot write, think or pray when other people or other person is too close.

I will

Either have to leave the room

Start talking non-stop

Walk about doing nothing in particular, just collecting lint from the atmosphere

Or sit cross legged and read a single page for two hours

The discomfiture of seeing boundary lines puts me right in a tense mood

But I realise I might be claustrophobic and this can happen anywhere.

A few years back I was living near a bunch of people who needed people about them for them to think. They would be very offended that I turned down yet another cook- out that week.

We later became inseparable but there was always the question they could not get round, ‘why did I like to be so lonely?’ and made efforts to have my house warmed by guests at every opportunity, and I resented it and became quite cold towards them.

Many times I could have burrowed into the floor for privacy.

I would not have minded another two cats or five, but people around meant

I had to be on all the time.

On deeper thought, it might be genetic. My mother is happy in her own company. While uncle spend, 95% of his waking hours , I mean 97%.

He spends it inside the napier grass plantation and only comes out when the moorland is clear.

Granny, on the other hand loved crowds before ALZ hit. She was a public speaker and a good percentage of the families take after her. There might be a psychological explanation to this.

I’ll know some day

Meanwhile, I try to go against this by inviting people to hang out with me against my inner will.

It turns out well most of the time.

I get soaking with people-talk and have little time to think. How did I do? How did it go. One of my mother’s sisters understood me and kept me supplied with newspapers, magazines and reader’s digests and told people to leave me alone. But she died.

So really, these are my first steps at human interaction. I’ll get there.

(ONLY one sketch belongs to me. the rest are borrowed thank you very much)

Alzheimer's Patient Priorities

When a family member has Alzheimer’s disease in Kenya; often times it seems as though a bomb as been dropped into the family to scatter everyone. People vanish. And only the very strong ones; and those that have no choice, who tiptoe back to view how matters stand.

Truth is, if the person with Alzheimer’s is the family pillar; which is often the case(mothers, fathers, grandparents, older siblings), woe to the bystanders. Those that used to receive command from this one stand listlessly waiting for direction on what next.

Those that have their wits about them and have more heart than all of us cowards; stagger at the new responsibility of finding out just how different, how difficult the foreseeable future seems to be.

How not to Reel Over

Remember you are not the first to ever give care to an ALZ patient. So listed are a few pointers gleaned from the ALZKenya.org support group meeting, to help you find balance in your new capacity as the care giver.

1. Pray

Psalms 18:6.Ask for help from the one that understands stuff which no one else can. He will give you wisdom which will prove to be an asset in the coming days.

2. Involve other concerned members who genuinely want to assist.

Call that meeting, don’t postpone it. But you will need to be firm; unless you like to put up with rubbish without going insane. Suggestions are welcome but interference in your care methods are a no no. Are they ready to take over? No? Then may they kindly SHUT UP and let you do your job.

3. Get a backbone (borrow, lease, buy, or make one out of lead).

You will be with the patient every day, they will tell tales and prefer some family members despite you constant care. You know how much; emotionally, financially is required every day. A backbone will also be also useful when dealing with friends who will think:

• Your family member is bewitched
• Has lost their mind
• Meddled with someone’s property and now facing consequences.

If they have nothing positive to say, don’t be afraid to hurt their feelings by explaining how unnecessary their visits are.

4. Spare your money.

You will need to stretch your money longer. Find an accountant to value the patient’s property and help you budget. Avoid impromptu buys or treatment expenditures. Constant cash will be required for cleaning detergent, helpers, proper diet, transport and drugs.

5. Get a caretaker.

There is comfort in knowing your are doing your sick family member service by being their sole caretaker, but you need help. You need breaks and rests and get-a ways. A trained caretaker will even do a better job than you could accomplish with all your other responsibilities.

6. Open your heart wide and love your dear one.

They will thank you in their own way. In spite of downtime, you will get the satisfaction of doing all you can, and you will know you have their confidence by the trust and value they will show towards you.

Nobody said it was easy

No one ever said it would be this hard

Alzheimer’s in Kenya- why you should join a support group

Alzheimer’s is not well known in Kenya despite the greater majority of our parents going down with it each day.

Our grandmother has it, and it’s been quite a load.

I wanted to gather recent information to share with my uncle and his wife, who are her primary caretakers. And I came across ALZkenya.org. They invited me for one of their support group meetings and what a meeting it turned out to be.

Why you should join a support group

Like in other issues:

• Emotional release: It helps to talk about issues you are facing.
• Empathy: It is a relief to listen to others talk about similar experiences.
• Information Pool: You can access contact information for clinicians that deal with ALZ.
• Training: You can access training to enable you be a better caretaker.

You will not find a textbook with the title: How to act when a family member has Alzheimer’s in Kenya- for dummies.

And many times you will be plagued with things that you may be doing wrong. Which you will find, it is really not your fault.

We are all dummies in this and lack of clear, open and accessible information about Alzheimer’s in Kenya is the cause. Many are just trying and erroing(sic), injuring themselves, the sick family member and all around in the process.

No one is to be blamed. Not serikali, not God, not yourself, not your other family members who suddenly started to behave funny. Reason is, ALZ is like a time bomb ticking faster than a clock, it is also the most confusing disease yet to be discussed.

One day things seem to be just fine, the next you can’t explain what happened or what is to be done.

Is it to get another doctor?

Or call the family together?

Or crawling under the bed to bowl like a five year old?

There is a way to fix this and it is only by getting as much knowledge about the disease as there is.

You will know everything from how to talk to a patient to how not to change the setting and plot (patient’s familiar surroundings.). That will be the theme for the next article.

(all pictures googled)