Blog Entry #1: Who am I

I come from a country in East Africa called Kenya. It is about the size of Nevada. I come from a tribe of pastoralists called Turkana. I grew up in my grandmother’s house until I was in second grade. She was a staunch Catholic, so church was very much a part of my upbringing.  Life with her was easy and fun.  Most mornings, she would ask me if I wanted to go to school or not; naturally my answer would be no, in which case I would accompany the goat herders. Perhaps the most influential person in my life has been my mother. By age 7 I still could not count numbers 1-20, write or recite the alphabet. She personally taught me how to read and write in under one week. It was worse than a military boot camp. But since then, I fell in love with books and learning. I also picked up my love for current happenings, and understanding social problems from her.

Through out school, all the children around me always knew what they wanted to be when they grew up. I never had an answer. I dilly-dallied with the idea of being a catholic nun and an English teacher for while.  The other ‘profession ‘ I have been interested in for a long while is working for an international non-governmental organization (INGO) or a non-profit as it is referred to here. They do a lot of good work helping people in dire circumstances and I want to be a part of this effort. So here I am in college. I know where I want to work in, I am still deciding what I want to do. These days I know that I want to understand how people think, make decisions and respond to change. In my head I imagine that this knowledge will make me a better development operative.

I look forward to exploring my interests and shaping my sociological perspective in this sociology class.