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NATION �October 29, 2006 |Sunday Nation |IN

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NATIONYo u n gOctober 29, 2006 | Sunday Nation |

Funpage

Developing a reading culture

WHat you say?

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Creative touch

This is five-year-old Khadija Bar during the Dstv launch of the new Disney Channel by Multichoice in Nairobi. She is a pupil at Braeburn School in Nairobi. During her free time, she loves playing games with her friends. Photos/Olive Munyi

The making of a superstar

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YoungNATION|October 29, 2006 |Sunday Nation2 YoungNATION|October 29, 2006 |Sunday Nation2

DENNIS KIMANTHI KATETEHappy birthday! Every journey starts with a single step. Today is the day we get to say we’re happy and it cannot pass unnoticed. There was a time you were a minute old, an hour, a day a week, a month, a year and now you’re nine years old. May peace and happiness never leave your smiling face as you grow up to be a God-fearing. Best wishes from your loving dad Katete, mum Juliana, sister Lucy, uncles Stephen and Simon, aunt Carol, teachers Alex Kagunda, Wanyoike, Violet, Mary and all your classmates at the Church Army Academy in Nairobi.

HENRY OTIENO Happy birthday! As you celebrate your eighth birthday, we wish good health and life full of happiness. Best wishes from mum Hellyne, dad Joseph, sister Ninah, brother Dis, cousins Achieng, Abbey, Mike, Ritch and Elly.

TAMARA NJERIHappy sixth birthday! May you live to be toothless and God-fearing girl. Wishes from mum and dad, cousins Dingo, Russe, Nana, Mitch and Michael, friend Kinyua, aunties, uncles and grandfather.

BRETTON WAIGWI MACHARIA Happy birthday son! As you celebrate your seventh birthday, we want you to know how wonderful it is to have a son like you. We pray that you may grow to be a God- fearing and responsible man. Best wishes from your dad Macharia, mum Wanjiku, cousins, uncles, aunties, grandparents, friends and schoolmates.

ANNE SHIRLY AKINYI Happy birthday dear! As you turn two, may you live to be a God-fearing girl. You are a source of happiness to our family. May you live to accomplish all your goals in life. Best wishes from dad Bob Yusuf Gowi, mum Josephine Awuor, cousins, uncles, aunties and grandparents.

MARIA JOY AND JOSE BENEDICTAHappy birthday! You are treasured and we feel great having you. May live to blow 1001 candles and live a blessed and holy life. We love you. Best wishes from dad Mike, mum Irene, cousins Jacinta and Sue, uncles, aunties, cucus and all your buddies.

BRIAN OKOTH ONYANGO AJWANGHappy birthday dear son! You are such a nice and lovely baby and you bring a lot of joy and happinessinto our lives. As you celebrate your second birthday, we pray that God will bless you always. Have a blessedbirthday. Best wishes from dad Harisson, mum Lilian, grandpa Naftali, grandma Mary, cousins, aunties and uncles.

YVONNE MUMBIHappy third birthday darling! As you celebrate this wonderful day in your life, may I thank God for all his favours upon you. May you grow to be a joy and a blessing to all people around you. May you live to blow as many candles as possible. Best wishes from your dad Njoroge.

Birthdays

A long, long time ago there lived a beautiful girl called Mumbi who lived alone in a forest near Kiamuite

village. Mumbi lived in a small hut which she kept neat and tidy. She was a hard working girl. But it was her beautiful complexion and nice set of white teeth that made most men from Kiamuite village to admire her most.

Every day, Mumbi woke up very early and after having her break-fast of hot porridge and sweet potatoes and head deep into the forest to search for berries and tubers which she cooked in the evenings when she came back to her hut. Mumbi looked after herself and lived happily. On Wednesdays she went to the nearby market to sell some of the fruits she had col-lected in the forest.

But Mumbi was not all that happy, since she longed to meet the man of her dreams. Although many men in her village asked her for marriage, Mumbi thought none had the attributes she was looking for. She wanted a charming, hand-some, strong and hardworking man to marry her. But Mumbi did not despair as she knew that some day she would meet such a man.

And one bright day she went to Kiamuite market to sell some of the berries. She laid her mat and sat beneath a huge oak tree waiting for buyers. The market was full of traders and buyers some who had travelled from the neighbouring vil-lages riding on donkeys. “How much

are these tubers?” Mumbi looked up and to her surprise in front of her was the most handsome man she had ever seen. Mumbi was so dazzled by his physical features that she smiled shyly. Soon Mumbi and the man, Gudi became friends. They would visit each other and after some time they introduced each other to their parents. Within a short time they were happily married sharing all the house hold chores.

But this didn’t last long. Soon af-ter, Gudi became lazy and stopped helping Mumbi in picking berries, tilling the shamba and fetching water. Poor Mumbi became weary doing all the housework alone. She decided to run away from her lazy husband and returned to her lonely hut in the forest.

In the forest, Mumbi became very lonely and always prayed to God that her husband would change. As for Gudi, he found himself in all sorts of problems after Mumbi left. He had forgotten how to cook, pick berries, clean his clothes and do any other normal house chores by himself. His hut became dirty and disorganised. He realised how foolish he had been to mistreat his wife. One day Gudi decided to go and look for Mumbi and ask for for-giveness. When he reached Mumbi’s hut, he found her busy with her normal housework. Mumbi welcomed him politely and they talked for a longtime. Gudi promised never to be lazy again and they were together again and lived happily thereafter.

— MWORIA MUCHINA

Florah Musumba, Baraka Girls’ High School, P.O. Box 605, Kiserian, Kenya. Age: 15. Hobbies: Writing letters, reading novels, swimming, singing, acting, making friends and listening to music. Would like penpals from France, Canada, Germany, Holland, Italy, South Africa and Britain.

Vanessa Mumbi, P.O. Box 994, Mombasa, Kenya. Age: 15. Hobbies: Surfing the web and travelling. Would like penpals from all over the world.

Ann Valerie Wanjiku, Narumoru Girls’, P.O. Box 20-10105, Narumoru, Kenya. Age: 14. Hobbies: Dancing, reading novels, watching movies and travelling. Would like penpals from all over the world.

Phyllis Waithera, Narumoru Girls’, P.O. Box 20-10105, Narumoru, Kenya. Age: 14. Hobbies: Swimming, watching movies and exchanging snaps. Would like penpals from Philippines, Colombia and Mexico.

Evian Kerubo Okemwa, Narumoru Girls’, P.O. Box 20-10105, Narumoru, Kenya. Age: 15. Hobbies: Dancing, watching movies, playing basketball, listening to music and singing. Would like penpals from Jamaica, France, Spain and Hawaii.

PenPALS

Mumbi’s character pays off

YoungNATION|October 29, 2006 |Sunday Nation2 YoungNATION|October 29, 2006 |Sunday Nation2 Young

NATION �October 29, 2006 |Sunday Nation |

Dear Auntie,I’m in Standard Eight and my friends and classmates call me a ‘cry baby’. I

hate it when they make fun of me this way and I find myself crying a lot. Every time I am afraid of something, I cry. When someone shouts at me, I cry. I don’t like it when I disappoint anyone, especially my parents and teachers, and when I’m afraid that I’m about to do that, I cry. When my friends make fun of me I cry. When I fail my exams, I cry too. Please help me to become stronger so that I can face situations I don’t like courageously.

Martha DeSouza, Nairobi

Dear Martha,I feel for you and I understand

your fears. Many young peo-ple, including myself when I was your age, develop fear and anxiety when faced with certain experiences and situations. You probably worry a lot about what oth-er people think of you, and how they will react when you give them bad news, or when they think of you in a negative light. And yet, worrying is a normal human reaction. Yours is probably at a much higher level. And there are times when anxi-ety and fear are good for you. When you fear facing your exams, it prompts you to study harder so that you don’t fail. When you are anxious about disappointing your parents and teachers, it inspires to work that much harder at not disap-pointing them next time.

So what I need to help

you with is the crying. Based on what you have written, it appears that you cry quite often, and that you deal with your anxiety and fear by crying. So now we need to identify a dif-ferent way for you to deal with your anxiety, fears and worries. Here are a few tips that you can begin to work with from today.

1. Every time you feel anxious, fearful or worrying too much about something, start breathing slowly and deeply, holding your breath for 10 counts (count from one to 10 every time you breathe in and out). Do this for about five minutes and you will begin to find yourself relaxing little by little, and the urge to cry will slowly go away.

2. Close your eyes when you start counting

and breathing. This helps greatly and letting you concentrate fully on the task at hand, which is to breathe in deeply, hold the breathe while you count then breathing out slowly as you count to ten once again. You will realise that this full concentration helps in disconnecting the world and its worries (that is, what you are anxious about or afraid of) when you close away. By the time you finish breathing and counting for five minutes, you will be re-laxed and whatever problem was facing you will seem very far away, and nothing to worry about. You will feel stronger and better able to deal with the fear or anxiety.

When you feel that your anxiety or fear is about to overwhelm you to the

point of breaking down and crying, seek an alternative activity immediately. Is it homework you haven’t done and you are afraid your teachers or parents will find out? Then start work-ing on it immediately. Don’t rush over it because this will only increase your panic. Is it a task you were given but you haven’t done and you are about to be found out? Then start working on the task. Is it fear of the punishment for something wrong you have done? Then learn to begin accepting punishments handed out to you for not doing your work. If you want to avoid the punishments, always do your work on time and if you can’t, let your parents or teachers know in good time so they can either give you more time or another

assignment. Are you afraid that your friends will laugh at you for something you did or did not do, then let them? Just walk away from them if and when they do so you don’t have to look at them.

Send your questions to,Young Nation,Ask Auntie,P.O. Box 49010, 00100,Nairobi or email at yn@nation.co.ke

AskAUNTIE

It has been said that Kenyans will do anything but read and today’s youth is ignorant of a wide range of issues including our history, current affairs etc. Some children from St.Mary’s Ruaraka School discuss how young people can be helped to develop a reading culture. They were asked these questions: What kind of materials do you read to know what is happening around? Why do you think children are not reading widely?

Thatcher Mbesu, ��I read newspapers and magazines to expand my knowledge of current issues and to sharpen my spoken and written English since I pick new vocabularies easily then. Children are not creating time to read because they are busy watching TV, movies or playing

video games. And publishers of children’s books are not helping the situation either. Publishers must produce story books that are inter-esting so that they can lure many children into developing the habit of reading. There should be as many authors of educative and

entertaining books as the readers.

Japheth Mutisya, �4Children should have access to lots of reading materials like story books, magazines, that will influence them positively. I read newspapers, listen to radio and watch TV to keep myself

abreast with current issues.

Hawa Gawa, �� In order to know what is happening around, I

spend many hours watching TV along with my mum who is a journalist. I also read newspapers or watch her programmes. Children are not reading because they are lazy. They will rarely spare time to read outside their classwork because they want to watch TV and play video games. This has been made worse by the fact that parents have invested heavily on electronics and not books. I think electronics should be made very expensive so that parents will desist from buying them, so kids will have

no option but to read. Children want to spend time playing because reading to them is boring.

Pinto Ntampuhwe, �4I read newspapers to know what is happening around.

Parents don’t encourage and guide children from an early age to read widely especially novels. They are left to play or watch TV all day when they are not in school. There are story books that are both educative and entertaining in the bookshops but parents are not buying them for their children. If parents are

a bit strict on time for reading, then children would not spend all their time playing or watching TV.

Developing a reading culture

WhatYousay?

Esther Soma, �4Children don’t find most of the story books available in bookshops interesting. They are like sleeping pills to them and that’s why they

have not developed a habit of reading. Authors should write books that are interesting to children. Pacesetters series are good in improving our

vocabularies, but there are these western novels which do not educate us much. Newspapers are very useful too. We get to know what is happening in our country and the world through them. In a way newspapers makes it easier for us to understand subjects such as social studies easily. And you could read an article in the newspaper that turns out to be a passage in an English national exams, where you are required to answer questions from it say on issues like protecting the environment. I read magazines to get tips on how to dress fashionably, also to get tips on health issues, cultures etc.

YoungNATION|October 29, 2006 |Sunday Nation4 YoungNATION|October 29, 2006 |Sunday Nation4

Rushab Shah is multi-talented and he does not shy away from any sporting discipline. “ What I want is to excel in all the disciplines, “ he says.

And true to his maxim, Rushab dabbles in jave-lin, swimming, basketball, cricket, soccer, cycling, hockey, motorcross, cross-country, high jump and chess and yet he is still able do well in academics.

However the 15-year-old says his favourite sport is

soccer. Recently, Rushab was part of the Ujuzi Soccer Academy team that participated in this year’s Gothia World Youth Cup in Sweden. He played for both the under 16 and the under 18 teams.

The under 18 team reached semi-finals after beating a Swedish team. “The odds were against us. The weather was cold and they had all the home advantage but we still managed to conquer them, “ Rushab said coyly.

And Rushab was to represent Kenya in yet another world event in August. He was a member of the Kenyan team at the Bangkok International Games. At the games, Rushab ably participated in the 100 and 200 meters races and also the long jump.

Though he did not win, he put up a good show overall. He says he only had a few days to train for the games. “It was barely two weeks after arriving from Sweden and

I had not done enough for the races, “ he said.Kenya managed silver and bronze medals in the

200 meters and 1500 meters respectively.Other than inadequate preparation says Rushab,

the weather was hot and it hampered his train-ing. Asked whether his engagement with sports interferes with his studies, he says it is a delicate balance juggling between the sporting disciplines and academics but he has never faltered in the latter.

“Books is important but books all the time makes a person so dull so one has to come up with a formula to accommodate the two,” says the Grade Nine student at Premier Academy. Rushab says it is im-portant that one participate in at least one sporting discipline. “Sports besides aiding in physical fitness can also help someone in warding off stress, “ he says.

Locally Rushab has bagged medals and trophies. This year alone he got six medals in long jump, cross-country and swimming. Apart from sports, Rushab also enjoys playing musical instruments such as piano, guitar and clarinet. “Em I also enjoy read-ing”, he chuckles.

For Rushab, sky is the limit and he wants to excel in anything under the son. In Billie Jean King’s words, he concludes, “champions keep playing until they get it right”.

-FRED ORIDO

The making of a superstar

Rushab at the Childrens International Games in Bangkok, Thailand

PHOTO/FRED ORIDO