Pain and Suffering

I used to work at one of the so called “Big Four” accounting firms. A place described as one of the best workplaces in Kenya. True to this, the pay at this company is extremely good and the work is challenging and enjoyable. I remember once I had almost a year of first hand experience at running and managing a pharmaceutical company – the experience was…breathtaking, enjoyable and helped me learn so much. However, I did not like my job very much. In fact, I barely liked it. We worked extremely long hours, for one thing. At the end of the day, I guess, the thing I disliked the most was….taking orders. I just had different ideas about my life. I did not go through school and university so that I could spend the rest of my life doing jobs that I did not like. What kind of life would that be? So I quit last year. It has been hard, very hard, and more than once I have thought of just going to beg for my old job back. But I wholeheartedly believe that quitting was the best decision I ever made.

I still struggle, I struggle a lot but I’m generally happier now. Everything I do now, I do for me. And everything I earn, I earn for me. Your boss does not care about you the way you care about yourself, you know? You may be making millions of shillings for your company but how much do you take home every month? I feel that a lot of people work their jobs because they have to. We go to work because we have to; we have to pay the bills and feed the baby; we have to survive. I do not know if I am a lost soul but, with everything in me, I feel that life should be about more than just surviving. The average human spends a lot of his or her days on earth working. Is it really meant to be that that those days should be un-enjoyable, uncomfortable, regrettable or even contemptuous? I strongly believe that this is not how it is supposed to be.

If what I am doing with Like Chapaa and other things fails and I have to go get a job like everyone else it would hurt me greatly. My self pride would be destroyed. If I had to go and beg for my old job back, my zeal for life and self belief would be forever gone. I cannot imagine such pain. One of my friends had to do something like that recently. I cannot imagine how it is like for her. 🙁

We get a lot of emails at Like Chapaa. And way too many of them are from people who are suffering. Some of the emails we get are by people who are not even asking for something – they are just writing out of frustration or just to ‘release’. People who want a better life and believe that a better life is possible yet they do not know how to achieve it. Good people. Intelligent people. Skilled and talented people. People who do not deserve to be cornered and oppressed by life. Dear readers, it hurts me to say that there is a lot of pain and suffering in this our land of Kenya. A lot of pain and suffering in this world.

We try to help all the people who email us. We really do try. In fact, this very reason is why we set up Like Chapaa and why we started Biashara 30. But there’s only so much that we can do, you know? Sometimes I wish I had a million dollars so that I could help everyone who needs help. But I am no superman. And it pains me when I get yet another email and I know that I will not be able to offer much assistance to that particular individual. I’m happy with the progress made by Like Chapaa and Biashara 30 but the sad fact is that what we have done is just a drop in the ocean of what needs to be done.

Dear readers, how do we make our efforts more effective? There is a lot of pain and suffering in this country. We want to do everything in our power to lessen this pain. It is a big huge goal, eh? What do we do to achieve it? We need your help.