Thank You, Thank You, Thank You

The Catholic zone B Youth festivals were done yesterday. And we emerged second in our narrative titled Wonderwhere Kamaru. Again! Behind Sacred Hearts Dagoretti. Again!  Josphat Kariuki and his team (Karis, as he was known at St Pauls University Chapel Theatre Group) beat us.  Again! 

Good news. The 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd narratives will be proceeding to the Archdiocese of Nairobi Youth Festivals at Mang’u on October 31^st.Well, am jovial if you are asking. Emerging 2^nd position was not a joke. Competition was stiff and you should have been there to see adrenaline on stage. Young people were exerting themselves beyond limit as they tried to battle it out for the best narrator. You should have seen the beautiful stories that were presented. The awesome creativity. You should have seen the wonderful productions that were brought before our eyes. You should have seen the energy, the synergy, the sweat....Indeed, nothing good comes on a silver platter.

Karis and his team from Sacred Hearts however, thrilled us the most. The air was filled with mirth as they held our attention captive. Whenever they went into a moving part of the story, they carried you with them. When they were surprised, you were surprised the more. When they laughed, we had to lift you from the ground as laughter tore you into bits. That was Karis! No wonder the nigger scooped the best narrator’s certificate in the festivals. Karis, what shall we do to beat you at the archdiocese level?

Well the funny thing is that the first two narratives were done by theatre students ( Karis and I) of one Dominic Oyori. Dominic was our trainer at St. Pauls University of Nairobi Chapel Theatre Group. We watched with awe as he and Kamuyu Moses performed beautiful narratives at St Paul's Hall. These narratives would remain etched in our memories for long. Right now, Dominic is holed up somewhere in Kisii constructing sites and thinking about theatre scripts. This year, his team which had gone all the way to the nationals last year did not enroll. He left the stage for us, his kids. 


Well, Baba Dominic, we will not disappoint you. We will use all the tricks that you showed us. We will jokingly call actors “Idiots” if we have to. We will take them to Thika Fourteen Falls if they feel the need to relax their legs. We will buy them mahindi choma when we have an extra coin in our pockets. We will pass on the SPT TIMU KUBWA spirit to them. We will write scripts till our fingers start bleeding. We will direct them till there are no more directions to give. We celebrate you old man.

My heartfelt gratitude goes to Mary Queen of Apostles Parish Youth Group. All the way from the warm and motherly sisters, the fatherly patron and priests who accompany us during every festival outing to the narrative team that spares no energy when they are doing their thing on stage. With the pragmatic and astute chairman,Kenneth Munyua, Mary Queen of Apostles is undoubtedly the team to train for drama festivals. Humble, attentive, energetic and enthusiastic, the team is made up of all characters that would make your theatre item indeed shine on stage. Though, I at most times train them in Kikuyu(Kingereza ni ngumu) at the cosmopolitan Dagoretti Market area, they still try as much as possible to understand my language because they know where I am coming from. Ndeiya! So it is not a strange scenario to hear me tell one of the performers, Vinnie, a Luhya, “ Uka haha” and after looking at my gestures, he understands what I mean. Hehehe… 


My narrative performers were this energetic, talented young man, Alex and a lady, Lorna who would defy all odds just to be on stage. They were accompanied by a team of dancers who did their thing so ecstatically that you just felt the need to be part of them. Coupled with that, they have a great artist Ambrose who doubles up as a very inspirational stage director who embraces simplicity, improvisation and keenness to details. Deep gratitude also goes to all those who have contributed anything be it money, thoughts and words to make Wonderwhere Kamaru get to where it is. Ni thengiu muno.

As we prepare for the archdiocese level, we know things are going to be tougher and we need to make our stage better and finer. Thika guys never joke on stage. I saw them during the PCEA Church School Festivals and what productions they do! However, we will not fear them. The good Lord who started all this work, will surely carry it to completion. We have to perform the piece before the Pope.  In the meantime, all we shall do is try as much as possible to embellish our stage, script and our performance. We still continue asking for your prayers. Thanks by the way for those who did pray for us last time. It is because of those prayers that we made it this far. Pray, pray, pray without ceasing. 

Disclaimer: Written With Tongue in Cheek

This is what we will do to beat Karis. Psss... do not tell him. Two days before the festivals, Karis will go missing. Our men will kidnap him as he walks home from town (I know where he stays). We will then go to news houses and say that Karis was last spotted in Arusha,Tanzania selling groundnuts. Then another report will claim that Karis was last seen in Congo forest grazing three he-goats. On the night before the festivals, we shall have a press conference where Karis will denounce his participation in the festivals. He will say, "After much thinking and pondering, I have decided to step down from the youth festivals. I hereby leave victory to the Mary Queen of Apostles Youth Group under Jammoh who are a worthy competitor.”
Anyway, when we next meet Karis, I will buy you a cup of tea. With milk.