In July, 2008, I, Princess Rachella, Intrepid African American Girl International Journalism Consultant, pulled up stakes once again and headed to Nairobi, Kenya. Through my various adventures, I've concluded that if I get any MORE explosively fabulous in these prequel years to "THE BIG 5-0," I will have to register myself with the Pentagon as a thermonuclear incendiary device.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

"If It's Worth It, Let Me Work It....."

I've probably spent most of the past two weeks trying to come up with valid excuses for why I've completely blown off the blog for nearly the past month. Really, the only one that even comes close to being worth the time it takes to type it up is that I have been working harder than a 1-legged, two-dolla 'ho these days.

But that is so INCREDIBLY inappropriate, I knew I had to find another way to communicate just how busy I've been. So I'm using the picture up top. It's from a half-day briefing I led this past Monday in Nyeri, Kenya, about 3 hours north of Nairobi in Central Kenya. This was a quick turn-around event that followed the BIG EVENT: the 4-day, Child Health Research workshop and the last thing I wrote about briefly last month.

I swear 'fo GAWD, I meant to write a bunch of posts about that experience. It was fabulous. It was the best thing that's happened during my nearly 3 years in Kenya. It renewed my faith in this work. It made me feel so proud and influential. It made me feel like I am really making a difference.

It also put me in bed for about two and a half days. Other than going to a friend's place for Easter Dinner, I spent those two and half days in the fetal position with the fan pointed at me, drifting in and out of consciousness. I was ZONKED LIKE A MO' FO', and for a while there, I thought I'd finally reached that point in life I'd always vowed to avoid: the moment when you must admit to yourself that "I AM TOO OLD FOR THIS SHIT."

But I guess the good news for me at this point is that I really don't even have time to ponder that possibility. There is always so much going on these days, and there are truly so many opportunities being tossed at me, I would be a plumb fool to not spend every available second pursuing them.

So a lot of times these days, I find myself standing in front of groups of reporters telling them about my "mission": getting policy makers and the public to realize that health reporting, and improved health care access and infrastructure, are as much a part of national development as improving tourism or luring business to Kenya. I've decided that whether I'm here two more months, or two more years, or TWENTY more years, I'm gonna give it all I have.

Now, I might not "put my thang down, flip it, and reverse it," like Missy Elliot advised a few years back, but I have decided that if' it's worth it, let me work it!

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