Q.         Where did you grow up?
I am a child of the world.  Actually I am a child of the universe .. psst, I was once abducted by aliens, I have dwarves in  my head and there is tokoloshe in my wardrobe.

Q.         Has your life been predictable?
Not at all.  Never!  Much as I have my life mapped out in front of me, I surprise and shock myself everyday.  To be honest, I do what the little people in my head tell me to do – and they are not predictable at all, I tell you.

Q.         Architecture/interior designing, poetry and writing – how did you end up with such a combination?
I enjoy anything to do with creativity.  My passion is in the arts.  At some point I used to paint a lot.  I am hoping to take it up again next year.

Q.         How did you feel when you launched your first collection of poems?
The whole experience felt surreal – it still does.  You see, being published was not something I had planned nor foreseen.  When Neema, my publisher, told me she wanted to publish my work I seriously thought she was on cheap crack, lol.  I mean, I had just been writing as a hobby, as a way to distress, therapy and just a way of getting answers.  I always get a lot of answers when I write.

When I started writing again, I used to sit in front of my desktop, then it was in my old apartment in Upanga, get lost in the magic of words with a glass of red wine or Southern Comfort and I would write until my eyes turned red.  There were times a crowing rooster would snap me back into reality and I would realize that I had been writing way through morning. 

At some point I found myself with so many poems that I decided to start sharing them with the world – to hear their comments – and that’s how I came to join Author’s Den website where many discovered me.  I used to post at least one poem everyday on Author’s Den.  Some of the poems I wrote have formed part of the collection.  So writing became my source of escapism, a way of distressing – releasing pent up tensions, a way of finding answers and making sense of things, a source of a voice that wanted to be heard, a platform to be me and unapologetically me, a way of expressing myself even.  I found that through writing I bent without breaking.

So how do I feel now?  Apart from the surreal feeling, I am actually very happy that it’s out.  To say a little about the book, in a nutshell – The Rhythm Of My Rhyme – is a journey – a journey full of deep, raw emotions - of questioning, searching, growing, learning, living, maturing, loving, finding, acknowledging and accepting. 
I have written about subjects that have touched me in one way or another.  Initially, the poems were a way of making sense of some issues.  The raw emotional truth.  Now I am hoping a lot from this little collection but mostly I hope it will help in combating the stereotype for I believe literature is the best way to fight such typecasts.

I hope it will get people questioning, talking and finally acting; I hope it will get mothers, fathers, wives, husbands, girlfriends, boyfriends, sisters and brothers to stop condoning things that should not be accepted in the name of sacrifice; I hope it will get peers to understand and accept that the idea of different is just different and not necessarily better or worse; I hope it will change how we see and value ourselves; I hope it will challenge people.  I hope it will give voice to the voiceless and sense to the senseless.  And mostly I hope it will inspire many. 

Q.         If it wasn’t what you are doing now career-wise, what would it have been?
I wouldn’t have been me then.  I wasn’t born an artist.  If I wasn’t doing what I am doing today, then I wouldn’t have been me, quite simply.  So … if I wasn’t me, I would have become a mad (and I mean mad) scientist and somehow make a clone of me. 

Q.         What drives you?
Success.  Love.  Life.  Laughter.  Happiness.  I love life and everything it has to offer!  I think life is the best thing anyone could have.  Even though days are uneventful like but I never take any day for granted.  Hell, every day is a new experience and I can wait to live it.  I don’t have and refuse to have regrets or mistakes in my life.

I call them road bumps, experiences – and I embrace them, learn from them to make a better me and a better tomorrow.  I just love life - just to be able to wake up to another bright day and do what you do best, knowing that you have choices.  I always look at my glass as being half full and never half empty.

The love from God, my family, my friends, my loved ones, my achievements, my talents and my many, many, many blessings also drive me to strive for more.  Now doesn’t all this say success?!
Interesting though, I get bored very fast.  One I have achieved something I shove it aside and get very restless until I find the next challenge.  Bottom line, I live, I laugh, I learn, I love.

Q.         What sets you apart from the rest?
I believe everyone is set apart from the rest.  There is no duplicate being, well, maybe in physical features but not in personality.  We are all different. I feel our peers are the best people to point out what sets us apart.  I don’t think as individuals we know what sets us apart from the rest, as someone else might have that same quality – and it always happens, sijui ati “I’m confidence, I am driven,  I am ambitious …” hell, we all are!

Anyway, for the sake of the interview, I would say I don’t always follow the norm.  I have always wanted to do things differently.  A good friend of mine always teases me that I’m a rebel.  Maybe I am.  I like questioning – and it’s actually from questioning where I get inspiration for my writes.

I wonder if I was a “why” baby, lol.  I can imagine my poor mom, “we are going home.”  Little Sandra, “why?”  “Because it’s where we live.” “Why?” … poor woman, having had to put up with all of this!
Anyway and of course - the fact that I think I am the only black person with white little people in her head!  I know we all have little people – but mine are white dwarves!  With beards and pointy shoes!!  I sometimes wonder if it’s the seven little dwarves!

Q.         How do you measure success? 
Success is measured differently by everyone.  Some measure it by how much money they make. Others measure it by their career path and corresponding title, then you have the people who measure it by the things that they have such as the size of their house, their art and jewelry and the number of cars that they own. Others measure it by the state of their health.  As children, many of us measured success by the friends we had.

Lol, I am so enjoying my Dr. Phil moment, ahem.  So back to the question, however, many people think of fame and fortune when they measure success.  And many people who have achieved “success” are measured by wealth and power, at least temporarily.  Making a lot of money may be an acceptable goal, but money most assuredly does not guarantee a truly successful life. 

At some point in life, most people come to realize that inner peace and soul-deep satisfaction come not from fame and fortune, but having lived a life based on integrity and noble character.  While at it, our thoughts greatly influence the outcome of our lives.  As a Chagga I should really be shot for actually saying and admitting this, so living an honorable life really is more satisfying than fame and fortune.  Kiruu!  Uwii!!  I said it!  Phew!

So how does yours truly measure success?  In my, ahem, humble opinion, success cannot be measured in the material things that I have, nor can it be measured by my job title (and I even have a new one – a published author, wuu huu!). Anyway, to me, success is what I feel in the inside.  To be successful you must FEEL successful on the INSIDE.   You can have all the money, houses and status that you like, but if you do not FEEL successful on the inside, then you will be running in circles throughout. You’ll be chasing success all your life and will never achieve it. The clearer you are about what you value and believe in, the happier and more effective you will be. 

Q.        Tell us about these famous little people in your head? 

Well, there are seven of them.  For the life of me I can’t understand why they are white!  Anyway, so they are white, always in the most colourful gears and pointy shoes and they have beards.  I think I have Snow white’s seven little dwarves living in my head!  But with attitude, lol.