My youth and Kenya now.

Had one of those 'reminisce' evenings last night - nay, I lie, could not sleep so the mind wandered a bit, and my thoughts took a stroll to my youth again. (Seeing as I'm such an old codger at the ripe old age of 38!)

Twenty odd years ago I was an Innocent-ish young man with very little experience of life. I grew up in a typical Afrikaans home where rules were rules and you obeyed them, end of story. My parents (bless them) were WAY more liberal and progressive than most. Yes, I grew up as a privileged little boy with parents that encouraged us to think and to 'debate' the situation in our lives, but we were also very 'guarded' as to the 'big bad world out there'! This is not a bad thing - my parents protected us as any parent would, and we somehow managed to survive despite our guarded upbringing. But to get back to twenty years ago when I left my parents home.

My first experience out in the real world, all on my own that is, was when we went on our 'Matric Holiday' with a few friends. Matric is what your last year of High School is called in SA - or Grade 12 as it is called now. Then you're supposed to go off to further education - but in my case it was a case of going to do my National Service - Conscription was still very active in those days. That is a story that I've told before - just follow the link, so not going to get into that again. What I do remember so well thought from this time in my life was my awakening sexuality.

Here I was in a time when it was still very much taboo to be anything but a total 'skirt chaser' and I was on holiday with my group of male friends - all of whom where 'obviously' as straight as they come. (No pun intended - well maybe just a little...) Eight boys travelling trough what was then known as the Eastern Transvaal (Now Mpumalanga), hiking nature trials, skinny dipping under waterfalls, sunbathing on the rocks afterwards. It was such an innocent time... (Ja right, I hear you saying...)

At this stage of my life I was sexually active already - his name was C and he and I had been at it for quite some time already, but we both thought this was just a 'phase' and that we would still get married (to women darlings - try and focus!), have children/breed and live the 'normal' life. We were unaware that gay people actually existed - had normal lives and that this feeling that we had for each other was actually that L word. Now, thinking back, we had no real frame of reference at all - TV had no gay characters, it was not something that was discussed by anybody, and it was a very closeted society we lived in. (Which makes the new South Africa all that more special!)

What I'm getting at is that young gay men and women of today probably have it a lot better than I did in my time - in a open minded society, that is. Kenya reminds me of my youth to an extent when we had to live our lives under covers and behind closed doors. My wish for this country is that people will come to realize that Gay people are not evil, vile terrible creatures that intend on stealing their husbands (well, unless they're cute - KIDDING!) and calling the fashion police on them. (Maybe in certain cases it could be justified.) Maybe one day all people can live their lives as they choose and not be victimised for being themselves.

Just a thought...

Hope y'all have a pretty day now,

TTFN