Podcast 1 – Cling To Joy: Living Through A Pandemic

My podcast is finally live! Mwende Says is a podcast by me Mwende Ngao on all things life.

I know, I know, this has been a long time coming, but better late than never.

It’s April 2020 and we’re living in unprecedented times. There’s a pandemic that has killed thousands of people, decimated livelihoods and led to a global shutdown the likes of which we have never seen. Covid-19 is most likely far from contained, a vaccine is most likely more than a year away and we have a lot of enduring ahead of us as we continue to miss our friends and family due to social distancing, curfews and lockdowns, as we tighten our financial belts, some of us more than others, and as we face the possibility of getting sick, our loved ones getting sick, and well, the ever hanging cloud of death.

I am in Nairobi, Kenya. So far we have a 7pm curfew, restaurants, bars, churches, schools are closed, big gatherings are forbidden and Nairobi is in lockdown.

On this episode, I’ve asked a few family and friends to share their current realities and thoughts, so you’ll hear that throughout the episode.

I will attempt to explore life, death and the care and grief in between and what it means to cling to joy.

I will start with joy.

When I think of joy, I think riding my bike downhill as a child. One of the places we lived had this ridiculously steep hill. I learned how to ride a bike on that hill, and so did my siblings, and I owe most of the scars on my knees and elbows from falling down that hill. Still, speeding down, with the wind in my hair and on my face, feeling free and completely unafraid was exhilarating. That’s joy.

When I think of joy, I think getting on stage. Whether to perform in a play, to MC to perform a poem or a song. The butterflies, the heady rush from feeding off the energy from the audience, the feeling that I’m good at this and this is exactly where I belong.
That’s joy.

When I think of joy, I think losing my inhibitions, dancing with my friends till 6 in the morning. I think 3 hour phone calls that leave my phone burning up and my hand cramping but are filled with so much laughter that my face and stomach ache. That’s joy.

When I think of joy, I think cooking for my family especially over Christmas. Ours is a potluck tradition, where we all cook something and rotate whose house we’ll go to. My mom is a fantastic cook and my sister and I have inherited her passion for experimenting in the kitchen and treating our loved ones to delicious and elaborate meals. Putting together a menu, cooking multiple dishes to perfection and seeing their faces light up when they see the spread. And then proceeding to stuff my face. That’s joy.

My life’s philosophy is to seek joy, claim joy and cling to joy. It’s been this way for about 2 years, and so far it has helped me live better and go through tough times better. And there have been some tough times!

Joy matters because it affirms our humanity.

One of my favourite quotes on joy is from one of my favourite writers, the late great Audre Lorde. “Tomorrow belongs to those of us who conceive of it as belonging to everyone; who lend the best of ourselves to it, and with joy.

You can listen to the full podcast here. If you’d like to share a voice note to be featured on the podcast on how you’re coping through this pandemic or anything else, you can do so by emailing me at hi@mwendengao.com Please do keep it about 1 minute to 2 minutes long. Listen every Wednesday!