VALUABLE VALUES

    If you want to know the value of oral communication, come to me. If you want to know the value of sight go to the blind. If you want to know the value of cars, go to those who walk. People rarely appreciate what they have and the people in their lives. 
    This is a valuable value I learnt from my mother. Back in school, when we were sent home to collect subsidiary fees, many parents would complain saying teachers were extorting money from them and feeding on it. 
    "No problem if they eat and do a good job," she would say and give me the money without murmuring and I would be  back in school. At the end of every school term, I would go to school with a present for my teacher. As a result my grades kept going up. Appreciation motivates people to do and become better.
People who are rarely appreciated for doing good end up doing wrong things, just like in the case of house girls mistreating children. Just like a car engine which converts fuel into energy, so does appreciating others and appreciating what we have. Africans have the best brains, from doctors, teachers, athletes... but brain drain haunts us. When such people live our continent and go to others, they get minor jobs but they are paid so well, so,  no matter how degrading their tasks may be they choose to stay  since they are better appreciated there.
    Another value I learnt is that I should not do good expecting to be appreciated, as the saying goes, "Tenda wema nenda zako." 
    Appreciating others and ourselves makes us get the best from them and from ourselves. Make a point to appreciate somebody today. 

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