Kenyan Belle – Blogger

Ivy Wambui Mabelle is one of the few people I know who’s been to Santorini, Greece. Plus she has a really cool IG name Kenyan__Belle. I ogle over her Instagram for days when she travels and think wow! When I grow up I’ll ask her a few random questions from my head without ever meeting her face to face. Luckily, one of you guys recommended her for a feature and made my dreams come true.

Here’s how it went…

1. You are a twenty-something year old, law graduate who occasionally cooks and writes with an amazing fashion sense. Aside from this what’s one more thing would you want people to know about you?

Aaw, thank you! I can’t pick one, so I’ll summarize it as this: I’m ever-evolving. I like the idea that every choice I make or experience I go through on the daily changes me, for the better. Who knows, tomorrow I might pick up a new skill or have a new passion ignited and that’s what I’ll be doing for the next ten years. You can tell the idea of labels just put me off-haha!

2. What does your typical day look like as you’re Social Distancing during this pandemic?

Well, fortunately…or unfortunately, I am still going to work. So I do get up in the morning at around 7am, leave the house for work by 7.45. Don’t worry too much, we still manage to be careful and keep our distance at work!

I get home around 3.30pm and probably take a nap (there’s just something about naps during this quarantine that makes them SLAP!).

Afterwards, I would take some herbal tea and binge a series or alternatively, do some blog work/personal projects if I’m up for it.

I’m usually in bed by 11pm.

On weekends I spend my time baking, cooking or trying out some new recipe.

3. You previously shared a quote by Rachel Brathen stating, “The yoga pose is not the goal. Becoming flexible is not the goal. The goal is to create space where you were once stuck. To unveil the layers of protection you’ve build around your heart. To appreciate your body and become aware of the mind and the noise it creates. To make peace with who you really are. The goal is to love well… YOU.” How has yoga impacted your journey to self-love?

I’d say it has given me a different understanding of my body. Yoga, particularly Bikram, kinda forces you to face yourself fully. To be in touch with your body, how it feels, how it responds to things, events. Yoga also makes you control your breathing, which in the words of one of my instructors, determines everything about you. How you breathe affects how you feel and how you react.  When you are practicing, your focus is just on you and your body at that particular moment. It makes you realize everything about yourself be it the good or the bad. From this realization, comes total acceptance of self, which really, is unconditional love of self.

4. Today’s world is plagued with issues, if you could solve one of them what would it be.

Individualism. Our generation is so obsessed with this ideology right now. And I believe it’s the driving force behind so many other issues we are facing. If humans were a little bit less selfish and self-centered, the world would be a much, much better place.

5. What is one travel destination in Kenya that every Kenyan should visit and why?

There are so many places but because I would have to name just one, I think the Coast. There’s no place like the Kenyan Coast. We have one of the best beaches in the world. Plus I have an absolute bias for warm, sunny weather.

6. After travelling to Croatia, Italy and Greece given the chance to revisit only one which would you pick and why.

I would choose Croatia solely because I didn’t spend enough time there to explore and from the little I saw from the city of Split; it was BEAUTIFUL.

Also, I have to visit the city that inspired King’s Landing, Dubrovnik.

7. What’s the best part about travelling?

I think experiencing and learning about new cultures. There is so SO much this world has to offer. The diversity is incredible. It’s amazing just to even think about it. It also cements my belief in God. I mean, who else can create something like this?

8. William Wordsworth says poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings… as a reader of poetry what makes you love it

Oh my, I haven’t heard that saying before, it makes absolute sense! I love the fact that there are no rules about it, so-to-speak. You just put your raw feelings down in words and that’s it.

9. If you could bring back a fashion trend from the 90’s, what would it be?

Hmm…I think it’s already here but I would say baggy high-waisted jeans with the big, black statement belts. I need to get myself one of those.

Though, it would also be nice to see more guys with flattops.

10. What’s your favorite #cookingwithcici creation so far?

I would looove to recreate some chicken tacos we made quite a while back. You can find it here.

11. Going back to when you started your blog; what’s three things you wish you knew then?

1. That I have what it takes.

2. That I don’t always have to pursue things because other people want to. Going ahead with something only because I want to is more than enough.

3. Planning & Time management skills

12. As a law graduate what’s the best thing you’ve learnt about the law?

The ‘best thing’ keeps changing as I learn and discover more things about it. So, in some way I could say that’s it: the fact that it is fluid. Maybe that’s why a lawyer’s favourite answer when faced with a legal question is “It depends”…because it really does!

I love it!

I love it when the misunderstood prosper despite everything. I know he’s been on the receiving end of a lot of criticism and controversy…but look now; he stuck to what is true to him and is rolling in his many millions with his happy family.

Not a bad life.

14. If you could permanently move to anywhere in the world where would you pick and why?

Gosh! It’s so unfair to have to choose only one!

I would say Hawaii. I don’t know why but I feel like I would suit that life. Somewhere in me is an island surfer chick…perhaps one of my past lives if you believe in all that, lol!

15. Which five books would you say have had the most impact in your life to date?

Hmm…you’ve just reminded me how I’ve failed spectacularly at my reading goals for this year! Don’t worry though; this exercise will give me the motivation I need to get back on track. So here goes (in no particular order):

1. The End of the Affair by Graham Greene – It’s a combination of all the themes that are of importance to me: Religion, Love, the United Kingdom, etc. lol! I don’t know why the last one’s in there but I do love the UK. And of course I was gifted this book by someone very dear to me.
2. The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris – I love to read about history and experiences that I have never been a part of, and consequently,  never  been able to understand. Reading this made me step into the time of the Holocaust and try to have an understanding, however little, of what people went through. The same goes for the next book on my list.
3. Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi – This book changed the way I had framed slavery and the story of Black Americans in my head. It made me understand and sympathize a great deal more with their plight.
4. Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom – The most recent, but definitely helped me grapple with the idea of death, something we tend to avoid all-together, as if it is not a fate that awaits us all, you know?
5. The River and the Source by Margaret A. Ogola– I loved English in high school (Shout out to Ms. Atonga!) so I always looked forward to literature days when we would get to read our set-books. I’d like to think reading this book as a teenager ignited my interest in feminism as well as gender and it’s relation to culture, society as a whole.
6. Bonus: Shout out to Famous Five & Princess Diaries from my childhood!

Now that’s a well read lawyer, global trotter, chef… I mean should I continue? Check out her blog here and her Instagram page here and let’s see how this Wonder Woman takes over her world.

Know anyone who you’d love to see featured? Drop me an email on info@glynismaina.co.ke