It's me: your friendly neighbourhood Shiggi!
The last couple of years has been crazy, one day I'll write it all up, but...short version:
It really started in 2019, probably the worst year ever: Deteriorating relationship, but more importantly my mother deciding to "Peace-Out" from this realm with a VERY American Pew-Pew to the head. Parents dying from natural causes, I can handle. Parents deciding to off themselves because their inner demons won, I thought I could handle...but a gun wasn't on my list of end games. So if you were around for that, you saw the madness across 2 continents and had a peak into Kenyan rituals and funerals...A lot happened that year, then 2020 was the year the world sorta stood still and I had time to think and unravel. Solo, single with my cat, Icarus and a lot of gaming hours under my belt a voice asked me, "Do you want to die here?".
My comfortable 1-bedroom apartment in somewhat central London. Work was good, and the world would come online in person again soon but no...no I didn't want to live in comfort and die in the UK. That's when wheels started turning and plans started...planning...
All y'all who found this page supported my 2022 crusade to Budokon HQ in Montana, USA to do their 30-day/500-hour "Guru Killer Bootcamp+Teacher Training" and reuniting with my cousin (who was pivotal in keeping me together whilst dealing with my mother's suicide in 2019). I never killed off this page as it felt like something else was coming. I came back to London and it felt alien to me. It was definitely time to move, so I started shifting my work and lifestyle to a bigger, more aligned goal (the GoFundMe link further down has a huge rundown on that).
After visiting Kenya in 2023 for just under 2 months, my mission became less hazy and my path back home was clear...those 6 weeks back "home" really felt like home and the opportunities came in so quickly I had to put a pause on it all! I wasn't ready.
This brings us to 2024. After giving myself time to just "be ready", I packed my life away into storage and finally said "Adios" to the UK - my home for 23 years(!) and "Hola" to an extended amount of time listlessly travelling to visit BJJ gyms across Europe to firsthand experience various styles of gym setups, their coaches, their students and most importantly get a light taste of each gym's cultivated community.
Why?
Honestly - there is a LOT under the hood I don't think I'm ready to unpack and this page can only be so long. But let's just focus on the mission that's keeping me on this planet: to go back home to Kenya with a brain full of knowledge and a network of like-minded BJJ folks who all are down for the same thing - to watch BJJ in East Africa grow into a major hub for athletes and create a thriving local and international community.
My selfish angle?
To build my own Mixed Martial+Movement arts Dojo that will have an All-Girls Combat Sport Scholarship Programme and will work with a few schools in Kenya.
I call that Phase 3 as Phase 2 is what I'll be doing when this tour comes to a close in November 2024 and settle home and find my groove in assisting existing BJJ gyms and probably running an affiliate in Nairobi too.
If you're interested in funding or finding out way more about phase 3, there's a bigger sleeping campaign page via GoFundMe I've set up: https://www.gofundme.com/f/shiggi
PHEW!
So what's happening here now?
The USA leg didn't happen - a mixture of no good work coming in, my head not *really* being in the game and of course funds not aligning. I just carried on enjoying Europe which resulted in hanging with friends from the beginning of our BJJ journies in Bermeo and taking a class or two at their beautiful new gym! I also stayed in Faro to kinda mentally and physically decompress as the autumnal shift of Europe rolled in.
If I haven't updated this yet, I'm currently 7 days out from the Kenya leg and about £80 away from what I need for my plane ticket! (last minute, me? of course). So any shekels you got spare would really be appreciated. Beyond that I will of course just be working like I have done to cover my own costs, so anything left over will likely go towards my residency card application...
Yes, I'm Kenyan but I'm technically Dutch so there's a whole "thing" around that which will be for another storytime...
Thanks for being here <3
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