Recently we had a meeting at Downtown Toastmasters, in Nairobi, the club that meets at the CBD. Our theme for the meeting number 69 was pet peeves. These are Toastmasters of the Evening notes. The red parts are meant to be said tongue in cheek, read them that way.
MEETING NUMBER 69
Thank you President +Kuchio Asonga for giving
me a chance to taste your power via wielding this gavel. If only more
presidents were like you.
For the newbies who may not know
it, our president is one the seminal pillars of Downtown club. He found me (the sponsor) stuck at 100 likes in FB. Then he did his
abracadabra and whack! The next day out Downtown page had 500 likes and counting,
enquiries started flooding my phone and the rest is as they say.
We
all have an experience usually trivial, mundane and innocuous but which when it
happens sends us into a range. It could be that colleague who struts her thing
across the office ostensibly oblivious of the noisy shoes or the Mr. Beans a fly and sandwich.
But for me I hate when I am reading a newspaper, then when someone joins me I courteously put it away so we can have a conversation, but the person takes the newspaper and starts reading it like I am not there. I am left wondering whether I should leave them with my newspaper or snatch it back.
Tonight
we try to poke humour at such peeves with a view to correcting ourselves where
we are culpable.
To a Toastmaster, a disorganised
meeting is such an irritant. That is why today I have put together a team to share blame should
something go wrong.
An apple a day keeps the doctor
away, a word of the day keeps diction errors at bay and so we have a grammarian. George
Nyoike is peeved by Kenyans who
see no discordance in them sitting pretty in their sleek air-conditioned, washed
and polished cars munching goodies as paper wrappings, fruit peels, sugarcane
bagasse fly out the windows left, right and ….. okay left again
Kindly tell us what your role is
Thank you __________________
+Martin Muigah is a Paperless Office guru. He is riled to death by self-inflicted
inefficiency especially when it is by bureaucrats stuck with and onto paper
when everyone else has moved to e-this and i-that. He recently knocked on the forehead of one such, “hallo! This is the third millennium, 2016!”
Please share with us what your role
entails
Thank your Martin
The day you learn that Rahab Kariuki is in Kamiti, don’t ask
why. It will be because she will have wringed the neck of some narrow minded
fellow because she hates with a vengeance people who are loath to consider other
people’s opinion. People who allow you to hold your own opinion as long as it agrees with
theirs.
Kindly explain what we shall blame
you for
Thank you ________________.
+Florence Okinda is irked by people
who think dressing is just a matter of hanging some garments on their bodies.
She insists that clothes were not made for man, man was made for clothes and so
she has opened a vogue emporium towards this end.
Kindly explicate your role.
Prepared
Speeches
So we don’t peeve those who don’t
like things dragging on, we shall proceed straight into the
prepared speeches
We have 3 speakers this evening
1The first
speaker, +Momanyi Nyabonyi does not expect people to answer her calls every
time. But she has no kind word for those who don’t bother returning missed calls, text
or voice mails and to make matters worse it is these same characters who the
next time you meet go, “Aah! you are so lost, I would have called you but I lost
your number when I lost my phone”. Lost phones don’t ring! dah!
Momanyi will be evaluated by +Esther Obege, who will now tell us the objectives and title of the
speech.
<speech name> by Momanyi
(Applause)
Thank you Belinda for…………………….
2Next to the lectern is +Cecilia Kinyanjui. She thinks she wouldn’t look good in stripes, otherwise she wouldn't mind spending a while at Lang'ata after walking around town with a long whip, the kind Rehoboam called a
scorpion, and whipping silly the people who eat and throw garbage carelessly. By the
way that is an idea. Why not make them eat the garbage carefully?
The evaluator, Kuchio Asonga will
tell us the objectives of the speech.
<speech name> by < Cecilia
> applause.
Thank you Cecilia me
know………………………………………..
3 +Maxmiller Keitany hates people who are allergic.
People who are allergic to using handkerchiefs such that, when they have a cold
they keeping pulling stuff back and you swallow. People who when coughing or sneezing,
are allergic to using an handkerchief, especially when the (she has word for them
that I cannot share here) is sitting behind you in a public transport and you
can feel your ears getting wet.
<speech name> by <Maxmiller>
(applause)
Thank you Maxmiller________________________.
Let us applaud all the speakers once
more for that starring performance.
Please use the evaluation slips to, 1. Write an
evaluation each of the speakers and pass the slip to him or her, and 2. vote for the best speaker and speech and pass the ballot to
the SAA, as we Break for a 10 minutes interactive break. During
the break guests please see the SAA regarding your guest fees. It helps defray the meeting room charges. Those without badges sh.50
Seven
minutes break! Gavel
Break
Jokes
Session
+Samuel Onyango our jokes master is miffed by arrogance because he finds it impossible to get through to people who are full of themselves. Not that being full of other people makes it better
Put your hands together for Samuel
Thanks
Samuel I did not know that…………………………..
Although inside she is seething with murderous range, she
responds as softly as a saint, ”my name is Brenda please”, when the patronizing
jingoists in board rooms but with matatu-tout mindset call her what they
think are pet names like dear, kababie, mrembo msupa, ……Aaargh!
Please welcome +Brenda Guchu to stun and petrify us with
table topics
The topics were marvelous.
And let us applause the speakers too. We shall now
vote for the best table topic speaker. Only those who spoke for at least a
minute qualify
Please vote for the best Table topics speaker impromptu
speaker
The Better Speaker Series speech will be evaluated by Esther Obege, who is shocked and frustrated by an authorized indulgence. Such as when you show someone a picture
on your phone and they take the liberty to go through all the other pictures
and documents and then just when you thought you are getting your phone back it
is passed on to someone else.
Please join me in welcoming Esther Obege.
Thank you Esther.
The Second
speech will be evaluated by Kuchio
Asonga. Kuchio is peeved by the colleagues who let the phone on their desk ring and ring without picking. I think Kuchio’s desk is in or near accounts. He swears that one of these days he is going to stuff the phone into someone's....... throat.
Thanks.
The Third speech,
will be evaluated by +Japheth Musau , who has sworn to smash someones headlights before the end of the year. He pulls our his hair or whatever has remained of it every night he encounters one of those drivers who think the dim light switch in their cars is for decoration.
Reports
Hark master, are you ready, please
take us through the session.
Ah Counter, please give us your report
Grammarian
Timers report
The final evaluator learnt the meaning of exasperation
from watching a grownup human, male or female, wide down a car window, then casually
and nonchalantly throw out some trash like it is the most normal thing.
Please join me in welcoming Janet
Handing
Back and Closing
I can hear the irritating sound of goodbye. Before
someone starts whispering apopleptic (apopleptic was the word of the and means intense brain damaging anger), I have to go though I would really
love to stay because I thoroughly enjoyed your company. Thank you from the
bottom of my heart and I leave you with
the words of whoopi
“I don't have pet
peeves like some people. I have whole kennels of irritation.”
― Whoopi
Goldberg
Mr. President.
Gavel.
Every year, Toastmasters International gives clubs that are not in a district a chance to participate in a limited version of the International Speech Contest. This is an extremely popular contest among clubs in Kenya and it is hotly contested every year. No wonder a Kenyan entry is rated within the first three almost every year.
