Day 201: Hello from Berlin

It’s been a good chunk of time from Day 90, we’re now at it’s day 201 which is insane!

I’m in Berlin in a kitchen in a host’s place. They have kindly allowed me to stay here and extended my stay by a few more days as well, and you know what….I’m tired!

I’ll be honest with you it’s almost seven months of being on the road constantly moving shifting, changing, adjusting... um working to feed the bank account to keep this “dream” going, and I really miss being able to have lazy mornings or late evenings and just being at home. I miss having a home, you know?

There are about 82 days until the next chapter comes along and no doubt after a few months I’ll get itchy feet again to travel a little bit but I’ll have a better plan at that point, but for now yes I’m missing the qualities and happiness of stability, in every part of my life!

I realise that this (substack) is not delivering as well as I wanted it to, I’m very much spread over so many different ideas as I carry on throwing things at the wall to see what sticks and things seem to stick temporarily and then peel off and fall to the wall again, only to be thrown up on the wall once again like what’s happening now.

If the quality of this isn’t great it’s just because i’m recording straight as I felt like it shooting from the hip as it were so it’s either the microphone on my headphones or on my laptop and because of the instant need to get this out before my mental capacity moves to something else this is what we’re getting.

so even with me being tired I definitely am still focused on the big goal and the reason why this is all happening. yesterday I went and visited a gym in Berlin not too far from where I’m stationed with my host and Hilti BJJ Berlin is a great space its huge absolutely monstrously huge and it has been around for years and years and years, and I was speaking to one of the coahecs. she told me how Hilti is a Scandinavian not-for-profit organisation which I think is great and the way they’ve worked means that they have a strong children’s programme - they have 130 kids which is crazy. and they have a really solid adult program and women. they have a strong up-and-coming women’s team as well and shes a black belt and I love that she’s leading and she’s a black belt very strong very capable. is heading off to the Las Vegas IBJJF Worlds competition as well.

so the cause is still going on, you know I’m still learning things.

I posted a big question yesterday really trying to knuckle down and expand on the idea of jiu-jitsu lineage and if there’s an importance around affiliation.

Many different people chimed in, which I love, jiu jitsu really is that kind of incorporated space, where people will talk. it doesn’t matter if you’re a world champion or a black belt from next door - everyone will join in on the conversation.

I posted it on threads, Instagram and Facebook and asked a couple of my professors personally about this and what transpired is quite interesting for my personal future goals. My (main) initial professor, he let me know about some things that are going on as I was very much leaning into the idea that I want him to award me my blackbelt because he’s been there since day zero and he’s been there through a lot of little hardships I’ve been through - he just gets me. and he’s been through his own hardships as well so you know having that kind of support inside and outside is a great thing that I‘m here for.

so in addition to that, being at a 10th planet gym in… Serbia, I believe - 10th planet Belgrade really opened my eyes up to oh okay - having a curriculum in nogi or having a system in nogi makes whiteblets really effective and really quite dangerous and I love that - and I want it! Coz I’ve always felt like my NoGi kind of feels like a happenstance accidental thing and I don’t like that.

So 10th planet has kind of planted a seed in my head that is growing at quite a rapid speed and I want to be a part of that but I don’t want to be completely indoctrinated just to one system, where you know my gi jiu jitsu definitely plays upon systhnesising alot of other things - and I’ve been doing it for longer and with nogi eventually it’s going to reach that point but the very heart and fruit of 10p nogi jiu jitsu is the art of synthesis, is the art of taking things from other spaces and embodying it into your own vocabulary.

so yeah that was really interesting and it’s kind of helped me conclude where I want to go with all of that when it comes to bringing stuff to Kenya. it was interesting also from the Kenya point of view some people chimed in and said “it doesn't matter here we’re just forogtten people we just do our on thing.”

that style of thinking needs to change because my plans are huge, my plans are like to be a “Cradle of mankind” once again but for jiu jitsu where people come to retreats to relax, to reset, to reacclimatise to do whatever they need to do in my space whilst also supporting girls and the community as well. this is the world in one space and that’s why I’m trying to travel the world so that they’re aware of it and they can come to it as and when they need it as individuals, as groups, as communities.

Trying to bring a euro-kenya, us-kenya, austrailia-kenya - whatever connection is my big plan with jiu-jitsu but also with rock climbing. I’m still gonna do the rock climbing thing, I just feel like people coming for tourism to kenya can still happen we just need to modernise it and stop it being this werid archaic british colonial ideology which is dated. we’ve got different middle-class people coming up from younger ages and stuff so it’s really. important that we keep on going.

so that’s where I am with all of those things it’s day 201 in Berlin.

Today is laundry day, I have worn everything and I need to go to a laundrette and spend whatever 10 euros to get my Gi (omg my kimono) washed and a lot of other things done. Because if I don’t I will have no clothes to wear and I will be a smelly mess.

So that was the update - if you decided to listen to it thank you for listening to it! Or thanks for reading!

I plan on doing more of these posts if talking and then editing the words works better than me trying to write the words and then having a writing hangover for two weeks and never wanting to do this ever again, because that’s the reason why this isn’t happening (as frequently as it should)… ❤️❤️❤️