Making It A Tad Easier....

There's this very efficient guy we have in my office. Officially, he's employed as a cleaner but....he ends up doing a lot of all the other menial stuff..

I call him efficient because he's always punctual, always ready to work, never grumbling, very humble...he just has a gentle soul and I'm drawn in by his gentle and calm nature......sometimes I wish I could be THAT gentle and calm......I think I may have been made to be that way originally but somehow, life has just made me (passive)aggressive....not my fault, really!

I have this habit of wondering about people. I wonder about what their story is and why they are where they are or the way they are. I guess I like the headache in some weird sorta way.

So, as expected, I've been wondering about this gentle boy called Ezra. In my head, he couldn't be anymore than 22. or highest, 24. And I wondered what unfair thing could have possibly happened to him for him to end up this way.

I decided to engage him in a chat and I found out he left secondary school in 2005 - 6 years ago!! My sister left secondary school in 2005 and she's a 5th year med student.

Apparently, after he graduated, he went to driving school, worked as a driver etc etc. But at some point, he fell ill and had to stop working. He also has 3 siblings whom he takes care of ie pays their school fees! By the way, his salary is N15,000. Two of his siblings fees are N7,000 each and the other is N8,000. So in a term, he has to pay fees of N22,000.

N22,000 is very little money to some people. There are people who spend 100k on a bottle of champagne without even blinking. That's even going too far. A MAC powder is about 8,000. Now, that's someone's school fees. And oh, I forgot Brazilian hair...I hear even the fake ones cost as much as 15k! Anyways, if I start with the comparisons, I no go finish today.

I also found out he's 27years - older than me with 3 or 4yrs. And here I am, being called "ma" by someone who's old enough to be my elder brother. Who am I?

But like they say, that's how life is - unfair.

I dont even know what I'm writing anymore sef. But I just feel pained that people have to suffer. Not like that changes anything. Even the Bible confirms that there'll always be poverty. But does that make it ok?

Even though we know suffering and poverty cannot be totally extinguished, in our own little way, we all can do something to make it just a tad easier for those people whom we are more privileged than...

...... my thoughts are not very co-ordinated today...I've been having Malaria-ish feelings....I don't know if it's stress (My exams start in 5days, Jesus!) or if it's Malaria. In 9ja, we are always quick to call every illness malaria....anyways........be back when my head is in order..

Do Mad Men Dream?

I was walking on the road the other day and I saw a mad man fast asleep on  a Nepa pole. Well, not the pole itself but "the thing" that keeps the pole in place.

Anyways, a thought suddenly struck me and I wonder(ed) if mad men have dreams. What do they dream about? Do they have nightmares? In their dreams, are they sane or still insane?

When they wake up, do they remember these dreams?

It's very possible that mad men have dreams. They might even have a dream where the cure for cancer is discovered. Who knows? A mad man may have the answers to the world's biggest problems. But I guess we'll never know...

So, I decided to turn to the world's biggest ITK (I-too-know) that always has answers to even the silliest questions.

Enter www.google.com.

Trust google, while trying to find answers to a silly question, a million other silly related questions will pop up. I saw questions like: Do blind people have dreams? Do dogs have dreams? Apparently, there are plenty crase people in this world.

So I asked google if lunatics have dreams and I couldn't/have not been able to get a definite answer. Google don fall my hand. I guess I might just have to ask a psychiatrist. Or ask a mad man :-D

Or just wonder forever.


By the way, a big yaaaaayyy to one of the major highlights of this month - Manchester United winning the Premiership Title for the 19th time. Yaaaay! The smile on Uncle Alex's face is just priceless....

Looking forward to this Saturday with Barcelona when we'll hopefully win the Champions' League.

If When that happens, I just might tear dress and enter road :-D


And to my song of the week. It's by Brandi Carlile and is titled "Hiding My Heart Away".

Very apt.

Gaddemit!!

I have a crush on somborri....

Imagine.....

As old as I am......crushing like I'm in secondary school...

Maybe it's a little more than a crush...but then, I choose to call it a crush..bcos that's what it should be...

But this crush is getting crushier....bcos we kissed.....I had hoped the kiss would be terrible so the crush will die a natural death...

But gaddemit, it was sooooooog goood! Why!

Now, I'm sitting here at werk and I'm thinking of him......gadddemit!!

And smiling too, gaddemit!!

May Is Here, Yayyy!!

Today is the first day of May and I feel great. The sermon preached by my pastor (Managing Your Finances) was awesome. According to him, sometimes what we need isn’t necessarily more money but how to manage the money we already have. He talked about most people (especially in Abuja) living beyond their means and living fake lives all in a bid to “impress”. He talked about girls who have three phones, make their (brazillian) hair on credit, buy clothes on credit and yet do not have money to pay their rent. He also talked about staying away from debt except unavoidable and how important it is to prioritise. It really was a great time in God’s presence. I haven’t paid my tithe this year. The first two months were beyond my control but what happened to March and April? For someone who is (was?) passionate about giving to God, I really am disappointed in myself. But thank God for His grace. He continues to bless me even in my foolishness. I am definitely gonna restart my tithe paying.

Apart from the awesome church service, I felt/feel great about this month. Some days ago, I already drew up a time-table of what my life is going to be like this month. It includes serious praying and fasting for the whole month, exercising atleast 30 minutes everyday, staying off carbohydrates (rice, garri and co), staying off red meat, staying off SHAWARMA (Oh God please help!), studying for my ACCA exams (a month away!) for a minimum of 6hrs everyday, sleeping for not more than 6hrs everyday, etc etc.

On my way back from church, I passed by an accident scene and all I could do was shout “Jesus!”. It wasn’t a nice sight. Two cars had collided, one of d cars hit a street light, it was so badly damaged I shudder to think of what could have happened to its occupants. It’s amazing how I had passed this same junction on my way to church just three hours ago. I said a silent prayer for the accident victims and hope no life was lost.

It’s very easy for us to slip into our different everyday routines and take for granted the grace and mercy that God doesn’t get tired of showering on us. Every trip in and out of my house is a miracle. It isn’t even something  that should be taken for granted, regardless of how little it may seem.

I stopped a few metres from my house to buy food (I’ve been too busy to cook, God help me!) and during my short waka back home, I saw a man eating out of bags that were obviously taken out of the dumpster. Yet there I was, holding a nicely cooked plate of beans and plantain. Why don’t I eat out of dumpsters? Am I too righteous? No! Am I too upright? No! It’s just by His never-failing Grace..

But then, I’m thinking, those who eat out of dumpsters, the people who were involved in that accident today, are they any less righteous? Any less deserving? The people who were recently killed by natural disasters in Japan and America, were they any less deserving than us here in Nigeria? I always fall back into these rhetorical questions..I wonder why. All in all sha, these things just make me appreciate God all the more and His Covering over my life despite my shortcomings and weaknesses..

On the flip side, my aproko side couldn’t help but notice the girl that sat next to me in church wore a pair of knee-high winter boots! As in!! Inside this hot Abuja sun where it’d be perfectly justifiable to tear out ur skin because of heat, some others choose to wear knee-high winter boots, sheesh! And there was a girl that sat behind me that said “Praise GAD” atleast 100 times…I was tempted to turn back and atleast look at her face! AND the one that I just don’t understand – there were a couple of people shouting “LUYAH” instead of “HALLELUIA”!

Maybe I’m just old skool, but someone saying luyah instead of Halleluia is just plain….(what’s the word??!) Is it part of the efizzi to sound cool or is it just plain laziness to pronounce words in full? Or maybe we should blame it on Blackberries that have facilitated the shortening of just about everything. Even “In Jesus Name” is now IJN. Smh. It might just be me being old fashioned but if every word should be abbreviated, no wahala but please please please, leave religion out of it…surely, that’s possible….

And I’m sad Manchester United lost the game today at this very critical period…dashing 3 points to that yeye Arsenal…I’m not happy…but I’m keeping hope alive…we can still win the Premiership this season, Amen!

Free Popcorn + Sprite

So the other day, I went to Silverbird to see a movie (No Strings Attached with Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman). Coincidentally, it was free popcorn day. As part of some business strategy, Silverbird gives out a free pack of popcorn + one bottle of coke once every week in all Silverbird Cinemas nationwide. I can't argue with their strategy. I mean, I'm not a sucker for popcorn (free or otherwise) so I wouldn't wear dress and waka to Silverbird to watch film because of free popcorn.But loads of people will and do, apparently!

Anyways, on to my main gist. I was a few minutes late for my movie so I decided I couldn't wait in line line for the free popcorn and would get mine after the movie.

So, after the movie, I went to the popcorn stand with my free voucher and I was duly given my popcorn. Time to get my bottle of Sprite (which I was more interested in!) and the dude gave me a HOT bottle of Sprite. I could have sworn it was fresh from the oven! It was smouldering, I almost burnt my fingers!

I politely drew the "drink-giver's" attention to the fact that my drink was hot. And he told me that was the only available option. That would have been almost fine except errr, I could see a fridge FULL of cold drinks. I once again nicely pointed out the cold drinks to him. And he UNBELIEVABLY told me the cold ones were for sale!!!

Unbelievable! I was so outraged, I had acute difficulty expressing my rage.So because my drink is free, the management of Silverbird cannot be bothered to get it refrigerated? Did I beg to be given free Sprite?

Or maybe their strategy is to piss people off wit the free hot drinks so that they eventually don't have to give out too many free drinks. I decided not to give them that satisfaction and with the strongest face I could come up with, I took my hot Sprite to my house and put it in the fridge, hissing all the way like a pepper seller.

What rubbish.

Are We Really Better Off?

I was in a cab the other day when the cab driver threw an empty sachet of pure water out the window. Me being a Keep-Nigeria-Clean activist couldn't resist chiding him for littering the road.

Me: Oga why you dey dirty our road na? Abi you no like as e clean so?
Cab Man: My sister, it is for the good of us all

According to him, if the streets remained cleaned, the people who are employed to sweep and keep the streets tidy would be out of jobs. He claimed that he wasn't one to litter the streets but did it every now and then just to  save the jobs of his fellow Nigerians. Twisted logic but I somehow agreed with him.....if littering the streets every now and then  will reduce the unemployment rate and keep more people away from criminal activities, then by all means, litter the streets!

But now sha, thinking about it....it really doesn't make all the sense in the world...I mean, we can have other alternatives of keeping our environment tidy which can also provide employment for the masses. E.g Having waste bins located on every corner. If the waste bins will be produced in Nigeria, people would be employed to work in the factories producing them, our Rubber industry would expand from increasing need for plastic...etc etc. And that's just the most basic out of a gazillion.

But 9ja sha, we like to import things. When I heard that the elections had been postponed due to late arrival of election materials into the country, what got to me first wasn't even the postponement; it was the fact that we had to import from SOUTH AFRICA. I mean, really!

Some claim that INEC wanted to be truly independent and didnt want leakages bla bla....but now, these imported materials are gonna be in Nigeria for ONE WEEK before they are used. So what was the point of "isolation" in the first instance?? *Smh*

Back in 2003, when MTN and co first came to Nigeria; there was a sudden outburst of self employed people - setting up call centres aka bizness centres. The basic requirements were 1 chair, 1 table, 1 umbrella and a phone. It used to be a booming business because of the cut-throat prices telcoms companies offered. I remember when a 1 minute call cost N50!! There was nothing like per second. If you so much as "flashed" somborri and the person picked for even one second, MTN will mercilessly take your 50 box. Wicked people.

And so for those of us who couldnt afford to buy the Booster Card (N4,000), we had to be regular customers of the bizness centre people who charged about 30 naira or so. But these days mehn, things have changed, supposedly for the better. But is it really better?

Gone are the days where we would regularly go to a Cybercafe to "buy time". Everybody now has a laptop (thanks to China, lol). Life is easier. The standard of living is supposedly better. But is it really better?

Yeah, we have much much cheaper call rates than we did in 2003. The cost of purchasing a SIM card is almost next to nothing. We have blackberries and phones we can access the internet with. Even I cant keep up with new technology that spring up every day. Just when I'm thinking of saving for the next 10yrs to get an iPhone4, I hear say iPhone 5 is on the way out, lol.

But do we every stop to consider what has happened to those people whose main source of livelihood was the profit they got from making calls. What happened to those people who were able to send their children to school from money they got from their cyber cafe businesses? What other alternatives did they turn to?

Another business? Crime? Politics? Where are they? Did things get so bad they had to relocate back to their villages?

About two years ago, okada was banned from Port Harcourt. With little or no prior notice given to the okada riders, the Rivers State govt woke up one day and said "Hey, you know what? No more Okada!"

They claimed it aided and abetted most of the criminal activities being carried out in the town. People like my father lauded the move because according to him, too many people were dying daily from okada accidents. I wasn't happy about it. No, I wasnt an okada rider. Neither did I have a boyfriend who was an okada rider, lol.

But there is something called empathy. Yes, Okada had its disadvantages. But why couldn't the Govt have provided better alternatives. Why not give these Okada riders 1 - 2 years notice. Compel them to open a savings account where they'd have had to deposit a certain amount of money weekly, monthly or quarterly. And then at the end of two years, sum up all savings and use it as a deposit for the down payment of a car which will be used as a cab. Whatever the difference is, they can make it up overtime.

That way, everybody is happy. The Okada man is happy for having a more gainful employment. The average citizen is happy for the reduced risk of falling off a bike and breakings heads and bones. The average citizen is happy for a better means of transportation.

Anyway sha, today is just one of my I-tire-for-9ja dyas. I shall stop ranting already.

Writing Aloud...

Mehn, today I heard a disturbing/funny/sad/partially surprising news. My cousin had a baby yesterday! Now, I haven’t seen her in a while so I didn’t even know she’d been preggers. Having a baby is a normal thing, you’d say except that my cousin is unmarried and atleast four years younger than I am. And I’m 23. (or 24 if I add this year). That makes her 19 (or 20 if I add this year). My younger sis who is also older than my cousin called to give me the gist and she said we were dulling in our (immediate) family. That is, nothing this dramatic ever happens in my house. We’re just boring people, I guess! Anyways, this technically makes my aunty a grandma! Coincidentally, my aunty also had her first baby at 16, 17 or some funny age. So I wonder, will she have any right(s) to be mad at her 20 year old who waited a little longer than she did? Hmm!

I spoke with my mum and she also just found out. Apparently, my aunty (her younger sis) hid the news from her. And I’m  wondering what’s going on in my mum’s head seeing as her “grand-maternal hormones” have been raging these days and she’s been singing marriage in my ear. The name of the song is “It Is Better To Marry Early”. 9ja Top 10. See me see wahala. Anyway, I hope she isn’t jealous of my aunt’s new grandmother status…lol. I joked that if I’d towed the line of my cousin, my kid will probably be in Primary 1 by now. My mother didn’t laugh. Lol.

My cousin life don get K-leg. Just like that. And that’s how the cookie crumbled. She refused to go to school, and blamed it on her inability to comprehend whatever was being taught. Whoever got her preggers obviously isn’t in any position to marry her. I’m sad for her. Sadder for the baby. Innocent baby.

And then, it got me back to thinking about “Unanswerable Questions”. Like some girl in my former office. Serious born again chic who married as a virgin. She attends Deeper Life. As in, no earrings, no make-up, no hair extensions type. She’s so cool, she’s the coolest deeper lifer I ever met. She doesn’t have any of that stuck-up attitude people like her usually have towards us “sinners” who fix our hair, wear trousers and rub lipstick. Anyway, she’s been married for a number of years but is still believing God for the fruit of the womb. In that same office, there’s an unmarried woman who has a kid and is presently heavily pregnant again. And I wonder what’s going through the cool deeper lifer’s head. Questions?

Questions that every now and then go through everybody’s(or at least mine!) minds. Situations that defy logic. Like now, here’s my lil cousin, she’s been blessed with the blessing of a child, without deserving it, without even wanting it. And yet, there are a million people who deserve it, who yearn for it, and more importantly, walk upright with God and yet, nothing….

I’m not asking….I’m just thinking writing aloud…..