Salewa's Story

Salewa woke up at mid night like she always does, looks at the old clock hanging by her wall, she can’t remember who or which is older, herself or this damned clock that somehow functions as her alarm, not because it’s an alarm, but sometime ago, her cousin Ebuka’s ball hit it while he was playing on one of those his insomniac nights.

“It was a mistake aunty” he said.

 “Who even plays ball at night?” she yelled!

But his eyes really did look sorry. So she let it be and went back to bed. She thought to herself, if only she wasn’t so afraid of the dark, she would have closed her door and his stupid ball wouldn’t have come into her room. Or maybe it’s more of the fear of being alone than that of being in the dark. Whatever, the reason, she shoved her thoughts aside and went back to bed. But ever since that fateful day, her wall clock became an alarm making that funny noise every 12 mid night. It forces her to wake up and pray, mostly think, but she likes the idea of telling herself she prays at night.

She’s old, she thinks and one day she will start mal-functioning like the old clock on her wall and her door will still be wide open and her bed very large and empty. She thinks of how much she hates her job and her junior colleagues who come every day only to taunt her. She is very sure they are taunting her or why else will they not stop gisting about their husbands and their cute little babies or how happy their men make them. I mean, they know I am single and old, that is why they taunt me, she thinks. She most times channels her frustration on them, they call her a witch, she heard, she knows but she couldn’t care less…she’ll rather be a witch to them than suffer this frustration alone.

MY NAIJA...MY PRIDE!!!

I’m sure when you see this title, you might be like my Naija my Pride? Really? Is there

anything to be proud about?

I woke up this morning, there was no light, but before I get depressed

about that, I quickly remember there has been no light for so long

now, getting depressed won’t change that

So I choose to be happy….

My sister called me to complain about the water in her area,

“there’s no water” she said, and when the taps decide to run,

the water is too dirty! My dear, I’m, just tired!

I felt her pain, I was going to complain, but I remember what her

compound looks like

Everybody has “jejely” bought their drums…they pay the

“Meruwas” to fill it up. At least there’s a temporary

solution…

So I choose to be happy….

Things that really really matter.

This life can sha be very funny. This was indeed the biggest boy's garage at some point. I bet when visitors came to his house, he’ll pretend he forgot something in the car just so they can see his fleet of cars. Yes, this was once a fleet of choice cars, as in cars that you would look at and go "mehn...this guy hold bar o". The kind of cars that will make the girls ask the nigga why go inside, let’s get in on in the garage. The kind of car door that you open for a girl and she will melt and say awwww, you are so romantic (because it’s not the act that is romantic to some girls oh, its d type of car door you are opening) there is nothing romantic about opening a jalopy car door mbok, well except of course, you need to keep banging the door to open, then it is very mandatory for you to open the door for her.
Basically just painting a picture to let you know this was once "it". Well, at least they have some form of historic value now.

It's Always Darkest Before The Dawn...

Ever wondered if we would appreciate the Sun as much if there was no Night? Would we really know the beauty of light if there was no darkness? Would you desperately want to be happy again if you haven’t felt the strings of sorrow pierce through your heart? I doubt this.

I believe, if we never knew darkness then we won't appreciate The Light as much, just cos it becomes normal, like the light will always be there so why should I take a moment to appreciate how beautiful it is.

I remember when I went for my post-graduate degree, getting into a new environment and thinking of how adventurous it will be for me. How I’ll tour all the cities and visit all the tourist attractions, how everyday will be a holiday for me and I was just going to see that period as a vacation. In short, dem go take! This town go know say person don enter am! Well that didn’t quite happen. I had a lot of fun no doubt, but there are still places I look back at and ask myself, why didn’t I go there? I have friends who came into town for just 2 weeks and visited places I didn’t go to in almost 2 years! Why? because, see, at that time I was living there and I would wake up every day and think to myself, oh, I’ll still be here tomorrow, so I’ll visit that beautiful place tomorrow, then next week, then next month, and I never actually went to see some of those places till the day I had to come back. It just made me understand that the more we are accustomed to certain situations, the less appreciative we become of those situations.

Don't Grow Up!!!

Thinking back now to when I was much younger and I’m just wondering, what in the hell ever made me think growing up was so cool? I literally couldn’t wait to be grown up. Now I’m all grown up (or at least I think I am) and I’ve come to realize I was set-up. This was a serious set-up!

I remember those days of playing Ten-Ten and Suwe on the street and all the razz but fun games, at least the ones my mum will allow us play till she became her usual self, woke up one morning and didn’t want us stepping out of the house again. She then over-fed us with video games, of all sorts. From Mario to Mortal Kombat. We had all the recent games just so we wouldn’t go out. And we thought she just loved us so much that she wanted us to be the recent gamers, that one sef na another set up.

Food For Thought...

I lifted this somewhere and thought I should share it. Enjoy!

 Two important management lessons I learnt from a £50 note.

1. It happened some time ago. I was in an audience listening to a motivational
speaker. The speaker got his wallet out and pulled out a £50 note. Holding it up, he asked, "Who wants this £50 note?"
Lots of hands went up. Including mine. A slow chorus began to build as people began to shout "Me!" "Me!" I began to wonder who the lucky one would be and who the speaker would choose. And I also secretly wondered (and I am sure others did too) why he would simply give away £50. Even as the shouts of "I want it" grew louder, I noticed a young woman running down the aisle. She ran up onto the stage, went up to the speaker, and grabbed the fifty pound note from his hand.

Dear Alarm!

So a friend of mine walked into the office one morning, still looking very sleepy and like he'll rather be anywhere else than the office...but to be fair to him, almost everyone in the office looked miserable...sorry...always looks miserable every Monday morning, but this post isn’t about my usual Monday Morning Madness, so we will move on. So he walks up to me and says, we don’t give the alarm clock enough credit, and I go huh? Say what? And I’m there thinking in my mind, isn’t it too early in the morning and week to be drunk biko nu? He then asks me, what wakes you up every morning? Me I already went spiritual sharp sharp, God is the one that wakes me up every morning. Without God, my alarm clock will have no work to do. The guy just rolled his eyes and said, think about it for a minute, what would we do without our alarm clocks? So many people will miss very important meetings, will always get queried for coming late to work and so many important events. I then calmed down and thought about it....that’s actually very true.