When is it SAFE to take pride in our country?

IT'S BEEN ALMOST FIVE MONTHS NOW!!
140 DAYS OF TERROR, HORROR AND WEEPING SINCE MOTHERS AND FATHERS HAVE BEEN DEPRIVED OF THEIR DAUGHTERS, SIBLINGS OF THEIR SISTERS AND AUNTIES AND UNCLES OF THEIR NIECES.

STILL I AM SURE I DO NOT SPEAK FOR MYSELF ALONE WHEN I SAY I HAVE NOT SEEN ANY CHANGE! 

Still the same cries that no ears care to heed:

Just because this atrocity is no longer on the news does not mean that it has been forgotten in anyway. The abduction of over 200 girls from a small town in Nigeria may not be as exciting as pouring a bucket of ice water over ones head -not for a cause but for the sake of it- or as traumatizing as Nicki Minaj's 'Anaconda' video.


I don't know if the Nigerian government is just too willing to look the other way or if they, for some unknown reason, cannot seem to come to a somewhat peaceful agreement with those monsters. What I know is that something has to be done. And it has to be done fast.

How are we Nigerians supposed to take pride in our beloved country when we don't even feel safe in it? I'm not even going to start with the unemployment rate or health issues. 
Imagine how different and beautiful Nigeria would be if the government just put in a quarter of what is flowing into their personal bank accounts monthly into security. 
If we can't boast about being Africans, how then do we expect the generations after us to love where they come from?


I find it extremely hard to believe the lyrics of this song, yet I know every word is true.








Nur im Krieg und in der Liebe ist alles erlaubt!

Summer schooling like a BOSS!

Living as an Afro-European has it's ups and downs, just like every other situation. In this blog we are going to lay out all our secrets bare with a touch of Lemon.

It was a random Thursday and I was getting my teaching grove on when all of a sudden the sun came out and my life got a bit better. 

Seeing the look on my students' faces, an idea bulb exploded in my head. What if we took the lesson outside so they can see: 

-How green a green leaf is, 
-How blindingly yellow the sun shines
-How it feels like to be on a real swing... you know, stuff like that.

Most of the pictures were taken by this talented damsel Confidence, in the pink top- note that she is just four years old, so please excuse the strange pictures you will see along the way!

 

For some reason completely unknown to me, she seems to be unable to pronounce the alphabets 'J' and 'S'. 'J' baffles me the most, on a good day it sounds like 'dtze'. Which means James would be pronounced 'Dtzems' and John would be 'Dtzon'. 

'S' pronounced as 'esu' or 'etzu' sounds a bit acceptable, but I must admit that I still am perplexed! 

This, my fellow readers, is Mercy. He is by far the happiest 9-month old baby I have EVER seen. He is literally ALWAYS smiling and moving and shouting!

I don't know if it's normal, but he HATES his baby walker and will cling to every tiny hair on your eyebrow if he has to just so you take him out of his walker, because as far as he is concerned, your legs are waaay softer than the hard floor so why should he learn to walk there.

He also has this thing with eating adult food and hating baby food like it was the cookie monster itself. This boy, with only two milk teeth in his gum will eat the driest bread, hottest rice, strongest lolly without even caring. 

I'm not sure why she thought her sandals were important, but somehow they were and she used the opportunity to show the world how much her favorite sandals mean to her.

She found her foot really fascinating. Why you ask? Because it's the only thing that can actually survive the longest in her favorite sandals. Sounds legit...I guess!

She actually made Obum act like she was eating sand just for the picture! A professional I must say.

This, my friend, is Goodness aka Goodelicious *-*. She is the inventor of the word 'otzomi?' ,it took me a while to get what exactly she wants from me when she says that, but I'm almost always sure she wants something from me... an answer or so.

otzomi? = me too? (= also me?)

She even has a teddy bear named after her and she hates it more than anything! 

By the time we got home it was already midday and our stomachs were grumbling. Thank God for their mother because somehow she made my favorite meal... INDOMIEEE !!!!

Nur in Krieg und in der Liebe ist alles erlaubt!

Living on One Dollar A Day

It probably sounds like an incredibly easy thing to do.

'Maybe the cereal box in the cupboard will last for three or four days, and then there's still some potatoes or yams somewhere in the store and there's probably some bread in the fridge too, I sighted a few cartons of milk and juice in the fridge the other day and I've always got some garri in reserve. So if I split up each food into respective days and save up the money, I could have enough money for other days that lack food. As easy as that!'

However, we forget about the simplest, but very essential things; like toilet paper, electricity, bus fares, soap and so on... But for over 1.1 BILLION PEOPLE, life as we know it doesn't just go without saying. I just watched the movie, or documentary rather, Living on One Dollar and caught myself wondering if I could ever manage this:

But just this morning, I watched a TV programme about the most popular 5-star hotel in Russia. I'm not going to go into the details, but in the end they showed a woman living in a suite there and she boasted about 2 "paintings" which hung on her wall, that consisted of Dollar notes and Russian Rubles I think and then she said she didn't have any other wishes than to be healthy and happy, so she better spend her money while she is still alive and kicking.

I still wonder how those kind of people can look up to you, chin high and say, "I'm drinking a €24 000 wine and it tastes exquisitely ". I mean, if you don't know what to spend your money on, why don't you give it to people who really need it ??!

With my mere 15 years of age, I was once given the honor to attend a seminar called "TOUCH-STREETWISE: Responding to Street Violence", even though I was just there as a Radio-presenter. I just thought all I would do was interview a few people there, get free lunch and a CD and be on my way, but I never did expect to be moved by anything I would see, hear or feel while I was there.

I came back home and informed my dad that I wanted to be a youth-street worker, thinking that he was going to be as enthusiastic about my sudden change of plans as I was. All he said was, "This is not your fatherland", I stood there waiting to hear more but didn't get the approval I wanted, although I promised myself to do just that when I felt the time had come.

The interviews that changed my life for good ;)

Somehow, after that seminar, there were countless brochures and advertisements of help organisations and programmes for exchange students to help researches and things like that everywhere, or maybe I just suddenly became aware of them, and that only fueled my growing fire even more to want to help!! 

This is just one of the countless brochures I mentioned above ;)

And so with all that said, Obum and I have decided to no longer look away. We have resoluted to take part in one of these programmes and help in any way possible after our final exams in two years time :( 

It is surely going to be a time to remember, I know that already!!

I'm not urging anyone to join in, I'm just saying it doesn't hurt to try, and besides, it's not so bad a way of losing weight ;)

Nur im Krieg und in der Liebe ist alles erlaubt!

Having African Neighbours

You think being an African and living in a non-African country is hard? Then try being an African, living in a non-African country AND having African neighbours. That, my friend is hardship! And then if they somehow have kids... You're done!

I am proud to say that in my 5 years and 4 months here in Austria, and 4 times of relocating from 3 different "subcities", I still have to cope with the bountiful African neighbours who surround our recent apartment. There is no day I can seem to look out my window and not see an African pass by our house or knock on the door. 

And so I have stopped looking out the window facing the street, and have now resigned myself to peeping through the one that shows the garden.

Thus, to avoid getting visitors that were "just driving up and down the street and somehow saw your name on the door and decided to stop by", my dad "forgot" to put our name on the door bell of the new apartment even though we were supposed to. 

How on earth having African neighbours can in any way be disturbing you ask?
Lemme make this clear for you then with the help of illustration...


1. They come to "play" (EAT). 

You are forced to say yes, after all, how could you say no? 

"I'm busy"

"Ooh it's no problem, we'll be reaaaally quiet"   

"No. You don't understand, you are NEVER quiet" 

 "I promise we will be this time....pleaaaaaase O.O" 

You see, you just DON'T say no -.- 


Minutes- and I seriously mean minutes- later, they get hungry and you start to ask yourself if they wake up every morning just to disturb your peace. 

They may look cute and all, but don't let yourself be deceived, they are extremely cute when they aren't necessarily jealous of your peace and quiet.

2. They come to drink.

They do not think anything of your being busy. They ask you unnecessary questions whenever they feel like it and God knows ignoring them will cause even more agony. You answer whenever is needed of you.

Approximately 7.5 minutes after having eaten, a drink is requested. And as I said, it is useless to ignore and if you accidentally do ignore in this case, you will find glass shards on your kitchen floor and begin to regret ever letting them in.

They smile at you and reassure you that your getting up and getting them drinks yourself was indeed the right decision.

3. They come to make sure you don't get work done.

I don't think I have to say much here, the fact that this post is uploaded 2 days after the pictures were taken hopefully does explain everything.

All she did was write her name. Don't ask why!

4. They come to poke their noses into your business and lie on your bed.

They don't compliment you on your work, instead they argue about who gets to turn the next page.

Then when they get stressed out from arguing and turning pages, they lie on your bed...and start to fight until someone is on the floor, crying or just admiring the wood.

5. They come to touch...EVERYTHING

She learned to play part of the intro of Rihanna's 'Stay', but still, she was too loud and disturbing!!!  

I hope you now understand what I was trying to point out in the beginning. Having African neighbours can be terrifying, but I love this pair no matter what!! 

Nur im Krieg und in der Liebe ist alles erlaubt!

How Africa is Portrayed in The Media

I'm sure we've all seen one of these kind of pictures somewhere, somehow before now.

http://i49.tinypic.com/fbw3yx.jpg

I bet you haven't seen this young man smile before!  

The following scenes are not as unpopular as we (hopefully) would all like them to be. 

I would bet any money that these kids and their families didn't choose to pick up a weapon, live on the street, beg for food, flee whatever is left their homes, be deprived of the right to live and actually feel alive at whim. 

http://www.afronline.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/Afro_darfur_war.jpg

http://37.media.tumblr.com/d5c08c57a170c122e8966d776e725ef6/tumblr_my2sabO2RK1rfgmbqo3_500.jpg

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02226/poverty_2226036b.jpg

http://wa1.www.unesco.org/most/p95im1.jpg

And so I am at sixes and sevens with an issue. Is the media actually trying to help us (Africa) in someway or another by publicizing only the baddest of the worst sides of my beloved home or are they just looking for a means to rub the fact that she has been exploited and drained of every nameworthy reputation in her face? 
Because if they actually are, then I can't see what they strive to achieve by showing the world pictures of starving kids and throwing quotes like "EVERY SECOND IN AFRICA, A CHILD DIES..." our way, like the seconds in Africa tick faster or something. 

http://kateturner45.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/w430-68de7.jpg

This is one of the pictures that come to my mind whenever I see an advert updating me about how much practically no one cares about Africa. 

And by the way, who even makes these pictures? Do they feed these kids after their sufferings have been documented? 

I lived in Nigeria for 11 years and NOT ONE DAY did I see a naked child crying, arms stretched out with flies in it's eyes. 
What I saw day after day was strangers offering to pay the bus fares of school children who had no money to take a bus home. 
I saw strangers offer you food when they sure as heck knew that they didn't even have enough for themselves. 
I saw my sister take in a small child that was crying under the rain, fed and clothed him till his mother came back.
I saw kiosk "malams" give sweets and biscuits to my brother just for sitting and talking to him for a few hours.

I did NOT see children die every second. 

I don't act surprised anymore when someone tells me that he/she would never go back to Africa voluntarily unless they have to, because it is "not as safe as it is here".

The media tells us what to wear. 
The media tells us what we are to look like.
The media tells us what kind of friends we are supposed to have.
The media tells us what are meant to eat.
The media tells us what cell phone and laptop and tablet to get next.
The media tells us where we want to be at and where we don't.
The media tells us what size we are to wear to feel accepted.
The media tells us not to live our lives and tells us who and what we are to imitate.

So when the media tells you that Africa is "not as safe as it is here", you listen and you repeat that a few times in front of your mirror to make sure it comes across convincingly the next time you are asked when you plan to visit your homeland.

A friend of mine told me today, "The looks of a person doesn't tell you the slightest bit about his or her character, background, family or life." I used to wonder why people, especially youngsters, tend to judge others according to their appearance, but then I realized that it actually isn't that easy NOT to judge someone based on their looks when looks are the first things you see.

I don't know about you, but this is how I see Africa:

It's just my name, it's just my skin holding the border #George Ezra

Nur im Krieg und in der Liebe ist alles erlaubt!

♛ Ryan Sheckler's Successors ♛

I'm sure you know one of those sunny days where you come back home reaaally motivated and willing to do stuff, doesn't matter what! Well yesterday so happened to be that day for Obum and I. 

So to top it all up, the sun was out! After it had been raining for what seemed like AGES! ( I think it was just two weeks, but still!! ) And it was too tantalizing to resist- even after just eating and wanting to just dose off. 
In this country I say, any opportunity that comes your way, GRAB IT BEFORE IT ESCAPES YOUR REACH! So even the weather becomes a challenge. 

The most preferable options were either jogging or environmental-exploring, so we combined the two, and went skating. Obum on her skateboard and me with my rollerblades and the other way around.

I present to you Obum's pride and glory, 90's board made for children, but for €10 we can always make an exception!!!

It is to be pointed out, that the fact that we aren't wearing any shoes was very much our intention. 

You can tell from our expressions that we don't get this kind of weather very often. 

While exploring the wonders of our surrounding environment, we found these trains that are out of use, now we know where to go camping later when it gets warmer!

After our environmental-exporing on wheels, we decided to take a picture with the two of us in it. Yeaaah, as you probably can imagine that didn't actually turn out to work out after what seemed like a thousand tries.

To be sincere, I'm not sure how this came about!

Yes, the actual plan was to, and I quote, "Take a picture with the two of us in it"

But I've always had a thing for cameras so this result was not surprising at all- except for Obum of course -.-

And just before our motivation had run dry, this picture thankfully accomplished our goal. Though somehow, Obum still had a bit more to take countless selfies O.O 

Since we still had our exploring spirit, we decided to go for a short walk before calling it a day. On our way, we found this:

A memorial for a skater boy named Victor, who was killed by a train, just beside the railway.

R.I.P. Victor

At that point, we were both beat down and agreed to head home.

 This kind of cheered me up though, it's translated: Keep entrance free, or else...  (I bet the owner of the house was a knight in his life before)

Now lemme wrap this up with a collection box! If you ever want to throw any of your old clothes, don't forget to remember those who don't have anything!

Nur im Krieg und in der Liebe ist alles erlaubt!