The Storytela

Dec 28, 2015Jun 6, 2017

Dust To Dazzle: Jenny’s Story

My sister, Obiageli had always wanted to be a Medical Doctor. She was not like most kids (I for instance) who changed their careers as they changed their shoe sizes or maybe dress sizes…

When she was graduating from Nursery school, she won the ‘Most Humane’ award, which meant she was compassionate and could take care of people. Along the line, she read Ben Carson’s Gifted Hands and that really did it for her.

Fast forward to several years later, she had made straight A’s in her Junior WAEC and was topping her class in Senior Secondary School but I guess her life seemed to lack very serious challenges so two of her teachers came together and gave her a very daunting task- To prepare the Skeletal Structure of a Rabbit and submit it for the Children’s Day Science Competition in her school. School Teachers sef!

Anyways, she bought the Rabbit, killed it carefully (Animal Rights Activists where una dey?) cooked it carefully, skinned it carefully, ate it carefully (with her friends though) and finally got through to the bones which she had to preserve with chemicals.

As the day of the competition drew nearer, her heart beat faster as she had started quite late (fire brigade things). One day to the competition, some bones get missing (arrow from the village?) but she kept going and finally got the structure up. Did she win the competition? Sure thing! That’s how we roll…

Well, to Oby (now known as Jennifer a.k.a Jenny) she thought it would be easy to get admission to study Medicine in school, after all, she was a star student but the opposite was her story. She didn’t make Medicine in the University here in Nigeria, she did however get another admission in Ghana but instead of getting Medicine, she ended up studying Medical Radiography. That didn’t deter her though as she kept faith, grew in her relationship with God and dusted the course.

After her graduation and internship, she kept saying she wanted to go in for Medicine. She kept at it though, without being distracted and a few months later, it came through for her! She finally got admission to study Medicine in a University abroad. WOW!

I remember dropping her off at the airport when she was leaving, I was really inspired by her dedication in pursuing her dreams against all odds. She was not discouraged by the many seemingly disappointments she faced, all things worked out for her good and soon she will be inducted as Dr. Jenny…

Wow! So what’s that dream you have? What has God put in your heart to do? It might be taking like forever but don’t give up! Keep the fire burning, continue in pursuit and keep praying. Whatever it is, will definitely come through for you.

Cheers!

The Storytela

Dec 22, 2015

Take A Trip To Navy Town

Strike a pose

Uncle & Nephew

Girls! Girls!

The Water!

Relic

It’s countdown to Christmas day. Season’s greetings everyone as we celebrate the birth of our Saviour Jesus Christ.

If you are spending the holiday in Lagos, and you are looking for somewhere unique to go, then Navy Town might be it for you. Here’s an article I wrote on my trip to Navy Town, posted on http://www.davinadiaries.com. Enjoy!

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I had to visit the Old Navy Town recently and it wasn’t exactly a trip I looked forward to. This was a Sunday and my idea of a great Sunday is to get some rest after Church Service, Sunday Cooking and all. Well, I had to go to Navy Town and to Navy Town I went. The Navy Town is located at Ojo (Your GPS should tell you the exact location) after the Kirikiri Prisons.

As we approached the Barracks, my apprehension turned to excitement as first of all we had to drive past the Kirikiri Medium and Maximum prisons. I didn’t know the area around the prison could be so peaceful and quiet. Then we entered Navy Town and my jaw dropped open.

Seriously, I was expecting the kind of chaos that would usually accompany the Police Barracks but men! Was I wrong?! The entrance to the ‘Town’ was a well paved road flanked by green vegetation on both sides. Wow! I tuned in to Nature immediately. Before then, we had driven past some really old buildings (I love old buildings!).

As we cruised into the town enjoying the scenario, the person we were taking there mentioned that there was a Sailing Club. So I went like ‘Sailing Club?’ I gotta see that men! So we drove towards the Sailing Club. On our way, we couldn’t help but notice how calm the town was. Everywhere was quiet and we saw some Naval Officers enjoying a game of Golf! I wondered if this was rowdy Lagos and then Ojo to be precise.

We got to the Sailing Club and it blew my mind. You see, I love water, I really do love water and then I love to watch the Sun Set at the beach and all of that stuff so being in that place, I was completely in tune with my inner self. I was almost beginning to ask that we build three tents and remain there when it occurred to me that this was not the Transfiguration. LOL

We lingered in the area, took in the scenery, bought some Suya from the Memorial Kitchen while I took as much pictures as I could before we headed to complete our journey. We did drive past some old buildings that weren’t so well kept and looked a bit dirty but then, we saw several modern buildings and several other new ones being constructed.

All in all, I was so glad that I went to Navy Town and I’m really impressed that in a country like ours where things are usually left to fall apart, some degree of sanity was retained in that place. Kudos to our Naval Guys!

Dec 21, 2015Dec 20, 2015

Life With My Boy: I’m not a Gentleman

My son came over to the office from school so I bought him some Akara balls (bean cakes) to enjoy while I rounded up on work for the evening. He got quite hyperactive while eating the Akara and some dropped on the floor.

Mum: Ikem, don’t drop Akara on the floor, eat like a gentleman. Are you a gentleman?

Son: No, I’m not gentleman, I’m Ikemsinachi.

I just had a good laugh first before I started the lecture

Mum: You are a gentleman okay? You eat your food gently.

Son: Okay. I’m a gentleman, I will not eat like a ‘Monkey do’, a ‘Monkey do’ eats banana like this (demonstrates and makes sound awum awum awum.)

Thankfully, we didn’t have more pieces of the Akara fall to the ground.

Picture courtesy of http://www.wivestownhallconnection.com

Dec 20, 2015

Life With My Boy: Loan me a Sister!

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Hello peeps, saw this very funny post on my friend’s Facebook wall (pictured left with her cute son) and I just had to share. Enjoy!

This pikin no go ki mi! So we sit down to do homework and it’s titled ‘write about your sister’, na so my boy shout ‘mummy I don’t have a sister’! And I answer; yes you don’t but we have to write something! He answers; no mummy I don’t want to lie! I don’t have a sister and na so bros waka comot!

Personally, I wonder why the homework didn’t have a more a generic title. LOL

Nov 25, 2015

When A Man Beats A Woman

Today is International Day For the Elimination of Violence Against Women and with respect to that, I’ll be re-posting an article that I wrote for http://www.davinadiaries.com. Please read below:

I recently saw the African Magic Original Film, ‘Next Door to Happiness’ and it brought home the reality of domestic violence a.k.a Wife battering to me. You see, before now, domestic abuse was something I heard of, read of but didn’t really understand the gravity of it.

Ha! Why would a man beat his wife like that? Sote she would have bruises, black eye, swollen face and then the next day, he comes home and buys her stuff, cooks for her and tells her that he loves her. Which kain love be that one abeg?

Anyways, thank God the woman in question came to her senses after the man beat her blue black one night. She simply called her Mum the next morning, packed the little thing she could and fled! The silly hubby now bought her a brand new car and kept begging, but the woman’s Mum just came back with her, packed the rest of her belongings and she left the man for good.

I did notice that the man while telling stories with his colleagues mentioned that his Dad used to beat his Mum when they were growing up. I also know that men who tell me that they would never beat their wives would usually mention that they never saw their Dad raise a hand on their Mum not to talk of bringing it down on her.

So my question is; does it always follow that men who grew up witnessing domestic violence are destined to carry out this same act? I believe that we can choose the way we react to things. When your wife, or fiancée or girlfriend gets you angry to the point where you feel you might lose it, just walk away. Don’t be the wild animal that just attacks a weaker prey and keeps going because she can’t defend herself.

And my dear ladies, how defenseless can we be sef? I find that picture of women screaming and falling on the floor while the man hits them a bit of a stereotype. Does it mean that we can’t fight back? The advice to any woman in an abusive relationship is to run for your life while you still have it. But then, if you decide to stay, learn some self-defense skills. Go for a Karate Class or learn how to wield some ‘turn garri’ and Pestle but please be careful how you use it before you end up in Kirikiri Maximum Prison.

Above all, don’t keep quiet and endure the beating hoping that one day he will change. #Speakout #gethelp #YOLO!

Photo Credit: nigeriamovienetwork.com