Home – Page 12 – The Storytela

Jun 26, 2015Jul 11, 2015

Life With My Boy: A Family of Singers?

Do you remember Sound of Music? The Von Trapp Family Singers… aha! With their many classics especially ‘Doe a Deer…’ I can hear you humming already! Voila! It’s been 50 years since that movie premiered and history is about to repeat itself most surely, right in Lasgidi, Naija and if you zoom in a little closer, you would land right here in my sitting room. Ehen!

Trust me, it pales in comparison to the mansion that is the home of the Von Trapp family but nevertheless, it’s home and full of love.

Zoom in a little further and in the place of Maria, you have me, yes moi! A very unwilling Singer. It’s amazing that after having spent a little above 10 years in the combined school choir of my Primary and Secondary schools, I still do not know my voice part, yeah, Thanks.

In the place of the 7 cute Von Trapp children, you have my son and no, he is not dressed in Naval like clothes and standing like a statue or jumping at the blast of a whistle, rather he is seated on his blue child sized plastic chair, drumming with two unequal pencils on his red plastic table.

“Mummy sing another one, sing I know who I am…” he adds excitedly

I start the famous lyrics by Sinach, singing on any key that I find convenient and switching keys without even realizing it. My son drums excitedly, his face beaming with joy.

We carry on with our medley and though I really would like to stop, I continue for his sake and we go another round and then another round and then…

Oh no! Momma is tired and it’s bed time. I send him off to sleep, ignoring his protests and once more, we return to our peaceful family of non-singers. LOL.

Jun 22, 2015Jul 11, 2015

Life With My Boy: It’s Zobo for moi!

Working on my son’s school project recently, something hit me and it hit me really hard.

You see, one of the tasks they were asked to do was to build a literacy album with pictures depicting words from a-z. In helping him out, I found myself looking for things like P is for Polar Bear and Y is for Yoyo.

At that point, a thought came to me. Why can’t Y be for Yam? P for Palm Kernel and Z for Zobo. Please can anyone tell me what a Yoyo looks like? Yeah I know I’ve seen pictures of it and all but we need more than pictures to learn don’t we?

I just took a lesson from that and immediately changed my search to everyday things that can be seen in Nigeria. Afterall, my son is growing up here and I can count the number of times I’ve seen a Polar Bear on none of my fingers.

The thing is, I’m resolving to make sure that my son is taught relevant things, to help him develop local intelligence that would be of benefit to not only Naija and Africa but also to the whole world!

I think that’s one of the issues we’ve had with the educational system in our country, it’s not real… We finish from school and can’t apply what we’ve learnt. But then, things are changing speedily, the curriculum of schools these days are amazingly real and the kids are receiving education for life. Thumbs up to the 21st century educationists.

We just have to tweak a little more, as we practice the British Curriculumn, let’s also completely adapt them to Africa so our children can learn real things.

Cheers to you with a glass of Zobo!

Jun 21, 2015Jul 11, 2015

The Call of Fatherhood

Daddy, Daddy, you know how much I love you…

I remember so clearly the lyrics of this song we sang several years ago in Federal Government College, Nise.

It’s not easy to be a Dad, especially when you were raised by a man who was never really there for you or who maybe didn’t live up to the expectations of a Father.

You see, fatherhood can never be passive, fatherhood is planned and intentional. As a Dad, you’ve got to have a vision for your children. What type of child do you want to raise? And no, the job is not for Mommas alone.

When a child is raised without an objective, the child will grow anyhow, without an objective too. So you see the children of successful men who seem to not to have a direction in life.

My call to all Fathers today is to take a moment and think (if you’ve not done so already). Who are you raising? A bold, God fearing, well mannered, smart child who is respectful, responsible and focused? If this is what you want, then there are specific things you have to do for your child to turn out that way and trust me, it’s not just about making the money available or uploading pictures on social media, LOL.

Please do not take the easy way out of not getting involved in your children’s lives. God is counting on you, to teach your children about him. Also, not every woman is strong willed enough to raise children properly on her own. Your decision may just boomerang in your face several years later.

Today, I salute every Dad and Father figure who is giving or has given so much to help raise the children right.

Happy Father’s Day to you all.

God bless you.

Jun 19, 2015Jul 11, 2015

Life With My Boy: Should I sue Zee TV?

Well, yes. I’m flipping through my advertising textbooks right now, there’s got to be a law that would enable me sue Zee Tv for a misleading advert.

Or maybe I should sue Khana Khazana, since that is the programme I have an issue with.

You see, Khana Khazana is an Indian Cookery Show, hosted by Celebrity Chef; Sanjeev Kapoor on Zee Tv, the Indian Chanel on DSTV (166). When they started the advert for the programme, I totally loved it, especially the intro… Let me describe it for you…

An Indian man, in about his mid-forties, wearing a white half apron enters a lovely kitchen with mostly wooden cabinet. He takes a slight bow with his hands together and says

‘Namaste! from Sanjeev Kapoor and all the team of Khana Khazana’.

Beautiful! Very lyrical especially with the thick Indian accent…

Then they changed the intro. So he now says this instead…

‘They say you eat food with your eyes first of all, before you taste it with your mouth…’

I won’t have had any problem with that if… and I repeat if my son hadn’t picked it up. Now he would tell me…

‘Mummy, I eat food with my eyes!’

Okay now. How do I let him know at this age that what the man was saying is just an adage and that people actually eat with their mouth?

You see why I have to sue them; for misinformation of course! Did they really have to use that line?

I’ll keep flipping through my textbook and hopefully, I’ll be able to build my case.

Namaste!

Jun 17, 2015Jul 11, 2015

Rest of My Life…

As I sat in the salon, putting finishing touches to my hair, I went through the list of things in my mind once more…

Everything was definitely in place, I heaved a sigh of relief and then it occurred to me; I still had to perfect the song! I tried to go over the lyrics in my mind and I tried to picture myself upstage performing it. Then the question popped up…

‘What if the light went off? What if there’s power failure right in the middle of my performance? Won’t that spoil everything? Since I was going to be miming the song and not exactly singing it?’

‘Ye! This calls for prayer o! Father, in the name of Jesus, there must not be power failure o! It would ruin everything’.

Chai! The things we pray about in Naija! I guess those living abroad won’t understand this at all.

Later on that night, I perfected my mime. The song was ‘Rest of My Life’ by Lara George http://music.naij.com/15137-lara-george-rest-of-my-life

The next day was my wedding day. I would be ‘singing’ the song for my groom and I couldn’t wait to see his reaction as everything was a surprise.

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Well, it’s been four years now, tomorrow is our fourth anniversary and I’m more than happy to share the lyrics of the song with you… Enjoy

Verse 1

You are my sunshine

Youuuu are my rain

You are the reason why

The World around me is sane

You are my love

You are my friend

You are the kiss on my lips

And my man

You are my baby

King of my castle

The only place to where…

Could my heart go

Where, would I find true love but here….

In your arms of love

I’ll gladly spend

The rest of my life with you

Verse 2

You are my rainbow

You brighten up my day

And I bless the moment when God brought you in to stay

He made you made my love

Made you my friend

Made you the kiss on my lips

And my man

He made you my baby

King of my castle

The only place to where

Could my heart go

Where would I find true love but here….

In your arms of love

I’ll gladly spend the rest of my life with you

Oh oh…and as the years go on and on (on and on and on)

May our love grow more and more (more and more and more)

May we be as one in our hearts and minds

May the song we sing always be,

Where could my heart go (baby)

Where would I find true love but here…

In your arms of love

I’ll gladly spend the rest of my life with you