The Perfect Help?

I never bothered myself with helps until I had a baby.

My first help was a piece of work. She claimed she was in her 20s but her body shouted 30s. I won't forget in a hurry the sight of her g-string peeking out from low waist jeans, the joy she had at being around male guests or the driver, how she would sit down with her legs spread apart like all she ever thought about was sex and the lover's quarrel she consistently had at the gate with her boyfriend who I later found out was a gate man in the estate. I didn't allow her and her negative energy around my baby. She didn't last more than a month. I was glad to wake up one morning and find she never turned up for work. That was the last I heard of her.

My second help was a young girl of about 12 who didn't even know  that the name of her country was Nigeria. She lived to play and just be a child. Having her around was like having two children-my son inclusive. Straight out of the village, she had to be taught everything-How to use the toilet, how to bathe properly, how to wash plates at a sink and how to use simple household gadgets...Frustrating, I tell you. And she never told you when anything was the matter so you had to keep guessing. She wouldn't even let me know when she started seeing her period so I could get her sanitary pads. She preferred to drip blood all over the floor instead. My baby was obviously a toy to her-a toy to be shaken and rattled from side to side. Then she started stealing-Make up, jewelry and hair pieces mostly. She lasted just three months. I was relieved to see her go.

At this point,I decided to manage all by myself. It wasn't easy but my secret was tackling each day as it came.I think I did a good job plus I had family and friends who helped me every now and then.

Anyway, just last month, I am sitting at home minding my business when my gate man tells me about his sister who is on vacation from school and needs a house job to help raise money for her tuition. I agree to meet with her and I am blown away. When she resumed work, all she had to do was watch me at anything once and she'd take over. The house is swept and mopped before I wake every morning. Its like she reads my mind and gets kitchen stuff done even before I  ask. She has helped kill two roaches that appeared in my kitchen from God knows where (I am afraid of roaches. I hate em!). She communicates well and has a good sense of humour and isn't afraid to ask questions. My LO has taken to her and they are currently best of frenemies.
She goes to school in January. My goal is to savour every bit of the last quarter of the year with her in my employ and pray to God that she has no sudden change in behaviour...

The Great Outdoors

I'm glad I was born in the 80s.
That sweet era were being a child was truly magical.
Before those Ipads and Android devices and all sorts of computerized toys and games replaced the sheer joy of climbing trees, playing Ten Ten, chasing Fara, digging ant holes and cooking gourmet three course meals with sand and stones...
All that's changed today. Houses are built these days with not a single patch of grass in sight-interlocking tiles are preferred instead. Trees are none existent. Sand? God forbid! Back Yards and Court yards? Gone with the Land Lords' addiction to BQs. (Not that you can blame them. The BQs provide additional funds to cover mortgage repayments what with those insane interest rates banks lend money at).
Anyway, I want my little one to have a taste of what I enjoyed growing up so I have embarked on creating a play area for him. I am far from done but he already utilizes the space a great deal.
See a few pictures below:

Bamboo Fence and artificial grass

Stone corner. Ignore the wet wall please. Here he becomes Julius Berger's Engineer.

For some reason I never had the heart to get rid of these plastic cups which previously contained yogurt. Today, my son and his friends fill them with stones and squeal "Ice Cream!"

There's still so much for me to do-Get artificial trees and plants, play area sand, a blackboard, wall stickers, outdoor tent or play house, a rocking horse etc

I'd be sure to let you see the finished play area soon.

Time to retire for the night.

Good Night. 

Let down your hair and eat some cake

Sometimes, you have to Pause,
                                              Exhale,
                                                      Relax.
And remind yourself that Rome wasn't built in a day;
                             that challenges eventually birth greatness;
                                        that you are not ALONE.
 What goes up eventually comes down,
                      But what grows up stays there.

And no one ever said growing up was easy.
                Ask that little baby travailing with teething;
                             or that one trying to walk.    
                     Remember your budding breasts and the pain that came with them?
 Remember your first encounter with red and the sudden realization that you were no longer that  little girl?
      Remember the pain of crushing on some guy who never  noticed you?
             All but the faintest of memories today...
                          Gone with the winds of yesterday.
                                    Blown away like chaff in the wind.
Sometimes, you have to Pause,
                                            Exhale,
                                                  Relax.
                          Look back at how far you have come. 
                                  So many wonderful pages yet unwritten...
                                         So many victories yet unclaimed.
     So  Pause, Exhale, Relax.
                            Let down your hair.
                                            Eat some cake...
                   

From Next, Abuja

                             

Sasha Fierce: My Latest Addition

She's 3 months old, loves to eat and loves to steal my slippers...

Hey Mom, It's My Shadow!

I hear my little one crying. He is outdoors playing and I am scared he may have hurt himself.
I come out to see what is going on and I see him wailing and pointing at the ground. I think for an instant he may have hurt his feet but he is at the same time awkwardly moving backwards like he is running away from something.
Finally I see it.
It's his shadow!
He is trying to run away from his shadow and crying because the black mass on the ground keeps following him.
I go to him laughing my heart out and with the help of the other kids around, show him that we all have shadows and that our shadows follow us all.
Soon, he is laughing and having a lot of fun with this new found friend.
It simply is beautiful watching kids learn about the world around them. They teach us to appreciate life in its uttermost simplicity.

Olivia Oyibo Photography

They Broke Into My Home...(A summary)

I was startled out of sleep by this loud crashing noise!
It was pitch black when I opened my eyes.
I heard footsteps, hushed voices and I knew my one nightmare had become a reality.
There were people in my house. 2am at night. Alone with the baby. People in my house.

My body trembled with fear and confusion.
I grabbed my sleeping toddler and held him close as I heard footsteps approach my door.
It wasn't locked so entrance was easy.
Three men shone light in my face from the torches they held.
Their weapons grinned darkly at me.

Oh, why did my husband have to travel that day? Oh, why didn't my sister return home that night?
"Wia the money? The 2.5million Naira? We no go touch you if you give us the money. So try make you cooperate." Their speaker managed some English through a thick Hausa accent and brown dirty teeth.
I let them have the money I had. It was my tithe. I was supposed to give it in church the previous Sunday except that I didn't make it to church.
Then, they turned my room upside down. My always tidy room made to look like a dump by hungry boys who like hyenas wait for the lioness to catch prey so they can feast.

For a moment, I felt pity deep down my heart for them...for the hunger, laziness, hopelessness, covetousness, poverty that would make able bodied men break into homes not theirs and wreak havoc and damage not necessary.

Then they took the laptops-Mine, my husband's and my sister's.
And I got angry.
I hadn't finished watching Game of Thrones! Season 4 was on my husband and sister's laptops! How dare them (they?)?!

They made me watch as they trashed my sister's room. She had just made money from some job. It was in her room. They took it.
They made me get them a box of matches so they could take a smoke break.
They made me find them bags for their booty-Jewelry, Unsewn fabrics, Laptops...
Memories burnt on the laptops all gone.
Pictures of my son, months and months of creative photography...gone in one night.

And as they turned to leave, one of them returned to me.
He threw a crumpled Five hundred Naira note at me.
"Madam, Manage this 500 naira buy yourself something for morning. And make you the pray for us so that we no go come back. Na our country condition cause am"

"Yes Sir", was my humble reply.

The Sweet Potatoes and The Woman

oliviaoyibo photography

A Very True Story from a Kitchen:

Once upon a time, a woman went to the market and returned with loads of Irish potatoes and a few Sweet potatoes.
But she loved the Irish potatoes so much that she ate them all up and still didn't bother touching the Sweet potatoes.
The Sweet potatoes begged her to cook them for her eating pleasure but she still wouldn't.
Instead, she ignored them, left them to the elements of the weather and watched them wither away.
At first, the Sweet Potatoes got really depressed. It was a rotten feeling to be unwanted, unloved, unused...
It was a painful feeling to watch Irish Potatoes get peeled, diced, washed, fried and eaten with such relish...
They cried many a tears wallowing in self pity but that didn't change the woman's mind.

After many weeks of being left out in the rain, the Sweet potatoes thought to themselves:

" It's no use trying to make her love us. We would rot and die if we continue pinning for her attention. She has left us outside to grow old and useless and the rains would bring her desires to pass. Let's forget about her for awhile and build ourselves up. There's some soil on us from all the dirt that accompanied us from the market. Let's allow this same rain that can destroy us interact with our soil and sprout on us gardens of green leafy plants!"

 And with their decision made, they faced the terror of the rain and the heat of the sun with all the strength they could muster-knowing that it was working something really special on their inside.

It wasn't long before they sprouted. Every single one of them!

And one day, the woman came out with the intention of throwing them all away but was greeted with the most amazing sight!

Five old and worn Sweet potatoes smiling green with life!

Too speechless for words, she pulled out her camera and shot at them with wonder.
She couldn't throw them away and she couldn't eat them either.
Instead she watched them grow everyday into this sweet green garden.

And then it suddenly dawned on the Sweet potatoes that there were finer purposes in life than being eaten.

                                                                    ***The end***

Guess who the woman in the story was? It turns out she is also a Sweet Potato...selah...hehehehe
 Happy Democrazy Democracy day Nigeria!