olaoluwatomi

In a few minutes this time many years ago I was born as one of a set of twins, as the tale goes. I was born the second twin and my twin who turned out much smaller than me had to be put in the incubator as I had spent the last nine months sitting on her:) Anyway this many years down the line, my parents can look back and thank God that the two little babies who became rascals have somewhere along the way become ladies and young women:) Thanking God for my twin who is my first and bestest (sic) friend, my parents who took care of me through the years and look out for me always, my brother who had to put up with two big bullying sisters all his life and friends who have over the years never forgotten me or my birthdate:) Nice to have a unique birthdate dont you think!:) I also want to thank God for keeping me through the years and allowing me to look back with thanks and look forward with hope. Wishing everyone a great 2010! God bless all and everyone!

I am sure that I have mentioned before that I dream a lot. I dream in parts, so I start a dream today and can end up dreaming the continuation the next time I fall asleep. Its strange methinks my dreaming in parts since I have no stake in the home video industry. It would have been the plum on the pudding to be able to produce my own dreams:) and watch them come alive on stage or the big screen. Anyway another aspect to my dreaming is that I daydream a lot. I wish there was a significant object to this talent of mine, for if I could churn my daydreams through the money making machine I would have by now been a billionaire in the most stable and valuable world currency 'gold bars'. Tomi a little Midas:) that would be great dont you think?. What do I daydream about? Anything and many things is my answer. I visit different lands and experience different cultures, I sit down for Job interviews in fantastic companies, Im the president of my country, Im a CEO of a company that is act...

In a few days I'll be wishing this year goodbye. Not only is it the end of the year for everyone it is the end of another year of my life and the beginning of a new one. When I was much younger I thought the end of the year was a really cool time, for it was the one time of the year when everyone in my family got together to celebrate several events, christmas, wedding anniversaries and birthdays and the celebrations seemed to be unending until the beginning of a new year and the start of another school year brought to an end the state of euphoria we were all in. This time last year I was a scout looking for and following the trends of an epidemic on the front seat of a 4X4, this year I am a student again, back to the classroom I left 'many' years ago:) urging my brain cells to be as active as they were five years ago. Three years ago I was an intern assisting in gynecologic surgeries and performing my first ceasarian sections. When I was five years old I was in my hometown...

I have one passion, I love to read books! Thinking of a present to buy me? a nice book would do. Please do not send me a text book for to my horror Im spending all my reading time reading them. I have never ever not been able to read the books I love. Even when I am in the middle of exams I still find time to read a book or two. These days I find out that besides recommended text books and loads of papers I can't get myself to stick with one book and finish it. My average reading time of a good book is usually 1 to 3 days. These days however I find myself reading pages from one book and then another. I have actually started to read about 3 books at the same time and am nowhere near finishing any of them. Thankfully the holidays are around the corner and my normal reading mode will be switched back on. The picture above shows a semi-current picture of the current books in my life at this moment, most of them acquired over the last four months. Three of them are borrowed and the r...

I love stories! Especially good ones, if you want to keep my attention for any length of time tell me a good story and I can assure you, my time will be yours. I have been wondering where my love for stories comes from and its not hard to look very far to what might have whetted my appetite for good stories. I still remember stories told by my mum, dad and grandfather. My mum's tales took the form of folktales and the tortoise of course was almost always my favorite character. Even when he was being mean, his exploits caused us as children immense pleasure just listening to how cleverly he spun his arguments to win over the other animals, who always only seemed to realise they had been cheated after the tortoise had his way. My dad on the other hand retold tales from books like 'Jack and the Beanstalk' I still remember him reading this story to us after tucking us in bed, he deepened his voice to imitate the giant's 'Fee fo fum, I smell the blood of an English man.....

Could not resist taking these pictures after stomping through the snow:) Was barely one inch high! Just added pictures of the morning after! Have a great weekend!

I read a blog post*and that gave me the inspiration to write this:) I have always been a useless dancer:) and I mean it, all the talk of people flowing with the music and letting the music flow over them might as well be for a different clan, music and I dont click in the way of dance. A few weeks ago I was playing table tennis with a chinese friend and she was trying to teach me how to serve her way which I can tell you was really smooth, she asked me to bend my knees and try to synchronize my bending with the release of the ball like a 'dance' I guess. After several failed attempts she blurts out 'excuse me but I thought blacks were supposed to be able to dance', I smiled at her and remarked that this particular black babe has no musical genes in her bones! I have always loved to dance but my grotesque attempts to imitate Michael Jackson or my Niger Delta/Yoruba sisters wriggling movements which involve the use of all parts of their bodies has earned me the most humil...

I just got back from an evening out and had a lovely meal in lovely company.You can figure that it was one meal that made a difference to my taste glands and the final receptacle, my stomach. The main meal was Coq au Vin and was cooked in a slow cooker, translated it was chicken with bacon cooked in a slow pot. We ate it with rice and a wonderful spinach salad I think it was:) bread and sauce and for dessert Icecream, home baked molasses cookies (hmm not sure about that name:) and cake. I can tell you I will have very sweet dreams tonight:) Thank you very much Ruth for a lovely dinner!

The words of a song we sang just as break time was to start comes to my mind now, It goes thus: Some have food but cannot eat, Some can eat but have no food, We have food and we can eat, glory be to thee O Lord! I guess it was a reminder of things we had which others did not have and which we were thus privileged to have not because we were better than them but just because! I ate my first thanksgiving turkey:)today and I had fun at a friends place. It was nice not having to go to school and have a day off, but it was also fun hearing what others were thankful for. Thanks were given for life and good health but one recurring theme was for family, I guess its at periods like this that you look back and realize that at the end of the day family is really an important factor in the scheme of things. So at the end of this day, I want to give thanks to God for my life, for good health, for friends and family. I am indeed so blessed to be able to give thanks for all the above. Thank God for ...

Its been over two months since I changed addresses and I just realised that its been a long time since I saw any policemen on the streets. O yes I do see them in police patrol cars but I have not seen any hanging around street corners ready to pounce on the next hapless taxi driver that comes round the bend. There are absolutely no police check points! No 'Oga wetin you de carry' or 'Madam anything for us' the prelude to harrassment by the men in black, nothing to show that they exist! It has been two months since I hurriedly ironed my clothes before NEPA blesses us with an outage, for here light shines all the time, just like the bible verse that says you will have no need for the sun, I have no need for NEPA at all at all:)(yeah the repitition is for emphasis). I dont have to leave my cell phone connected to the socket all night praying that the few seconds that the 'power holding'(rightly named) company brings light will be enough to charge my battery to func...

I have written enough exams to last me a life time! I sat for an exam this morning and my antics during the exam put a smile on my face at the end of the paper. I still remember with nostalgia letters from my grandmum which always arrived a few days before the end of term or mid term exams were to start. The letters always contained a list of exam tips and where sure to begin with BE COOL, CALM AND COLLECTED followed by READ EVERY QUESTION CAREFULLY AND GO OVER THE INSTRUCTIONS and they would end with the words DO NOT CHEAT. Im sure my grandmum knew that the kids who were once under her wings could do no such thing as cheat in an exam but she always repeated it! I digress from my topic. This morning's paper was one I spent a normal length of time preparing for, this means I did no such thing as stay awake to cram through the night, I have never been good at such gimmicks,I would probably spend half the night snoozing and be worse off the next morning. Anyway I got into the exam hal...

Its nice to be a student again after working for sometime!:) I remember the days I was in boarding school with nostalgia and how parents and teachers asked us to enjoy these days and yet we itched with the usual impatience of youth to leave the classrooms for the worldwide class which seemed more exciting and less restrictive than the walls that surrounded us then. Now with the wisdom of the aged (mo ti daurgbo die:)* I can look back and say they were so right! I have tasted the two worlds and know the sweeter! I know the world is a teacher but as a student you have only one responsibility and that is to learn. As a worker you take full responsibility of tasks assigned you. You can't use the students favorite escape route phrase 'I don't understand' In today's world of scarce jobs you cant be in the dark about what you are supposed to be doing, many wait at the door to take your place. I remember and love a classmates retort to a particularly 'what's the wo...

Sang this hymn at church today and its melody is so lovely, just thought I'd share it, to get the music just google the first four words of the hymn and you can sing along! HOW FIRM A FOUNDATION- Att John Keith,Pub 1787. How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, Is laid for your faith in His excellent word! What more can He say than to you He hath said— To you who for refuge to Jesus have fled? “Fear not, I am with thee, oh, be not dismayed, For I am thy God, and will still give thee aid; I’ll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand, Upheld by My gracious, omnipotent hand. “When through the deep waters I call thee to go, The rivers of sorrow shall not overflow; For I will be with thee thy trouble to bless, And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress. “When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie, My grace, all-sufficient, shall be thy supply; The flame shall not harm thee; I only design Thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine. “The soul that on Jesus doth lean ...

Call it culture shock but I was in a daze here for the first few days of getting into the American classroom! Why was I in such a state? It was not the blackboards or the nice seats, afterall we have those where I was coming from in some schools:), and who has not seen a blackboard before? Even children in Kewu classes have blackboards! Anyway to the reason for my altered mental state. It was the attitudes of students to the teachers and the teachers to the students my people that made me stare so much. Instead of following the classes I would follow in amazement the mouths of my colleagues who ate in class! Yes you are not mistaken, they munch and chew and swallow under the gaze of the professors! That was enough to tell me that I was certainly not in a Nigerian classroom! These meals are not chewing gum or chin chin, which one can surreptitiously munch in silence ensured by softening the offending morsels before attempting to 'gbe mi'* just before the lecturer catches you if ...

(C) Olaoluwatomi I took this picture two months ago and ever since then I have moved away from what I consider my world to a new one. I loved my job for it gave me the opportunity to travel which I love, it also allowed me to be myself. I loved the fact that I could jump out in the morning dressed only in a t shirt and jeans and be free to move around, I loved the feel of the wind on my face and the hum of the engine of the car and most especially the sights along the way. I remember how enthralled I was by the boabab trees along the way and took pictures of them every chance I got before I gradually grew used to seeing them. I got down from the vehicle to ask for these men's permission to take the picture. The man in the white robe was very pleased to be my model and his silver tooth which does not show in this shot glinted when he smiled while looking at his picture on my...

Im sure everyone especially when we were children (for those of us who have left childhood behind:)) dreamt of conquering the world. Our childhood dreams where shaped by books we read, tv shows we watched, news headlines that screamed of the accomplishments of men and women we admired! The Guinness book of records was one volume that fascinated me no end, ok I could not get into the book by being the shortest woman alive, but I sure could try and do some of the dare daring acts like climbing Everest and jumping through rings of fire e.t.c The quest to do something meaningful is one dream that will never die, for we are made that way to look for meaning in the things around us and try and live lives that will make a mark on the world around us. I no longer want to get into the Guinness book of world records but it sure would be nice to do something that actually counts (yeah the newsheadliners type of count! For good of course) But I'm often reminded that it is the little things tha...

Just a few thoughts on an incident today, got an offer of help from someone I had just met and I turned it down. I felt bad after doing so and I guess the other party felt bad also! Not sure though! But as it turned out it would have been much better if I had accepted to be helped though that was not the reason for my regret, it just compounded it, but methinks now looking back in time, that a gracious acceptance rather than stubborn refusal would have been a much better path to tread! What do you think?

Do you remember how important certain things were to you when you were growing up and now when you look back in time you laugh at how het up you were about them. Or do you remember how your parents or older ones warned you against certain actions and you felt everyone just did not understand how important those things were to you and if you did not do them your life would never be the same. And as is with the wisdom of adults they let you try out whatever it was that you could not bear to live without and you found out that life was never the same again just not in the way you wanted it to turn out! I remember how badly I wanted to attend my secondary school and I would spit right into the drain while brushing and predicting that I would get admitted if all my spittle went straight into the drain and did not splash on the edges of the bowl and if I missed it would be another school. Of course I became a champion 'spittle down the hole champion' by constant practice missing the ...

Wole Soyinka (b.1934) "Telephone Conversation" The price seemed reasonable, location Indifferent. The landlady swore she lived Off premises. Nothing remained But self-confession. "Madam," I warned, "I hate a wasted journey--I am African." Silence. Silenced transmission of Pressurized good-breeding. Voice, when it came, Lipstick coated, long gold-rolled Cigarette-holder pipped. Caught I was foully. "HOW DARK?" . . . I had not misheard . . . "ARE YOU LIGHT OR VERY DARK?" Button B, Button A. * Stench Of rancid breath of public hide-and-speak. Red booth. Red pillar box. Red double-tiered Omnibus squelching tar. It was real! Shamed By ill-mannered silence, surrender Pushed dumbfounded to beg simplification. Considerate she was, varying the emphasis-- "ARE YOU DARK? OR VERY LIGHT?" Revelation came. "You mean--like plain or milk chocolate?" Her assent was clinical, crushing in its light Impersonality. Rapidly, wave-length ...

I dont know where my love for letters came from, but I do remember writing letters to my parents when we were at our grandparents for the summer holidays. Granny would gather us all together and ensure we wrote our parents detailing our experiences at Ilesa. Of course only the highlights got in (none of our misdemeanours were mentioned like the time we went swimming in grandads fishpond and we got caught:), we generally related activities that would make them think we were on our best behaviour, im sure they knew we were naughty sometimes but we were not going to write that down. Our letters got sent with the bread vans that where going to deliver bread to Lagos. My grandfather had a bakery and he had a distribution system that extended right into Lagos, so the delivery men took with them our letters and brought back small parcels from Lagos. That is my first recollection of any postal system. My next adventures with letter writing came when I was in secondary school, my twin and I wer...

I was going to copy my sisters post but I thought better of it instead I redirect you to her webpage and read what she writes about our grandmother, It brought back many fond memories and of course wry smiles. I wont forget the words 'you must be silly' uttered by granny especially after you uttered a lie that looking back even a monkey would know was a lie:) I remember the time all of us dipped our fingers into the Milo tin and two of us had the smart sense of thieves to clean up the evidence which included brushing our teeth and the third party didnt and thought it a most wise decision to report the other two. Of course granny delivered her trademark words- 'You must be silly' I remember her letters which were also reminders of everyones accomplishments, I remember when another grandchild was born on the day an uncle gave his inaugural lecture as a Professor and this was of course was passed down to us in the letters. I remember her remonstrations with my grandfather ...

I can hear them, why can't they hear me I speak yet they don't hear how can they understand? They pretend to understand but I see baffled looks in their eyes They answer not the questions I have asked but another They discountenance my explanations but give the same explanation only with different words I draw back it does not help, I speak up they draw back When will we reach an impasse? My conclusion, the written word is much better than the spoken word I speak.

Its been a long while I have blogged on my blog! Been caught up in school work and all, will be blogging on another blog for a while and post a few other posts on my regular blog but if you want to follow my other blog posts please check out http://www.hsphconnection.blogspot.com/ . Cheers!

I have thought about this phase of my life for a very long time and now that its here I move on with mixed feelings! Like every human I fretted about this next phase and like every human I have jumped over this stage to start worrying about the next:) I resigned my appointment yesterday and I am heading back to school:) I left school years ago(I feel old) and Im wondering how Im going to cope. But by His grace I will. So I won't be putting up any pictures or posts of the Nigerian landscape as I drive by in the 4X4.(Maybe recycled ones though). Im moving to a whole new world and my next posts will reflect that. Ill probably be posting about the new things and challenges Im facing and the whole new world Ill have to start getting used to! I hope that you will still visit my blog and leave your comments:) even if you dont want to hear a students story. Thank you I knew you would say you wont forget me. So to anyone stepping out in a new phase, I wish you all the very best. Step out BO...

These are faces of children I worked with today:) Yes worked with I spent the better part of today going round their village and I was followed around by this group of very energetic children who did everything but stand on my head. They were relatively well behaved but we had to tell them several times to stand back and watch instead of coming close to where we were. We had the lovely duty of weighing children using a hanging scale and since we did not have a fixed point we had the duty of holding a horizontal wooden bar at both ends to which a scale was hung. Some of them decided that our scale was a swing and were delighted to hang and be pushed by their peers others screamed at the top of their lungs as if they were being hung by the neck. All in all it was a lovely but tiring excursion into a village riddled by poverty (thats a story for my next post). My favourite child is the little boy in the green shirt (it was green once), he is the third from the left, he went with us and wa...

Snapped some of these pictures really quickly as we went over a bridge, the last time I went over this bridge it the surrounding vegetation was not as green and the water level not as high! It looked pretty as I snapped! I took the others of the cows where we went for some work. Enjoy!

I am on one of my numerous trips again and I'm typing this from my hotel room. This is one of the nicer facilities as we changed hotels thank goodness! The previous hotel we stayed in when last I was in this town was in one of the more run down parts of the city. An old classmate who came to visit me exclaimed in horror when he saw where I was staying and he told me that the next time I was in town I had to stay with his family. What was the reason for his horror, he hardly came to this part of town because there are more armed robberry incidents in that part of town, it is also a red light district and the hotel I was at was more or less its headquarters. Trust me not to know what is under my very nose! It was only after his explanation that I realised that the knocks on my doors at odd times was not from people who had missed their way but from the local prostitutes seeking potential customers! Of course all this was duly reported to HQ with the attendant change in res...

1. Our bus got stuck in the sand! 2. A health centre! 3. Musicians at an eatery in Kano! 4. Pots for sale! 5. On the way to the market!

No this post isn,t about Asa's song o! Its about fire, real fire. My worst cases during housejob where burns cases, like any medico knows managing burns is not easy at all, if you dontbelieve me visit any burns centre and observe for a few minutes the management of these patients, some I can never forget include a man who was switching on his generator near his motorcycle and it suddenly exploded, he was set on fire and sustained 100% burns and as anyone knows that is not compatible with life, we did the best to make him comfortable and explained to his relations the prognosis. He died shortly after. My own experiences with fire thank God have not been that terrible. My first experience was with a candle. I had just arrived home after some time in school, so I was treated as a mini celebrity:) A nice home made meal from mummy, a night of jisting about what had happened in the months I had been absent from home, all in all I was having a pretty good time as the current center of att...

Michael Jacksons death is no longer a secret and it has prompted me to write on the above, I guess the fact of my mortality just struck me again,Man is but a wisp of smoke, here now and gone forever in a little while. If I had just 24hours left on planet earth what woul dI do, here are 10 things I might do not necessarily in this order though. In reality I might just spend all my time locked away maybe surrounded by close friends and family in communion with God. 1. I would call my close friends and family and tell them how much I love and appreciate them. I would thank my parents for being there for me when I needed them most, I would appreciate them immensely for all their love and care and tell them how much I truly love them. I would tell my brother how much I love him and want only the best for him. 2. I would want to spend my last few hours with my close friend and sister, my twin encouraging her not to weep for me but to be happy that Im gone to a better place, I would want her ...

MEN Yes you saw it correctly, my first hazard to avoid at all costs on my ajala runs is men. I'll explain with the story below. I was 'jejeli' minding my business when one man decided to disturb me, I was waiting in the lobby of the hotel waiting for the driver who was checking out the car we were to travel in when he walked in. I was clearly in no mood to talk and certainly not to him. After exchanging greetings he introduced himself and I pointedly ignored him, after waiting a few seconds he repeated his name as if to reassure himself that I was not deaf. I told him my name and he then proceeded to give me a lecture on the evils of foreign aid in badly constructed local dialect flavoured english. In my mind I wished I was anywhere else but there. After his lecture which I punctuated with nods of my head so as not to seem impolite he proceeded to ask me where I was travelling to, he then proceeded to try and wheedle out an invitation to visit me that day in town which was ...

I met a fulani family migrating with their herd of camels, goats, sheep and family members! A part of the vegetation. The Female members and children on donkey back! Two young Herdsmen! One little herdsboy! The Chief of the pack sat on the lead camel! Some birds in a rice field! A river bed, not the road, but the road was no better than this! Believe it or not a Football/TV viewing centre in the middle of nowhere, Arsenal,Chelsea, Barca fans are alive and kicking in the backwoods too! Another TV viewing room, the seats are wooden planks! A scrap of metal waiting for the next recycling van! A part of the road, it looks quite good here, you can imagine travelling along this road for 6hours too and fro! Another herd of cattle! Beautiful, sleek cows! This is just a picture story of all the people, animals and things I met along the way to Yadagungume today:) Enjoy!