olaoluwatomi

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 ...