Eve and Christmas

 

Where do I begin my story? There are so many women doing heavy shopping as if the end of the world has come. Children are seen excited here and there anticipating tomorrow’s rice. This is the interior of Africa where rice is a special meal. For the ladies who are unfortunate do not take care of their hair, they are stressed out at saloons waiting endlessly for their turn. The good thing is that they would all look prettier in the morning tomorrow. For some of the men, there are silently calculating the money they are overspending. It is as if they have saved all the year to spend it within few of days to Christmas.   Everything is done with good will because Christmas must be exciting. It does not matter if they are living under the poverty belt. What matters is that they have something to be grateful for. Once, a year Christmas would come and go. However, if every day is Christmas, the world would be a better place.  Happy Christmas

Scary Christmas

 

 

Have you been to the malls, shops and markets lately? It is as if there is this madness of shopping for things we need and things we do not need. Most people are buying because they want to impress their guests, some to intimidate those around them while some are buying with good intention. The fact remains every shopping is for a purpose, making the last few days of the year unforgettable.  The fever of Christmas shopping is contagious. It is spreading like whirl fire that no one has been able to raise the alarm. This is because everyone has gotten the fever of making this Christmas special.

The money we could not spend on ourselves, the luxury we thought was expensive for us, the food we did not want to prepare on a normal day and the places we could not travel to because of work, we are about embarking on them. It is indeed a scary Christmas. However, we should remember something; it does not end with “I” but “We”. Remember that there are a lot of people around you who may not be able to get special things for themselves. A little from you can change their lives forever. Live like a king this festive period. Life is Beautiful.

Letter from the Village to You

 

 

Along the Fulani Route

Fulani People’s Village

4^th December,2012

 

Dear Head master, Sir,

Good morning, head master, sir; this is me Raheelah Ahmed, Mai geida who sells groundnut to you and your pupils during break periods. I am the doctor daughter of Mallam Ahmed, who has a house on top of the hill along the Fulani root route. I am eighteen years old and should shood be in elementary four but I am not. Some pupils call me ‘Yarinya maralafiya’ but I am not sick. It is only baba, Aliu and mama that have the helping disease called Aids. My father, who sold you count cow cow last two sallahs is dead die with Aliu, my butter brother because of this sickness.

Today, mama is sick and the herbalist wood would not her because he is afraid of contacting the disease. I am scared sacred that mama wood would soon die like Aliu. All our relatives half have have left us too making me the bread winner of the family because no one would wood would help us. And, because of all these I half have stopped school. This was a long time ago but I steal still come to class hiding.

I am sorry, headmaster, sir that I am telling you this as I no know how hard heart you are on pupils who come to school without paying their school fees. I always stay behind the window of elementary four, the class I have stopped school. No one was aware of this until yesterday’s afternoon during the fifth period. I was caught cut by the pupil who made fan fun fun and tore my book. It was the teachers that saved me. Please headmaster, sir, I don’t have enough money from my grandnut groundnut sell to enroll butt but I would pay as soon as it is complete if you allow me come bark back to school. My mother said I would mark make a good teacher and I believe her if you would give me the opportunity to prove myself. Headmaster, sir, I want what want to come back and learn in class. I miss mix the sittingand writing from the blackboard and would love to stop hiding to learn. Please headmaster, sir, I pray that you help me. Insha Allah, I would pay my school fees.

It is me

Raheelah Ahmed

 

My Sister with High Heel Shoes

 

my sister has always been a wonderful person until she turned 18. she was supposed to be in the university studying like the God fearing girl she has always been. Unfortunately, she found  solace in high heel shoes every night. This means she was not going to sleep while others were sleeping because she is into prostitution. In the night when other students are sleeping she would be with men as old as our father. whatever they are doing i do not know.The only thing that i know is that my pastor condemns those who use high heel shoes while others are sleeping. I am the only person who knows what she is doing because we are in the same school and also my elder sister. Some nights when i am coming back late from class, i would see my sister dressed in a manner that is not encouraging to me, her younger sister. The room we have rented is now my room because i hardly see my sister except early in the morning when she crashes inside our room smelling booze and smoke.

What has come over my sister? I am so ashamed of myself not even her because the stigma is huge if i should report her to our polygamous family. And reason why i cannot tell a soul is because she is paying for a lot of things our parents cannot give us.i am torn between my education and the sanity of my sister. What do i do? I cannot leave her alone because that would destroy her the more.  I wonder what i would do to save her from this plight because she would end up becoming my liability tomorrow when i graduate from school and start working. Of course, she is never going to graduate because she has been rusticated for malpractices in her second year as a Law student. Today, she has found a hope in this high heel shoe job for ladies  of the night.

I am so sad because she gave up her night for me to be a good student. I wonder how i would be able to pay her enough for this privilege

Hidden in Broken Hearts

 

In most developing countries, the rich are the ones whose crimes are forgiven or are not considered a crime. This has made them the highest offenders when it comes to custom and tradition. Most times, they fuel these barbaric die hard custom and tradition like female genital mulitation. The number of people who are subjected to these sufferings can not be accounted for by the government or their religion because they are believed to be a part of life. Untold stories are hidden in broken hearts till death do them part because there are no available program to handle their cases in some places.

Pay lip attention is sometimes the plight of these people by their government and when things like this happens, these people take the laws into their hands by inflicting pain on others who may be innocent of their causes and sometimes, trust is lost. The latter is the greatest problem when it comes to handling these people. Awareness is little and sponsorship for projects on these is nothing to write home about in some parts of the world. And, finally the redemption most times are not really given the publicity and exposure they require. Today, there is a need to fight against this past that would not allow the future to be blameless.  You may not experience this if you are in the Modern world but in developing countries, it is much. however, you can help people passing through untold pain in the name of custom and tradition by writing against it. Push this along. Every Child is your child.

Better Tomorrow

 

Take away all the rags and filth in your life. Make yourself happier than you are and see the impact it would have in your life. Forget the past and think about the future where you would rule. You are first to none, a rare gem. It doesn’t matter how slow you are or what people think about you, your end would justify your means. Remember no one has the right to make you inferior neither is there any life threatening problems that can defect you except if you allow it.
Anytime, God wants to bring you up, he first takes you down so that you can climb with your knees.
anonymous

Regardless of where you are, regardless of what you do or who you are, the tasks and responsibilities before you, the challenges of your days play a vital role in your life on earth. If you expect things to happen instantly then you must be missing the package of success. If you can do things easily and get immediate results always then you have lost touch with the rhythm of the earthly with the march of the seasons. The secret of your success is in your daily routine

Money grows on Trees on November

My dear Blogger,

How much money do you really need? If you get this much money, what would you do with it? Tell me. Oh! My ears are full and smile has spread across My mouth to hear what you need this little amount of money for. It is nothing compared to what I thought you should have asked for. The lack of money is the reason most of you embarrass me with sin of avarice and lust for it as if it is scarce. It is not scarce or difficult as you may think. Wealth grows on trees. Did you gasp? Or did you laugh in disbelief? It does not come by your labour but by My favour. You don’t have money problem; what you have is idea problem. The wealth you may not get from education is available to you by My revelation. This revelation grants you access to see the supernatural.  This revelation gives you the opportunity to see the locations where these trees are growing wealth.

This is the way I have dealt with you in the days when I have looked with favour upon you to take away your disgrace among men. I have caused you to be fruitful and multiply, and fill your sphere with goodness of making wealth and mercy of sustaining this wealth. That is why goodness and mercy are always guarding you jealously each day of your life. I will multiply you so that you can grow richer until you have become very wealthy. I will surely prosper you and make your efforts produce descendents of productivity like the sand of the sea.

Location is not your problem neither is your present situation; all you need is the amount of open doors that My grace and favour would open for you. The problem of not placing much value of the personality inside you should be taken care of by you immediately. Wealth only comes to those who can handle it perfectly. If you cannot handle the little that comes around then relax with just being rich. It is how much your faith can bargain for you with your dreams that I can release for you.

The criterion to pluck money from these special trees is you shall love me with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. Am I asking for much? And these promises shall be in your heart and you shall bind them as sign on your forehead .Then I will love you more and bless and multiply you. You shall be blessed above your peers and competitors. There will be no barren among your ideas and dreams.  And you shall eat in My presence. You don’t need to stress yourself to do all these. It is My favour that would make money look for you instead of you looking for money. Remember this and be assured, I am giving you the treasures of darkness and hidden wealth of secret places in order that you may know that it is I who has called you. It is time to pluck your own wealth from trees. I will always keep My own side of this promise.

Yours forever,

God

Bigger than Your Dreams

 

Your power to live a successful, prosperous, glorious and victorious life is in your mouth. The greatest journey begins with a single step. Sometimes, that first step is the magical leap a dream takes you from your dark, the silent depths of your heart to the brilliant light and sound of your spoken word. Once you speak positively about yourself, the sound never dies.

Like ripples on a pond from a tossed stone, it reverberates on and on, back and forward, forever. Those positive words about your today and tomorrow vibrates spreads out, touches, finds resonance and harmonies and set you in motion. Before you pick your words, remember that your mind is the door to your human spirit and whatever words and thoughts you allow to go through your mind unchecked will be deposited in your spirit.

There is no grief which time does not lesson and soften

-Cicero

Sleeping God

 

Some days, you wake up feeling as if the whole world is falling on you. You might have woken up and found out that it seem as if God has turned his back on you. Maybe, it was a loved one that God took away and no one seemed to understand how you feel.

 

The simplest achievements of life,

as well as the bigger ones take a

little nerve.

– Marjorie Holmes

Maybe, you don’t even have faith in what you once believe or have lost confidence in God because you believe that he is not in existence. All these because of what you are passing through. You might have woken this morning with tears and so many “whys” that you have no answers to. Sometimes it might be that you have failed so much and you are scared of walking again because of an old fear of failing again. Maybe, your shoes have worn out in search of a job or you are heartbroken, betrayed or you have made a terrible mistake. It might have been that you are ashamed to discuss your problem with the closest person in your life or your beautiful home is breaking up or has broken up. Whatever, the problem is, it still doesn’t make you a rejected person in God’s kingdom. You are still very relevant in this life for there are better days ahead. It is only the living that has hope and because you have life in you, you can still chase those pretty dreams; you can fly as high as you want and there is nothing that you cannot do with life.

 

Sunday Rice

 

In Nigeria, a home that is not seen with rice on a Sunday will look as if something is wrong with it. While growing up in the village, we would always anticipate Sunday afternoon because of the rice. Eating beans on Sunday was taboo and can be embarrassing to us then. We would cry and sometimes, embarrass our families by gossiping that we ate beans on a Sunday. And for those kids who would not be able to control their crave for rice, we  would see them hanging around homes that have rice as their meals. Today, we are grown ups but this practice has not left us.  When you come to most homes in Nigeria on Sunday, you would be able to see rice that has been prepared in different kinds; fried rice, jellof rice, stew rice, coconut rice and so many others. It is only a few that make use of our local delicacies for as their choice.  These people have a choice but there are lots of people who have no choice in Nigeria when it comes to food.

This is because they are living below the poverty belt.  A lot of people would be grateful to you if you can walk out today and tomorrow and hand them a plate of food. You must not be in Nigeria to give someone a meal ticket. Life is beautiful when we share our meals. We can make the world a better place when food is shared round to those who do not have the hope of eating.