Let me paint you a picture. Church service ends at 12pm. Most of the time. This Sunday, I boil white rice in the morning before we leave, so we can have rice and stew when we get back. I never make lunch before church on Sundays. I know it’ll make Sunday afternoon easier, but I have a lot to get done on Sunday mornings. The food timetable on the fridge says “fresh tomato rice” but I don’t want to do that after church today. I started reading a Marian Keyes book on Saturday night and I want to get home, feed my offspring and lie in bed reading till my head aches. There’s stew in the fridge. There’s always stew in the fridge. I just don’t like rice and stew very much. Maybe because I grew up eating it a lot. The food timetable has rice varieties for lunch every Sunday, but no rice and stew. Never rice and stew. Wow! This is a new record for digression! But all is well that provides context. Back to the picture. We get home, I heat up the stew, and serve everyone food. Except ...
When you think of motherhood, what is the picture that comes to your head? For me, it’s not the image of me smiling, holding my baby in my lap and playing peekaboo or something. The picture that rushes to my head is that one time when I was sitting in my workstation at home, rocking my baby’s rocker with one foot, and guiding my team through a project via a call, with breast pumps attached to me going bzzz bzzz. On that day, it occurred to me that this is what motherhood is. For you, it may be vacuuming and prepping dinner with an infant strapped to your chest African mother style, singing a lullaby while you pack customers’ orders, or answering your kid’s questions about homework while writing code. Motherhood is not childbirth, it’s not breastfeeding, and it’s not changing diapers. It is a lifestyle. It’s who you become when one of these small humans comes into your life. It is hard, it is joyful, it is chaos and it is contentment; all at once. Unfortunately, being a mother comes...
“Where are you from?” “Aba” “You’re not serious” If I got 100 Naira every time I’ve had this conversation, I’d be writing on a new hp pavilion PC and not a borrowed Acer notebook. I live in Aba, Abia State and considering the kind of publicity we get, our motto should be: Aba...business, bad roads and bad governance . You’re not even surprised by this, because, when you read Aba, you first thought of bad roads. As an average girl that lives in Aba, this is supposed to be my routine: Be born ==> go to school ==> after secondary school, participate in computer training for a year ==> study whatever the school system throws at me ==> graduate ==> marry ==> have kids ==> start one business ==> continue I am not supposed to... · Learn to use the computer on my own · Enjoy the mentalist · ...
It's 1:14pm. I'm sitting on my bed editing "The story of Timmy Willie and other tales " and I'm reading Adichie's Americanah while waiting for the slow PC to paste. A friend just called and remarked on how cold I sound, I want to try and sound better to make him feel less guilty but I also am not in the mood to be nice or make anybody feel good. In fact, I want everyone to be as cheerless as I am right now (that can't be so wrong, right?), so I say nothing to him. I leave my room for the parlor and scold my siblings for no real reason (everyone does that sometimes, I think). In another time, the looks on their faces would make me say something to soften the effect of my words, today, I just walk away. The neighbor's kid who's always coming around to look for playmates knocks on the door, I ignore the knocking. I don't feel like being nice. I'm broke. I'm pissed. I want to write about my though ts, like I often do, ab...
