Our House, The Hotel.

'You have to sleep in the other room' these were familiar words we grew up with. Most times, the 'other room'  was the living room. There was a hardly a time, where we lived in our house, as a nuclear family, alone. For as long as I can remember there were always people, relatives, helps, uncles, cousins..and so on, living with us.and the random..well not totally random stranger who my parents..usually one of them at a time, decided to help.

The First Hotel was a three bedroom 'government' apartment in V.I, which had two floors, a living room and a 'make-shift' lobby/childrens room on the top floor. For the period we lived here, I can't remember us being asked to sleep elsewhere but we had auntys and 'helps' with us. I still have pictures from my 1st year brtday which i vaguely remember.(Believe it or not! lol) Some vivid memories like when one of our Auntys..my mums younger sister. punished me for something I really can't remember. She asked me to drink about 10 bottles of water, the bottles were glass and had different colours. One of my chores then as a Nursery school student was to fill the bottles and put in the fridge. When I was asked to kneel and drink the water, I thought it was a piece of cake, But on the second bottle, my tummy had swollen, it was like I had kwashiokor. I begged for mercy.

The Second  Hotel, tucked away in an 'Estate' on the Mainland, what comes to mind is the Nigerian remix of the song 'Umbrella' It was a four bedroom flat with just a little living room, I remember spending some nights sprawled on the couch here. In the 3-year period we lived there, We had our Grandma who had one room solely to herself, she also took care of my little sister, My aunt was there too. A male relative ('Uncle') who constantly had some issues with my older sisters shared a room with my brother who was at Uni then and usually came every now and then. Life here was dogged by NEPA-less nights, mosquitos, Borehole issues and what not. It was a great time though my 'coming-of-age'

The Third Hotel, All the way in the capital city of Abuja. This was by far the most spacious house, and is basically GRAND compared to all the others. I honestly cannot even give a number of the people who have passed through this hotel. It was in this house, my sisters and I thought about it and said Honestly, this is *insert surname* Hotel. The house has Five bedrooms and a 'Boys-quarter' But i have spent a lot of time in the sitting room (Luckily there were two of them). There have been diffrent kinds of people here (The good, the bad, the witch, Beauty and the Ugly), but the only time I remember my mum complain was when she said of a relative who had spent about two years and was working 'Common toothpaste, he cannot even buy!' and she spoke of a female 'Who does she expect to wash her plates??' Other than that, Its been a free for all. as long as you weren't lazy, lying, stealing or being a 'principality'

As kids, to us it was just fun and games, As teenagers we didnt find it funny a lot of times. But as we began to grow older. Certain things began to click..Well for me, it did. I have had to spend time in other people's homes, over the course of my education. While we lived in Abuja, I was still at boarding school in Lagos. But during Mid-term breaks, There was no way I was going to Abuja for the three to four days it was, so I had to put up with Family-Friends and Relatives...I have experienced good and very bad times, but not as bad as my friend in the same plight who got molested by a relative who was even a Pastor...

Even right now, I have been staying with my 'Aunt' and 'Uncle' who are the nicest people ever, for the past one month. My Uncle once said 'Staying with people is probably one of the most difficult things to do' My friends have really bad narrations of their ordeals staying with people and it is just a sad cycle. It always pays to treat people with decency and dignity, respect others as Human beings. You don't know where you or yours would end up tomorrow. Treat people the way, you would like to be treated. These are some of the things I have learnt from these episodes of my life.

From Estonia With Love...

I do not like to take part in activities, which leave no room for learning or ........free food. Most things I do, I try to learn something from, even when I am sat there in my housecoat on the couch just listening to Carl Orff wafting from my Logitech surround system.

Yesterday, I had just opened my eyes to the bright lights of  the new day at about 12:30am when my friend handed me her phone to read the text inviting us to a Concert at an Apostolic church all the way in Spital Tongues, quite a distance from where we stayed. I told her, no problem! There's always free food at these churches after the service, It's worth it, Lets go there!

Fast Forward to about 5pm, we both scrambled for the bathroom, because we had to make the 6:56pm bus, If not, we would be real late for the service, and here there is no African Time. Thanks to the flats my friend wore, she ran down to the bus to stall the driver, while I managed rapid hops in my favourite brown ankle boots to the bus. Then I saw the bus move, oh no! Luckily it was the nice man driving, not the hard-nosed lady who frankly wouldn't give a 'damn' Even if I had blood gushing from my head, 6:56 was 6:56! 

While in the bus we encountered an 'Oyinbo' speaking proper Niger-Delta pidgin, I told my friend that the colour of the baby in buggy just in front of the woman would be the key to our questions but my friend proceeded to confront the woman, who told the person she was on the phone with 'I no know why this girl come shine her eyes o, she dey see oyinbo speak pidgin, Lawl lawl lawl' and yeap! the baby was 'brown' We were highly amused, got off the bus at our stop and walked down to the church amidst a throng of people walking animatedly towards St James Park for the big game! hopefully the Army would win, draw or not lose too badly I thought Afterall, one of the key player's father was the pastor of the church we were going to!

The service had already started! and we were only a few seconds late. Well we managed to find a seat before the joint 'Amen', Soon after, the choir was introduced and proceeded to sing various songs, they opened with a John 3:16 number which they sang both in Estonian and English, I absolutely loved it! In between songs some members gave testimonies which introduced the next song. A 15yr old, the youngest of the choir talked about having to read her bible in secret, because her parents were staunch Atheist, but an accident she was involved in where she lost her best friend, proved a turning point in her parents life, she spoke about the calm, God gave her after her many questions and everything. Another guy spoke about how on his 15th birthday, They waited for his dad to come home for the party, but he never came..because he had been killed in an Accident, caused by a 17yr old without even a drivers license. Somehow, God gave him strength and peace. It was all so touching and a big blessing to me. Sometimes we get so caught up in the minute things, but its necessary to step back and remind ourselves that God has a plan.

After the song ministration, the founder of the choir, a man who could only speak Estonian and father to about three children in the choir gave a summary of how life had been in Estonia and the way it is now. People had lived in fear because of the control the Soviet had over the country then. The complete oppression that was over all the peoples. He talked about how one day when the Russians sent tanks to destroy people who were singing and praising God and some parts of the country. The leaders who were Atheist had to get on the radio to tell everyone in the country to start praying, somehow, the tanks turned and went back to Russia! And then  Independence from the Soviet Union was pushed when 2 million people linked hands ttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltic_Way they sang songs and prayed for the release of their countries. So much more was said, but the pastor who preached the word summarized it all beautifully.

One could be 'free' from oppression of physical things, Those countries free from Soviet rule, The UK, free from the seeming occupation of the Germans, Nigerians free from colonial rule, free from all sorts of forces. All these are wonderful, but as the Estonian Man said, When the country was free from Soviet rule, people began to worship another god, riches and wealth which still signifies Slavery. True freedom could only come in Jesus Christ 'Who the Son sets free is free indeed!'

It was such a wonderful time! There was so much love in the room, I was so glad we went. Honestly the Jollof Rice (watered down because of the Oyinbos) had nothing to do with it...err, maybe slightly...there were drinks, puff-puff and fruits. It was a nice closure to everything. When I learnt through my Twitter page that the Army had been beaten Four to Nil, I felt apprehensive, didn't want to go home in the midst of a billion angry fans. Thankfully, the heavens saw it fit to cry quite heavily for the Army which made the pastor drop my friend and I at our home!

Sweet.