Decades: Chunks of Time

I know this is a bit old here but, I had to do it! 3 things that scare me - not being successful , getting fat , and not making heaven . 3 people that make me laugh - Vicky , my father , and Olumide Lawyer . 3 things I love - God , reading , and writing . 3 things I hate - snobs , pride , and malice . 3 things I don't understand - life , women , and cars . 3 things on my desk - JAVA tutorials , Mobile Computing tutorials , and 3 Unfinished novels . 3 things I'm doing right now - writing , listening to music , and cooking . 3 things I want to do before I die - Birth and raise identical twins , write 50 bestsellers , create a multi - million dollar exciting JAVA game for Nokia phones . 3 things I can do - create websites , make bead accessories (from jewelry to baby teether to bags) and write . 3 things you should listen to - God , Pastor Sam Adeyemi (Daystar Christian Centre - google it. They even have life broadcasts) , and Positive thinking tapes . 3 things you should never l

I just watched a segment of 'So you think you can dance', and I got teary - eyed. There is this contestant that seemed, well, he sort of had no neck. The great part is that he made it to the final four.  The greatest part is that the whole crowd was touched by his performance - they were on their feet by the time he finished break - dancing to Christina Aguilera's 'aint no other man'. Even some of the judges were on their feet, and clapping. One of the judges was so wowwed that he has promised to put the young man in an upcoming movie. I was touched by his performance. I was touched by his courage to attend the audition. I was touched by his determination to do something for himself, and not feed off everybody's pity. I was touched by the crowd's response, a honest and encouraging one. I was moved by the whole thing - the fact that the youth of America can do, and be, without having to be typecast into the usual jobs - doctor, lawyer, architect, e

Life is funny. Life is fun. But, most importantly, life is what you make of it. At the end of camp I was really ill – high fever, chesty cough, blocked nose, and after blood tests, malaria and typhoid. At the end of camp, my life was enriched. I had made many, many friends, and had memorable experiences. I remember platoon members who were married women, all trying to be young again. I remember roommates who were so much fun to be with – I don’t think anyone had to leave the room for entertainment at any time of day. There was even a pajama party held in honor of a corper that was traveling for her wedding in the second week. They are all so endearing, when I was really sick, I would always meet my bucket full of water, someone would carry out my water for me to bath, and someone would wake me up gently in the night to change to my PJs. Someone would answer the soldier that came to chase us out that I was ill and I should not be disturbed. Someone would help me collect my food from the

This is the girls hostel area. You can see us in white white, and I was on my way back from the Dining area, after collecting jollof rice and chicken.

Now everyone except me knew about the marching, and everyone except me was prepared for the terrible conditions of the toilets, so I think a proper list of things to take to cam is in order. Sun screen: fine, you may think you don’t need it, but male or female, you really do. Even if you are black, even if you are posted to a cold area, the sun will always be there. The sun shines harder in cold areas, and flat lands. You need it to protect your skin complexion as well as to protect you from the sun’s harmful rays. BUY any lotion that has sunscreen as one of its properties. I left home with ordinary cream, with a fair complexion. I came back, black, with only one part of my body testifying of my former skin hue – the part that my bra covers everyday. The sun penetrates the white shirt (we call it tissue paper cos it tears like tissue during the first wash) and shorts that the officials give you. Pillow: they will never give you one, so if you know you cannot live without it then take y

Well, I didn’t go to camp to get hitched, as I already am, so I was out to make some friends, and hopefully tie some people together (Miss Cupid, as always). I made some new friends, and moved with the old. A particular guy felt that the fact that I “claimed” to be engaged, did not deter him from making his advances. I even went as far as facing him outrightly and telling him that there was no way I could consider him as a date: he’s NOT my type (notice the emphasis). He was not listening to me though. There was this scene at the kitchen that I didn’t find funny. Okay, the Camp Director had requested for a financial report of each platoon’s expenditure so far, and a budget of the future expenses. I prepared the report, and told him to tell the committee heads to prepare their budgets so the final one would be a compilation of all the others. But he wanted me to do everything – I put my foot down. I refused, then our platoon was helping out in the kitchen and he starts saying stuff like

Well, there are a number of competitions that each platoon must participate in (as I said before). These include Mr. Macho, Miss NYSC, Cooking Competition, Best Drill Platoon, Volley ball (female), Meditation write up, and Football (Male). I’ll have you know that I didn’t participate in any of the competitions – well, I helped out in the cooking, and cheered my platoon’s volleyball team on (we made it to the finals), but I did not march, and I couldn’t have contested for Miss NYSC (apart from the fact that I’m short, fat and ugly (lol), Lagos Corpers were not allowed to compete just in case they won, and took the crown back to Lagos with them. It didn’t make sense to have two Lagos Miss NYSC, right?) The fact that Lagos and Abuja NYSC camps was under construction, and some corpers were sent to other camps to do their orientation, put a brief mess on things. Some Lagos corpers were sent to Ede, Osun state (about 600 of us), while some were sent to Ekiti state. So the fact that we were n