Tag: enjoying life

I think i love my small town

After my mandatory service in the NYSC in 2008, I got a call from my older sister’s friend (turned out to be my sister in-law 3 years later), informing me of a job opening at her place of employment in Lagos. They needed an accountant and they needed him/her immediately. I was told there was going to be an interview in less than a week. I was excited about this news because there was something else drawing me to Lagos…story for another day.

Long story short, I left Makurdi two days later, I got to Lagos safely, I got the job and I started immediately. I lived and worked in lagos from mid 2008 till early 2010. I didn’t like it all of the time but I guess the city life grew on me. It didn’t matter if it was raining or if it wasn’t, people woke up extra early and hit the streets till very very late when everyone headed back into their houses. The word I would like to use to describe Lagos is “movement”. Every moment was an action moment.

To be honest, If I didn’t have a driving force taking me to Lagos I may never have considered the job offer. I’m more of a small town girl. I could totally live in a city but I wouldn’t enjoy it.

So for the very same reason I jumped at the job in lagos, I returned to my small town, Makurdi. I think I may have gotten a bit used to the life in the city because I think i totally forgot one major trait of small towns… they sleep.

Small towns sleep, they do what they want, when they want. I was made to remember this one morning in 2010, shortly after I had returned from Lagos, I had ran out of the house at 7:30am on one rainy morning to grab an audio and video (AV ) cable from the electronic shop. It took me 5 minutes to get there (one of the advantages of a small town). When I met ALL the shops on the street locked I became a bit confused. I thought, maybe they were waiting for 8am. It wasn’t till about 8:30 when some shop owners started to show up. I finally bought my cord at 8:45. I was really shocked. How did I even forget that this was normal here? After all I had spent only two years away.

Plaza across the street on a Monday morning

Fast forward to today, 11 years later, I still live in my small town. It’s another rainy morning. I drop my son SonTer off at school and head to my bake shop. My staff are not here yet, I guess they are at home, after all it’s raining. The always busy plaza across the street is deserted…On a Monday morning…because it is raining. I use my key and open up the my shop. I’m siting outside, enjoying my cup of tea while I wait for my staff to come to work and for the town to fully come alive.

Waiting for the town to come alive

I love my small town but sometimes it annoys me… Maybe most times.😁

Drink some air

My mum is one of the people who know how to actually care for themselves.  Most of the people in the world, myself included, often neglect the fact that we have to care for ourselves. We often see the lack of things like money, time, space and a few other things as obstacles and hindrances. If I must be honest, I would say it is a lot easier to care for yourself with a little more money in your pocket and enough time on your hands, but my mum never let the lack of these things stop her. I never gave it much thought until yesterday. I gave it a lot of thought.

Resting is self care

Some of her self care didn’t even require much. She had very simple activities that didn’t make any sense to me, but now, oh now I see. One particular activity she called ‘Ma ahumbe’, meaning ‘take some fresh air’ but translates directly as ‘drink air’. I liked this activity. I don’t know if it was always pre-planned or if it was usually spur of the moment but she would usually just say “se za ma nen ahumbe” which means “let us go and get some fresh air”. My memory is not so clear on the ‘us’ but one person I know was always there with me is my immediate elder sister, we would get into the back seat of my mum’s Honda prelude and we would drive all around our town, for no reason at all. The fun part for us was how my mum would open the small rectangle on the roof of the car and let us put our hands through and feel the air. I didn’t know why she did it then but it was fun for me.

A lesson I’m learning

Yesterday I couldn’t leave my bed, I was resting because my body was not happy about the stress I had put it through at work for two straight days. My husband was out of town so it was just me and my son, SonTer. I stayed in bed from morning when I woke until about 4pm. I finished a novel I was reading and watched 2 cheesy romance movies. I was tired of resting, sadly but honestly, I don’t know how to rest… I am still coaching myself. I wanted to take a walk, but my body wasn’t up to it. I just lay there and let my mind wander around and tried to figure out what to do and then i decided to go for a drive, so I said to Son “se za ma ahumbe”. He had no idea what I said but he loves to go out and before I could get ready, he was at the door. We drove round the town, for one hour, for no reason.

I am 38 years old I was doing this for the first time and all I can say is, it was totally refreshing. I made sure the music wasn’t as loud as we usually play it so that we could talk. I pointed out things and explained things just like my mum used to. It was totally therapeutic. I felt like I hit a reset button. What made it much more beautiful was when SonTer said “mummy, thank you for doing this”.

❤️

I’m going over today to tell my mum “Thank you mummy for doing it for me”.