Circumspecte

Hi everyone! I haven't posted since Circumspecte won the BlogCamp Award; first because I was too jittery with excitement to really function or write anything comprehensive, and secondly because life events - aka school, spring allergies - took over. Maintenant, I'm still in school mode and inshAllah, will be wrapping up my graduate degree program at SAIS in less than a month! Sadly,  that means I probably won't be blogging till that degree is signed, sealed and delivered. But then we have the whole summer to catch up! That said, I created the official Circumspecte Twitter page :) Right now it's all papers a-flurry and non-stop multitasking tryna get all my assignments done, but I did go to a Sino-Africa happy hour this evening and got to talk to a bunch of interesting people, including Winslow who reached out to me on Twitter about the event after I tweeted a bunch of insights on China-Africa relations during my Trade and African Development class last week. Turn...

This is my first attempt at a blog since returning to Ghana a week ago. I say first attempt because I'm test driving Airtel's (formerly Zain -- I know, I can barely keep up with the updates myself) internet modem. I'm treading carefully. In my room I was on a 2G network, moved to the dining table and it got really slow before kicking up the gear to 3G. That was such a beautiful zone; totally breezy. We're back to 2G though. Something tells me this will be a bumpy ride. Come to think of it, this net connection is reminiscent of my time here so far. There are high moods and low, happy moments at returning, and sad at leaving Senegal (and the amazing internet there!), same ol' same ol' typical phase one culture shock (or in this case re-immersion) symptoms. But no worries, there'll be time to tell about my Senegal experience. So yeah, this post is mainly to let you know that I am alive and well, Alhamdulilahi, and that Circumspect is back home where it belong...

Sometimes all it takes for you to affirm who you are, is to see a glimpse of yourself in someone else. Two weekends ago I had exactly that opportunity when my friend Arame and I spent the afternoon interacting with some writers, poets and painters at the beautiful Goree Island- including Goree Institute cofounder, distinguished writer, painter and South African poet Breyten Breytenbach , renowned Tunisian painter Emna Zghal , acclaimed NYU professor, author of "Joe the Engineer", and poet Chuck Wachtel, Coordinating Editor of the Piroque Institute and Imagine Africa Cultural Fellow Adam Weidwitsch , as well as up and coming Senegalese poet and author of " Les Raisins du Baobab " Ibrahima Amadou Niang. During our time there we discussed a lot of things - the act of writing, the different styles and forms, how to draw inspiration, what it means to be a writer, the question of who forms/tells history, the act of documentation and preservation of art and history, etc. I...

Design By Sughey Abreu Salut Tout le Monde! I hope each of you is having a restful Sunday wherever you are in the world. It's been a minute since I wrote a personal update on here and I think today's a good day as any other to resume that. So, I've been pretty busy over the past couple of months, and particularly this last month, preparing for the Young Women's Knowledge and Leadership Institute (YOWLI) 2010. I've generally been set on "GO" such that even when I'm sleeping, I find myself dreaming about YOWLI and which partners we're supposed to be following up on, whether so-so and so got their visa already, whatever happened to this or that. It's a whole lot, but I'm loving every bit of it as what was only a vision a few months ago is beginning to take shape. I'm SUPER excited!! The "Little" Things YOWLI 2010 is going to be a bit smaller than YOWLI 2008 which had over 100 people living together for a month on Goree Isl...

Cherished Reader, Yes! This is a letter from me to you! I figured I hadn't written a letter in a while and instead of doing a Circum-Flash or a Circum-Alert , I'd just go with a personal tete-a-tete with you! Especially since I have some really exciting news that I'd like to share :) I believe the hardest promises we make are the ones we make to ourselves. Precisely because you have to live with that voice in your head that's counting down the minutes until you fulfill your promise and that bashes you like crazy when you don't deliver. So, I promised myself sometime back that I would get to work on writing my very first book for publication - ideally before I hit the silver jubilee. And now, time's a-ticking and my conscience is guilt-tripping me into overdrive, so I had to get to work on delivering. I started writing this morning and I am super SUPER excited! A little background: I have actually written a couple of books. No, not in my mind. In reality. Th...

There's  a time for everything. A time to laugh and a time to cry. A time to pursue and a time to roll back. A time to leave and a time to return. Home. Yes, I did just say return home. Finally, after 4 years, 8 months and 5 days (and counting), I will be returning to the motherland. While I cannot tell you the exact date, I can say that the day is drawing closer and closer as each day passes. Haha, very helpful right? For real though, the date is under wraps for good reason. Not because I'm afraid the "witches" will hinder my progress or journey. And those of you who do know it for one reason or another, pray keep it to yourselves.  Anyway, I am extremely excited. And sad. And scared. And optimistic and so many jumbled up emotions in one! If there's a pre-cultural shock, this has got to be it. I'm pretty good at handling transitions and I absolutely love traveling to new places, meeting new faces, trying new things etc, but I'm usually quite composed and...

Hi Everyone! Hope you're all doing well. Can you believe February is just about over?! So far, 2010 is going great for me, hope it's the same with you guys. Anyways, this is a mini update. Circum-Vlog "How To Blog" Series: It's been a minute since I posted a new video. And it's not like I want to leave all you new bloggers hanging. Not at all. My computer is having problems and I don't want to risk doing any high-memory stuff (like editing and publishing videos) so for now that is on hiatus. I'm waiting on some accessories which I hope will be here within the next couple of days, and depending on how that affects my laptop's performance, I'll get right back to that. In the meantime keep sending your questions or if you need an immediate response, email me: j.abdulai@circumspecte.com . The Water Chronicles: So some of you might have seen Part I and Part II of "Calabash Tears". Part III is on it's way, I assure you LOL. I j...

Welcome to A New DECADE! Happy New Year!!! I know, I know, I've been saying "happy new year" for the past two weeks or so, but isn't it just amazing?! Despite the struggles, the dark hours, the stress, and everything, we made it! Not only to a new year, but to a new decade!! If tonight is anything to go by, my 2010 will be spontaneous. There, I've declared it into existence. Growth, change and spontaneity, inshAllah! Hmm, What To Do For The Countdown? So I'd been making plans to be in N.Y. for a while, and then made other plans to be in D.C. instead, which ended up falling through. So I was like, really, what am I going to do for new year's? Anywho. I went on a limb, got online, and got a ticket to N.Y. So right this moment, I'm on the Bolt Bus, blogging away  and chugging along to spend new year's with some of the most amazing people I know. And no, the ball drop is not on my agenda. Did that last year and ended up on some random street shout...

Hi Everyone! C'est moi! I just wanted to touch base with all you wonderful Circumspectors real quick. Over the holidays, I'll be doing research on the newest social media to incorporate those stuff on here. I've got sooooo  many ideas and I can't wait to experience the new stuff with y'all. What Do You Want To See On Circumspect? Since this is a forum for information-sharing, I'd like to get your ideas on this. What would you like to see on the site? Any topics you'd like me to blog on? Are you itching to find out something? Any other blogs I should be checking out? Do you want more of the serious stuff, philosophical insights, or just laid-back every day news. Send me all the juicy info. In the past, some of you have suggested blog topics to me, and I've happily obliged - See Obama in Ghana and Personal Statement . I'm looking to amp that up in 2010 by including sections on the site where it's all about you peeps, your thoughts, experie...

Happy Thanksgiving and Eid Mubarak to everyone!!! This weekend has been a power packed one: a deep well of thanksgiving that has surely overflown its boundaries. And of course, such a special weekend can't go unnoticed!!! I think it's really special that two holidays set aside for reminding ourselves of how lucky and blessed we each are, were commemorated back-to-back! And in addition to the turkeys and lambs, I hope we all took a moment or two to be thankful for something. In that spirit, I'd like to say thanks to all of you who follow Circumspect (publicly or under an invisible cloak), comment on my posts, make suggestions, or simply email me. I cannot express how much I appreciate you guys for joining in the Circumspect experience, and I'm learning as much (if not more) as you are (I hope). It's crazy cos I never anticipated that this blogging experience would grow as large as it has. And sometimes, its all very overwhelming. At moments when I've felt li...

Eid So it's Eid in Ghana today, and it's also Kwame Nkrumah's birthday!! Talk about celebration and holidays!!! Eid was yesterday here in the US and in most parts of the world, and I had a pretty memorable Eid. Spent it with family in Virginia, and boy, what an interesting time it was. Showing on the T.V. was a Nigerian Cable Channel, and it was really interesting to see all the news segments commemorating Eid in the various Nigerian states. I even got a glimpse of my birth town Kaduna, which I definitely need to visit soon. I also got a chance to see my "husband" and other cousins. Gosh, the last time I saw him, he was shorter than me, and now, he's towering over me! It was quite the surreal moment lol. My Ramadan Experience On one of my posts on Ramadan, someone asked what I hoped to achieve throughout the Holy month. Basically, my goal was to reflect on my life, on the Qu'ran and on the teachings of Islam. I got a new Qu'ran before Ramadan star...