Circumspecte

Dear Diary, I t’s kind of hard being second to last amongst nine siblings, you know? By the time you have learnt to ride a bike, seven othe rs would have already done it. Y our ‘great achievement’ would only bring back f ond memories of the time Juma rode hers, or the zillion times Hisham fell off his, before finally getting it right. Humph! Hel-lo! News flash: this is MY big moment! Funny. I cannot even enjoy my place down the line in peace. I cannot suck on my thumb, o r slurp my ice cream, because Karima might be watching, and “big sister is supposed to be a better example”. Big sister? The older child? “Mummy, can I stay up and watch the 10:30 movie?” “No, Lilly. It’s rated PG13. You are only 12 and a half”. Humph! So what am I? Old or young? Pretty confusing. Even the coolest names got snagged before my time. For the first three kids, Mummy was in her prim and proper, formal m ode: Juma, Hisham, Awuresi . Lovely. For the next four, she went all hip-hop, African-A...

Dear Diary, I’ m positive my voice has gone hoarse from all the screaming I’ve been doing today. No, Arif and the guys didn’t come down here for another screaming match though I’d rather that was the case. The thing is that mum and dad went out…sans those little devils. Okay they’re my kid brothers and sister but still! “Don’t touch that”, “get down from there”, “are we there yet?”. Sound familiar? It should, cos that’s what you hear around every child. Indeed , children are a torment and nothin g more. I mean, there are some sweet children but the majority, damn! No wonder parents get gr ey hairs so quickly. Anytime I hear a kid cry, I gotta find an exit fast coz if I don’t, I’ll go deaf. Yeah we were all children but surely we couldn’t have been that annoying! I k now y’all feel me on this one. Whenever a naughty kid starts acting nice I need to ask him/her what’s up b ecause that just doesn’t happen. If he ain ’ t broken something then he wants something. It’s not always th...

Dear Diary, Responsibilities, responsibilities. God! Sometimes I just hate to hear the word. I mean come on, what’s up with the “you’re the eldest child in the family so you have to set a good example for the others to follow. You have to be more responsible.” Honestly, I’m tired of all that. Because of all my “responsibilities”, I can’t even think straight or act like me. I mean, heeello! What happened to being myself? Sure, it’s cool being the eldest daughter…once in a while. But come on, between having to explain to Mummy why Titilayo cannot borrow my clothes even though she’s my sister, trying to stop the oh-so-numerous quarrels that Zisung and Napari engage in, AND trying to ensure that we all do our house chores, there’s hardly any time left for just being me! Its like I’m living in a constant state of being somebody else. Anyways, I have to scram now… supposed to take Zisung and Napari to a birthday party. (talk about boredom). Toodles! OBSERVATION No matter one’s position in...

Even when two entities are not in the same space or time, the ripples of their respective actions leave impressions on both worlds.

The Ghana-Naija movie industry saga. That's always a tough one where I'm concerned. On the one hand is my allegiance to Ghana - my motherland, homeland and basically where most of my formative years were spent. On the other hand is my undeniable connection to Nigeria - my birthland and the land of my ancestors. Even though I barely remember that much about Nigeria, I do joke about when I will "finally return to my birthland." Maybe it's this umbilical connection, that makes me slightly biased towards Nollywood when it comes to the Ghana-Naija movie saga. Truth be told, I barely paid Ghanaian movies enough mind when I was growing up. I was more likely to watch a Nigerian movie instead, and even then, I was picky. Ramsey Noah or Genevive Nnaji had to be part of the cast. Why this bias towards Naija movies? It's simple really; their acting was generally better. These days, I'm more willing to watch anything Ghana-related. For one thing, the surges of homesi...

The lone cloud overlooking the glassy water surface Pretty well put together A splash of red Bob the Squirrel...So many Bobs in this area lol Flowers are beautiful! Love the contrast of white against a green background Clouds! I love cloud formations; can stare at 'em all day, especially cirrus clouds!! My favorite tree: The Weeping Willow (Pocahontas's Grandma Willow) Beautiful Mount Holyoke Sunsets near the lake

Dear Diary, It’s the night of the big game and me and my boys are in front of the TV waiting patiently for the kick-off. We are evenly divided, four of us supporting Arsenal and the other four supporting Man United. The tension in the room is so apparent as the match commences. With sporadic shouts of “what dey wrong this player” and the usual “Oh!” So many minutes have passed but no goal and frustrations are beginning to show. I’m not talking about frustrations on the pitch mind you, but in our mini stadium. “I don’t even know why we bought this player, he’s useless”, Ekow declares. Five minutes later, the useless player scores th e opener for Man United. Kojo’s reaction? No comment. My team is down by a goal and Murtala takes the opportunity to taunt me. “So Mash, who be your chick?” I mean, can you believe him? Well I’m not the least amused by that question, not when my team is down. I’m about to give him a piece of my mind but just then Arsenal equalize. My fellow gunnas go beserk...