On the name again

Me:              Daddy Cotonu! Daddy Cotonu! Welcome Sir.
Son:             Mum, Is his name Cotonu?
Me:              No dear, that is the name of the place he lives
Son:             But I thought he lives in Ikeja besides why call him by where he lives

Just imagine if you had to explain to a 5 year old why you have to call your dear uncle by the name of the place he lives  considering the fact that he has long moved out of there to a totally different location.

I believe we do this because it is perceived 'rude' to simply say Uncle Soji for example and we definitely cannot call him Daddy John because John is much older and he is brother John to us. So how do you say Daddy brother John? easier to just say Daddy Cotonu right? But the problem with this is that even when he changes his location we still refer to him by the former and it gets more difficult to address him that way when we become older.

What is the most ridiculous name you have had to call a relative? Are you a parent? What do you make your children call their older uncles and aunties? Some new parents need suggestions.

Oga give us 'something'

                                                       Picture source: nairaland.com

I'm sorry I haven't blogged for some time (emm I mean a very long time). The thing is I've been occupied, distracted and maybe just too lazy to write but I'm gladly back and better now.

I recently just started driving myself and I must say I've been unaware of how terrible some of our Nigerian roads have become. You know how it is when someone drives you around and you just sleep and snore on the passenger's seat or chat away on your blackberry while the driver does all the road calculation, permutation and combination just so you'd arrive at your destination safely. Well I know cos I'm one of those annoying passengers that just sleep through the journey.

The point of this discussion really isn't what 'gear' I snore on while being driven neither is it actually about the zig-zag pattern I have to drive through just to avoid the large 'bucket' holes but it is about these shirtless guys that actually 'fill' the potholes.

I'm not sure how many of you have seen these well toned, sweaty shirtless guys along the roads trying to fill the potholes with sand and in return they expect every motorist to give them 'something' ( money). My confusion however is that I find them at the same spot everyday, doing the same things, asking you for money yet the potholes are never filled (they don't get worse, they just never get better). I guess we should call them the pothole maintenance guys.

Do you guys think they should be encouraged since it looks like those that should be in charge of roads maintenance have forgotten their duties? Or do you think they could pose a form of danger to motorists at night time? Please lets discuss.

My library experience

It was my first time at the community library today and my heart melted when young moms came in with their kids at 11am to have a 30mins rhyme time.

The amazing thing was that these children were between 1-3years old and they all seemed to totally enjoy themselves and sing along. For those who couldn't speak, they just danced and nodded to the tunes, the older ones were using the computers while some of them were just reading a story book or novel.

I began to think, why can't we just have something like this back home. I wrote it down in my study note after musing over it for a bit. Our government is too busy doing what I don't know so we as a people better stand up for our community.

Our children need to grow up properly, have access to the right education, be exposed to appropriate technology and these facilities should be present in our immediate communities.

Hmmmn, too many issues on ground to discuss rather than an absent children's library right? I thought so too but we can individually start from different points.