Rain + Wind + Lightning = Rainbow

Pic courtesy of Google

I saw the most amazing thing on Saturday. I was driving with my sister and some of her friends, taking them to dance at a wedding reception.

Heavy thunderstorms clouded the evening sky and pounded the roadways with sheets of water. Lightning flashed frequently. After the rain died down, the clouds moved back and we caught a glimpse of the sunset.

In one part of the sky, the clouds were orange and purplish. Lightning lit them up periodically and in the midst of all that, part of a rainbow was visible. It was the most amazing thing. I really wish I could have taken a picture of it. My passengers scrambled for their cameras, but they missed it too because we were driving on a freeway ramp and I had no opportunity to stop.

I'm always amazed at wonders of nature like these. Even the routine sunrise or sunset still strikes me as breathtaking. But a combination of so many beautiful elements - clouds lit by sunset, flashing with lightning with a side of rainbow - that's downright spectacular!

I don't see how anyone can really believe that this world and all its beauty just came together just by coincidence.  The earth is too majestic to have been created on its own. Things like this are proof that there is a God and He's much too awesome for any of us to understand.

 God spoke to me through what I saw though what I saw: after the heaviest storm comes the most beautiful scene; the heavier the storm, the more beautiful the outcome. I took that to heart because I'm facing some tough storms in my life right now.  I know for sure that God will bring me though and on the other side, I'll be much better than I ever was. Faith is a fight, but I keep coming back round after round. Can't keep this girl down!

Work Week

I work at a very small newspaper where I did an internship during my undergrad. Working there has it's pros and cons. The biggest con is the pay. It's, ummmm...... Well, let's just say that it's less than desirable. Lol. Someone with a bachelor's degree should definitely be making more, but I know it's just a stepping stone to greater things :) 

On the other hand, the pros are that I don't have to work nights or weekends (love that!); I'm getting a thorough understanding of how city governments work (useful stuff); I get to meet all kinds people; I write things that make a difference in the community; the work staff here is like family, so my boss is very flexible and I have no problem getting days off if I need them.

This week I decided to have a little fun and take a picture each day of the week at my desk...

 

Monday I was feeling refreshed from church. I even wore (almost) the same outfit as I did to church the day before (sshhhhh, don't tel anyone. Lol). I go to Detroit World Outreach. My Bishop, Ben Gibert, preached an awesome word called "Have Faith in Your Faith." It was truly awesome, as is every message he gives. Here's a link to all the videos of services ahttp://www.dwo.org/VideoOnDemandArchives.php

On Tuesday I got fancy with my eye makeup and used two tones (green and a purplish-brown) to match my outfit. Of course you can't see it that well. It was a pretty good day from what I can remember. Oh yeah, that's right. I got to talk to one of my good friends who moved out of the state. He always makes me laugh... :)

 

On Wednesday I was ridiculously exhausted because I stayed up all night making jewelry. On top of that I had to go to school in the evening. Ugh. But that leads me to another pro of working at the paper. It's really encouraged the entrepreneur in me. Since I make so little; it's forcing me to get my hustle on! Lol. I'm finally having a jewelry party to sell stuff my mom, my sisters and I have made over the years. On another note, I can't even explain to you how glad I was to see my bed when I finally got home from class.

 

 On Thursday I threw on some pearls and black slacks for my meeting with the mayor of River Rouge, Michael Bowdler. Can you see the difference between Wednesday and Thursday? Chei, sleep is important o! Lol. I also got to interview Kiante the Sneaker Man over the phone on Thursday. Before his publicist called our office, I had no idea who he was. After finding more out out him from his website and interviewing him, I can see the guy is young and doin' it! Happens to be the name of a show he hosted in New York and a magazine he runs. To find out more about him check out his website. Click on his bio to read his amazing story.

 

Today is Friday and I'm soooo glad about it! It's pay day (yay!) and I can take care of some things. Not the least of which is my hair. Ugh. I just did it last week but I didn't take as good care of it as I should have. And you can't mess around with long curls. They'll tangle up on you in a second. So I'm going back to straight hair for now.

No chop my dollar o!

Nkem Owoh is famous for his song, "I go Chop your Dollar"

The other night while doing my hair, I decided to watch some Naija movies to get me through the long process. Lol. I went on Youtube and searched for Nkem Owoh and found a host of films. I started watching FIFA Agent 1, then 2; Osuofia in World Cup 1. When I got to Osuofia in World Cup 2 (it was a long night, lol. I paid for it dearly the next day) I was surprised by the intro to the movie, an anti-piracy public service announcement.

Nollywood stars Chinedu Ikedieze (Aki), Osita Iheme (Paw Paw), Nkem Owoh (Osuofia), and John Okafor (Mr. Ibu) had a short message for viewers. The stars thanked their fans and supporters the world over for their patronage. Then they got down to what they had to say: people selling counterfeit copies of their movies was causing them to lose money. I found their ad quite  humorous.



Click here to go to the video on Youtube if it doesn't work here.

Na wa o. See as they just dey beg people to stop buying pirated movies. Dem say, no chop my dollar o! "We no dey eat again, all because of piracy!" Chei. I think that's a huge overstatement. Sure, they're losing money. But to say that they are starving is not believable. I'm sure most Nigerians would not take these guys seriously. The average Nigerian who is suffering probably won't have much sympathy for these rich actors claiming that they are going broke.

The irony is that these very same actors are always making movies about some scheme to cheat people out of their money some way or another. Nkem Owoh is famous for his song, "I go Chop your Dollar." I can't count the number of movies where Osita and Chinedu have played little thieves, pocketing money that doesn't belong to them. In fact, the very film series where the ad was placed featured Nkem Owoh running a huge scam, claiming to be a FIFA world cup official.

I understand that these are movies and the roles the actors portray may not match their true character. But the abundance of these types of dealings in movies shows that it has become so much a part of Nigerian mentality: "Take what you can from who you can, right or wrong, to sustain yourself and even get rich, because after all, I'm suffering."

Government officials, 419ers, and yes, those selling pirated DVDs are all thinking like this. It's wrong, but it's accepted as a way of life. Making an ad against piracy is not enough to change a deep set mentality. I think these actor's efforts would be better used to create some kind of initiative to give people jobs. At the end of the day, that's the reason why most people turn to crooked ways: poverty and lack of income or greed for more.

Summer Happenings

So dudes, yeah I'm back! What have I been up to? Ooooh, just weddings, and baby showers, and beaches, and picnics, and barbecues, and swimming, and chilling, and graduation parties, and working out, and dancing to loud music and all the fun that is summer :)

A couple weeks ago I went to Los Angeles for the African Christian Fellowship and it was awesome. ACF is a national organization where Africans grow in Christ and fellowship together in small groups all across the country.

My sisters, our childhood friends/cousins, and I

When I was a kid the Detroit area had a pretty good sized chapter. The people I grew up with there are like family to me. But as families moved away for jobs and such, the chapter kind of died.  When I was in Cali though, I went to the young adult sessions, sang on the praise team, and connected with so many outstanding African young people. I felt led to bring ACF back to Detroit, the young adults section anyway. There's so many African groups in the Detroit area, and all over Michigan really. But so few of them are Christ-centered. Teaming up with my friend Emily and our sisters, we've begun the planning phase of ACF YA Detroit. Our Facebook group is here. I'm excited to see what God will do.

My trip to Cali was also interesting because it was the first time that me, my mom, my dad, and my three sisters have flown together. For two of my sisters, it was their first time on a plane. Traveling with all of them was a little hectic. It was kinda funny too, especially with my dad always worried that we would miss our flight and us getting to our gate at the last minute and then finding somewhere to stuff all of our carry-on luggage when we finally got on the mostly-full plane, people giving us dirty looks and all. Heheheee....

It's really been a time of new things for me... going places I've never been, doing things I've never done, meeting people I never knew before. I've discovered one thing for sure...... I LOVE TO TRAVEL. In state, out of state, out of the country, it doesn't even matter... as long as it's somewhere new, I'm down. I got a chance to go to Ft. Meyers, Florida earlier this year and that was quite lovely. I may have the chance to go to Washington D.C, in a few weeks to cover the dedication of the Martin Luther King Jr., memorial for the newspaper where I work. Exciting! And when I'm finally financially stable, I'll be in a different city every weekend!

Meah Tweh

I love when I come across people doing things in creative new ways, so I was enchanted to find out Meah Tweh.

Meah's a Detroit girl publishing her own book of poetry Color Me Beautiful and Other Poems about Life, Love and Dreams and is doing via her own publishing company, Zealot Press.

The book is a collection of Meah's recent poetry. It aims to uplift women of all races, especially black women, to stand up and be who you are. It's a message that black women in any part of the world can appreciate. Ms. Tweh happens to be born of a black American mother and a Liberian father, making her a Liberian American girl :).







Another unique aspect of this project is that Meah is using Kickstarter.com to raise a portion of the funds. Kickstarter allows people with an idea to put it in front of the world and receive pledges from backers. The person sets a goal and if met, Kickstarter collects the pledges and gives the money for their project. However, if the goal is not met, Kickstarter cancels all pledges. It's all or nothing! Either way though, Meah's book release party is set for July 22.

So far Meah's got $370 of her $500 goal and Tuesday June 14 is the last day. I know she can do it! If you're interested in supporting Meah you can do so on her Kickstarter page by clicking here or going to Kickstarter.com and searching Meah Tweh. To find out more about Meah you can go to her website www.meahtweh.com.

It's funny because I only found out about Meah because of a Facebook suggestion to like her fan page. It turns out that we both graduated from Wayne State and have quite a few friends in common. It's a small world indeed :)

Today was a good day... (Icecube) Lol

Today was a pretty great day for me, I must admit. Early in the day I went to meeting for this business meeting and it was pretty inspiring. I came away with these words of wisdom:

The way you do anything is the way you do everything
Character isn't compartmentalized. The kind of person you are in one area of your life is the kind of person you are in all areas of your life.

Successful people are never busy people
Because they plan, and plan, and plan so when the time comes to do things, they've got it all figured out and it goes smoothly. No rush, no fuss, no bother.

It's not who you know; it's what you know
Definitely heard this one and it's true.

Later in the day, I went to a Zumba class for the first time and it way HYPE! I had so much fun, sweated like a Christmas goat (lol), and hope it's the beginning of a new workout habit. I've been doing workouts using videos on Youtube and stuff on my own, but being in a class full of people gives more motivation to keep going.

I went with my sister and my best friend. They played some really good Latino music, including a Latino version of Waving Flag. You may be familiar with the Naija remix with K'Naan, Banky W, and M.I. Love that song. They also played Jessy Matador's Décalé Gwada which made my sister and I smile. That song's a bit of a legend around here cause two years ago the guys in our African student group did a routine to that song that really put them on the map.

Anyways, like I constantly remind myself, it's really the little things that make me smile....... :)

3 Months Plus

Yep, that's how long it's been since my last post. Terrible, I know. One of my friends called me Sunday and lamented my lack of updates. So I just thought I'd let anyone interested know that I'm still alive and kickin'. Hehehee....

So what's been up? I've really been focusing on some personal goals and learning a lot in my new school. The world's really a changed place since I last wrote. So many things have happened, no need to repeat the news broadcasts here... Just makes me grateful for the life I have. Though imperfect, it's not hard to see that many are in far worse positions than I. Baba God, I thank You.

On another note, I'd like to share a few Naija artists that I discovered on my hiatus and have been jammin' to ever since. Tim Godfrey & Xtreme Crew. A highly skilled gospel musician, Tim Godfrey and his crew mix Igbo and Naija praise with modern instrumentals for a very impressive effect. "Igbo Melody", a medley of several Igbo praise songs, was the first one I heard by the group and it's awesome (as are the group's other tracks) Click the picture to take a listen!

Tim Godfrey & Xtreme Crew

Then there's Axios Choir, whose main instruments are their own voices. Their song "Ibu Ngalaba" is the only one I came across on Youtube, and it's desperately beautiful. The words of the chorus, "Ibu ngalaba jisi ndu mu eeeh" mean "You are the pillar that holds my life," referring to God. The song has been a real encouragement to me.  I also found the disclaimer they put at the beginning of their video quite charming,"Axios Choir will set you free from the habit of bad vocal chords." Hehehehe....

Those of us familiar with the Nigerian church scene know that whenever it's time to sing, our people like to sing loud, no matter the quality of the voice: from average to cracked. And often times those singing the loudest are those with the worst voices (aka those aunties with the high, shrilly, screeching voices LOL!). You can even find some of these individuals in various praise teams and choirs, oddly enough. It's good that our God is a loving God who doesn't put any stipulations on the praise that we give Him other than that it comes from the heart. :) Anyways... Click here to listen to Ibu Ngalaba.  Bye for now!