I am from the Western part of Africa, Nigeria to be precise. I grew up speaking my mother tongue so there was no struggle of finding a cultural balance, Having friends, neighbors and people from the same ethnic didvide as mine made communication easy so I am definitely fluent and deeply grounded in the Igbo culture. However, with Nigeria or Naija being a multicultural society, I have had to learn how to speak, relate with and embrace other cultures particularly that of the three main ethnic groups.

As we celebrate the birth of Christ, may your homes be filled with love, peace and joy and your hearts with glad tidings. Merry Christmas from NIB More On NIB December to Remember  Christmas: Reasons to be Merry German Christmas Market Experience 

For most Nigerians, Christmas is a season for hosting of extravagant events, attending unending glamorous parties, indulging in expensive shopping and vacationing, engaging in social media show off of real and unreal gifts. There's also  the usual exodus to country homes and villages where huge sums of money are donated or pledged during launchings and meetings for different feasible and infeasible projects. It is always a season to "loud it" in order to be seen as the happiest person and biggest spender which is why many are wondering how we are going to celebrate Christmas in the face of the daunting hardships plaguing us. When I published the post, Recession, Christmas and You  in 2020, we all thought life was hard and survival was a feat reserved for the brave. We struggled, wept and felt it would be our last woes. Sadly, the swift movement from truly bad to worse has left us yearning for the years we dreaded. The current situation in Naija has made us to realize that...

I was patiently waiting for my number when I heard the sound. My snoozing brain rebooted and started running; I've heard that sound before, but wherefrom? It sounded like hard wood on hard polished floor.  The type of sound those wooden shoes we used to call "akpola"shoes made back in the days; my brain shared a search report.  Yes! I could remember those shoes. The same type my grand-mum and mum had back in the 60's or 70's. I know this because I saw pictures of them posing with those high wooden platform shoes and was privileged to try them on as a little girl trying to walk in my mum's shoes. They were called akpola . I think my dad had them too lol!  Who could be wearing akpola at this day and time and at the hospital of all places.  My eyes scanned the feet of those walking past me but none matched the sound which was getting closer. Suddenly, the sound stopped and instinctively, I looked up to see a tall white man with neatly trimmed grey hair. I placed...

Click here   HOT CAKE 3   to remember the storyline  ***************** Recent Time- The moment I stepped out of the plane, something came alive within me. The fresh but hot air I used to wail over filled my lungs and brought tears to my eyes. Despite all the crisis rocking my Naija, I really missed her and finally I was back home. The joy I felt at that moment was overwhelming.

Growing up, I heard stories about haunted houses, the living-dead, spirits and tales of people who embraced the welcoming arms of death screaming, yelling or fighting for an extension of their earthly timeline. As a Christian I grew up learning and believing in what the bible teaches about death, resurrection, purgatory and so on.  As an inquisitive teen and young lady, I read books and stories on time travel, souls departing the physical realm and saw movies like The Omen, I know what you did last summer, Hammer house of horror, Back from hell (I never had the heart to finish that one), our own Willy Willy and Nneka the pretty serpent which by the way always got me screaming my lungs out and yeah, there was Mel Gibson's passion of Christ which was a detailed (in my opinion ) portrayal of the agonizing death of Christ. That movie  had me crying for days.  Between the movies and the books, I would say the movies were more impactful because they vividly portrayed in picture...

If the events of the last few days or weeks did not trigger an emotion in you then I don't know what would.  The anxieties, diatribes and resultant loss of lives and properties. The aggression, pain, agony and the blame games that usually follow our gradual but steady return to our old and unchanging routines got me thinking; Nigeria, will we ever get it right? When are we going to end the politics of violence fueled by either tribalism or religion?  Anyway, today I want to share something most of you might already be familiar with. It's called; Maslow's hierarchy of needs as can be seen in the table below

Oh my love, my beau, it's been more than 365 days since our paths crossed and you're probably feeling abandoned and forgotten but indeed, I really, truly, deeply miss you.  The love I have for you still pulsates albeit, weakly. But like a comatose heart charged by a pacemaker, everyday, the lingering fond thoughts of our escapades invigorates my fading memory. You are my spring of life and the thin threads of my heart clings on.

If you're a Nigerian, then you would agree that most of us, if not all, love our tea or cocoa (Milo, Bournvita and so on) with cream especially on a cold morning or just for "washing down" our breakfast or even dinner. Chai, you need to see the queue at Mai Shayi's (tea seller) shop down my street every morning. Yeah, for most of us, it's tea or a big bottle of chilled Coca cola. Somehow in the course of my adulthood, I was introduced to decaffeinated coffee and I fell in love with it too. I became hooked and started having an open mind whenever it had to do with beverages. Well that was until my coffee woes.

 A new addition to mental disorders is called "Obsessive Japa Mental Disorder" (OJMD) Causes 1. Naija economy  2. Childhood trauma 3. Adulthood trauma 4. Genetics 5. Sudden wealth Symptoms

Not everyone is enjoying this Valentine's day.. .

We are grateful you're part of the NIB family. As we celebrate the season of love, we hope you feel how special you are to us  ❤️ Happy Valentine's Day  from  Nikkyivyblog (NIB)