Mrs.O's writing room.

Brent and Diane the navigators invited Mich and I to attend a get together at a retirement home yesterday. I was excited to go but had mixed feelings by the end of the evening, not about being there but the events that took place as I will let you know. I met quite a few grandma's, some were still very fun and stylish while others were a little grampy. It was organised so that the international students could spend sometime with the old ladies and share a little bit about their country. We had internationals from Taiwan, Japan, Ukraine,China and Liberia. I was given a slot to talk about Uganda and I thought that was tough, I have taken for granted the things that happen at home, somehow I got so used to seeing things a certain way that it became normal. Maybe that sounds a little silly considering that I have been away from home for a while and noticed the differences in culture and style. Never the less I planned out a few of the things I thought I would mention and waited for my ...

Yesterday Mich got up from his afternoon nap with a swollen eye and was scratching himself very intently. That was a bit of a surprise, it wasn't swollen before he went to bed and he didn't seem to notice the difference. I checked his bed to see if there could have been an insect that bit him but there was nothing. Immediately my mind went back to the play ground he had been at just before, apparently there is a poison ivy plant there and Mich had been by it but only briefly, I panicked. Poison Ivy is a very dangerous plant that has some kind of sap that is poisonous and if you get in contact with it you are basically in big trouble. It causes a very itchy rash, swellings on the body, sometimes a fever and it takes a week or so to cure. He had some of the symptoms, the itching and a little bit of swelling over the areas he scratched but there were no cuts or open sores. Before I knew it he had taken off all his clothes and was scratching himself all over. I told Sam about it an...

Sam has been home all day for the past two days and that has been really nice, he is preparing for exams which start today (he is actually in the marketing exam right now). I thought since he was home it would be a good opportunity for me to go jogging, Mich didn't have a problem with that. I set out and in no time I was panting, I felt so heavy, my whole body was shaking, it kind of felt like with each step I took the earth shook, it probably didn't but I sure felt like I was making a dent every where I stepped. I realised that taking shorter steps and moving a little slower would keep me going for a longer distance. I was glad that people on the streets were minding their own business and no one was staring or whistling at me. Back home it was very easy to get intimidated, the areas that one could jog through with ease were limited, there were always idlers standing by the road amazed at the fact that a woman was jogging. At times guys would whistle, call you names or in mor...

It was quite a busy day today, the kids club organised a trip to the Linvilla Orchards. It's a 300-acre farm dedicated to agriculture, entertainment and education, it's a farm market, bakery and pumpkinland. Certainly lots of fun for kids, it has lots of interesting sceneries, scare crows, legends about the harvest season and many stories about pumpkins and apples. The people at the farm tell the children how the different crops are grown and processed. It's got apples, berries, pumpkins,peaches, maize, tomatoes, figs to name but a few. For the first time I got to know that apples had names. I had only known them by their colours green, red and gold. We also took a hayride through the fields and orchards. I was so excited by all the things I was seeing, at some point I put down my bag and forgot it there. I remembered a while later that I had actually come with a bag, I certainly panicked. I run round the pumpkins hoping to find my bag where I had left it but it was gone. T...

We visited the Philadelphia Zoo, it was so much fun and learning for both of us. I'm glad I took Mich, now he knows the names of animals just by looking at them and by the sounds that they make. My personal favourite was the Lion, talk about being in charge, having self confidence and knowing that he looks good. .

I was so glad that I made it to church yesterday and was part of the worship team. I had a great time in God's presence, I loved the songs, all of which are on my list of favourites. There was no sermon as such but one of the church members shared her testimony and that was awesome. I got asked once or twice if I was fine now, 'no more headaches?', "I'm cool" that was just a one off. I actually discovered that my headache was a result of fatigue, I took Mich to the zoo that saturday and we spent a lot of time moving around. I got Mich something to eat and forgot I needed some energy too, so by the end of the day my body couldn't take it anymore. Cell group was great too, it was certainly larger this time, from about 8 to 13 that meant the number of children increased too. The first meeting had Mich and Ian, this time round it was Mich, Ian, Elizabeth,Andrew and 2 babies. There was absolute chaos at the beginning, I think they were shocked to see all the o...

A picture is worth a thousand words.

The other day Sam came home with an Asterix and Obelix comic streak, he said their marketing professor had recommended that they read it. Is that cool or what?, I'm thinking I should enroll at Wharton I mean this must be a lot of fun reading comic streaks and all. I was just thinking that whatever is being taught would stick in my mind for a long time, and even in the exam room I would probably be able to remember the points just from the comic book. Its interesting the things that sper us on, or trigger off our thinking. I haven't told you about our wierd neighbour, well lets just say we never see him during day time. The front part of his house looks desolate, a passerby would probably conclude that no one lives there except for his very hairy cat that is always sitting and sleeping on the front porch. At 1am in the morning, we hear him watering his plants, his garden is outside our bedroom window. You can imagine the startle I used to get hearing noises outside and when I lo...

It's been a busy week for Sam with all these companies coming to the campus to make presentations about themselves. In previous weeks I walked on campus and people were dressed the casual campus style, jeans, t-shirts and snickers. This week there was an amazing transformation, dark blue suits with serious labels and shoes to match. Its a time for students to interview and interact with potential employers, find out if its the industry they would be interested in and what it takes to get there. It's kinda two way, on the one hand the companies are beckoning them to come work for them and on the other hand the students are not only checking them out but also making their interests known. Those who know what industry and company they want have the task of leaving a lasting impression on the recruiters so that when the summer internships draw near you don't have to be introducing yourself. There were over sixty companies that came to the campus and it was a hard enough task sc...

I don't know if you recall me mentioning how Pastor Bradd gave me a call inquiring if I was ready to join the worship team?! Well he did and I attended my first meeting on Saturday. Evan, the worship leader was dealing with a new group, we had not worked together before so it was a nice time of getting to know each other. I appreciated his style, we had an ice breaker and then did an exercise, he played a song we were all familiar with and asked us to listen out for the different instruments and how they were being played at various points. We listened for the drums and on my chat I was indicating "loud", "soft" and "roll" well at least that's how they sounded to me. At the time of discussion guys were talking about "the snare", "High hat", "kick", "crash" and "cow bells" eeh! I was thinking wow! A little bit of background, as we had dinner I found out that Evans older brother played for one of the ...

This evening I attended my very first cell group meeting at the church office. I was very excited when I got to know that my church was cell based, it reminded me of church back home and the cell that Sam and I hosted in our house. The meeting was scheduled for 6:30pm and I got there about 6:50pm, apparently I was early because I found the leaders having dinner. That is one thing I need to adjust in my schedule, having dinner early. Back home Sam and I had dinner at 9pm and it was good time for us, here we get invited to dinners at 5pm, by 8:30 - 9pm I'm twidling my fingers and thinking of another snack. Mich and I had just had evening tea so we were not particularly hungry at this point. People begun to show up and we later found out they had all had dinner before coming. The cell agenda was pretty much the same as in KPC, here it was referred to as "wwww" welcome, worship, word and work (prayer and involvement in the community. As we fellowshiped the intimacy of sharing...

I can't believe that I have made two month's here already, they seem to have flown by real fast. I'm not complaining, I hope the rest can go as fast, especially now that winter is round the corner. On Tuesday I auditioned for the Wharton Dance Studio, that stages a dance show for the school every year. I found three moms who got there before me, their babies strapped in strollers and I gladly added Mich to the bunch, they looked cute. Obviously Mich is not the kind to sit there while music is playing so he jumped out and was running all over the place, doing his own moves and making people laugh. Everybody was assigned a number and we registered our names and email addresses. We stood in four rows, there was over 30 of us. The lady in charge taught us some moves and asked us to follow along with the music, I enjoyed that alot. The song we danced to was done by Fox, something like "she gives me money...." it was obviously not christian but I certainly smiled when I...

Yesterday Sam and I were invited to celebrate Nigeria’s Independence with a party held by the Nigerians'at Wharton and hosted by Tolu. Yeee! Another excuse for a party. We got there an hour late because Mich had to take his nap but we were pretty much in good time, people had just begun to arrive, you know us and time keeping. The lobby to Tolu’s apartment was pretty raw, it looked like construction was still going on, the cement had not been smoothed out and no final touches had been made. You could actually smell the cement as you walked in. I concluded that he was in a hurry to move in and couldn’t quite find another apartment so he settled for this. We took the elevator to his apartment, yet again something really strange, the lifts were open until people stepped in. That was weird because it has always been the reverse, the lifts are closed until you press the button to use it. We went three floors up but man! That was one of the most scary lifts, one side was made of just gl...