Koxie's Diaries

In my church we have this wonderful elderly woman we fondly call “Grandma” (pronounced the Nigerian way oh! LOL..). She was an active member of the parish for so many years until sometime last year when she fell ill and became bed ridden. Not only was she an active member, she was regarded as some sort of Matron to all the children of the church. She showered the kids (and everyone really) with so much love; buying gifts, cakes and sweets at every opportunity (I guess that’s what endeared the kids to her the most!). I remember very well that whenever the kids saw her entering the gate of the church, you’d see a host of them running towards her and almost throwing her down with their hugs and kisses. They’d grab her bag, her bible and sometimes even her walking stick at which point she’d tell them to just hold it with her as she walked in. We’ve missed those memorable days with Grandma. Anyway, since we hadn’t seen Grandma (at least not as a group) in months, last week Sunday, the t

I have a sister-in-law who is a GARRI IJEBU freak! This babe (and even my husband) relish the Nigerian delicacy like it was some kind of caviar. I hear even their mum is a huge fan. I never could understand the love for drinking Garri that these people have...and I probably never will. Anyway, on Sunday, all of a sudden, I remember that there was this time in Secondary School when we used to drink garri with a dash of lemon or lime, ice cubes and sugar (of course). So I told them about it and asked them to try it out and they both went "NO WAY, THAT'S WEIRD!!!". I ignored them of course. Luckily I had both lime and lemon in the fridge so I got out my husband's favourite bowl, ceremoniously prepared the garri and ice cubes with some lime squeezed into it and served it to him with delicious hot Moi-Moi (hmmm...how do I explain moi moi to my oyinbo brothers and sisters?? Ok, for the sake of a name, just call it steamed bean cake). I presented the tray to my husban

Yesterday morning, after writing my diary entries, I went through the old blogs and felt I wasn’t getting as much visitors, comments and encouragement as I would have loved to. I started getting worked up and then all sorts of thoughts started flying through my head….maybe my diary is boring, maybe I don’t really have something worth telling the world, maybe I wasn’t good enough as I imagined… Then again I thought it could be that I wasn’t spreading the word fast enough, I wasn’t telling enough people… Then I started thinking, ok, maybe I should start forwarding the link to everyone on my address book (I think I already did that!) and then maybe I should post the link DAILY on Facebook, maybe I should join other networking sites, maybe I should make announcements in my church, in my office, everywhere. Trust me, I thought of all sorts! Just before I clicked send on the post I forwarded to friends yesterday, I heard the Holy Spirit tell me “Do not send your posts to anyone anymore.

I have this colleague/friend in my office; sweet, young, vibrant and full of bright ideas. She’s a typical Igbo babe and so is very money conscious (well who isn’t?). We talk often about all sorts of things but most especially we talk about our visions and dreams, business ideas, self improvement ideas, things that we wish we could see happen in our society and so on. So much so that we usually go as far as discussing how to kick start the idea, how to market it, how to save the profits and re-invest the money etc. We usually get so excited about our ideas because they are so big and so brilliant and so workable; these are ideas that are sure to be a hit the moment they hit the streets. Sometimes when we’re done talking, we praise ourselves and talk about how we’re “too much sha” and all that. Everything about our ideas are usually perfect and foul proof. The only trouble is (I’m sure you’ve already guessed)…. We never get up from our office seats and start the project!!! Imagin

Dear Reader, Last night I watched a bit of a movie called "Shooting Dogs" about the Rwanda Genocide that happened in 1994. For some reason, I've never followed that story to find out what really happened to cause so much hatred, anger and bitterness between brothers. Honestly, it brought tears to my eyes...watching men, women and little children die like dogs. I decided to google the story so as to know the history of this war. It's so amazing how a tiny spark can cause such a disastrous wildfire, how one small misunderstanding can bring about so much pain and destruction . If you have never read about it before, you may wish to visit this BBC site to read how it all happened. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1288230.stm Since watching the movie, I've been asking God why he lead me to that particular movie (I usually am too tired to watch anything when I get home after work). Besides, I have seen that movie several times before but never bothered to stop a

Hi, This is my first time creating and using a blog. Hmmm ... Still don't have a hang of how it works but it looks quite simple so far. For so many years I have written all sorts in journals and kept them in my closet. A lot of these journals have been infested by insects who have obviously found a better use for them than I. If insects had not discovered them, mould and mildew certainly settled in and now they are no more. Recently, I stumbled on one of the journals I wrote in 2007 and was reading through it and I had to ask myself one question... so whose life has been blessed by all these words and deep revs I've received from the Throne room of God? Well, other than the insects, I am ashamed to say NO ONE ! So today, I'm grateful to God for the wisdom he has given man to create something called the Internet , the WW, and more importantly, blogs like this where simply regular people like me can pour out what God drops on my mind and hope that someday, somewhere, s