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WHAT ARE YOU THANKFUL FOR?

As the final hours of the year slide quietly away, it is only human to look back, tracing the paths of our days, sifting through moments that have shaped us. With the twilight of 2025 upon us, will you gather at a humble or grand table, surrounded by laughter, silence, or absence? Perhaps you have already counted your blessings—each one a dim light in the dark. Or maybe your mind is busy weaving hopeful blueprints for the dawn of 2026. Just the other day, I watched the children in CoComelon sing their gratitude for life’s simplest gifts—things we often overlook, absorbed as we are in our hurried routines. How easily we forget that wonder. If we slow down, just for a little time, we all have so many things to be grateful for. Even the most ordinary blessings are worth our quiet thanks. In this spirit of reminiscence, my heart swells with gratitude for more than I can name, but here are a few gifts that shine especially bright: Sanity Good health A job/craft The gift of memor...
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SCHOOL AND WORK ABROAD




I was weighing 43 at that time. It was not easy balancing school with work. But I needed money. The money my parents were sending was not covering up my needs. I needed a backup and that was why I took a job at an African restaurant, owned by a Nigerian couple back then in London. Jobs like this were reserved for students or for the undocumented. I could not babysit because the timing would clash with my class hours and that was why I settled with washing plates in this restaurant after classes. 

I had done this for a week and could notice my fingers fading away but I didn’t mind at all. All I pictured was my monthly pay.
The next week; on a Wednesday, after classes I resumed work as usual. I had washed the first round of plates and then I heard the voice of my boss (the wife) saying: “Favour, you will be the one pounding yam from today. It is part of your job description…” 

That voice echoed in my head and it still does till today. It echoed when I nodded in agreement, asked to use the restroom, went out through the back door, took the bus home and never returned there again. Sometimes I ask myself what those two were thinking. Were they really willing to ruin their business by asking an underweight student who hated cooking by the way, to pound yam every day except Sundays? 

 Today, I am glad I was bold enough to put my health first before my monetary needs. I am also glad that I felt sympathy enough to help save the couple’s business. That pounded yam would have been a disastrous phenomenon for everyone involved, especially the customers… I am done with my masters now. I hope to get a good job, one that I would not need to pound of course!
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Comments

  1. Unknown21 May 2019 at 02:49

    Very funny, but wait oo this slavery is everywhere. People taking advantage of vulnerable people in vulnerable situations

    ReplyDelete
  2. EMMAWAD8 July 2019 at 11:23

    hahaha... It's like it will never go away

    ReplyDelete

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