The new year is upon us...

I can not believe that the year is almost over! I think it went by too fast even though i am looking forward to the next year. Some of my resolutions are:

*Paint the house!!!! by golly!
*Smile less- prevents me looking like a clown.
*Be less ghetto
*Understand that weetabix is not dinner material no matter how tired I am
*Dallas Texas
*Be less vain
*Join a soccer club in the summer
*Be more tolerant of idiots
*Do more music concerts and theater
*Edit my Novel for the hundredth time...and maybe find a publisher...lololol! yeah rite!
*Find a papa sucre (sugar daddy) with lots of money. Know any rich old men???
*****NEVER DO THING THAT AGAIN!!!!****** Very important!!!

I want to see how many of these I actually achieve next year. This year I managed to complete one of my resolutions...how pathetic:-) It was to treat people with kindness even when they are mean to me. Well I don't think I'll be doing that next year because I didn't care for it too much. I am afraid I am back to being a beeyatch next year. Sorry.

I had a GREAT time at church today...I even wrote to the church's musical director to tell him how happy I was. It's not only because the usher said i was very pretty... well his exact words were "woooww... you're so beautiful" which just fed my vanity...aahhh the life of a beauty queen:-) Any way, the choir did a few christmas carols using conga's, electric and accoustic guitars, piano's...etc. It was really lovely! It sounded like 1800 music meets afro beats, which was funny seeing as it's a all white choir. Ummm I guess white people can sing huh? lol!


I came home and cooked myself a nice lunch of cornish hen, mango and mixed vegetables. I really need to become a chef.... my culinary skills have just flourished this year:-) Hey! I said I will cut out the vanity next year! not this year!

I am not sure what to wear for tomorrow. I will be at my filipino friends house for new years...and I am rather looking forward to it. They always host a news years eve party and I think I have spoken about her before. She is the one that lives in the 2 million-ish dollar house at the waterfront. They have a four floor house and have a whole floor as the bar room and access to the roof top so we can see fireworks. She has interesting neighbors and maybe my papa sucre to be lives next door! So for that reason and many others, I need to make sure I have ample cleavage...screw the weather:-) watch me get pneumonia lol!


Oh and before I forget... I have tickets to see Ladysmith Black Mambazo but I haven't found anyone to go with yet. So if you live in the area and are not a stalker and have no serious mental issues and have a clue who LBM are then... holla at your guurrl! It's these moments when I really miss Mwai...dude you need to move back here...!!! I wouldn't have this dilemma if you were here!

If i don't post anything between now and new years day: I wish you and yours blessings, peace, love and happiness for 2008:-)

Today

My brother left for Ithaca this afternoon...:-(....sad sad sad sad sad!!! So to make myself feel better I called my cousins in bethesda and we went to watch a movie at the Union station Cinema in the district of columbia (wow what a lot of words!)

I was not too impressed with the Cinema itself, I found the place a little dirty, the staff a little indifferent and I couldn't hear half the stuff they said! I mean I really try to understand ebonics...but seriously half the time I am clueless as to what is being said to me and you can tell the people speaking think it's ridiculous that I don't understand the 'talk' 'specially since i'm a kneegrow myself. In my defence...the caucasoids I hang out with have no clue what is going on either and they have lived here their whole lives! THEY should be teahcing ME ebonics, yet they are always asking me what words mean...lol

So any way, the film we saw was 'The Great Debaters' and if you haven't seen it yet, I suggest you stop reading at this point. Are you gone yet????
*********************
Okay, for the rest of you....OMG!!! I was PMSing when I watched the movie...and can I just tell you guys that my emotions go a little crazy at this time of the month, so I cried most of the movie:-) I thought it was a great movie. Jurnee Smollette I think did an awesome job...though she kept forgetting her accent (well she sounded southern at first then changed in the middle, then went southern again). I related to her in the film. When she made the debate team I cried and when she gave that great speech at the first white school I cried. Then when that Negro cheated on her I felt her pain and triumph when she slapped his silly face!!!

i also like the round 14 year old boy... junior he did quite well especially with his closing argument about the lynching.

Dude, if I was born in that era...or for that matter if I was born Moslem, I would have done my best to be killed as early as possible. There are certain things I can not survive in this world. I would rather be DEAD than CONTROLLED. Every time I see movies like this, I thank God that I was born BLACK and BEAUTIFUL in a "free" world! If apartheid makes a come back...I will without a doubt feed myself to the fish before they tell me my name is not kunta kinte! walahi!!!

moving on... according to the Ney York sun giving makes one happy! Here I was thinking receiving makes people happy:-) that was quite a neat story.
http://www.nysun.com/article/68700

Any who...I am off to bed now, stay well and be blessed.

Christmas...

This christmas I think topped last christmas and I am very happy that I didn't have to fly to out to anywhere this year. We danced, sang, ate and partied like crazy! I thinkk I have the coolest, funkiest, loveliest family in the whole wide world and I know it! We were just lamenting at how we didn't have more family members over so we could party like we used to in Zed.


All of us have distinctly unique characters that when meshed together just creates sweet havoc. I am trully blessed to have each and every one of them.

My brother and I now know where Crofton is...wow what an adventure! we went to look for our family friends/ distant relatives in Crofton and the place is just so secluded. We had fun seeing ambuya and the fam... and just talking about the past.


Then we went off to a party at my cousins grandma's house. The food was overflowing and very delicious. We had a whole mix of people and the fun part was that no one was afraid to dance and show case their skillz... We all left with some lovely african prezzy's. I was particularly happy because I have been looking for an art piece for my wall in the dinning area and they gave me one! how cool is that? The boys all got hats from various parts of Africa... my cousin got a Lozi hat like the litunga one's...and my brother got a Nigerian hat as did most of the boys.


The next day, we all hang out at the house....some people got a bit tiddly and others just couldn't stop dancing. Ladies and gentlemen, I stayed sober for most of these activities...even when the amarula, sherry, wine, beers...etc were pouring in, I was drunk on life and love...awwww


I was not amused with the rest of their family because while the sat on their fanny's I had to go to work the day after christmas at 6am.... and I only got to bed at mid-night. After an afternoon of Carols, my grandpa's songs and other Zambian songs...and generally just speaking louder than usual as we fought to be heard above the merry ding...my voice was rather coarse the next day.


Then the family came over to my little condo and we just hang out and did more singing...and now christmas is over...


Seasons greetings to you and yours, and I hope santa was as good to you as he was to me. I was a bad girl and didn't go for the Christmas service, but I suppose I am forgiven because I was doing things related to 'love one another' and not other dubious things:-)

Our Fallen sister Bhutto

It came as no shock to me...as to most of you out there that they finally succeeded in attempts to assassinate Benazir Bhutto.

What I admired most about reading about her was probably her stubbornness and bravado. Two qualities that obviously don't take women too far in a moslem world.

I recall listening to her sister in law on NPR a few months or so ago and I think they said she is also running for some position in government once/ if the elections come around. The reporter asked her if she was scared and her response was something in the lines of..."i am not controversial, so i have nothing to fear of the Islamist millitants." From her tone, I got a feeling of foreboding with regards to Bhutto. Like it was only a matter of time.

I would not be surprised if Musharaff declares that elections will be postponed indefinitely because of this. You know....for the safety of the others...(snort)

Any way... there's a saying in Africa 'when the lion drinks, the gazelle must go thirsty.' It fits perfectly in this instance.

MHSRIP...and may another sister pick her baton up. Watch them declare a jihad on me for that last little bit...lol!

It's beginning to look like xmas...

I have so many plans at the moment, my brain is bursting! I am trying to logistically plan the weekend and the following week...so it's kinda hectic.

You know what's funny? I think I have lived in America too long because the other day the guy from upstairs came over and as he was leaving, I was like "if I don't see you before christmas...have a happy christmas", and as i'm about to turn around I realised what I had done...coz that was sooo not politically correct since I had no clue whether he was a christian or not... so then I'm like, "oh I'm sorry, are you christian?" lucky for me he was! But you know in zed we just go around saying merry christmas to everyone and it's not a big deal.
It's such a big deal here because my hospital (which is a catholic institution by the way) had minora's (sp), and other things around the hospital...and I was like what the heck? If you're christian just post your things...you aint gotta fit in dude!

I am also not done with shopping... I know, I am sooo bad. Well really I work better under stress than when I'm relaxed. My thinking skills are very hightened when I am stressed out. Also I am a huge procrastinator when I have options...so the best way to make me decide is to take away all my options!

In any case, my baby brother is here and we have been summoned to Bethesda for a few days... nothing better than socializing with family. Initially I was gonna take the whole gang out and pay for drinks... but maaaannnn majority of these kids are Zambian and the other one is british.... they will "drink me broke". It's like 7 of us all together and they probably drink like fish...so i have to give them a 5 drink maximum per person and that should suffice as their xmas prezzy! lol.

Hope is for suckers!

So I decided that hope is for suckers...and faith is more so. See the thing is, I had all this hope and faith in something and it didn't happen! I prayed over it several years ago. Okay scratch that. I knew i was making a mistake... but I prayed about it and did it any way in the hope that the result wouldn't be what i predicted it to be and that heaven would protect me from the consequences of my action...but dude...I found out the hard way that it don't work like dat boo boo! Okay so I'll give heaven credit...the results could have been waaayyy worse.

The only thing is, what is life without faith and hope? I am still mad at heaven though.
And for the weekend, I'm thinking sonoma in D.C first, then twins jazz (i love the set up there...not necessarily the food, but more the music- grassroots performaces), or maybe...dancing at an African club...hmmm...we'll see. I will come up with more ideas by the end of the week:-)

Religion and elections

The New york times has an interesting piece today about the rise of Mike Huckabee and how the christian rights groups. It reminded me of something I heard last week on NPR about how important religion is to elections. I think a lot of people underestimate how much clout the christian rights groups have in American elections. I remember my cousin telling me during the last presidential election that her church and the surrounding christan churches kept prompting/ promoting that president Bush should be re-elected d/t his being better morally prepared than his contender.

The one of guys on NPR having the discussion was Jacques Berlinablau and he was discussing his book 'Thumpin it' http://explore.georgetown.edu/publications/25868/
and what I think he was trying to say is that it's not possible to leave out religion in politics.

The funny thing is, quite a few caller stated that they believe in separation of church and state, and feel that religion shouldn't play a part in politics and morals should be the deciding factor. The thing is.... where do people get their morals from? They learn them at home and from the communities that they live in. Now supposing their family is religious and instills religious based morals in their children. Cann't we then suppose that religion will make it into the government any way?

Ofcourse the politians aren't sitting there saying the are making decisions based on their religious convictions... but at the same time if you think about it...they sort of are. I guess the bets thing about separation of state and shurch is that nobody in governement can sit and push their religion on you...which wouldn't matter to me if they did because I am comfortable in my religion anyway and wouldn't be mad if they wanted to sit their and talk about theirs.

Well that's my take on things.

The African Jigsaw

Woman. Woooman
Unhappy woman
Yours the pain
yours the burden
where now the beauty
where now the truth
where now the eyes
that were your pride?
A heavy heart
an empty bowl
a suckling babe
defeat your pride.
(Written by Peter Rose and Anne Conlon for African Jigsaw)

Someone found something I had written 7 years ago about the 'African Jigsaw' musical and emailed me which was a surprise! I sang in the production many years ago and that was one of my favorite memories from childhood. So after the little reminder, I purchased the music yesterday. I can only buy the song sheet and not the tape/ CD because that's all there is but that really made me happy and I will write a few of the song words here when I get my book! I wish you could hear me sing! The songs are all beautiful and thought provoking. The two writters have done other work and I also perfomed in their other one 'Yanomamo'.

I guess I really wouldn't be opposed to helping direct 'African Jigsaw' one day, and in fact it's one of my dreams to help participate in one of those shows one day. When The book gets here I might just sing something and post it here:-)

The power of one

Okay so I got to bethesda and my aunts place had no parking. So I parked where I wasn't supposed to and stood by the car for a while since I was chatting on the phone. Well this Volkswagon passed me 3 times and slowed down each time when it got to me. Ofcourse because I am so damned attractive, I didn't pay him any mind. Finally I look up as he's walking towards me, and I start walking as well singing in my head "i'm too sexy for my dress...too sexy for my self, too sexy for sure" and doing my model on the cat walk stroll. Then he pauses to speak to me and i'm like "thank you Jesus!" because he is soooo flippin HOT! Then he goes "excuse me but you're parked in my spot."....tee hee hee! Here I was thinking he was circling me coz I'm irresitable! aaahhhh the mind of a conceited hussy!
So yesterday, I got my behind to DC on time and we ended up not going to Adams morgan because by the time I got there, the two love birds had decided they were having a romantic evening alone...and i really didn't feel like going out with only half the group, so I cooked dinner for the house hold and went to meet my friends.

Today I watched the power of one for the hundreth time. I was in my 'lest i forget my history' mode. (seriously if you understand what that means...you need HELP!). Any way, if you ahven't seen it before you have got to watch it. I can not say enough nice things about it. It's a story of a young English boy groin up in South Africa during the apartheid error. It was also the same period that the Boers had taken over...and they couldn't stand the English either. The guy foes through a lot and makes friends with the Africans...and the story gets more interesting when he falls in love with a boer! It's not something that blockbuster would necessarily carry...well maybe. I got my copy off Amazon. Love it, love it love it!

I was out for the evening and just got back. They said the weather would be bad today, but I don't see any snow coming down yet. So I am happy:-) I all of a sudden have the urge to sing, but I would hate to wake the nieghbours up:-) waahhh!

Unrestricted...

Dance like no one is watching....


Hey you know what? God is good! and the judges in London are just! So the story goes...My one friend was trying to renew her student visa in Engy right, so her application for renewal was denied because she was working 2 hours over the allowed 20 per week! So granted she did break the law. She went to court to appeal and the Judge told her "yes, you have broken the law, but based on your being an orphan and proving that you have been working hard at school and attending class, it would be unjust for me to send you back in your last year of school." Oh my!!! I will pray for that judge...he is soooo good!

any way...

So...ummm what have I been up to. Okay for one thing, my intuition was right about that one thing that I thought. The only thing is, I want it in writting. See the thing about me is that I'm very slow to anger and the reason is that once the line is crossed...it's CROSSED!

I was treated to lunch today...wouldn't really call it a date. But i had fun, then tonight I have to go out to Adams Morgan or something like that. I'll play it by ear. I have a few cousins visiting from various countries at the moment, so it should be a fun few weeks. My brother's due in next week too, so it will feel like I'm back in Zambia...a little bit.


My popularity has been soaring this week... I can not imagine what's up! I think someone let loose that I'm bored and lonely or something coz shamwari my phone has been ringing off the hook...and my date card has been busier than usual! It's just random people...I even heard from 2 people that I haven't spoken to in over a year. Well they called and showed up out the blue...and so the story begins :-)


I had a mini party over the weekend as well. Lord knows what we were celebrating coz it sure as hell wasn;t anyones's b/day. Oh and those heiffer's signed me up for a belly dancing class...should be interesting... I will be unrestricted and uninhibited. Shazaam!
Shoot! I think secret santa has a crush on me! I have been getting a present each week since after thanksgiving and all it says is "from secret santa", I have surely enjoyed them all! I am not saying santa should necessarily stop sending me stuff... I jess wanna know who it is!

Oh and I have stuff to say about the Tampax/ always pads advert. Will do that tomorrow, coz i'm gonna be running on African time tonight if I sit here typing.

Also I think I got taller...don't laugh!!!

I could have danced all night...

I had a lovely weekend as usual... I had cause to celebrate on friday and so i did. Went with the girls for sushi, and had a really nice time. I have been threatening them for a while that I'm going to find new friends coz they rarely like to do anything but wine related activities! They suggested a hike near harpers ferry for saturday, but friday was sooooo flipping cold, I vetoed that idea quick, fast and on the double! Then I woke up saturday morning only to find that it was a really nice warm day:-) oppsy!

Any way, I took advantage of the weather and went to my aunts, then we drove to Leesburg Virginia for some shopping. I guess we got carried away with the sales coz we were very late getting to the airport to pick my other aunt up who flew in from Holland. She promised us a lecture for being tardy, but after a glass of wine and dinner... the party was on! I danced like it was 1999 and my legs ache today:-)

My work mates also had a party saturday, and i feel bad that i didn;t go, but really I have a policy "never drink with the people you work with", you know separation of work and play... tha-sort-o'fing... They are a great bunch... but I am just borderline anti social! Okay so i wouldn't really say antisocial, I guess i was just spoilt by the large number of cousins available to hang out with me when i was younger that i didn't develop the skills to make new friends. My cousins were in my classes at school, and at home, so what more did I need?. Yep. That's it. Lets blame this on my family:-) At the time time, I have known 2 of my closest friends since...forever! Those ho's know a lot of my secrets. I'll have to put them in a box and mail them to Uzbekistan when I run for president:-)

Talking about presidents. Don't you think Gordon Brown's boycotting of the Afro-E.U lets-pretend-we're-working talks was rather silly? For one thing, I think he's making Mugabe think he's more powerful than he really is, and 2. boycotting the talks does nothing for the Zimbabwean people and 3. the talks were about more than just a crazy power hungry old man and his country. I mean if you don't want to listen just tune the dude out! It's easy.

I wouldn't las a day in my job if i didn't have extra thick skin and the ability to tune people out when they are spewing too much verbal diarrhea.

Oh and another loser picks up a gun and shoots people in the mall to be famous!!! Famous? in another 2 years or even months, the only people that will remember his crazy ass will be the families of the people he killed! what is the dar gon world coming to?
Oh wow! Look what I just popped out of the oven? I haven't made lasagna in a while so i am verry impressed at this:-)

Nigerians and juju

So I am having a tiff with this one babi pancake from nijah okay. So here I was ranting and raving to my buddy C-$, about stuff. I understand that my mouth will be my down fall! I think i abuse my right to express myself at times. Oh and I found a pidgin dictionary online.. so i'm going to abuse it na wah!

so any way...between the chick and I, watta pass gari. So as it stands, after watching a plethora of Nigerian movies, I cracked a joke that maybe that's why things go wrong for me...she might have put a curse on me se bi? C-$ decides to go a step further than me and declares 'my sistah O, she go send a pigeon or turtle with a message for you!" I cracked up at that and she's like "seriously, I have been around enuff Nigerians to tell you that a lot of voodoo/ juju/ hoodoo, goes on around them. This reminded me of what my other friend Rita had said. She insisted that she doesn't eat food cooked by Nigerians other than those in her immediate family..."you never know who has bad intentions for you"

Any way I don't want wahala, so here I was looking for incense and holy water in the house and making sure my cross above the bed is intact!
joke na joke! If i find her levitating in my room she go see fire O! Bicos why? my God is bigger than her god! walahi!

Anniversary

I almost forgot that this is my little Condo and I's first anniversary!!! I am so proud of myself:-)
Let me break into song for a minute:- 'they said...i bet...they'll never make it, but just look at us going on...we're still together, still ging strong! lalalala you're still the one i run to....' okay let me stop:-)

When I first went house hunting, I decided against buying single family homes and stuff that would involve me mowing the lawn or something! I settled for a condo coz it's nice, neat and cute...u know, kinda like...me:-) I was working full time and in school full time when I was trying to see about getting a mortgage. I figured I wouldn't qualify for some reason...well maybe because I hadn't checked my credit score in 2 years, so I didn't know what to expect. Then I got the shocker news! Fannie mae and Bank of America thought I was worthy of a 6.5% fixed interest rate for 30 years mortgage! I couldn't contain myself! I bought my condo at $30 000 below it's value and the realtor I met that lives in the area assured me not to worry coz we have one of the best schools in Maryland right here. So I guess by 2009 the crazy house prices will go up again... maybe.
I was so busy at the time I made my purchase, yet I made sure that sucker said FIXED interest. I took a 2 minute crash course on mortgage rates on the fannie mae website, and voila! That's why I don't get it when people sit and moan about variable interests and how the loans officers didn't "explain" it right. C'mmon! who the heck thinks the loan officers give a damn whether you drown in payments? You need to look out for youself and investigate stuff! The loan officer is paid to sell the loan to you...comprende?

Any who... i have been contemplating refinancing my mortgage to try and lower my interest rate...coz a sista needs some extra cash and out of the mail box came this letter from Sentrust Mortgage LLC. They are based in the DC/MD/VA region and apparently offer something called the 'community Reinvestment Act' passed by congress to do...blah blah blah... all I remember from the mail is that they offer a discounted program for mortgages and offer great debt consolidation from what i see here. The catch is you have to make under $60 000 a year... with all the cancellations i have had at work, I might just be under that goal, or be right at the mark. Which ever way, i will wait till the feds cut more rates next week...lol. The recession might work to my advantage:-)

I am blessed with a job that doesn't lay off... so I am not worried about things going down hill. I remember the last recession in 2001, and my friend was laid off. I was a manager at some cafe and I had people with mba's coming in looking for a job... i was like...OMG!

Not everything is positive though coz my damned condo fees went up:(

And the Idiot of the year award goes to...

....drum roll please! param parampamp pamp! Miss MANENA !!!! balloons, applause, flickering lights!
(Back ground music- no other than the beatles- blackbird)

Manena's speech: OMG! I can't believe I won! I have never won anything in my life *sob*... I would like to thank God, the academy, my family and you my dear fans without whom none of this would be possible! Looking back, I really can't believe how much of an idiot I was...i mean there were rumours, but nothing really concrete, and now to be standing here being acknowledged for this great feat... i mean I am in awe!

Dude... I am not sure what's happening to me, but i can't sleep. Okay so i was pms'ing and quite irate. I ate a whole box of lindtz. Nice. I have to work this morning and it's 2 a.m and her royal highness is not asleep. Now I am mad that I can't sleep... wha a gwan!

I had this experiment thing going... and the results were just as expected. Wait a minute... I might be sleep writting:) Let me call Zambia instead... someone should be awake now:)
Agony is: this right here...sigh...

Curiosity killed the cat

They say curiosity killed the cat and expect you to leave certain stones unturned, but my personal experiences say other wise.

Trust me. Always ask questions when you have them.

Although sometimes ignorance is bliss.
Will expand on this later..

any way how about those sudanese and the Teacher? The kids named the teddy bear muhammed... not the teacher. Their parents should be the ones punished for not teaching their muslim children that 'muhammed' is a name reserved only for people! Talk about intolerance!

Also on thanksgiving day, some dumbass in Maryland went out and shot his ex wife and all three kids.

In addition...I had no clue queen latifah was a lesbian!!! imagine my shock when i found out she proposed to her girlfriend???? I must have very poor gay-dar!

I had a nice weekend and hope you all did.

World AIDS day & Circumcision

I would like to start by asking you all to pause for a minute in memory of all the victims of AIDS that are deceased.

Next I would like to applaud all families taking care of the 'orphans of AIDS' and to those taking care of patients with AIDS/HIV related complications. You guys are magnificent people!

It's amazing that years after the discovery of this 'new disease', things seem to have worsened and not improved. Just the other day, news reports said that estimates of AIDS cases have risen in America. In years past, the misconception was that Africans we're too stupid to understand the cause and effect of unprotected sex and that was why the cases were increasing there. I can attest to the fact that this was not so.

By the time I was in high school in Zambia (mid-late '90's), we had representatives from various NGO's that would come in and talk to us about HIV and show pictures of sickly men, women and children. We saw pictures of penises oozing with puss and vaginas with various stages of decubitus wounds. We saw sketetons or children- reminiscent of the Ethiopian children in the 'we are the world' videos. There were countless numbers of billboards screaming out 'prevention is the cure' or something in those lines.
The message was loud and clear: Abstinence or Condoms was the key to a life free of HIV/ AIDS.

A few months ago, I found out that my cousin is HIV positive. My cousin is TWO DAYS older than I am. We saw the same billboards and heard the same messages. We knew almost the same people, including those that had AIDS.

Yesterday, news stations were abuzz with the story of the Zambian reporter Kenneth Gondwe that was recently circumcised. While I commend him for bringing this story to light. I fear that we will go back to the days when circumcisions were perfomed enmass and the same tool was used to cut the foreskin of the men in attendance. Most of the people in rural areas can not afford the $50 needed for the circumcision. In addition, if the message isn't sent out right, there will be a growing number of people that will assume that because they are circumcised, they will not get HIV when they fornicate sans condoms. Also, i can imagine a growing number of penile infections due to people performing their own circumcisions in the privacy of their own homes for lack of finances.

So any way, that's my little sermon for today.