WAS THE WORLD SILENT WHEN WE DIED??

This title was inspired from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's book- HALF OF A YELLOW SUN

After the end of the senseless ten year rebel war in 2002 that left many Sierra Leoneans homeless, children orphaned,families’ lost property, wrecked our economy, destabilized our educational systems and even threatened our social well-being, Sierra Leone had been out of the spotlight for a while; we have been on the process of recovery though a slow or to be better described stagnated process, life was still going on for most Sierra Leoneans. We held on to the adage that ‘as long as there is life there is hope’.

There was life so we lived every day in expectancy of a better tomorrow.

We lived our lives not in fear of the next rebel attack until the Ebola outbreak hit us early this year. Now life is not assured hence NO HOPE.

 It is like the rebel war all over again however this time we are threatened by a different enemy.

Not drugged rebels with machetes and AK47’s but by a deadly virus; the Ebola virus: a virus that is supposedly transmitted to humans from wild animals and spreads through humans via human to human transmission. There is no cure for infection with this virus or vaccine to prevent it.

Our people are dying on a daily basis even more are also been infected. This disease outbreak is slowly turning our nation into a hopeless nation.

Our already wrecked economy has been threatened to deteriorate at an even faster rate with all these travel advisories issued against our country within the past months.

Just when we thought we could not sink any lower as a nation, this happened and now we are hitting rock bottom.

Ebola is killing us every day. But the question I keep asking myself is what is been done??

Since the Ebola outbreak early this year, I am one person who has been very concerned about the progress report of the disease.

For the single and most important reason that I still have some of my extended family back home in Sierra Leone. My grandparents, my dad works in Sierra Leone and close friends who are medics, are in the forefront of this fight against Ebola.

Just this month, a total of one thousand one hundred and seventy (1170) new cases have been reported and we are only half way through the month. The capital city-Freetown has the greatest percentage of that number.

Freetown is the heart of governance in Sierra Leone, even the East, Kailuhun and Kenema where the outbreak started seem to be having things under control. It’s needless to put into words what this says about governance in mama Salone.

But because we are the Sierra Leoneans that we are, when something happens we quickly look for every reason to explain why that has happened and people to blame except looking back at ourselves. This manifests all the way up to the presidency when in one of his speeches after the escalation of the outbreak mentioned that the international community did not respond in time thus the escalation.

 Yes this is how hopeless our president can be and I have documents to support my accusation.

There have been so many conspiracy theories about the outbreak of this disease one which I would want to highlight is linking the outbreak to some experiment that went wrong early this year in the eastern part of Sierra Leone. I personally find that theory very outrageous. From the little that I know about public health and regulatory affairs in public health systems, I know that any sober government with the well-being of the citizens at heart would have in place proper internal regulatory bodies to scrutinize such experiments. Because after all, was this not the reason why we voted them all into office? With hope that they are competent enough to look after our well-being? Please let us be a little bit more critical as Sierra Leoneans.

Today after receiving news of the death of the renowned Dr. Salia last evening at the Nebraska Medical Center, authorities reported the death of the seventh Doctor, Dr. Karbgo since the outbreak.

And as if that was not enough to prompt EBK and his APC government to act, today I watched with a heavy heart on CNN an interview with a family who reported that they took their relative who was showing signs and symptoms of Ebola infection to a treatment center and he was not admitted because there were not enough beds to accommodate him.

 Now my question is how is the millions of dollars the government is collecting on a daily basis from well wishers been used. Are these people plain stupid, ignorant or just heartless??

IS EBOLA ERADICATION A PRIORITY AT ALL TO THESE STAKEHOLDERS?? ARE THEY AWARE OF THE DAMAGE THIS DISEASE IS CAUSING TO THE COUNTRY, ARE THEY CONCERNED AT ALL?

WOULD EBK AND THE REST OF US SIERRA LEONEANS SAY THE WORLD WAS SILENT WHILE WE DIED? I mean even the bible says that heaven helps those who help themselves but it is evident that we are not doing much to help ourselves at all.

MAKE GOD EP WE!!

DEDICATED TO OUR FALLEN HEROES, BECAUSE YOU, YOU WHO DIED IN THE FIGHT AGAINST THIS DEADLY DISEASE  ARE OUR TRUE HEROES.

MAY GOD GRANT YOU ALL ETERNAL REST AND LIGHT PERPETUAL SHINE UPON YOU.

THIS TOO SHALL PASS.

AMEN.

MAKE THEM FEEL GOOD!!

 

Early this year I volunteered to work with a Government Hospital- Mbagathi District hospital here in Nairobi Kenya.

For guys who do not know, Mbagathi District hospital commonly known as MDH is one of the low-end hospitals in Nairobi located at the edge of Kibera- Africa’s biggest slum; it caters for the ‘wanainchi’- that is the commoners.

They offer integrated health services for nearly 10,000 HIV patients, support the supply of critical life-saving HIV treatment and other infectious diseases including tuberculosis and malaria. Also, they offer nutrition education and commodities and family planning services for mothers and young adults.

The services are mainly free or cost recovery and sponsors include global health, DFID, USAID and WHO all in partnership with the national government.

To this day I feel it is one of the best if not the best decisions I have made so far. I enjoyed every bit of the experience- I got an opportunity to interact with people who are not of the same socio-economic class as I am. People, who could hardly afford a square meal, people who saw education as privilege. They shared their ideas, told their stories, we discussed politics, the economy, the weather and I was amazed at the wealth of knowledge some of these people have.

One thing that really touched me was one day when I was all alone in the main pharmacy on night duty at about 11 P.M  and this fine  gentleman walked in and said to me; ‘sema daktari nataka kukupatia mandazi na PK’. He looked at the expression on my face and noticed that I was lost and continued saying pole pole unaongea kiingereza pekee?? Take these mandazis and chewing gum.

Mandazis are very popular here in Kenya; they are made with whole meal flour and fried in cooking oil, somewhat like our popular dough-nut. Very easy to snack on!!

This one was very greasy made with probably very high cholesterol content oil and low quality Unga (flour) - But that was what he had to offer, this was his way of showing appreciation for what I was doing for their community. I was humbled!!

I wanted to refuse the offer. I find it very difficult to accept things from people let alone this man whose situation I know of so well. I felt like I was exploiting him.

My first response was however fear, and then surprise and finally gratitude. I was broken, broken kabisa(completely) this was because this gentle man had practically nothing compared to me- he owned this small duka (kiosk) made from an old container and traded in sweets, chewing gum, mandazis, miambri, nini(things like that). His entire kiosk was not worth up to possibly what I would get as an allowance per month as a student. But he did not look into all of that; that I am a ‘daktari’ and live way better than him. He in his little corner noticed that I was doing a good deed and he had to show that he appreciated me. This reminded me of the story of the widows mite in Mark 12:41-44 when Jesus and his disciples sat near the temple and saw an impoverished widow put in two coins that in and of themselves are not worth much, but presumably represent a significant portion of the woman’s resources, the story presents us with a comment from Jesus that expressed how appreciative he was for the woman’s contribution even though from our human perspective we do not see it as much.

Before I start going on about a sermon on giving let me get back to the point. I am West African and unapologetic about that; growing up in West Africa as young men, we are taught to give-be ‘free-an’. This is evident in how excited we were as kid when we hear of an uncle who would be coming to visit because we know that before leaving he will definitely leave some money for all of the kids except the mean uncles of course for whom we had a list and knew we should not be hopeful when they visit. For these ‘free-an’ uncles, when I hear that they will visit I already have a rough estimate of how much I should be expecting and made  plans in my head of how the money would be spent.

This is how we were brought up- This is the way I know. It started manifesting in me as early as my days in undergrad when I had to starve myself for three months or more to my girlfriend’s birthday in order for me to be able to save enough money to throw her a surprise party.

So I was very surprised when a female friend of mine here in Nairobi told me one day of the story of herself and this dude who had been after her for so long to go on a date and she had been playing hard to get. When she finally agreed to go on a date with the guy, they had coffee at Kaldis Coffee house in central business district (CBD) of Nairobi. They had the meal and when the waiter came with the bill, the dude was expecting the chick to foot the entire bill and not even split. His excuse was that the girl was better off than him; like what the hell does that even mean??? Can low self-esteem get worse than that?

Obviously I was shocked when she shared this with me, because being the male chauvinist that I can be at times, I find it very difficult to take a lady out on date and not foot the bill. It demoralizes me. Even going home from school in the matatu I constantly feel the urge to pay for my female classmates. Not as a gesture to hit on them but it is because that is what I know as the right thing to do.

So one day when I went on date with this really beautiful girl that I was hitting on at this really fancy restaurant for dinner and the bill was almost ten thousand Kenyan shillings, that is like almost 150USD or 100POUNDS STERLING which is way above the minimum wage in Kenya and definitely way, way above the minimum wage in Sierra Leone and she offered that we split the bill, I refused. Not because as ‘WAKONZY’ would say I have so much money or P-SQUARE would say I wanted her to ‘chop my money’ or because I wanted to impress the girl—( I DON’T BELIEVE IT WORKS THAT WAY) but because I believe that as a man if I ask a woman out I should have been prepared to take the bill. Call me unorthodox or old fashioned or any of these things but I still strongly believe that a man should be able to take care of his woman.

This is a battle  for me every day but recently I have come to realize that humans with a good heart; GOOD PEOPLE, would always come through, would always find a way of showing appreciation or would want to reach out and there is nothing we can do about that. It may not be in the obvious ways we would be expecting but they will.

Maybe it would be just a smile on their face, maybe it would be babe who wants to share the bill, maybe hubby wants to help with the dishes, or the neighbor’s kid wants to help with the grocery bag, or your kid wants to pay the bills this month, or the young man at the Duka wants to share Mandazis - MAKE THEM FEEL GOOD ABOUT IT!

I mean it’s the weekend and Shonda is back- MAKE SOMEONE FEEL GOOD ABOUT SOMETHING. Until I am back keep Sierra Leone in your prayers!!

Hugs,

VAL.

 

 

I KNOW A THING OR TWO ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS!

Happy New Year!!
Yes!! it is happy New Year because this is the first time we meet on this forum since the New Year.
2014 has been a roller-coaster so far but through it all I am thankful.
Hope it has been good for you. How are the resolutions going??
It is a shame it’s been almost a year since my last post.
I have been procrastinating about the next post for the longest time.
 This inconsistency thing has to stop.
 My conviction about what to post finally came after two significant occasions, Firstly this month we are doing a series in church about RELATIONSHIPS which has been such an amazing sermon series so much so that I felt the need for me to share the little I have learned/know about relationships. Secondly I watched an episode of suits  season four where one particular scene took  me aback; when Logan Sanders insinuated that Rachael was still in love with him and wanted them back together when she confessed to Mike about the ‘little’ thing they had—(THE MISTAKE).
I mean, I said to myself as I watched that episode, how can this dude be such a clueless idiot?? Oh yeah I know all about that because I know a THING OR TWO ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS.
Relationships, relationships … yes RELATIONSHIPS. I want to say it for as many times as it takes for it to sink into your heads. For you guys who know me well enough, I’m pretty sure you would stop at this point and ask yourselves; what is he going on about??
But hey when I say relationships I do not necessarily mean romantic relationships: I mean friendship, how we relate with other family members, our parents, our co-worker, and most importantly our relationship with God.
Mind you this does not mean I am shying away from my expertise on romantic relationships, I know all about that also and I know it’s true because I am a love junkie—(SHOOT ME!!)
 AND THIS DOES NOT MAKE ME ANY LESS of the GA NGSTA that I am!!
I’m still a G, always has always will.
In this post I am not going to tell you about how to run a relationship or the dos and don’ts because I myself I am not sure about these things.
In my opinion, I believe ‘THEY’ simply DO NOT EXIST. One size never fits all and remember “Different strokes, Different folks”
My point being there are simply NO RULES OF ENGAGEMENT FOR THE GAME.
I want to share experiences, observations, things I have learned over my twenty something years of existence.
A couple of weeks ago I had a very heated argument with my old lady, this is significant because we hardly ever fight we are like a cute couple in their dream phase. A dream phase that lasts for a lifetime.
This is partly because I am by nature this really cool kid, I do not rebel, I do not push it, I do not fight back. I believe my parents always know best, I am flexible, I will bend over backward if that’s what it takes to keep peace, I can’t force it, I will work away from a fight and give the benefit of the doubt even if its kills me to do so.
You see, for us that works out in our favor but then  on the other hand, sometimes you need to force it, you need to stand up and fight for what you want or believe,  you need to be stern—NO RULES AT ALL!!
 In Matthew 22 verses 36-40 it is written that God created us for relationships; In fact the greatest commandment is to love God with all of our heart, soul and mind and to love our neighbor as our selves--- this is all about relationships. But that is not exactly easy all the time- Relationships are messy and tough.

The good book continues to state that we are created for relationships but even the greatest of relationships will be tested and if found wanting would fail and fail miserably so. For as long as you remain sincere about your feelings for someone, something or your relationship with God; you will disagree, you will have your moments of doubt, and you will have your lows. Strength however lies in our resolve to persevere, hold on, desire to make things right, knowledge that we fall to rise again and accepting  that we are human and hence we would fail and miserably so.
Look at the relationship I have with my mother for example, in as much as we are so much in love with each other we still do fight.
Or more so importantly;
Let us look at for example our relationship with God, we constantly fail him every day, yet his love for us is  unwavering. He holds on, he is patient, he would give us another chance and another chance and even another.
What do you think our lives would be like if God walks away from us, condemns us or turns his back on us for every time we go wrong or do not act in accordance with his will?
If only as humans we would cultivate this, the world would be a better place.
Yet this is what we constantly do, we find faults, we find it very difficult to forgive, to move on, and to open up a clean page. We look for the slightest chance to snap.
You cannot see the best in someone/something if you are constantly looking around for reasons to justify why it is not/may not be the right thing.
Anyway let me ‘cut it’ really sorry about my abruptness. Until we meet again you may want to listen to the sermon series- HAPPILY EVER AFTER.
 

Find link below:
http://www.nairobichapel.org/NC/sermons.php
Four real life experiences on relationships including; not about me, in-laws and out laws, no more drama and from roses to dishes.
LISTEN AND ENJOY!!
Will be back sooner than you think!!
        

POSITIVES

So I should have given you guys a warning not to get used to me writing because im not so consistent with things. I might just not be available as and when you want and it will end up breaking your precious heartsL...

Please it’s not so bad with me... I think my inconsistency is mainly due by my tight schedule.

Anyway we would talk about consistency on another day, for today there is this very inspirational piece I wants to share with you all:

http://www.bloglovin.com/frame?post=1713688997&group=0&frame_type=a&blog=1230835&link=aHR0cDovL3J1bndheWhpcHBpZS5jb20vMjAxMy8xMC8wOC90by1hbGwteW91LW5haWwtYml0ZXJzLw&frame=1&click=0&user=0http://www.bloglovin.com/frame?post=1713688997&group=0&frame_type=a&blog=1230835&link=aHR0cDovL3J1bndheWhpcHBpZS5jb20vMjAxMy8xMC8wOC90by1hbGwteW91LW5haWwtYml0ZXJzLw&frame=1&click=0&user=0

A little over a month ago, a very close friend of mine J shared this with me and was like Ajiffa I want us to try this.

Well for reasons I would refuse to mention :P I gladly jumped at the idea without even thinking about what it would really entail in the long run…

I can however honestly say today that over one month down the line I have become increasingly interested in doing this day by day.

I was actually going to post this on Sunday 10^th November to mark exactly one month since we started doing POSITIVES but then aaaaAAArrrGGGGhhh!!  Arsenal lost to Man Utd and I was so devastated I just went to bed.

I talked to hommie about another possible date and was like you can post it on the 12^th of November exactly two months after your last post and again the 12^th did not work out because I had an Interesting dinner plan on that day :D …  

So today three days after the defeat to Man U and a day after a VERY POSITIVE DINNER,I want to share this with hope that you guys try it out.. We call it POSITIVES.

There are no rules, the instruction is simple: every day before the end of the day, we make a list of three good (POSITIVE) things that happened to us on that day.

You can share your positives with someone as me and hommie are doing or as judy does, you make a list and not necessarily share.

It can be anything… maybe a business deal that went well, maybe good grades in an exams, maybe approval from your boss, maybe arsenal winning… The list is long…

It’s funny how we take for granted these little things in lives… Yesterday on instagram I saw this post that really made me stop and think deeply.

It read:

"WHAT IF WAKE UP IN THE MORNING AND FIND OUT U ONLY HAVE THE THINGS YOU THANKED GOD FOR ON THE PREVIOUS DAY, HOW MUCH WOULD YOU HAVE?"

This really struck me hard. Every day is a blessing, everything is a blessing. Sometimes even just waking up from sleep is something POSITIVE when you consider people all over the world who slept and did not wake up in the morning…

So me for me and for US, POSITIVES is just about being grateful, showing appreciation, looking at things from an optimistic point of view....

So try this and see how much difference it would make in your lives…

Over and Out until I write again it’s your boy SUPA JIFFZZ.

I AM NOT WHERE I WANT TO BE YET BUT ATLEAST I AM NOT WHERE I WAS YESTERDAY.

Learning is better than silver and gold; so the popular saying goes. We were told this over and over in kindergarten, primary school and secondary school; we even had a song about “we are all going to our classes with clean hands and faces"….. na na na.. I guess u remember the song.

I am a 25 year old male Sierra Leonean. Yes 25. Now that I’m saying it to myself it sounds so scary but well time flies…

Just yesterday I was in kindergarten at the Awada primary school in Bo southern Sierra Leone and then Becklyn Nursery and Preparatory School and International School Ltd Secondary in Sierra Leone.

Today I am a pharmacist (a specialist in medicines). Yes!!! Me, I am Doctor Ajiffa Victor Labor(I love Kenya for that coz back in Sierra Leone the title is Pharm.—I did not like the sound of that but well I love my profession and I love my country very much).

Like every other human my age both male and female our expectations after finishing our university education are very big—buy a car, have a go on chics we would have never had the guts to hit on (for guys), moving out of parents houses, balling in the night clubs on Friday and Saturday night popping Hennessey and Jack Daniels bottles, making that desired trip… blah blah blah the list is long…..

The reality is that, it is not always a bed of roses after graduating from college. Well some are lucky to have things fall in place for them pretty fast but for the majority life becomes even harder.

I can’t say I’m not happy with where I am today because it would be a very big lie. I AM VERY THANKFUL TO GOD ALMIGTY FOR BRINGING ME THUS FAR.

I would not trade this life for my past life of hustling through lectures, dreading oral exams, those BECAUSE multiple choice questions, plus one minus multiple choice questions, hours of ward rounds, my final year dissertation, waking up at 2am on examination day to go secure a sitting position in the exams hall and all...

I’m in a better place now; I AM NOT WHERE I WANT TO BE YET BUT ATLEAST I AM NOT WHERE I WAS YESTERDAY.

I miss having the liberty to skive classes though. Now I really can’t do that with work.

With my pharmacy degree, ideally I should be on salary, health insurance, and an allowance for transportation and housing.

But after finishing pharmacy school, I decided to take another path—I relocated to Nairobi. Two years ago when I was in Final part one, the only thing I knew about Nairobi was, Jomo Kenyatta and this was because the high school I attended is located on a street named after him.. Now here I am about eight months into my stay here in a country with such beautiful history and natural recourses; I can successfully navigate my way through west lands (that’s like the party center of Nairobi), I’ve visited the beautiful Wasini island in Mombasa, I’ve learnt about the wild beast migration through the Mara river in NAROK COUNTY and so much more..

I am not very open about the things I love; but I love my GOD, I love banana, I love my family and I love MONEY. Now here I am working pro bono for a year in order to obtain a license to practice in a foreign country.

The road has not been easy nor straight, relocation has been an uphill  but one thing I’ve learnt is that my God never leaves nor forsakes the his children and I really CANT GIVE UP NOW....

LISTEN AND ENJOY!!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmQBshQ11uohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmQBshQ11uo