A trip to Mubi, Adamawa state

I was in Mubi, Adamawa state recently for two weeks. We flew into Yola, the state capital, then it took us about 5 hours to get to Mubi from Yola by road. Well, the speed limit was 80KMPH so I'm sure the trip could be shorter.
Mubi is one of the towns that you just have to know if you know the state well. That's where the state university is located and there is a famous cattle market in Mubi. A few times, we saw trucks leaving for Cameroon from Mubi with cattle and I hear that people from around Nigeria buy cattle and sheep from this market.

Yam Porridge

If you aren't Nigerian and are yet to try this dish, please hurry.... It's none other than yam porridge.

Ingredients:
- Yam
- Palm oil
- Tomato purée
- Pumpkin leaves (ugwu)
- Spring onion leaves
- Onions
- Dried fish or meat (optional)
- Crayfish
- Seasoning cubes

- Salt

                             I like to cut the yam into bite size cubes                          Spring onions leaves

Thoughts on humanitarian action...

Humanitarian action normally has the aim to save lives, reduce suffering, poverty and help to maintain human dignity. Well, that's the summary for me from working in the humanitarian field.

I've noticed that when humanitarian action is mentioned, just like development assistance, it is mostly tailored to the Middle East, Africa and in some cases, South America. A good number of the organisations leading in this field are from Western countries, these countries would like to save the world albeit being wishful thinking.

All humanitarian assistance is worthy and directly impacts lives. I can say that for a fact as I work in that area. The joy derived from witnessing the emotions of a beneficiary is PRICELESS!

However, in the light of recent attacks, it is slowly dawning on everyone that nowhere in the world seems to be safe these days... There have been constant attacks by armed groups in different parts of the world and the Western countries are targets for various reasons.

Some of the "holy wars" that are being fought might not make sense to some of us, but the ones in it are willing to die for the cause for which they fight. Unfortunately, we all are caught up in it - innocent, guilty, old and young, every living thing!

More fun in Phuket, Thailand April 2015

 

We landed in Phuket and our driver greeted us warmly. We decided to try staying in a hostel, more my suggestion, my travel buddy wasn't keen.  From questions we asked the driver, we found out that although Patong beach is in Phuket, it was not so much in Central Phuket so we already knew that we would not stay long in the hostel. We checked out a few hotels before setting out as we wandered around Phuket city. We only spent one night there.

We took a trip to the famous Patong beach, so many activities were going on around there - that was where we wanted to be! We went to one of the hotels we checked online, we had a look and were convinced, so we made payments for the rest of our stay in Phuket. We were picked up with our belongings from the hostel the next morning.

Depending on where you might like to stay, this worked for us. Bangla road is where everything happens, the road that doesn't sleep! We didn't want to be right in the middle of the noise so we stayed at Larn Park Resortel which was a fifteen minute walk to Patong beach and Bangla road. There was also a pool to return to which was great! We did so much in Phuket so there will be more photos than writing.

Potato stir fry - lunch ideas for a child

I missed last week...I apologise.

A friend who has a young son sent me a message to ask for ideas on how to prepare potatoes for lunch for her son to take to school. My first question was, is he a lover of vegetables? She said he eats it but it's not his favourite.
Well I told her that you can't go wrong with potatoes, it can be prepared in so many ways.

I have made this dish at different times and it's so easy to prepare. So without thinking hard, it was my suggestion to her:

Ingredients:
- Potatoes
- Butter
- Carrots
- Green beans
- Green and red bell peppers
- Onions
- Garlic
- Salt
- Seasoning cubes (optional)
- Turmeric
- Sausages

Please note - Some ingredients are optional/can be substituted, and should be what your child/you might like.

Fun time in Bangkok, April 2015





At the end of 2014, I proposed a travel destination to a friend of mine. She wasn't so keen but I had been looking forward to going there so I sent her a few links and reviews. After some research, she became just as excited as I was. In early April last year, we set out for Thailand via Turkey!

We had a full day in Istanbul which was a lot of fun, that I could write about another time! We left Nigeria on a Thursday night, it worked well as the flight was a midnight flight so we both went to work. The next day was good Friday, which was a public holiday in Nigeria (Easter Monday was also a pubic holiday so we gained two days at work, yipee), we spent that day in Istanbul then left at night for Bangkok. We arrived Bangkok and finally got to our hotel in the afternoon.

We had two places in Thailand in mind, Bangkok and Phuket. The Easter weekend just went by, so this post is a reminder of some fond memories from a year ago.

We spent the first three days in Bangkok. We had an idea of what it might cost us to get to our hotel, so at the airport, when someone told us an extremely exorbitant price, we walked away. There were people who beckoned on us to have a look at tours, but for some reason, we were both drawn to a particular gentleman who sold his product well to us. We booked a tour for the next day, he showed us where to get a taxi and told us the amount it would cost normally to our hotel and we left. We were jet lagged, but sleep would not come. We spent two days travelling so we needed to collect ourselves before starting activities.

The Struggles of a Woman with Kinky hair


I've noticed that there is a natural hair movement, or so it seems...

I've always had hair so thick and tough that when I was growing up, I did not look forward to my hair being washed, or loosened or combed. In case you don't get that, I'll explain...a person of African descent has hair that is curly, kinky, curly, coily...so many words could go into describing our hair, might not have the pleasure of running hands through. When water touches our hair, it shrinks and becomes the toughest it can be.

I remember back in secondary school, school mates would refuse to plait my hair because of how thick, full and tough my hair is. So at the end, their fingers would hurt (well, that's what they said!). Bless my school mother, Anne, she would always come to the rescue.

As difficult as my hair was to manage, it was made worse because I could not keep plaited hair for more than a week as it would make me look untidy, well except it was plaited so tightly that it would give me little boils at the edges from how tight it was. I had to make that sacrifice sometimes sadly.