Merry Christmas

What a welcome to Naija, Port Harcourt to be specific. First a bomb goes off on some Shell Residential club car park and I hear there's been another since then. Then on the national front, Yar'adua and Mr Goodluck have been selected to hold the reins; woe is me. All of a sudden my sense of optimism dims and I have to face the stark reality that it will be business as usual and it will take more than mere dreams to tackle the problem of Naija. Oh.

But I have course to smile. When I had my son, my 18yr old cousin came to stay with me to help look after him. From day one, I had to work on her self confidence regarding education because she had stopped at primary 5. Well, six years later, she's not only passed JAMB, she's has now been admitted to University. I'd like to pat myself on the back, but all the kudos goes to her. She started from JSS2 and we had to get private tutoring to help her along. She fell in love with Math when another cousin came for a visit during the holidays. We had already been abroad a few years while she continued schooling in Nigeria when she called me and said she wanted to sit for her WAEC in SS2. She did and passed! She's an inspiration and I'm glad I told myself as a little girl that no-one who comes to help me out in my home would be given anything in half measures. I'm glad I didn't treat her as just another maid (a common Naija problem) but loved her as a sister.

I had a most wonderful Christmas day surrounded by my beautiful sisters in law, a loving mother in law and a father in law who takes away some of the pain of not having a dad (We lost him a few years ago). All the drama of having so much family around and screeching cousins and having to serve as judge and jury every few minutes to the little ones was well worth the trip. I wouldn't trade it for the world.

I'll do the other leg of the reunions with a visit to my own family on new year's day. Can't wait!

May kindness surround you in the coming year.