ktravula – a travelogue!

Browsing ktravula – a travelogue! blog archives for May, 2010.

The Last Cougar Village Night

My eyes are heavy in the forest of ghosts. The traveller – that’s me, actually – reclines on a soft sheetless bed. The sheets have now just arrived from the washing machine. By this time tomorrow, the bed will be empty. So will the wardrobe, living room and kitchen. This room, this building – a sponge of memories, pregnant with the mischiefs of a 10-month internship – will be empty. If it isn’t, at least I know that I won’t be here to enjoy its comforting embrace.

Funny how time flies. One day I was checking in and marvelling at a house designed just for me, when NEPA (or whatever it’s called) took power. Now I’m pulling out the sheets to leave the wonderful apartment just the way I met it – without the grapes, cookies, chocolate bars and wine, of course.

The Village itself has changed, from the brown red leaves of fall to the white wild winds of winter snow. It has evolved from a place where I almost couldn’t find my way around just after five minutes of stepping out of my apartment back in August. Now, it’s just a sprawl of land that I have learnt to call home. The peace of the lake, the mischief of the geese and the craftiness of the ugly menacing raccoon lurking by the trash can. What will I miss about this “village” the most beside the warm people, the police patrols, the bike trails and the basketball courts? Hmm, maybe the sense of safety and security that I get when I walk or sometimes cycle back home after a long day.

Of course, Cougar Village is not a village, except by the smallness of its population. By many standards, it is a small town with enough social amenities and a working government. For the rest – especially the animal population – let us write it down as an icing on an already pleasant living space cake. I think this could actually be the Eden the old folks talked much about. When I get out of here tomorrow evening. I will hope that right behind me at the gate will not be cherubs holding a flaming sword. It shall be goodbye Cougar Village, and its name will resound with me for more than a few mischievous reasons.

Photos by Ikechukwu Ohu.

The Last Cougar Village Night was published on May 9th, 2010, with the tags , , under the Observations category. There are currently 6 comments on this article so far.

La Casa Mexicana

How could I not have known that the best and the most affordable restaurant in Edwardsville was going to be a Mexican one? I had never eaten at a Mexican restaurant until yesterday. It was a get-together to say bye bye to Ellen who was retiring from Foreign Language teaching after about 42 years. Present at the event were all members of staff of my department (except the Head, who inevitably had to be absent). I had my first intimation with plenty Mexican dishes and drinks, including the famous jarritos (which is actually pronounced as harritos). There was margaritas, tortillas and chorizos. If your mouth is now sufficiently watered by just the thought of spicy delicious Mexican food, you can give me credit for it. Just go out now, and buy yourself a nice meal. I promise that you will thank me later.

The dinner was wonderful. What’s more, it was my (sorta ;)) final get-together with that wonderful crew that run the department of foreign language department.

After that, there was another get-together with teachers and students of language in the house of a different professor. Then at night, a hang-out with some friends over bottles of beer. Well, the goodbyes are done. The last supper? Maybe not. Next stop, an all-night drinking binge with somebody, somebody and somebody.

When? When? When?

La Casa Mexicana was published on May 8th, 2010, with the tags , , , , , , under the adventures, Fun category. There are currently 1 comment on this article so far.

In the Alestle

There was this article about me in the campus paper, the Alestle, a couple of weeks ago. Remember when the journalist had come to the class’s final performance? I didn’t put up the link here because I had forgotten about it, but mostly because it didn’t turn out to be about my students as had been initially planned. What happened to all those pictures of student performances that the photographer took?

Read it here.

In the Alestle was published on May 8th, 2010, with the tags , , , , under the News, Observations category. There are currently 1 comment on this article so far.

Kindle Love

This  is what this blog looks like on the Kindle.

Kindle Love was published on May 8th, 2010, with the tags , , under the Fun, Observations category. There are currently 1 comment on this article so far.

Introducing African Roar!

In a few days time, a new book will hit the shelves all over the world. It’s African Roar! It is a collection of short stories written by authors from different countries in Africa. As the name suggests, it is an African roar! Do you hear the rumbles?

My first published story, first titled The First Test has now been published in the anthology as Behind the Door. It is a story of one man in contemplation while going through the aisle of a private hospital.

But African Roar has more than just one story. From Novuyo Rosa’s Big Pieces, Little Pieces to Ayodele Morocco Clarke’s The Nestbury Tree to Beaven Tapureta’s Cost Of Courage, Chuma Nwokolo’s QuarterBack & Co and Ivor W. Hartmann’s Lost Love, the collection takes you onto imaginative plains and hills, and all the eleven stories leave you with an exhilaration that you can only get from the little pleasures of the other person’s imagination. Other stories in the collection are Yesterday’s Dog by Masimba Musodza, Cost Of Courage by Beaven Tapureta, A Cicada In The Shimmer by Christopher Mlalazi, A Return To The Moonlight by Emmanuel Sigauke, Truth Floats by Nana A. Damoah’s and Tamale Blues by Ayesha H. Attah. Each of the stories tells something of the African experience, and more.

The stories that make up the work were all drawn from the very best stories published from 2007-2009 on the Story Time website. The anthology is published by Lion Press Ltd UK, and is edited by Ivor Hartmann and Emmanuel Sigauke. It will be available on Amazon, Barnes & Nobles and some physical book stores worldwide in a few days. It will also be available on the Kindle.

You may follow the twitter feeds of African Roar at http://www.twitter.com/africanroar and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/African.Roar for more information. Autographed copies will also be available, I’m sure, as soon as possible.

I’m ex… ex… excited. Are you?

Introducing African Roar! was published on May 6th, 2010, with the tags , , , , , , , under the Academic, Art, News category. There are currently 7 comments on this article so far.