ktravula – a travelogue!

Browsing the archives for the Uncategorized category.

Four Languages

A Swiss guy visiting Sydney, Australia, pulls up at a bus stop where two locals are waiting. “Entschuldigung, koennen Sie Deutsch sprechen?” he asks.

The two Aussies just stare at him.

“Excusez-moi, parlez vous Francais?” he tries.

The two continue to stare.

“Parlare Italiano?”

No response.

“Hablan ustedes Espanol?”

Still nothing.

The Swiss guy drives off, extremely disgusted. The first Aussie turns to the second and says, “Y’know, maybe we should learn a foreign language.”

“Why?” says the other. “That guy knew four languages, and it didn’t do him any good.”

Four Languages was published on January 19th, 2010, with the tags , , , under the Uncategorized category. There are currently 4 comments on this article so far.

Earthquake in Haiti

Here’s a link for those who can afford any kind of monetary donation to help the people of Haiti deal with their devastating earthquake that has left hundreds homeless and many dead. The website and the donation/relief effort is hosted by Planusa.org.

https://www.planusa.org/contentmgr/showdetails.php/id/1189150/tp/VE1HUj0xLHRpZD0xMTg5MTYyLA%3D%3D

It may be the sign of the end of times, but it doesn’t have to be the end for those now helpless folks. They need our help.

Earthquake in Haiti was published on January 13th, 2010, with the tags , , , under the Uncategorized category. There are currently 2 comments on this article so far.

Two Poems for Wenger

I wrote this poem last January for Susanne Wenger when news broke that she had passed, and sent it to a couple of friends.

LIKE CHALK IN THE RIVER
For Susanne, Olorisha!

They said it rained when Susanne was buried.
It poured.
They spoke of a rumble of the heavens
as the orisa osun swam back, again, to her pristine source.

They talked of art.
They spoke of beauty.
They mentioned hands
That sculpted spirits.

But now when the forests have stopped dancing with the rain,
See the wind escape from that storied grove.
Look, amid the hallowed haze,
at a turning twirl of her spirit gaze.

Gone is the eye that looked out for the standing stems
When greed called for arms, and men scorned sense, and all she wove.

Today, the Spirit it was that left, again,
To return. To return: a time-bound god, or else a traveling dove.

NOTE: Susanne Wenger was the Austrian artist who lived most of her life in Osogbo Nigeria as a priestess of the river Osun. Born in Austria and was married to the artist Ulli Beier who brought her to Nigeria in the 60s. She died last January at the age of

Two Poems for Wenger was published on January 1st, 2010, under the Uncategorized category. There are currently no comments on this article so far.

Meeting the Bloggers

Here is the most anticipated post about my meeting with some of Nigeria’s famous bloggers residing in the United States of America. The state of Maryland itself is home to a handful of them so it was already a granted fact that I would make a courtesy call on the anonymous personalities behind Nigeria’s biggest web voices. Going to Maryland and not meeting a Nigerian blogger is like going to France and not seeing the Eiffel Tower, or going to Lagos and not losing your wallet. Or something like that. Anyway, it was just as well that my Fulbright conference took place in a part of the country closest to the state of Maryland, so I arranged my trip to give at least a form of freedom to explore and meet the people of Nigeria living there, making a difference and contributing their individual talents to global conversation through their blogs and twitter feeds.

I had no unrealistic expectations when I decided to meet with those that were available, and I realized that it was going to be easier since they didn’t have any expectations either. We all belonged to a active (and sometimes resteless) group of bloggers in what is called the Naija Blogville, and even though we had never met in flesh, we existed in a shared space of fun, collective aspirations, life stories, laughter, occasional complaints and youthfulness where we tease, taunt, share, love, scandalize, flay, fight, and desire ourselves endlessly. Until then, I was as invisible to them as they were to me, and agreeing to meet up was as much a trust in good faith and the triumph of media development. After all, if not for blogger, wordpress, facebook or twitter, and most of all instant messaging, and the faith we develop from the impressions made therefrom, there was scarcely a way in which the following scenario would have taken place:

Vera: My school starts at 2pm. We agreed to meet at 2pm.

Me: At your school?

Vera: Yeah. I mean, my group mates and I are meeting at 2pm in school.

Me: Well, except your school is as small as this hotel room, there’s no way I can locate you in a large group of University students on a large campus. Does Bunmi know where to find you in school?

Vera: No, I’m sure she wouldn’t. Okay, let’s put on our thinking caps.

Me: I have mine on right now. It’s blue.

Vera: What time do you want to meet? That would help me determine where/how to meet.

Me: Problem is, I don’t know exactly when exactly Bunmi would be here. She will send me a mail to say when.

Vera: Nonsense. I’m calling her right now. Just hold on.

Vera Ezimora (12/12/2009 9:43:26 PM): My school starts at 2pm.
Vera Ezimora (12/12/2009 9:43:38 PM): We agreed to meet at 2pm
Moi (12/12/2009 9:43:47 PM): at your school?
Vera Ezimora (12/12/2009 9:44:08 PM): Yeah. I mean, my group mates and I are meeting at 2pm in school
Moi (12/12/2009 9:44:40 PM): aaargh. Except your school is as small as this hotel room, there’s no way I can locate you in a group of university students.
Moi (12/12/2009 9:44:50 PM): on a large campus
Moi (12/12/2009 9:45:14 PM): does bumight know where to find you in school?
Vera Ezimora (12/12/2009 9:45:42 PM): No, I’m sure she wouldn’t
Vera Ezimora (12/12/2009 9:45:53 PM): Okay, let’s put on our thinking caps
Moi (12/12/2009 9:45:58 PM): I have mine on
Moi (12/12/2009 9:46:01 PM): It’s blue
Vera Ezimora (12/12/2009 9:46:05 PM): What time do you want to meet?
Vera Ezimora (12/12/2009 9:46:07 PM): Lol
Vera Ezimora (12/12/2009 9:46:24 PM): That would help me determine where/how to meet
Moi (12/12/2009 9:46:55 PM): problem is, Bumight says she likes to wake up late, so I don’t know when exactly she’ll be here. She will send me a mail to say when.
Vera Ezimora (12/12/2009 9:47:14 PM): Nonsense. I’m calling her right now. Just hold on.
Moi (12/12/2009 9:47:16 PM): so if she can set me free by 12 or 1pm, where will it be better for her to drop me?

Meeting the Bloggers was published on December 17th, 2009, under the Uncategorized category. There are currently no comments on this article so far.

Sunday, abridged

I left the hotel in Washington DC at around ten in company of my very charming host Bumight, who had volunteered to give me a lift from the hotel and a ride through Howard University. The tour was in the cold rain, but was worth it. Later, I was pleased to get a chance to participate in the cooking my own breakfast.
I then went to the University of Maryland as well and sat through a class group discussion that had students from three different continents.
Later, I went, along with blogger and radio personality Vera Ezimora, to the home of a Nigerian writer and literary critic Ikhide Ikheloa who had graciously offered to host me and drive me back to the airport in the morning. All these he did, and more. I had never eaten so much food at one sitting in my entire life.  It was also my first time of finishing a whole bottle of red wine at one sitting. It was Malbec, a fine wine from Argentina. Mr Ikheloa has lived in the United States since 1982 when he decided on a whim to move from the prosperity of old Nigeria in search of adventure. It was another home away from home with stories, music, jokes, laughter and fun.

The morning of Sunday started with promise, in spite of the very cold rain. I left the hotel in Washington DC an hour before check out time in company of my very charming host Bumight, who had come all the way from Maryland to drive get me out of the capital. It was with her that I got a free ride-through tour of Howard University in Maryland where she’s a student of medicine. The tour was extensive and we almost froze our fingers off while walking in the freezing and dripping weather, taking pictures. I later went to Hyatsville where I did a little cooking for my own breakfast.

The Nigerian slice of the American blogging world is dominated, I believe, by a few young but strong Nigerian ladies many of who reside in the state of Maryland. On this visit, I was privileged to have met four of them. Bumight’s blog, like many others, express the different peculiarities of living, particularly as a student in a foreign country, but it has a medical slant, understandably. These days, you’re most likely to find her on twitter sharing thought or just being randomly funny. Can you guess what’s written on that shirt she’s wearing in this picture?

My travelling body was soon transferred from her hand, after a delicious breakfast, into the hands of another blogger Vera Ezimora whose online presence is almost greatly disproportional to her height and (almost) gentle speech. But don’t take my word for it. I’ve been told that while standing beside me, people of normal height look like dwarfs. Vera and I went to the University of Maryland where she’s currently a student. I sat through almost one and a half hour of class group discussion that dwelt on the different types of empathy. After those tortuous hours (of my life that I can never get back, of listening to them deliberate in at least four different accents of the English language – from at least three different continents), I am never going to see empathy in the same light ever again.

Then there was a brief interlude outside of the class, a short respite, where I met some two new faces from the Nigeria: Chinny and Sweet&Sour, who complained that I made them look short. See how one of them tried to get to my height level by jumping up high. I was meeting them for the very first time.

Nigerian writer and literary critic Ikhide Ikheloa who had graciously offered to host me and drive me back to the airport in the morning. All these he did, and more. I had never eaten so much food at one sitting in my entire life.  It was also my first time of finishing a whole bottle of red wine at one sitting. It was Malbec, a fine wine from Argentina. Mr Ikheloa has lived in the United States since 1982 when he decided on a whim to move from the prosperity of old Nigeria in search of adventure. It was another home away from home with stories, music, jokes, laughter and fun.

Sunday, abridged was published on December 15th, 2009, under the Travelling, Uncategorized category. There are currently no comments on this article so far.