You are your country

It is not like we are talking about some jungle in Brazil or something, he lives in Norway, The German said to the person on the other end of the phone. She chatted with her caller for the next 10mins, oblivious  of the effect her statement had on her Brazilian team-mate.

The Brazilian was so mad that her beloved Brazil was likened to a jungle, she wrote boldly on a sheet of paper which she held up to my eyes that Brazil is not a jungle, she came up with all the things Brazil is not and sent as an email to me. It was my ears which listened to the rant, it was my eyes which saw the disclaimers;all these the German was not aware of. She was so angry and she made the one statement Nigerians are fond of saying, I am the only one who can insult my country not the German or any other non-Brazilian.

Her rants got no sympathy from me neither did the comment of the German arouse any anger in me.
My reasons;
Ever since I met the Brazilian, she has never had any good thing to say about her country, her hatred for Brazil is well documented in the ears of the German and I. I have listened to her rant and wondered if it is the same country  my Brazilian flatmate in India resigned from a awesome paying job in India to relocate back to Brazil for. From all her description of Brazil, the nation is no better than India or our darling Nigeria.
I always listen with my mouth agape at how much venom she spits about her birth nation.

Every time , the Brazilian opens her mouth to castigate her nation, I see the countless faces of Nigerians who castigate the motherland to foreigners. To them, the nation shall be up to no good. It is even a disease to be associated with such nation. If it was possible, they would deny the country.
Unfortunately they still have to carry the cross of the Nigerian passport and in the case of my friend here the Brazilian passport.

Now she is suddenly patriotic the moment the German called her nation a jungle.
Yet she has forgotten the days when she had opened her stupid mouth to complain about the government and the people of her nation, the German mentally took note of how much disregard she has for her country.
With this in mind, the German did not think twice or have any problem calling Brazil a jungle because she did not ever think the Brazilian would mind or be offended at all.

I actually wonder why some people having nothing to good to say  about or do for their country. Yes, your country is a mess, what have you done about it. What have you done to make things work in that country you complain about. That country you are running to or blabbing about is great today because of the actions and sweat of its citizens. You will also do your part in making this adopted nation of yours great, but would never lift a finger to make the one nation which has given you an identity, great. If you do not have any thing good to say, why not just shut up or better still do something about it.

I once read somewhere that, 'You can love your country without having to love your government.
Till we start respecting our nation, till we stop castigating our nations in the face of foreigners, they will never show any regard for you or your nation.


Kisses from Bonn
♥ Lara

The Reunion-Munich

The Colombian has still not changed, somewhere in that boy's gene is an Ijebu man's blood.
He toured the whole of Munich on foot, as in imagine someone walking all the way  from the Island to Agege. It was good to see my flatmates again, even though 2 people were missing. I have not seen both of them since last year. We all had stories to share, how life has been different since we all left the incredible masala land. I know we all agreed on one thing Europe is boring and how life in India is irreplaceable. It is memories we will all cherish and tell to our grand-children.

Munich is slightly different from Bonn, although it is a bigger city. The Cathedrals are everywhere,  I think we stepped into about 5 of them. It makes one wonder how many people were present in these cities back in the days because all the churches are massive.

Till we meet again, below pictures are the memory of the wonderful people I shared my life with in India.

The CD collection is awesome, wish I had this kind of passion.

Kisses from Bonn
♥ Lara

ONCE UPON A DREAM

Once upon a child
Her eyes in awe of her world
Full of innocence and happiness
She had so many dreams.
She wanted to visit the world
Become a lawyer.
Get lost in the world of him, her Prince Charming.
Those were her dreams once upon a time.
That was the music of her dreams which she listened to once upon a time.

Her dreams shattered into pieces.
Mama was sick for a long time
The doctors said she had cancer.
Papa sold everything they had but still that was not enough to save mama.
Mama went away to heaven taking with her all the family wealth.

Then Alhaji came along,
He promised papa he will give him the money to start up the new business.
only on one condition would he be this generous
If papa will give him, her hand in marriage.

Papa adamantly refused
But then again, he thought of how he would take care of 4 children.
This offer was too good to pass on.

She would have none of it.
She is just 19.
But then papa can not afford to feed them all any more
Having 3 square meal in a day is luxury.
She has to consider Ade, Moni and Gbemi
What will become of them if she does not accept alhaji's proposal.
Papa cannot take care of all of them.
If she accepts the proposal
Papa would be able to send them to school
They will have the better life.

She must give up her dreams to make life better for papa and the children
The many colors of her dream will now be overshadowed by reality
now she is stuck between her dreams and her reality.

And the pieces chime, she is alone in this.
She must and will now live her dreams through the lives of the younger ones
because for them,
She have decided to become Alhaji's 2nd wife
and adorn the niqab.
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NB: I see a lot of people misunderstood my last post or rather some decided to quote me out of context. The post is about what I do not like about them, that does not mean I hate them (if I do why would I spend 17months of my life there). I loved my life in India and it is history I would love to re-live over and over again. There just has to be something I did not like about them abi, despite the love I have for the incredible nation.


Kisses from Bonn
♥ Lara

What I hate about Indians

Some one asked the one thing I hate about Indians.

Hate would be a strong word, so I would say what I dislike about Indians.
Indians have this attitude of never accepting when they are wrong or have made a mistake, instead of just accepting the wrong and finding a solution to the mess they have created, they will look for a way to push the blame on the other party or something else. Small issue that should have been resolved, will turn to big matter  in the whole I am not blame, shifting blame process.

I had this problem with a colleague who was in Chennai once, babe had definitely messed up, next I knew babe was calling me and shouting on me like I was to blame for the whole ish, I was so mad that day that even all my colleagues were scared to even ask what the matter was. She even sent me one rude e-mail once and I told my team lead to reply the mail because if I do I will be so totally unprofessional. I told all her colleagues to give her warning that if I catch her I beat her up (in my head oh, babe is bigger than me), babe was so lucky we never met before I left India.

N:B: This is just one of the many situations I had, besides it did not just happen to me alone, most of us foreigners had this same issue. After 17months and dealing with over 100people per day, I think I can as well generalise.

Kisses from Bonn

♥ Lara

Frankfurt through my lens

Frankfurt, the financial capital of Germany brought back beautiful memories of Lagos. Frankfurt is bubbling and my friend said it is the Lagos of Germany. There were many skycapers, which is not so common in Germany, fountains and as expected old European styled buildings. I ran into a Nigerian who was inviting me church while I was waiting to return to Bonn. He is a Nigerian with the French passport, who is a Nigerian at heart but French by passport. From Church invitation to asking if I had a visa problem or if I have a boyfriend, kai Nigerians will not kill me.

Frankfurt left a good impression on me.

Kisses from Bonn

♥ Lara

Giveaway winner- Partitions

Priscy is the winner of the my personal copy of the book-Partitions, please email me your contact details.

Winner was chosen via random.org based on the number of comments received on the post.

I am now reading, Uwem Akpan's Say You're One of them. I am so late to reading this book, my excuse, I am not really a fan of short stories but Uwem has made it worth the read.

I am off to Munich tomorrow for the weekend, I am meeting 2 of my flat-mates from India, The German and the ever precious Columbian.

Wishing you all a pleasant weekend, the forecast has promised us sunshine in Bonn/Munich and I hope they are right about this.

Kisses from Bonn

♥ Lara

Global Volunteer Day +Book Giveaway

The week was all about volunteering in the company. On Thursday, my teammates and I joined some other colleagues by volunteering to paint the walls of one of the public schools in the city.

In my typical odd-one out behavior, I am the only who does not have a yellow shirt, and I wore a dress which i knew I could comfortably throw away should paint get on it. It was a really productive and happy day for me.

Preparing the wall for painting

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I just finished reading Amit Majmudar's Partitions...I love it and I would love share it...so I am giving away my personal copy...all you have to do is comment on this post.

Synopsis

India is torn into two, communal violence breaks out on both sides of the new border and streaming hordes of refugees flee from blood and chaos.

At an overrun train station, Shankar and Keshav, twin Hindu boys, lose sight of their mother and join the human mass to go in search of her. A young Sikh girl, Simran Kaur, has run away from her father, who would rather poison his daughter than see her defiled. And Ibrahim Masud, an elderly Muslim doctor driven from the town of his birth, limps toward the new Muslim state of Pakistan, rediscovering on the way his role as a healer. 

This is the story of their journeys across a ravaged land, of the acts of compassion and cruelty that shape their new lives and their new nations. 

Kisses from Bonn

♥ Lara