10 Things

It’s 10 Things Tuesday and I’m late again. Even though it’s friday, I will still post this cos it does not have to be a Tuesday to be thankful. Mrs Brownstone can testify to that!

Green Pastures: We had our first honeymooners. Yay! They left this morning and had a lovely time. It was sweet watching them; they were clearly in love and looking forward to marital bliss. We prayed for them… I wish them the best!

Castle Mia: Some castle…but it’s mine anyway and I love it! It is a privilege to have a place like this where I can have some ‘me’ time.

Friends: My friends are a great gift from God – the old and the new…they add a little more spice to each day

Peace: The capital of Plateau State in Nigeria has been awash in a blood bath. Over 2000 lives have been lost; property worth millions, destroyed and several people (some of whom I personally know) have been made homeless, they have become refugees in their own country. It has been a devastating experience all round and there are still secret killings going on. It is sad what the effects of greed, religious intolerance and ethnocentrism can be. My family and I live on the outskirts of town, about forty-five minutes drive. None of the violence has come our way and I can only see this as the mercy of God.

Life: So many people lost theirs and it should not take a tragedy like this to make me grateful for mine.

The Weather: It rained yesterday, which is very weird. We are in the middle of the harmattan season and in this area of Nigeria the rains stop in October and do not resume till April/May. Yesterday’s rain was a special surprise and the weather is fantastic! It’s cool, breezy, crisp and fresh.

Power: we had a power outage which lasted 48 hours. It was terrible…luckily my mum has a gas cooker. I however, had to bring out my kerosene stove even to heat water to have a bath! Thank God power has been restored and life can now go back to normal.

Benjy: My little car has been super. He gave me a bit of a problem yesterday though; for no reason at all, he just stopped working and refused to start. So I opened the hood, came out of the car, picked up a stone and hit the battery. Believe it or not he started at the next try! I felt so cool with myself!

Nescafe: mmm…instant coffee has it’s benefits.

Food: With the crisis in the state, that’s a little hard to come by. But God has been faithful and we’ve not gone hungry!

World AIDS Day

My assistant has not been to work in the past month; she’s been ill. The truth is that she is always ill. All the months she worked with me, she took a day off each month to meet a doctor’s appointment. She is hard working but could not do too much hard work. I kept asking her what exactly was wrong with her and each time I asked, she would become fidgety and reply that she was a patient so there were many things wrong with her.

This time around, she has been gone for more than a month. She’s not at her house and I have no idea where she is. Her phone is not going through, though she called to let me know she’s getting better. I think she is HIV positive though she will not tell me anything. I can understand though, why she is so reticent.

Being HIV Positive has become a stigma. People immediately want to keep their distance. Rather ignorantly, it is associated with sexual promiscuity… People get judgmental. But anyone could get infected with HIV/AIDS; it certainly does not choose who to afflict. However this disease does not get transmitted from sharing a hug or even smiling at someone who is infected.

I really wish my assistant would open up to me. I’m not saying I can do much to help, but I can let her know that I’ll accept and love her, regardless.

Update

I heard from my assistant and she’s okay. She no longer works with me though, the work was too strenuous for her, so she’s moved on. I still don’t know if indeed she’s HIV positive or not and one way or the other, it’s not that important. I miss her but I’m glad to know she’s fine and happy. And I was really touched that she came herself to see me. So for those that prayed, thank you very much.