Sugarbabes

Ok. I'm back after what one sista in the members list has called my leave of abscence to be that of going awol.  Lemme just hope I'm not going to be taken to task over that - sometimes, its refreshing to listen to what others have to contribute than my old self harping on about all sorts..

The mere mention of speaking in tongues breaks me out into a cold sweat and this is seriously no joke.  I shall tell you more shortly but first allow me to put you through the wringer as to how I came to be on the verge of a cold sweat...

I'd planned to visit the museum with the gals a week back but deciding on which weekend to do it was fast proving to be like an obstacle course.  Soon as I had it penned down, something or other crept up like that annoying finger avator telling me no/no - try again!  The Friday prior to the planned event, I was telephoned by the Orthodontics giving me a ticking off cause ma daughter had yet again missed her appointment with them.  They instead arranged it for Saturday morning as a special favour of course!!!! Seriously the sacrifices we make for our kids!  Saturday was meant to facilitate me a lie-in before reality struck to rush off to stock up on household groceries.  Plus I'd hoped to make it an early hit at the museum to avoid the crowds.  Instead now I had to be legging it to the surgery waiting room to await whilst the orthodontic played elastic bands with ma daughter's teeth!  The saga with the orthodontic is too far fetched to even go into right now - so I'm gonna skip it...bottom line ma daughter had her elastics put in pending her braces.  Besides I rather get the feeling she'd not be very pleased with me to divulge all that took place.

We made our way over to the museum - spent what appeared to be ages walking around so much that my feet protested in a manner they are fast getting too comfortable with. In all, the day was enjoyable and as we trugged on back home, my comfort was that at least now entertaining the kids was over... little did I know...  Isn't it wonderful to have large families whereupon you can congregate and compare notes?  Well on this particular evening, finding a houseful of relatives was not exactly bringing me that warm glow... Plus there was that huge debate on mabira forest on one of the radio stations I'd started taking an interest listening to - well ma mom anyway does. They play music from way back that holds so much history and no doubt beautiful memories.  Luckily, ma relatives had to rush off not before long so I was afforded that rest I so badly longed for so that come Sunday morning I could be refreshed and ready to present maself in church.  I am trying my darnest to be spiritual you see...

Sunday morning greeted me with such warmth and beauty!  The sun was up, everything looked so cheerful outside that I rushed to get ready in ma best wares to go claim my place in one of the chuch pews and immerse myself into the day's gospel.  Unfortunately with the weather being so beautiful and warm, laziness also sets in that I found myself idly walking in late. There's something about wearing nice clothes and sandals with glasses shielding you from the world that causes me to just wander off into ma dream world whilst I walk that I forget the necessity of timekeeping...  I found the congregation not too far gone in the service and brazenly marched to claim a seat near the front.  This is so that I can see the projector with the lyrics of the songs  - otherwise, I'd be just miming along...  Everything was going along swimmingly well and I was enjoying the songs to the hilt joining in with the fervour of a new born that's just discovered they have lungs when the pause to welcome the gospel session commenced.  It was going to be led by a Russian-British priest.  See, I'm of the old school of christianity and usually a priest wearing a collar behaves the way I recall as a kid.  Solemn and all serious with the occasional mimicking of an imaginary awesome all-being. He started off calmly asking us to stand and join him in prayers.  Now I am normally ok with this - I just keep schtum while he does his bit and some others in the congregation who feel like sharing their prayers also say them in between pauses.  Heck - I did that myself last week praying for wisdom for those in office in Uganda to do the right thing by the nation as opposed to their bellies - so here I was fine.

But oh NO, he had to go and say the dreaded request... "join me in prayers, those of you that can allow the spirit in your hearts to speak in tongues, you are encouraged to do so"... and I'm like hell NO!!!!  I've seen too much of that stuff of persons praying in tongues to make me regress to ma childhood acting at school of spirit possessions - usually in tone with witchcraft...  I simply do not like or feel comfortable with this new-age idea of combining faiths!  I was relieved when this induced frenzy stopped, breathing a sigh of relief and questioning my sanity to have started attending church again.  The priest went on to give his gospel on the genesis human imperfection.  I actually liked his perspective on this albeit the graphics perhaps were OTT. Then just as he's coming to a close, a lady in the congregation stands up and requests we have a repeat dose of the prayer at the start of the gospel. I'm like WHERE IS THE EXIT? Some of those besides me must have sensed what I was planning.  They'd all formed a formidable circle either side of me, preventing that idea from realisation.

Then an idea came to me.  Since some of the congregation were high on speaking in tongues which perhaps only they could understand or not - could I start kuwemula in luganda because for sure nobody around me spoke nor understood luganda. Relax. I didn't give in to ma impulse to shock but meekly kept schtum, silently begging whichever spirit brought me to church to give me strength.

Before the dam was built our people slept 
   under the water
and worshipped the dark bird-shadows of 
   boat hulls
which passed overhead, seen through 
   the ripples of distance.
Our crops were the weeds and growths that 
   trailed like tears
out of the sunken skulls of fish.
We scarcely noticed the water
weighing on our chests like a stone:
how do you notice a burden that has never 
   been lifted?
Speech went nowhere, a breath released into 
   the thick silence
that bathed us and sealed us in.
To communicate, we handed each other objects
dropped down from boats - a spoon for kindness,
a chronometer for death -
the phrases the gods had set for us.
After the dam was built we lay naked on 
   our dry beds.
It was so light we could not rest.
We had to believe that an element we 
   could not see
was now our own. The shadows we'd 
   learned to worship
streamed from every object. Some of us 
   bowed down
to birds whose shadows flickered across 
   the grass,
some to waving clotheslines' shadowy flags,
and some to clouds that passed over the 
   whole scene,
dimming our other gods
to nothingness for a moment.
The weight of water being lifted from 
   our chests,
we learned the terror of aspiration, 
   as balloons
soaring, knowing they may burst.
And our words carried through the 
   new spaces
almost more than we could bear - released 
   like us
to travel, to die at unimagined distances.

 

"Art, like morality, consists of drawing the line somewhere."
     --G.K. Chesterton 

Jesse Carey asks why Christian iconography puts so much emphasis on the cross, a symbol of death, when our faith is about new life. Carey suggests that understanding sin and punishment comes naturally to us, whereas God's grace exceeds the bounds of logic and human control:

n a way, the crucifixion makes sense. For most people, judgment is logical. Death is inescapable. Witnessing a man die only takes observation. Believing He rose from a tomb requires faith. Maybe the reason many Christians seem to embrace the crucifixion and put little emphasis on the resurrection is because Jesus dying on the cross makes more sense than Him coming out of the grave.

G.K. Chesterton said in Orthodoxy, "Poets do not go mad; but chess-players do. Mathematicians go mad, and cashiers; but creative artists very seldom...Such is the madman of experience; he is commonly a reasoner, frequently a successful reasoner." Chesterton makes it clear earlier in this work that he is not attacking reason, but a reliance on logic can counter the idea of faith. In other words, it is easy to make sense of the crucifixion; it is something that we can feel guilty for. Our sin put Christ on the cross. We are responsible for His death. But the gift of eternal life (which is represented by the resurrection) defies logic.

Christ rising after death grants believers the gift of eternal life, eternal life that we don't deserve, that we didn't earn. It is only granted by God's grace. Trying to logically reason through the idea of grace is what would turn Chesterton's mathematician into a madman. There is no formula for grace; we did nothing to earn it. God loved us, so Christ died and rose so we could live. After we accept His sacrifice, we owe Him nothing in return. It is poetic; it is a loving Father's gift that can't be figured out. Christianity is not based on works; it is based on grace, and it's that grace that takes faith.

Amen!

 

Wishing to check up on my friends in an online forum to wish them all a good Easter today, I came across this email in my inbox.  It's bad enough these scammers break into my ordinary mail but to find this on a a so-called christian site left me speechless.  Not only was I getting a supposedly 13yr old requesting me to be his best, best buddy but this took the cake!  BTW - I will revisit the 13yr old storey another time perhaps... for now, read on and weep...that is if you can put up with the failed spellcheck!

DEAR BELOVED IN CHRIST

GREETING IN THE NAME OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST.I AM MRS ROSEMARY BENSON A WOMAN FROM KUWAIT.I AM MARRY TO MR SAMUEL BENSON A CITIZEN OF JAMAICA,WHO IS THE INTERNATIONAL EXPORTER OF COCOA BASED IN ABIDJAN COTE DIVIRE.WE WERE MARRIED FOR FIFTEEN YEARS WITHOUT A CHILD.HE DIED IN DECEMBER 27TH 2005 AFTER THE BRIEF ILLNESS THAT LASTED ONLY TWO WEEKS.

BEFORE HIS DEATH WE ARE HAPPY HUSBAND AND WIFE IN CHRISTIAN FAMILY.SINCE HIS DEATH I DECIDED NOT TO REMARRY OR GET A CHILD OUTSIDE MY MATRIMONIAL HOME WHICH THE BIBLE IS AGAINST IT.WHEN MY HUSBAND WAS ALIVE,HE DEPOSITED SUM MONEY IN A PRIVATE SECURITY COMPANY HERE IN ABIDJAN COTEDIVOIRE.


RECENTLY MY DOCTOR TOLD ME THAT I HAVE CANDIAC PROBLEM WHICH AFFECTED MY HEART.AND THE MOST IS MY STROKE.AND IT IS QUITE OBVIOUS THAT I WON'T LIVE MORE THAN THREE MONTHS ACCORDING TO MY DOCTORS,THIS IS BECAUSE THE CANCER STAGE HAS GOTTEN TO A VERY BAD STAGE.MY LATE HUSBAND WAS VERY WEALTHY AND AFTER HIS DEATH, I INHERITED ALL HIS BUSINESS ACCESS.

MY DOCTORS HAS ADVISED ME THAT I MAY NOT LIVE FOR MORE THAN THREE MONTHS.SO, I NOW DECIDED NOW TO DEVIDE THE PART OF THIS WEALTH,TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHURCH IN AFRICA,AMERICA, ASIA,EUROPE.AND HELP OF THE MOTHERLESS BABY AND WIDOWS.

I AM WILLING TO DONATE THIS MONEY (USD 4.7) FOUR MILLION SEVEN HUNDRED THOUSAND U.S DOLLARS TO YOU FOR THE USE OF GOD WORK IN YOUR CHURCH AND TO HELP THE WIDOWS IN YOUR COUNTRY .I AM ASKING OF YOUR ASSISTANCE IMMEDIATELY I FINISHED MY PRAYING AND FASTEN TO THE LORD JESUS CHRIST ABOUT THIS MATTER TO CONSULT ME A PERSON WHO WILL NOT BETRAY ME IN THIS ISSUE. AND ACORDING TO THE LEADING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT I HAVE CHOSEN YOU TO HELP ME OUT FROM THIS MATTER IN THIS INSTRUCTION STATED BELOW.

(1)I WILL LIKE YOU TO PRMISE ME THAT YOU WILL USE THIS MONEY FOR THE REFUGEEES AND THE WIDOWS.
(2)PROMISE ME THAT YOU WILL NOT BETRAY ME AS SOON YOU GET THIS MONEY FROM THE SECURITY COMPANY
(3)PROMISE ME THAT YOU WILL NOT DEPART FROM MY INSTRUCTION

FOR THE REASON,I AM GIVING YOU THE CONTENT OF THE DEPOSIT IN THE SECURITY COMPANY.THIS IS THE CONTENT OF THE DEPOSIT IN THE SECURITY COMPANY.FIRST CONTENT.MY LATE HUSBAND DECLARED IN THE SECURITY COMPANY THAT THE BOX CONTAIN OUR FAMILY VALUABLE FOR SECURITY REASON.THE SECOND CONTENT.HE SAID THAT NOBODY SHOULD OPEN THIS BOX ACCEPT ME HIS WIFE MRS ROSEMARY BENSON FOR A REASON.

MEANWHILE I HAVE NOT TELLING ANY BODY THE CONTENT OF THIS DEPOSIT IN THE SECURITY COMPANY REASON THAT I WANT YOU TO HELP ME OUT ACCORDING TO THE LEADING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT FOR THIS ISSUE.I AM NOT DOING BY MY POWER BUT THE POWER OF THE HOLLY SPIRIT WHO DIRECTED ME TO YOU.PLEASE CONTACT ME HERE (rosem11@ciaoweb.it)

MAY THE GRACE OF OUR LORD JESUS THE LOVE OF GOD AND THE FELLOWSHIP OF GOD BE WITH YOU AND YOUR FAMILY AND MAY YOU SEE THE GOODNESS OF THE LORD IN YOUR LIFE THIS YEAR. I AWAIT FOR YOUR URGENT REPLY SOON.

YOURS SISTER IN CHRIST.
MRS ROSEMARY BENSON
NOTE PLEASE CONTACT ME HERE (rosem11@ciaoweb.it)

A colleague of mine’s daughter is going to be a year old this week.  The first thing I could think of asking her just to make conversation mind, was what she was planning on doing for her in a way of marking this event.  I was surprised in fact that she stopped to talk family with me – usually polite exchange is the order of the day albeit we are the only black faces in the unit as well as being both Africans.  Mind you she’s from Ghana and from dealings of past – persons from this side of the continent tend to take themselves to be of slightly better standing than from other parts of the African continent.  Though this is not the reason for the limited social polite exchange we often have at work – just a case of both not ‘clicking’, that’s if you get my meaning.

Anyway her reply to my question made me see her in a different light and actually I found similarities in our personalities – we are both strong and possibly opinionated which is not necessary a good recipe for friendship…

She told me she wasn’t holding a party for her daughter’s first year mark-up simply because her daughter was too young to understand and appreciate all the commotion, which would end up making her irritable if anything.  Also, she simply didn’t find utilising her finances towards such a celebration to hold water when she required investing in her kids’ long-term private schooling – she’s got two children.  To say her response didn’t get my attention would be an understatement… Still, (and very difficult I have to say on my part) I remained silent allowing her to elaborate.  

She went on to expound about a recent party a month back involving a member of her extended family.  The couple had splashed out over £5.5k for their child’s first birthday.  There had been three very large cakes to rival most wedding cakes, this had been estimated to have cost just under £2k.  The remainder of the costs had been towards the cost of hall hire, entertainment (DJ) decorations, catering and hire of a limousine to ferry the couple and child to the venue.  This cost hadn’t taken into account the cost of clothing for both the child and couple btw… and they changed three times during the event.  Throughout the event, the child in whose honour the party was for – was far from looking pleased aside from the initial possible 10seconds on arriving at the venue looking admittedly like an angel…Possibly royally not in agreement to being kept awake beyond her sleeping time not to mention the amount of people all wanting to get their hands on her cheeks in addition to the noise from the sound speakers!  

The party was down to commence at 2pm, the reality was it started at 9pm.  That is to say that’s when the hosts arrived at the venue.  At 2pm, the hall was just being decorated with food etc, and by 6pm, a hint of what was to come was slowly beginning to take effect.  In all this – most guests were oblivious to the real person’s age to which this party was in aid of as the booze that was flowing around in addition to the ‘muchomo’ plus all varieties of fish and meat chunks, you’d be hard pressed to find a child of one year tucking into. That is unless you wanted social services putting a damper on things with arrests of child abuse anyway… Mind you, I got give it up to these guys, you can not say you were not fed as an adult anyway!

Then came the fashion parade… (At times I’m surprised there is still gold left to be mined), according to my colleague – you were not dressed if your headgear didn’t block out the light to create a shadow and didn’t try to eclipse 50cents.  I guess the headgear is all about wanting your beer to remain cool on a hot day!  The dress code was such that you had to hold an account with D&C in handbag attire not to mention the shoe department.  It couldn’t be those one by that Chinese fella ?Jimmy Choo – I’ve yet to come across sistas from Africa willing to chop off one of their toes to accommodate those shoes!  In any case, my colleague has long been given up on as she’s not sport to joining in on these casualties of fashion/dress wars which leave nobody untouched I have to say – even the guys are caught up in it!

Listening to her narrate her birthday party experience, I couldn’t help agreeing with her to what she was saying and felt a bond to her I never had before. I’d long given up and considered myself just cynical to such things – besides most have given up on converting me stating I’m a lost cause to the western attitudes. 

Seriously I cannot get my head around the way we do things as Africans in general!  We can spend so much money just to impress persons with external shows only to wake up the following day without a penny to even put fuel in the flashy car we drive! 

At least I’ve discovered a kindred spirit in my Ghanaian colleague…albeit we still have issues – I’m a bimbo in her eyes as she’s a fully pledged scientist.  Which makes me wonder… are people overlooking the brains behind those who choose to market themselves as bimbos?