When I moved here 4 years ago, my friends advised me to watch Eastenders and Coronation Street (British soaps) everyday to help my accent become posh. Hahahaha! I stopped after two days, which levels? Don’t get me wrong, I am proud of my accent but it's a different ball game in the world I am in now. *sighs*.
After I posted my story yesterday, Wizee from Nairaland commented that I should save well and return home but I should avoid giving all the money to a man. I laughed and laughed ehnn, I almost fell of my chair. Me, Oluwatosin *beating my chest so hard*, carry my hard earned money (in the cold and snow) and give to a man? Honestly, I can’t stop lolling. Do you know what I have been through and what I am depriving myself of to reach my target, and then I will go and give all to a man? Hehehehe, even if he goes to India to get his juju, na water o. It becomes water when it meets with the ijebu side of me. *straight face*
The same person also asked if UK is as bad as I portray it and to that end I’ll say NO. Not every Nigerian here is suffering or in a low paying job, infact ehnn I was invited to a church recently for a baby dedication. When I arrived at the parking lot and saw the cars, am like ehnnnn, is this a Nigerian church? I thought I was in Victoria Island, Lagos. I entered the church and all the members looked rich and posh (lol), all of them Nigerians. Not the South East runs guys kind of rich o. Testimony time came and this lady came up to testify about how God has kept her in her contracting job. The company she was contracting for was looking to get rid of contractors and offered her a permanent job for £35,000 per annum, she said she rejected it and she went on and on about how she can’t survive on 35K per annum. She said she held on to her faith and she was amongst the 5 contractors that were asked to stay. I said ehnn see how this one is talking about 35k like say na 10k, so how much she come dey earn as a contractor. I looked around all the members to see their expressions and they all seemed to agree with her. I thought to myself, the anointing they flow for this church o, I am still considering becoming a member..hehehe.
Anyways I don’t have actual figures but I want to believe only about 10% of Nigerians in this country have very good jobs with very good pay, the rest of the 90% nko
Now my final word for today is to all elderly Nigerians that come to this country, not every black person is Nigerian not to talk of Yoruba. I was at the train station yesterday and this old woman said to me ‘jo ba mi gbe bag mi’ (meaning help me carry my bag). I wanted to ask her if she has inner eyes to determine if I was Yoruba, I also wanted to tell her that if you meet a Jamo person, you will be on your own o, dem fit vex for you o, besides in this country nobody helps you with your bag except in exceptional circumstances. The rule is if you can’t carry it yourself, don’t bother. Anyways I helped her sha because I am well trained *fans self*.
My mum is so guilty of this, whenever she comes visiting, for every black person she sees, she goes ‘eni yen jo Nigerian o, Kilode ti o ki wa* (that person looks Nigerian, why is he/she not greeting us?). My mum sha, she is not only speculating that the person is Nigerian, she is also expecting to be greeted, I say mummy as what now? Are you the Queen of England? My brother came around to visit me once too and wanted to ask someone for the way to the station, he stopped this oyibo and said ‘good morning’, the guy looked at him strangely and just walked away. Hahahahahaha.
Truth is nobody talks or greets you unnecessarily around here, when I see my colleagues outside of my office premises, they always throwey face like say dem no sabi me. Greeting someone out of the ordinary is not normal, infact I have an uncle here that told me about one oyibo in his office that raked for him for greeting him too much. He said he greeted the guy in the morning when he arrived at work, saw him at a meeting around 11am and greeted him again, he saw him at 2pm and greeted him again and the guy just started raking, ‘why are you greeting me over and over again?, how many times do you want to greet me in one day?’ I nearly died of laughter. My people abeg, greeting dey dey too much
Before I go today, I’ll like to say thank you to everyone that has read and has been following my story so far. It's a week today since I started and I have received great feedback from you all *wipes tears*. I am so touched, God bless you. *big grin*. I must also state that writing this and reading your comments has made my living here more bearable, everyday I step out now I am looking for stuff to blog about, its exciting. My twitter account is growing as well and I managed to get Linda Ikeji and Laila Ikeji to follow me during the week, I was so excited *dancing*. They inspire me because me sef dey do small amebo for this my tori o. Next stop is @donjazzy and @bankyw *running as fast as my leg can carry me*..lol. Those are the two Nigerian artists I love *BBM smiley love struck*
Have a lovely weekend guys
Love XX
Really interesting! Pls keep blogging!
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