Additional blog topic: A time when I got injured

In my secondary school, I used to run track. In my second year, I won the silver medal in the junior category 100m sprint race and bronze medal in the junior 4X100m relay. I was already building a name for myself in the school and I was predicted to even reach the ten second mark before the end of my six-years in that school.

In the next year's annual athletic event I picked up from where i had left off the previous year. I was improving my time consistently for two weeks. I was a top contender for the gold medal in the 100m that year. One day, though, I decided to test myself in the high jump. When I tried to scale I tough height, I pulled a muscle in my thigh. Instead of seeking immediate medical attention, however, I ignored it.

By the next day, I could barely walk. I had to be sidelined for the rest of that year's athletic event. This injury also affected my performance in subsequent years, because I was not able to perform well in the sprints from then on. This injury had a huge impact on my athletic carreer.

Additional blog topic: My first day in secondary school

I was accepted into one of the most academically renowned secondary schools in West Africa, Loyola Jesuit College ("College" does not necessarily mean university in British English), Abuja (see www.loyolajesuit.org). It is a co-ed boarding school. I was to begin my six-year stay in the school in September 2001. I sorry to be leaving my parents, but I was more excited about the freedom I would enjoy.

We on the school grounds in the evening. After I checked into the school and went through all the administrative precedures, it was time to say goodbye to my parents. My parents were both really sad to be leaving behind. I was equally sad to be leaving them, but I was even more eager to discover my new home and take on new challenges. After I said my goodbyes, I set out in the other direction to the dormitories.

In my dormitory room, I met some of my upperclass roommates. They were all surprised that I didn't seem sorry to be away from my parents, and I wasn't all in tears like the other first-year in my dormitory. For this reason, they immediately took a liking to me.

About an hour later, there was an orientation session for first-year students. We a large room and an microphone was passed around for all of us to introduce ourselves. I remember it was quite a boring exercise but I was too new in the school to start complaining, so I endured. 

After this session, we were led to our classrooms to meet our classmates. I was remarkably shy to meet my new classmates, so I went to my desk and sat on my own. Luckily for me, I girl walked up to me and introduced herself and told me not to be shy. This upped my confidence and I stood up from my desk and went around to introduce myself.

That night, before I slept in my new bed, I said a prayer that everyday of my stay at LJC would be as successful as that day.

Additional blog topic: My driving test

On a cool morning in the summer of 2008, I ventured forth on a mission to obtain my American driver's license. I already had a Nigerian driver's license by then, but by road safety law, I am only permitted as a foreign student to use this license for a period of one year after my arrival in the U.S for my studies. 

I was nervous about the test because, it had been a while since I last drove a car. Also, it was difficult finding a friend to lend me his car for the test. Therefore, this in many was was my only shot for a while. 
I was first in line for the test. I wasn't sure whether this was a good thing or a bad thing. Yes, my fate would be determined quickly. However, the pessimistic part of me reckoned that the examiner's mind and body would be fresh, thus he/she would be more alert to all my mistakes.

My examiner walked out of the door in my direction. She made the routine car checks and we left. The first section of the test was the infamous parallel parking. After about a minute of maneuvring, I was parallel to the curb...only about twice the allowed distance from it. We she told me I was too far from it, my confidence was shaken slightly, but I tried to stay optimistic.

The rest of the test went successful, in my opinion. I stopped at all stop signs, signalled at all turnings, and made visible efforts to check my surroundings in the mirrors. 

At the end of the test I smilled widely at her, expecting her to pat me on the back for a wonderful job. However, to my astonishment, she looked my in the eye and shook her head and said,

"I'm sorry but I won't be able to issue you a license today. You have been disqualilfied today on the basis of deduction- you may see the report for details. You may go on to practise some more and return for the test another time."

I let her shut the passenger door before I let a string of curses out. I had not come face-to-face with failure much in my life before then. I was disappointed in myself for a the rest of the day. It took the joint effort of a group of friends to take my mind off the test and think about retaking it. I did pass on the next attempt.

Self And Community Week 12

This was the last Service Learning meeting between Mr. Ramirez and I . I walked into Smith,our meeting venue, feeling nostalgic. The Service Learning Project has been an important discovery period for me and has helped me , time and time again through the semester, to find inner satisfaction. I didn't know how I would tell Mr. Ramirez this would be the last meeting, without feeling like I was abandoning him. However, Mr. Ramirez, once again one step ahead of me, took half the load off my shoulder. At the beginning of the meeting, he told me he was aware that this would be the last meeting. I assured him that there would other people next semester working with him like I did this semester. 

For the whole of our meeting, we worked on his workbook. We actually completeled all the exercises-what better day was there to finish the exercises? Then the time to say goodbye came. We shook hands like old friends and he thanked me for the help over this semester and wish me goodluck, and I told him it was a pleasure working with him. Indeed, I was lucky to have a partner as committed as Mr. Ramirez, especially considering the fact that some of my classmates were not so fortunate. 

Self And Community Week 11

Thanksgiving break: meeting cancelled. 

Self And Community Week 10

Another successful meeting- are we wever going to have an unsuccesful? This meeting was cut short- Mr. Ramirez was expecting a relative from Mexico from that evening for thanksgiving. The meeting was to be thirty minute only. For the first fifteeen minutes, we worked on some excercises from his English workbook. I crosschecked questions he had previously answered and we proceeded to work on about three more pages of work . I then read out a short passage from my laptop computer for him to write out. We were able to complete this exercise in fifteen meetings. It was sad that we had to part ways so soon because the meeting seemed to be getting more interesting just when he left. Nevertheless, the meeting was once again a perfect ending to a stressful week. 

Self And Community Week 9

This week's meeting was another successful one. I met Mr Ramirez one his way to the meeting wjhen I myself was on my way to our regualr meeting venue. As we walked there together, he stopped for a minute to check on a couple of the plants he was personally involved in planting. Funny enough, this was the first time this semester I had actually stopped to obeserve the beautiful flowers around and appreciate the effort that the physical plant employees put in to maintain them. I felt guilty that throughout the semester, I had literally ignored the work Mr. Ramirez and his colleagues have been doing. Unsung heroes they are, indeed.

When we began the meeting, Mr. Ramirez, prepared as usual, came in with his own questions. He had marked a handful of words in the Daily Skiff that day that he was unfamiliar with. We went through these words one-by-one, and I explained what they mean in the context of the article he was reading. He noted down my explanations in Spaninsh. I was pleased with myself that I knew the definitions of all the words. This activity took about thirty minutes. We then went on the material I had brought with me for the day. I had an essay with basic English vocabulary and dictated while he wrote. We went through each sentence, correcting minor errors he was making. I would award his spelling accuracy today a 70%- a vast improvement from what I observed at the beginning of the semester. Through the combined effort of his other partners in our class and through his hardwork, Mr. Ramirez seems to be showing great improvement in his English proficiency. 

At the end of the meeting we parted ways. A familiar feeling of inner contentment came over me.

Truth Vs Fact

By making the statements, "... But the truth is not the same as facts..." and "... you can make every word of an article true... and stil not come close to the truth at all" I think Iyer attempts to draw our attention to the fact that truth is entirely subjective to the person involved. In percieving, a place, event or the sort, the truth may differ from fact, depending on the perciever. Therefore by saying "... I think the writer has to be true to the mystery as well as the clarity of life..." and "A writer has to be accountable to the truth, and catching the truth of any situation is his first mandate," he suggests that it is left to the writers to accurately capture thier version of the truth in their writing.
It follows from his statement about truth vs fact that in his essay, "The Khareef", he conveys the truth as he perceives it. In the story he presents events and situations around him as he sees them. These may not be entirely true factually, but they represent his version of events.

Self And Community Week 8

This meeting was a fairly ordinary meeting. We met in Smith as usual. Mr Ramirez brought his enthusiasm and his eagerness to learn to the meeting as usual. 

We bagan the meeting by going throught the Skiff that day and identifying words which were unfamiliar to him and defining them. At the end of this exercise, he was pleased with himself because he was familiar with most of the words in the article.

After this, I dictated a passage from my laptop for him to copy down, in order to help him develop his writing skill as well as develop his vocabulary. We went through sentence-by-sentence, correcting his spelling errors. 

We parted ways an hour later. I appreciate Mr. Ramirez's willingness to learn and his humility in accepting correction, considering the fact that I am significantly younger than him.

Self And Community Week 7

I'm not particularly sure where I obtained the energy to pull through this meeting with Mr. Ramirez, as I was forced by workload to make do with just about and hour of sleep. But I only remembere that one full hour flew by sooner than I knew it. Once again, MR. Ramirez brought his enthusiasm and energy to the meeting.
We continued to work on the exercises from his book for forty minutes. We worked on different verb tenses and practised them in sentences. Then we moved on to our dictation exercise. This time along, as I had promised him, I came with prepared passages that had simple vocabulary. I noticed a significant improvement in terms of his proficiency in English up on till now. He is able to spell more words correctly and when he doesn't spell correctly, his attempts are generally logical (for example "tuck" versus "talk"). I always make it a point to encourage him to attempt to spell words that he is not familiar with.
The meeting ended on time and I felt that sense of fulfillment once again. Another successful meeting.

Self And Community Week 6

This meeting was the firtst time I was meeting with Mr. Ramirez for two weeks. It seemed that his enthusiasm had doubled since the last time. He appeared excited to see me. When we settled at the Smith building, he pulled out an English book which he had recently purchased at the bookstore. Apparrently he had been working on the excerises in the book for quite a while because I noticed that he had already gone some distance through the book. Also, he informed me, with a big simle on his face, that another person from our class had been assigned to him.
During the meeting, I went through the the exercises in his book with him for about forty minutes. After I noticed that he was at saturation point, I suggested that he took a break from the book and picked up next time. We then worked on his writing skill by means of an exercise which involved me dictating passages from the Daily Skiff and him writing what I dictated. However, the words in the Skiff were too complex for him at this level. I therefore promised to come for the next meeting with passages with more basic vocabulary.
This ocomplteted another successfu,l meeting with Mr Ramirez.

Self And COmmunity Week 5

Meeting cancelled: I was not available to meet due to Fall break.

Self And Community Week 4

Meeting Cancelled: Mr. Ramirez called me and explained that he would miss this meeting because he had certain duties at work to fulfil.

Self And Communtiy Week 3

I will admit to having been slightly reluctant to go for my third meeting with my partner because it was on a Friday after an extremely stressful week of tests. In, fact I had taken one on Friday morning and I found it near impossible to concentrate during my remaining classes that day. However, when I met Mr. Ramirez and I sensed his enthusiasm, I found that my fatigue from the week vanished in an instant. I guess, an vocation in teaching my not be entirely out of the question (though it is still unlikely), since I could find such elation in sharing my knowledge. 

For about half of the period we went through and essay he wrote about his stay so far in the U.S., identifying grammatical and spelling errors. I was impressed by how well his essay was organized and how he always made an effort to express an idea without the fear of mistakes. I made it a point to encourage him in this regard, because as we learned over the past week, such "courage" is essential when learning a language. I was also happy he has been getting help from his daughters because that ensures that he doesn't speak English only during our meetings. 

We spent the remaining time looking over some of the material he had received earlier that week from his other partner. 

The next time I checked the time, fifty-five minute had passed. I was genuinely shocked. We ended the meeting and wished each other well till the next meeting.

Self And Community Week 2

My second meeting with my partner went just as well as the first. We met in the library this time. I showed him basic email operations here. However, the library closed about twenty minutes later so we had to relocate to the Smith building.

For the rest of the period, we studied verbs, which he mentioned are of prime concern to him. I printed out a nineteen-page list of english verbs. We went through these verbs one-by-one, until the end of the period. We decided that we would continue in subsequent meeting periods.

This meeting was a fiarly ordinary meeting but I feel that in addition to the progress we are making with his English, we are getting to know each other better.

Self And Commmunity Week 1

My first meeting with my partner self and comuunity project partner was in many ways successful. As I walked towards our agreed meeting point, I braced myself for all possibilities. I wasn't sure whether he would be snobbish or jovial, willing to admit his specific difficulties or defensive in this regard, etc. However, when I met Mr. Ramirez half of my worries immediately dissipated because by from one look at him I could tell it would be easy to work with him.

After brief introductions, we sat at a table to converse further. I really appreciated the fact that Mr. Ramirez was quick to tell me what he wanted help with. This helped eliminate the need for me to dig in and identify his problems. He first asked for help with English verbs. He said he knew a good number of verbs, but had difficulty applying them in sentences. I promised to return next week with a comprehensive list of verbs and to compile a set of general rules that would assist him in buiilding sentences.

For the next twenty minutes or so, we went through the papers and he pointed out words that he had difficulty with. To my relief (and astonishment) I was able to provide a simple synonym or phrase to descibe all the words he asked about. I found additional satisfaction in how much he appreciated my assistance.

For the last part of our meeting we discussed many different topics. I found out a number of things about him, his family and his aspirations in this period. I was also particularly pleased that he shares some of my passion for soccer. At the end of the meeting, we agreed on our next meeting point and bade farewell.

My first meeting presented me with the opportunity to pursue conversation with a new kind of person. I felt a strong sense of inner satisfaction and fulfilment as I walked to my apartment after the meeting. In such a short period, I was able to reach into the mind of my partner, at least to a certain depth, and learn a few things about him. I was also lucky enough to learn a few things about myself along the way, like how many words I actually do know. I see great outcomes from this project.

My Street

MY STREET
The choice of this heading would appear somewhat ironic considering that I actually did not grow up on your regular day-to-day American street. Rather, I spent the earlier years of my childhood in an illustrious neighborhood in suburban Ibadan, a quiet city in the tropical African country, Nigeria. Though most of the years I spent in this neighborhood constitute a less conscious portion of my childhood, mixed emotions fill me as I cast my mind back to the environment to which I owe a large part of my early foundation.
As aforementioned, my neighborhood was laid out I an uncommon fashion. My house was in the midst of a block of houses which were not separated by road networks. Rather, adjacent houses shared fences with one another. This expectedly led to occasional quarrels between neighbors. On opposite sides of the block were two roads. One of them was a small, rough road leading to a famous food market in the city. This road was commonly described as “stubborn” because it appeared never to heed to any form of repair. It portrayed seasonality in its annual life-cycle. In dry season, the road showed discontentment with the scorching heat of sun by opening up into cracks. During the rains, the cracks expanded gradually from bigger cracks into deep potholes. In the following dry season, the road would get patched up with full knowledge of the fact that this activity would be repeated the following year. This paved the way for the beginning of another year’s cycle. The other road was a more commercial road which led out of the neighborhood. This road used to be under the watch of a group of policemen at night, but it was widely rumored that these men were a part of a notorious criminal outfit.
I consider myself privileged to have lived next door to my grandparents. As was the case, my house was built by my late grandfather along with his house some five years before I was born. I remember certain occasions during riots and public demonstrations when I would watch amusedly, from the vantage point of my grandfather’s tower, as the police fired tear gas at the rioters. I also readily remember how my grandfather would make me shell corn as punishment for playing unattended in his garden. These are a few snapshots from the time I spent with my grandparents. A favorite pastime worth mentioning, of course, would be playing soccer with my neighbors. Soccer always served as a means through which we could all set aside our differences and leave it all to the game. No matter how many different disagreements had arisen for all reasons ranging from an overgrowing hedge on the fence to late night festivities, everyone was always willing to “shut it up and play ball” or cheer heartily on the side.
I would eventually get shipped off to boarding school in the capital city, Abuja, for the better part of my conscious childhood and adolescence. However, my mind still occasional flashes back to certain events that took place in my neighborhood. It will always hold a fond place in my memory.