Fortunately for the fortunate. Unfortunately for the unfortunate.
Sometimes, the deepest pain isn’t our own struggles, but watching the struggles of others being turned into someone else’s profit. A few years ago, Black Lives Matter began as a cry for justice, but years later the world has seen leaders of the movement grow wealthy while the communities they vowed to uplift remain unchanged, perhaps even worse.
The same pattern is growing in Zambia. Many mental health advocates, coaches, and activists have turned the cause into a personal brand, a pathway to personal funding, trips abroad, conferences, and, ultimately, their own comfort. Meanwhile, they have zero contact with the people they claim to serve who remain struggling with these illnesses and suffer in silence, their conditions unchanged, and their hurt exploited. The truth I have come to accept is that health-centered African NGOs do more to enrich themselves than to impact African lives. This is not to say they haven’t made a difference. They have, but the benefits reaped by the people running these organizations are ten times greater than the impact they create. That is an opinion I hold and will continue holding strongly.
And I’ve had a few people tell me, “Let’s do this, you know we will make money,” but those who know me and have known me in the past know my position. I will not use anyone’s suffering to improve my life.
If your advocacy makes you richer while the people remain just as broken, then it’s not advocacy. It’s business dressed up as compassion. And that is betrayal.
Saving a marriage is not childplay 😅, but I think I just did😀. The other day, I sat next to a pretty lady at RTSA as I waited to have my driver's licence to be replaced. Yakudaala bananinyonga ku Lagos😅🫣. One of the hardest things to do on earth is to start and sustain a conversation with a beautiful girl 😫. The day I master this art, the bells will ring🔔💍, ingoma yamalindo ilakalila😅. Long, healthy black hair. Light skinned, pink lips💋, butterfly shaped photochromic glasses a little darkedned by generously distributed rays of the Zambian sun😍. Blue suit, skirt around the knees (maybe an inch or two higher🫣). "You work in the bank," I remarked. No. I work at the court. Oh!😐😏. Down the rocky conversation road, she said, "All couples that come to court end up divorcing."
I might have just saved a marriage 🙂. Among the few😉 things/moments during my stay with mum (which is my entire childhood 😅), which I disliked very much, these ones stand out: spreading the blankets in the sun after bed wetting 😭.(especially in the sight of my peers😱). Even talking about this now makes me cringe 😳. I also hated peeling groundnuts and washing clothes with passion 😀. I still do😅. Going to school and bathing are among the "punishments" I endured 😂. The list is long, but not too long for cleaning fresh fish😩. That chore was like a curse😅. My hands being pricked by fins and bones, the ugly smell of it agh🤮. Unfortunately for me and my brothers, my parents used to buy about 3kgs of fish every week 😅. Now, don't lose me, I think I have just saved a marriage 🤞🏽
My childhood was spent in an Ila village, and that means we ate a lot of beef🐂, goat🐐, game🦌 and fish🐟. And that's why being vegetarian is a huge test of character for me today 🙃 Anyway, because we didn't have fridges, if huge quantities of relish were bought, my brothers and I knew for a fact that playing would be cut short🫤 as we would be fully immensed in cleaning the relish in readiness for preservation (drying), including the dreaded fish😩. Earlier today, a certain dude knocked at our door🚪. "Akah, I hear you are the one who does that fish we usually enjoy here. My wife is craving fish, so I drove down here for your soft skills"😅. For record, I still hate doing fish😂 but I think I saved a marriage today!🙃. Imagine the bulk of "not nice" things that God allows us to go through in life. Maybe they are meant for the salvation of some marriages tomorrow😃. Even when mom is not looking 🤔
Sangweji. 😅 Even the sound of it is funny. Ati, "sangweji"😂. How does "sandwich" come to be sangweji💀. Just the thought of it killed me dead😂. But because I was the one in the middle, I didn't have much freedom to burst into an uncontrollably hilarious Zambian laughter😅, the kind were you slapping your neighbours or stomping the ground until salty tears drench your cheeks😂😂. But ninshi mukati nafa😂😂.
"Dude, compose yourself, you'll embarrass us🤭" I could hear the other part of me warning, sternly 😃. I heeded. I was on a plane (an aircraft ✈️), and I wasn't gonna embarrass my countrymen and women, especially my village people😅.
So, let me use simple English, yeah? Climbing into or onto an aeroplane ✈️ and actually sitting down inside it, then it flies from one place to another, with me still sitting on a seat, in it, is still such a miracle for me😪😂. Like, I always have to pinch myself and say "mwati ndime"😅. I don't have to say this, but no wahala😶, I like to sit either by the window side or by the aisle for obvious reasons.
By the 🪟 side to watch huge civilisations fizzle into tiny unnoticeable speckles and appreciate the magnitude of God's care and concern when He says, He knows by number even the hairs of my head 🤯 Ethiopian Airlines 😇. That should explain why I like being close to the aisle. You get?🫣.
On this particular flight (not that I have been on many😂), I walk to my precious aisle seat, and I find a gentleman in it. A quick glance at my boarding pass, seat number, his face and that of the air hostess comfirms that I have not missed anything✔️.The poor fellow, with around 60 plus years worth of life under his belt, leans forward to explain why he is in my seat.
No!❌️ Far from it! 🙅♂️ I can't allow that. Not in this life, not in the life to come! In my culture, elders have to sit on stools, and children can sit on the ground. I may look unserious, but I am a very cultured young man😅😂.
Anyway, now you understand why I am "sangwejed"😅. Four hour flight, sangweji 😂😂. To my right, an honourable man from Zimbabwe, easy (after he saw me giving my seat away without a hustle, he simply said,"I like your mannerisms." I am just being the villager that i am😊🤷♂️.
To my left, the man in my seat🙂, dressed as Muslims ☪️ do, struggles to construct a sentence in English 😩, hard work. Extremely difficult. For the next 1 hour+ this man struggled to have a meaningful conversation, and so did I. For food, he chose halaal, I chose vegetarian 🤩. You should have seen his excitement 😜 😆.
Simply Life🤷♂️
Fortunately for the fortunate. Unfortunately for the unfortunate.
Sometimes, the deepest pain isn’t our own struggles, but watching the struggles of others being turned into someone else’s profit. A few years ago, Black Lives Matter began as a cry for justice, but years later the world has seen leaders of the movement grow wealthy while the communities they vowed to uplift remain unchanged, perhaps even worse.
The same pattern is growing in Zambia. Many mental health advocates, coaches, and activists have turned the cause into a personal brand, a pathway to personal funding, trips abroad, conferences, and, ultimately, their own comfort. Meanwhile, they have zero contact with the people they claim to serve who remain struggling with these illnesses and suffer in silence, their conditions unchanged, and their hurt exploited. The truth I have come to accept is that health-centered African NGOs do more to enrich themselves than to impact African lives. This is not to say they haven’t made a difference. They have, but the benefits reaped by the people running these organizations are ten times greater than the impact they create. That is an opinion I hold and will continue holding strongly.
And I’ve had a few people tell me, “Let’s do this, you know we will make money,” but those who know me and have known me in the past know my position. I will not use anyone’s suffering to improve my life.
If your advocacy makes you richer while the people remain just as broken, then it’s not advocacy. It’s business dressed up as compassion. And that is betrayal.
(Read somewhere)
1 year ago | [YT] | 1
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Simply Life🤷♂️
I Just Saved A Marriage 😃
Saving a marriage is not childplay 😅, but I think I just did😀. The other day, I sat next to a pretty lady at RTSA as I waited to have my driver's licence to be replaced. Yakudaala bananinyonga ku Lagos😅🫣. One of the hardest things to do on earth is to start and sustain a conversation with a beautiful girl 😫. The day I master this art, the bells will ring🔔💍, ingoma yamalindo ilakalila😅. Long, healthy black hair. Light skinned, pink lips💋, butterfly shaped photochromic glasses a little darkedned by generously distributed rays of the Zambian sun😍. Blue suit, skirt around the knees (maybe an inch or two higher🫣). "You work in the bank," I remarked. No. I work at the court. Oh!😐😏. Down the rocky conversation road, she said, "All couples that come to court end up divorcing."
I might have just saved a marriage 🙂. Among the few😉 things/moments during my stay with mum (which is my entire childhood 😅), which I disliked very much, these ones stand out: spreading the blankets in the sun after bed wetting 😭.(especially in the sight of my peers😱). Even talking about this now makes me cringe 😳. I also hated peeling groundnuts and washing clothes with passion 😀. I still do😅. Going to school and bathing are among the "punishments" I endured 😂. The list is long, but not too long for cleaning fresh fish😩. That chore was like a curse😅. My hands being pricked by fins and bones, the ugly smell of it agh🤮. Unfortunately for me and my brothers, my parents used to buy about 3kgs of fish every week 😅. Now, don't lose me, I think I have just saved a marriage 🤞🏽
My childhood was spent in an Ila village, and that means we ate a lot of beef🐂, goat🐐, game🦌 and fish🐟. And that's why being vegetarian is a huge test of character for me today 🙃 Anyway, because we didn't have fridges, if huge quantities of relish were bought, my brothers and I knew for a fact that playing would be cut short🫤 as we would be fully immensed in cleaning the relish in readiness for preservation (drying), including the dreaded fish😩. Earlier today, a certain dude knocked at our door🚪. "Akah, I hear you are the one who does that fish we usually enjoy here. My wife is craving fish, so I drove down here for your soft skills"😅. For record, I still hate doing fish😂 but I think I saved a marriage today!🙃. Imagine the bulk of "not nice" things that God allows us to go through in life.
Maybe they are meant for the salvation of some marriages tomorrow😃.
Even when mom is not looking 🤔
1 year ago | [YT] | 1
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Simply Life🤷♂️
Happy Sabbath 😊
1 year ago | [YT] | 2
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Simply Life🤷♂️
Sangweji
Sangweji. 😅 Even the sound of it is funny. Ati, "sangweji"😂.
How does "sandwich" come to be sangweji💀. Just the thought of it killed me dead😂. But because I was the one in the middle, I didn't have much freedom to burst into an uncontrollably hilarious Zambian laughter😅, the kind were you slapping your neighbours or stomping the ground until salty tears drench your cheeks😂😂. But ninshi mukati nafa😂😂.
"Dude, compose yourself, you'll embarrass us🤭" I could hear the other part of me warning, sternly 😃. I heeded. I was on a plane (an aircraft ✈️), and I wasn't gonna embarrass my countrymen and women, especially my village people😅.
So, let me use simple English, yeah? Climbing into or onto an aeroplane ✈️ and actually sitting down inside it, then it flies from one place to another, with me still sitting on a seat, in it, is still such a miracle for me😪😂. Like, I always have to pinch myself and say "mwati ndime"😅. I don't have to say this, but no wahala😶, I like to sit either by the window side or by the aisle for obvious reasons.
By the 🪟 side to watch huge civilisations fizzle into tiny unnoticeable speckles and appreciate the magnitude of God's care and concern when He says, He knows by number even the hairs of my head 🤯
Ethiopian Airlines 😇. That should explain why I like being close to the aisle. You get?🫣.
On this particular flight (not that I have been on many😂), I walk to my precious aisle seat, and I find a gentleman in it. A quick glance at my boarding pass, seat number, his face and that of the air hostess comfirms that I have not missed anything✔️.The poor fellow, with around 60 plus years worth of life under his belt, leans forward to explain why he is in my seat.
No!❌️ Far from it! 🙅♂️ I can't allow that. Not in this life, not in the life to come! In my culture, elders have to sit on stools, and children can sit on the ground. I may look unserious, but I am a very cultured young man😅😂.
Anyway, now you understand why I am "sangwejed"😅. Four hour flight, sangweji 😂😂. To my right, an honourable man from Zimbabwe, easy (after he saw me giving my seat away without a hustle, he simply said,"I like your mannerisms." I am just being the villager that i am😊🤷♂️.
To my left, the man in my seat🙂, dressed as Muslims ☪️ do, struggles to construct a sentence in English 😩, hard work. Extremely difficult. For the next 1 hour+ this man struggled to have a meaningful conversation, and so did I. For food, he chose halaal, I chose vegetarian 🤩. You should have seen his excitement 😜 😆.
I don't know how to end this story 😅
The End.
1 year ago | [YT] | 2
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Simply Life🤷♂️
We are back 👌
1 year ago | [YT] | 2
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Simply Life🤷♂️
Progression...
It's been a long day🙃. We'll pause here and resume tomorrow.
Happy Sabbath
#simply life
@chiwena-bj
@SimplyCake
1 year ago | [YT] | 3
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Simply Life🤷♂️
Today we are in the kitchen.
Where we are and where we going.
Watch this space✌️
1 year ago | [YT] | 0
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