I see that everyone is in thanksgiving mood, I am too, for "special" reasons if you may. Thanksgiving in Canada was celebrated in the first week of October, I celebrated it with my sister, had some wine, made turkey and stuffing and lots of mashed potatoes. I like to bake turkey on thanksgiving whenever I can because thanksgiving is not a thing we celebrate in Nigeria and well I've had mad experiences with Thanksgiving.

I remember my very first thanksgiving in Canada, my mum, sister and I were here, my dad was in Nigeria, my "brother"/ uncle lived in Windsor, Ontario. My mum was cooking up a feast that evening, fried turkey, made rice, stuff was in the oven when my dad called, he told me to go to a quiet place, my mum's oldest/only brother who she was just getting to know shortly before we left Nigeria, had just died! Scandal.....I told him not to tell her but allow my uncle come in from Windsor to tell her, so she'd have some "elderly" person that knew about loss....My sister agreed, next thing he said he wanted to speak to my mum, I passed on the phone, my sister and I go to the room to consult on what we'd just heard and then I heard my mama scream in the kitchen, I knew my dad had done it. *My dad is not really good at delivering bad news, he's plain about it, just like I am* And that was how my first thanks giving was ruined.
We didn't do anything the next year, the year after that my sister was away in school, my mum and I were out shopping on Sunday and on impulse we decided to give thanksgiving another chance, so off we were in search of Turkey. ALL THE STORES WERE OUT OF TURKEY. My mum and I were so disappointed, we went home and just watched tellie half sad, half pretending not to mind that we didn't get thanksgiving turkey. The year after that, she "moved" back to Nigeria and well, I've been "by myself" ever since, baking turkey every thanksgiving, grateful to God that I can buy Turkey and that the phone ringing wouldn't be my father with bad news.

Cut to recent day;
The past week was ok, I found myself waking up strangely at 5am on a daily basis, and everyone knows the story of how the hairdresser/psycho bitch ex-friend tried to ruin my very planned week, but I digress. Anyways saturday there was a Moonlight Mystery Masquerade (MMM) planned by Church to raise funds. I heard ACTING and suddenly I was involved in the MMM, it was a blast, saw people I hadn't seen in ages, my newly gay church friend came, and I must say its great how we've all accepted him, I haven't seen him since he came out and I must add he is CUTER than ever, and his butt, I just wanted to grab it, it was just soooooooo argggggghhh, I want butt like his!
Anyways the night was great, everyone thought my performance as "Miss Diva" was legendary and they were voting for me to sing and they all thought I was the murderer....! YAWA! But the DJ sucked, he wouldn't play sexy back and I finally danced "durty wine" in my bubu *thank you hair dresser lady.*. I didn't get home till past 12. Told my sister about the dance....long story short, I didn't go to bed till past 2 in the morning.
*there's a point to the story, I promise*

Anyways Sunday morning, my phone rings at 7am....I didn't recognize the number although it looked familiar, so I turned my head and tried to go back to sleep. I eventually got up at 5PM...YES PM! Well, I decided to hit the kitchen with my head pounding and my throat grinding, sha my Aunt and Uncle called asking for my father? Ehn, I didn't know where he was last I heard he was due for London, and usually my Aunt and Uncle don't call our house the day my parents arrive so I thought it was weird, and she was all like I called the house, called your cellphones no one picked...like we were sleeping! And then she went all "when last did you speak to your parents".....and I didn't know what she was getting at but after much interrogation she said she'd call back some other time.
Well my mum texted me to call her like she always does when she's bored and my dad is away and she needs to talk to someone, so I put off calling her till later. Next thing my sister calls me over, she was just checking her emails for the weekend period.

My parents went to the village on friday, and they were attacked, yep, not in Lagos, but in the bloody village, the people said they were armed and they were assasins didn't want money, but were sent to kill my father. Uhm....My mother is a strong woman o, she gave them all her money, said they wouldn't get to my father, they threatend to kill her in place of my father, she told them to go ahead but that they weren't getting to my father. She sha yelled and screamed, small time the people left, she called the cops, the assasins came back, smacked the maid with their gun and someone else, they threatened to kill my mum because she called the cops, and they left again, eventually Naija police made it to the house shooting in the air, after the Assasins left.

I thank God no one got killed, no one was seriously hurt, but to say that I am pissed is an understatement. Where do I start from, my father was in Toronto for two weeks seeing Drs about his health, during this time we were pulling all nighters planning for Otan Day, people were running about for this event, my dad was accumulating phone bills calling Nigeria to make sure everything was going as planned. He has worked really hard for the community, he has gotten all of us involved in it. He started a foundation in 1994 for the youth of Otan that are intelligent but can't afford to attend University, he sends them off to university, and since most of the recipients of the award are now job bound, he's trying to link them up with mentors to help them grow. That is fantastic, he's gotten his friends to go back home and try to make a difference in our little village, and I just feel it is stupid, unacceptable and just completely annoying, I can't even express how I feel that people would come to our house in the village to try to kill my father, and point a gun at my mother and then leave, come back and leave again before police decides to grace the house with their presence. Our village is not a big one, people walk to town all the time. It takes less than 5 minutes to get to the police station from our house, and why would it have taken them so long to show up???????

So many thoughts are going through my head right now, but I thank God that my parents are still alive, I thank God that they are not hurt, I thank God for all the good people that constantly stand by our family when things are not going so right. I thank God that we have him in our lives, for being there when we need him to be, for not letting us roam about not having something to believe in. I thank God for protection. I really want to praise God's name, I want to jump and shout and adore, infact on Sunday, I think I'm going to attend Taize on saturday, praise God solemnly because he has been great to us, when we almost forget how good he is he manifests himself in ways we could possibly not imagine. 2006 is about to come to an end, 2005 was terrible, the moment it came to an end, I was relieved, 2006 was by far a better year, and 2007 is our year glorification, we shall rise above it all, we shall be victorious, we shall overcome.....AMENNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN Thank you God for everything, thank you thank you I know I don't thank you enough as I should, you know am always grateful and appreciative of everything you do for me, God you are the greatest.