So much has happened since my last posting and I will try and fill you in on them all as I squeeze out some time from the grind that my recent days seem to be.
First is that I have been travelling since March 31 when I left Canada and my three angels - Sampi, Danju and Papa; on a trip to motherland to attend my father-in-law's funeral and do what every rational son-in-law is obligated to do especially as in my case, where the first child is my spouse. I have deliberately used the word 'spouse' instead of 'wife' partly because I live in a country where same gender marriage is legal and also because I choose not to offend any sensibilities.
I arrived Nigeria on April 1 (this is no fool's joke!) aboard a KLM flight and yes i almost forgot - after checking in on-line, I made a dash to the airport to check in my luggage so that I could hurry back to a school in Milton where Danju and his school team were locked in a gold medal basketball game for the town of Milton. We won!! It was good to see my boy with his medal and even better to hear him say that the championship banner is the first his school - St Anthony of Padua was getting and it would be displayed in the school's gym. Way to Go!!
So I quickly drove home with Danju and on getting home, parked the car, got a cab and headed for the airport for the KLM flight to Nigeria.
It's been very emotional for me since that day because I had to leave my kids on their own some twenty-three hours away by air (that's about what it takes from Canada to Nigeria inclusive of some modest lay over time at any transit point).
Part of what I have had to do daily since April 1 is to give them a wake up call at 6.30am EST so they are not late for school. I then send a text message daily at 3.05pm EST when Sampi and Papa would have walked in through the door and again at about 4.30pm EST when Danju whose school is farther away would have been dropped off by the school bus. My lasy daily contact is about 9.oopm EST when I nudge them to turn of the central heater (yes it's still kinda cold -this is Canada!), turn on the alarm system, switch off all lights and go to bed.
When I mentioned leaving my kids on their own, I hope I did not alarm you. I may be everything but being irresponsible is not one of them. Those who know me can vouch for me I hope.Sampi is almost seventeen, Danju is fourteen and Papa will be twelve soon. I had had a chat with them and they assured me it was okay for me to make the trip and that they would be fine.
Talking of being fine, my Sampi has been outstanding in Math this year in school, thanks to some home tutoring by a specialist teacher we got for her. With an average in the top 90s, you can appreciate my excitement.If you don't I ask you to forgive me.
On a sad note, on that same fateful March 31, a senior in Sampi's high school lost his life on Highway 401 when he appeared to have lost control of the car he was driving and rammed the side railing hitting the overpass in the end. He was pronounced dead on the scene. May his soul rest in peace. I can only imagine the grief in his family and to know that he had just a few days earlier been offered admission into a university. Painful indeed.
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