So I was at a training program over the last few days and as always there were things jumping out at me throughout. Some strange, some just.....fascinating! This course was a "residential training" which meant I had to stay over for the three days. Even though I was excited about this (career development was a big part of my deciding to come here, I was a bit apprehensive about the facilities. Cuz in Nigeria, you can either be very pleasantly surprised, OR very very disturbed. So i asked around a bit and was told the place was "old". My hopes of staying at a "Protea/Nicon" type hotel dashed..........ah well. At this point i'm just hoping i don't see roaches. I HATE HATE roaches.
Anyway....here's the fascinating part. Nigerians are trained to write notes in a class setting. And not just notes, but HUGE booklets. So they NEVER EVER EVER EVER do "active listening". Just sit in class, Write EVERY SINGLE WORD that comes out of the trainer's mouth and regurgitate them back to him -word for word- whenever he asks you a question. So I look around and everyone's frantically, frantically jotting down notes and i'm just there....listening, feeling a little odd. So here's the scene.........
TRAINER: "what is a brand?"
TRAINEE: "well, sir, in 1952, Mr.X of P&G blah blah blah (3min).....so he decided this is a more effective way to market products blah blah blah (5min) we now get to 2006 where branding is done is a sphere of dynamism that lead Bill Gates to quote in paragraph 4 of his article to Newsweek in the July of 2005 that blah blah blah (5min)....and that in my humble understanding is a brand"
TRAINER: "good...Lola do you agree"
ME: "uhm.........sure"
And here's the strange part....at this course, they split us up in groups and we have to discuss and present a case. Cool, i can do this crap in my sleep. We're discussing Consumer Promo offers and someone suggests Shaving Kits for men, so i get excited about this and say "Yes, we can do that and add Shaving Kits for women to that way we'll kill two birds with one stone!" The room goes completely quiet and you can see the shock registered on their faces. Then a brave one fills me in....."Women? Shaving Kit for what? Women don't have beards what would they shave and they would never admit to having one even if they did?".....ah, ah, i say, by this time i'm a little confused. "but women shave armpits and legs now......?!?!" uhm. no. not in nigeria. uhm........ok.
That would explain the bearded lady I saw at NYSC yesterday...
I'm too tall to be a girl....
"I'm too tall to be a girl, I never had enough dresses to be a lady, I wouldn't call myself a woman. I'd say I'm somewhere between a chick and a broad."
I was reading on some oyinbo's chick's blog about this issue and it was a little interesting to me. How do you view yourself? when do you stop being a girl and start being a woman? I agreed with a lot of things she said. Like, generally I would like to be considered a woman but on those days when i put on Shakira and dance like there's no tomorrow in my skeevies (like all women do, don't lie), i would probably say i'm a girl. Or when I'm trying on a fabulous outfit I just bought and I do what my friends have labelled my little "new dress" dance (think 10 seconds of Paris Hilton on a dance floor), at that point I'm just a girl, in a pretty new dress. How about when i'm in an intimate moment with a boyfriend, i would say i'm a woman (I certainly would want said boyfriend not to be thinking of me as a girl) but after that first kiss with a date, i'm just a girl. So which one are we? It seems no matter how much we grow, a girl is the one thing we always will be. Throughout the years we'll go from wife, to mother, to grandmother, etc but no matter what stage we are at, the truest moments, the happiest moments, are when that little girl in us comes out to play. We can dress it up, paint it up, disguise it but she never leaves does she? Reading that blog just reminded me that we should always take the time to nourish our inner child and enjoy those fabulous girl moments!
I was reading on some oyinbo's chick's blog about this issue and it was a little interesting to me. How do you view yourself? when do you stop being a girl and start being a woman? I agreed with a lot of things she said. Like, generally I would like to be considered a woman but on those days when i put on Shakira and dance like there's no tomorrow in my skeevies (like all women do, don't lie), i would probably say i'm a girl. Or when I'm trying on a fabulous outfit I just bought and I do what my friends have labelled my little "new dress" dance (think 10 seconds of Paris Hilton on a dance floor), at that point I'm just a girl, in a pretty new dress. How about when i'm in an intimate moment with a boyfriend, i would say i'm a woman (I certainly would want said boyfriend not to be thinking of me as a girl) but after that first kiss with a date, i'm just a girl. So which one are we? It seems no matter how much we grow, a girl is the one thing we always will be. Throughout the years we'll go from wife, to mother, to grandmother, etc but no matter what stage we are at, the truest moments, the happiest moments, are when that little girl in us comes out to play. We can dress it up, paint it up, disguise it but she never leaves does she? Reading that blog just reminded me that we should always take the time to nourish our inner child and enjoy those fabulous girl moments!
