For ages women in general have been judged and valued by the level of their physical beauty. African women come from a society that prepares them for marriage even before they reach puberty and are still very much convinced that a beautiful face and body are enough for them to survive in the world today. 

But unfortunately, it is not.

I have once been the African woman who strived to pull the attention of well-to-do men so that I could kiss all my financial problems goodbye. But with time I realized that playing just the role of a beautiful woman in the life of a man or in society isn't enough. 

You are more than just 'beautiful' dear African woman. You can also be ambitious and beautiful! Aspiring and beautiful! Or even career-oriented and beautiful if you want! Pair your beauty with something more meaningful and see yourself shine even brighter. 

A beautiful African woman who is knowledgeable and has achievements and aspirations is a beautiful sight to behold. 

How do you survive if your beauty is no longer present? How do you feel when people value you only because of your physical looks? Do you know the respect you'll earn when you add your intelligence to that beauty? Do you know it is better to use your knowledge and skills to earn a living rather than just relying on your looks?

Dear African woman, your beauty alone is not enough! You can do better than just being beautiful.

 

Hi ladies,

Happy new year 🥂

I hope you had a great end of year break with yourself, your family and love ones. 

To stay focused, motivated, and aligned with our true desires, we need to have a theme for the year.

Happy new year 🥂

It's been a few weeks since I shared any posts here and honestly I was getting bothered by that. I was so busy lately. The transition from holiday to back-to-school has been hectic but thank God it went well. I'm settling in to the changes and adapting now. 

By the time we got to the week before school started, I was wondering if school was really starting the following week because I couldn't just bring myself to accept that I have to start having very early mornings at least five times a week. I'm not an early morning person so you get my struggle. But I've been trying my best. There are days we are late and others are on time. So we thank God for that. 

I'm giving myself time to adapt to the new routine of early mornings and doing homework in the evening. It can be easy to judge or blame yourself for not doing so good at something if you don't consider that you need some time to adapt before you can be more performant or productive. 

By the way October will soon be here and that means we are three months away from the year 2024! I mean, we just said happy new year a while ago so why are we already talking about another year? This is mind-blowing I tell you. The year has gone by so fast in my opinion. 

Related post coming soon : Dear ambitious African woman, how far with your goals for 2023? 

In the meantime I'm optimistic about this new week. It's my second week of using my new skin care products I got last week. I got more sivoderm products for myself and some products for the kids. There's been some changes after I used them this first week so I'm looking forward to how it will be this week. 

I hope you have a great week too and take care of yourself. God bless you and thanks for reading. 

While in a taxi the other day I overheard a conversation between the driver and someone on the phone (and yeah the driver shouldn't even be on the phone while driving) but what they were talking about caught my attention. 

He said he just payed school registration for his child and went further to talk about the many mouths he has to feed at home (probably holiday makers). He also mentioned it is not an easy task and wondered how an aunt of his who had a fuller house managed to feed everyone three times a day. 

Their conversation reminded me of the fact that it's not easy to confront this hard economy especially during this back to school period. It's stressful. Overcoming the pressure of this hard economy needs a strong mind that can stay focused and take the right decisions. It also requires you to learn how to deal with stress related to your finances and to make a plan to turn these challenging times into opportunities for real growth and change. 

Most of all you need to calm down and relax to avoid stress related issues. I know it's not easy but you'd have to. 😉

I hope your back to school preparations are going on well and may God provide where we lack in Jesus name. 🙏🏾

I don't know why I take fine pictures and hesitate to post them. Maybe I'm not used to being 'fine' anymore. (Warning ⚠️ This is a Vulnerable post). 

After I became a mother, a lot of things about my body changed. I embraced those changes and applauded my body for the amazing job it did to procreate. My body was even making a lot of effort to heal. But it needed more time to do so. 

And then I felt ok about myself but not 'fine' enough or as 'fine' as I used to be. 

Looking at the mirror these days and seeing a resemblance with the person I used to be before I became a mother makes me feel happy. I'm finding myself again I tell myself. But i still feel scared when I remember it's possible to lose the image of yourself you identified with because of something you wanted to do with all your heart. 

Hopefully I get used to being and looking fine so that I can post more 'fine' pictures of myself. 😉

This morning I read a post about someone who realized he no longer had his good friends around after he made a list of guests to invite to a party he wanted to organize. He said it was due to the exodus of most of his friends abroad for a better life and related the problem to the difficult conditions of living in the country which pushes people to leave. 

I feel touched by his post because it made me remember that I am almost is the same kind of position. My case may be a bit different because I still have some of my close friends in the country but they are in different towns. In addition, most of us have become mothers and also have careers that makes it difficult for us to see even when we are in the same town. Death has even made the distance further for some of us and the circle of friends that once used to be together is now dispersed. 

It can be hard to make new friends for some people and I'm one of them. And when I say friends I mean good quality friends like the one the author of the post I read was referring to. Good friends like the ones I had who are now far away time and distance wise. 

I have never been intentional about making friends - maybe I should. The friends I've had started from being a good classmate or a good neighbor with whom we clicked and with time they proved they were trustworthy. I still love and consider them my friends and look forward to catching up when possible. Building a life is not easy and I believe we still pray and wish each other well as we focus on our busy lives for now. 

I also guess that time where we made friends naturally is gone now. But how do you make friends intentionally? Honestly that's is a million dollar question for me. 

Do you have a circle of friends? How do you relate with them now that you are grown and busy? 

Hi guys, 

How are you doing?  

Last week was a busy week, but I managed to get some me-time. Please share with me how you unwind after a long week in the comments. 

Considering that I was too tired to go anywhere, especially with the kids, I settled for something easy and within my reach - Watching Nollywood movies on YouTube. I do this a few times a week to relax and entertain myself and it's mostly at the end of the day before I go to sleep. But this week I wanted to spend the weekend especially Saturday watching Nollywood movies. Friday was the busiest day of the week for me. I had some maintenance work going on at my apartment so I had a lot of organisation and cleaning to do. The walls in the rooms were repainted, the window/door blind holders and anti-mosquito nets were installed plus other little stuff that had to be taken care of. The workers were not able to finish on Friday and will hopefully finish it today. 

The movie I enjoyed the most was Original Husband Material with Maurice Sam and Ekamma Etim Iyang as lead actors. It's a romance movie and romance movies are my favourite.

Some images taken during the week: 

By the way it's a public holiday in Cameroon today and tomorrow as well. Sunday and Tuesday (is assumption day) are public holidays in Cameroon and a day between two public holidays is usually declared a public holiday. 

How are you spending the public holiday if you are in Cameroon? Is it also a public holiday in your country today or tomorrow? Please share in the comments. 

Ngumabi. 

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Here are a few pictures to further describe my day: 

It was a challenge to keep avoiding the mud at every step.

Another view of the market.

I got fried chicken gizzards. They were so delicious.

Tigger nuts

Oranges

This boboloh was freshly made and it was really good.

I don't know how they call this fruit but they look like cherries and I love them. But I was a little disappointed this time because there were more soft ones in the ones I bought than usual.