Posts filed under “Core Azuka”

English Names

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I was somewhere between five and six years old playing on the veranda of our house with my elder brother and some of the neighborhood kids. What we’d been doing remains a blur to me, although I think it was somehow related to ‘cooking’ with sand and leaves. “My English name is Fred,” Nonso, one […]

Domestic Abuse

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I’ve been having a series of nightmares for the past few days, and somewhere in the deep recesses of my mind, this story formed. I didn’t go too graphic here, and I hope I never have to rewrite it to be graphic. It had been a busy day at the office. I walked in, half-expecting […]

My love

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No it's not my compura computer this time -- it's a game. Table tennis. I have a tendency to become obsessed with anything I take an interest in, and this game wouldn't be left out. My Wednesday evenings at the YMCA are such an important ritual that when she was putting me up on the […]

Eighteen

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I really don’t feel any different, but of course I never expected to be. I told my friend Kwame yesterday I was going to be 18 today. “You know what we do to people on their eighteenth birthdays in Ghana?” he asked me. “We beat them!” As if I’m looking for a beating. I’ve been […]

Stress

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I must have one of the worst techniques of dealing with stress the world over. I can deal with problems when they come singly, but when they decide to come in droves, I just shut down. There’s the speech I have to give on Tuesday, i55.org which ought to have been completed by now, an […]

Changing

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Looking back over this year, I realize how much I’ve changed. All my shirts I came with over here are screaming to be let go. I was slightly over 5ft 11 when I came — I’m now approaching 6ft 1 and my trousers are ‘scared of the ground.’ I’ll be needing new jeans. The changes […]