Friday 29 July 2016

TOUCHING A LIFE

About two months ago, two women came to see me. the first was a lady who wanted her sister to learn a craft while waiting for her to raise money and send her to a higher institution. The other was a mother whose daughter had just finished her JSCE. She was worried that the holiday was too long and didn't want her daughter roaming about out of boredom; she wanted her daughter to learn sewing while on the vacation that never really seemed to end.
"She would come here by the end of each vacation till she graduates", she began, " if she decides she likes fashion designing, she will go on to study it in a higher institution."
There I was, sitted in front of a truly 37th century mum, mortified, unable to find words to describe her. She hadn't just sat back worrying about her daughter getting in trouble; she had come to do something about it. When I told Maduekwe Ejike Anthony about what had transpired, he asked what planet she had come from. EARTH of course!! LOL.
Last year, our unanticipated fashion prodigy was Charity - a stunted young Hausa girl who had not experienced any formal education for more than 2 years of her life. She could neither read nor write and as such, it was no surprise she could not perform simple arithmetics like division, subtraction and multiplication. She was our little Hajia...a visitor in our midst and she was our project. I too had worried about her for her breasts had begun to grow and she would be seen as a woman ready to be given away in marriage. My heart went out to her and with each effort, I told her just how special she was and encouraged her to challenge the norm. My Charity would someday refute the stereotypical idea that every poor uneducated Hausa girl was good for one thing alone - marriage and baby making. Training Charity was the toughest training experience we ever had; first, she was taught basic arithmetics. Here we were, ready to train a girl on sewing only to find ourselves back in kindergarten. Cut the long story short, we did it! Within two months, charity learned sewing and the funny part is this.... to drive her lessons home, we made her a mini fashion instructor; she would teach the new students how to pedal a sewing machine and as a reward, we would give her fabrics to sew for herself.
News soon came that she would leave and we all waited sadly for the day to come. We would tease her about her endless grammatical errors and she would join in the laughter. it was fun having Charity around and looking back now, I would do it all over again.
As I spoke to her one day, she looked at me and said, " When I go back to my place, I will go to my aunt's place and continue learning how to sew. I will not let them force me to get married and have nine children like my mother. Thanks a lot for teaching me; I will never forget you". A few days later, I tearfully hugged her goodbye but in those tears was the assurance that a life had been touched.

Friday 25 March 2016

FINDING MY LOST LOVE

What have I missed? So much I guess. Besides the flash of light from my screen on opening to this page, Iv definitely missed the brush of leaves and grasses in the not so thick jungle as Ena and I would make our way to the bush for a rather story telling session. What else have I missed besides standing in front of Ena Nsofors gigantic camera surrounded by lights from a million and one sources, I sure have missed the height of carelessness I felt in front of the camera as I twisted my tiny structure in a thousand and one directions. So, I went into the rocky jungle with my new crush Victor of 3plex images to find my lost love and here we are......Presenting to You the Dress Kadiora as modelled by Eberechi Igwe. I hear my name.


Monday 14 March 2016

RED BRIDAL RECEPTION DRESS

So when I walked in, lady Melissa had already been stripped naked and pretty bride Oreva already rocking her EREX bridal reception dress rushed to give me a hug. " My dress is sooo beautiful".
It only takes such a beautiful heart to capture a typical Igbo man tribes, miles and tongues away. Happy married life Mrs Oreva igwe