Ungrateful generation!!!

Yesturday afternoon I was having a conversation with my roomate, and what we spoke about got me thinking about how ungrateful we are. She was complaining about the lifts not working at res and how she does not like the setting of our resident. Instead of appreciating that she atleast has a decent place to stay she worries about minor thing that we can leave with. It really got me thinking about other people out there who have nothing, because of maybe the circumstances they they were born in,but we sit and complain about things that are not even that problematic. Recently I got to meet the Watoto Childrens Choir, this is a choir with kids that come from the most neediest families in Uganda, most of these children have no family and before joining the choir they no homes. And not even once did I hear any of them complaining about anything.

They are appreciative of everything that they have now in their lives, they learnt from an early age to make the most a bad situation. I was inspired by their positivity and thought to myself that I should be grateful and thankful for every liitle and big thing that I have because there are people who desire to leave the normal life that I leave. It's amazing how we take everything we have in our lives for granted, we even take ou parents for granted sometimes, and not realise that we are actually priveledged to have those parents, even if we don't get along that often. It's the little thing in our lives that we should be grateful for. At times we take advantage of the things that we have, not knowing that these things can be taken away from us, then what? Showing appreciation never hurt anyone!!!

BROKEN TRUST!!!

Boxes of tissues, chocolates and close friends are a source of comfort for some people who have experienced issues of broken trust in relationships. Falling inlove can be the greatest gift known to mankind, but there is nothing worse than watching a relationship go sour. A lot of resaerch has been done to understand the reasons for unfaithfulness between couples. Some of the reasons people give for cheating includes, lonliness, not being appreciated bt their partners, and chemistry fading in a relationship. Apart from love, which is the key reason for having a companion, trust is the most important tool to cement a relationship. Once trust is broken, it's difficult to mend.

Whilst trust deepens the meaning of love, some people see a relationship as a game these people have multiple partners and do not care about hurting their loved ones. Trust  roots other elements of a healthy and happy relationship, such as respect, communication and kindness towards your partner. It is amazing how most relationships lack these things. And that makes it so difficult to exercise trust.  Trust influences how we treat our partners, family and colleagues. In order to experience love you need to have trust. And that is the only way we can fully experience love in our relationships, sad enough very often our trust gets broken, but we need to heal from that, in this way we enable ourselves to give and recieve love in our relationships!!! At the end of the day we all deserve to be loved!!!!

Pick-up Lines!!!!

"Aren't you tired? Cause you've been running through my mind all day."This pick-up line has been around for a very long time now, it was used by guys long ago, but it's still effective in our generation as well. Men of all ages, shapes and sizes use same old pick- up lines to try WOO a woman. The problem with this, women fall for them I was once told that guys get attracted by seeing and us ladies are more attracted by what we hear. Maybe thats why women fall for them. This one time I was on a bus on my way to Cape Town and this guy of about 30 years of age came and sat next to me, he sat down and asked me "Are you from Jamaica?" I was confused because I don't even look Jamaican, I answered No with a confused look in my face!! He simply said: "Oh I thought your from there cause jamaking me crazy!!!" I could not believe how lame his pick-up line was that I could not even answer or laugh at it!!! The funny thing is that this guy was so confident about what he was saying that when I did not answer he felt offended and said I was rude, now that made me laugh. Most guys believe that savvy dress may draw the female, but to keep the interest a smooth pick-up line is necessary, this pick-up line will determine wether you make the cut or not!!! All I can say is that some pick-up lines are just plain lame, some may work but hey it would really have to be soooooo good to work on me!!!

A FATHERLESS GENERATION!!!

Growing up without a father has taught me a lot!!! growing up I always blamed my father for every bad thing that ever happend, and it is like that with most youth of today, and I had to learn the hard way that he was never there when I made all the wrong decisions I made. We cannot deny the fact that most of us do not know our fathers or simply that our father's do not want to be a part of our lives. Most of us today do things and blame our fathers. I have a friend of mine who has recently stopped staying at home and stays with her boyfriend, she's only only 19 and has dropped out of school. I asked her why she left home and her response was simply orientated on how she feels about her father not being around!!!! Yes our fathers are important to us and wether we lkie it or not they contributed in bringing us in this world. But I do not like the fact that they have to determine who we become in society. We should take reponsibily of our actions and stop putting the blame on them, because when we make the choices we make they are not there and they do not influence our decision making unless we let them. My father has never been interested in having me as a daughter but that does not mean I should go around doing things then blame him for them. The only thing we should be grateful for is that they brought in this earth an d we should just make the most of a bad situation!!1

THOUGHTS......

It's amazing how half the time we are influenced in the way we think, and we don't even realise it. You believe in what you believe in today, because someone,somewhere said something to you, and you started thinking about it and a character was formed from that. I remember when I was in Grade 11 and our English teacher asked us, what we were going to do after matric. I realised that day, that I had not thought that far yet. Yes the seed of doing something and not just sitting around doing nothing had already been planted in my mind. I knew that studying further was going to be the best option, because that seed as well had already been planted and had germinated, in my mind a long time ago. My mother's motto is "imfundo ayigugelwa, and ibalulekile" ( your not to old to be educated, and education is important).

Well when my teacher wanted my response , I was honest with her and told her that I wanted to study further but was not sure what I was going to study. She then asked me if I ever thought of studying journalism and before that day I had never thought of studying journalism. I asked why she thought I would make a good journalist one day, she stated a lot of reasons, that made me want to find out more about journalism.
I'm telling you when that seed was planted in my mind I started giving it a lot of thought, and here I am today studying journalism. What is funny is that half the time when I'm asked why I chose journalism, I tell them all the things that I realised after my English teacher planted the seed in my mind, I forget that I chose this course because someone gave me something to think about and was influenced by the fact that she thought I could be good journalist one day. Everything begins with a thought. "Life consists of what a man is thinking about all day." Says Ralph Waldo Emerson.

I believe that what Emerson is says is so true, if thoughts weren't involved we would not be who we are today. I recently came across a quote, that made a tremendous impression on me, it said: "I am your constant companion. i am your greatest helper or heaviest burden. I will push you onward or drag you dowm to failure. I am completely at your command. Half of the things you do you might just as well turn over to me and I will be able to do them quickly and correctly. I am easily managed- you must merely be firm with me. Show me exactly how you want something done and after a few lessons I will do it automatically. I am the servant of all great men; alas, of all failures as well. Those who are great, I have made great. Tjose who are failures , I have made failures. I am not a machine, though I work with all the precision of a machine plus the intelligence of a man. You may run me for a profit or run me for ruin- it makes no difference to me, and I will place the world at your feet. Be easy with me and I will destroy you. Who am I? I AM HABIT!!!"

 This quote striked me because I believe that our habits are influenced by what we think and what we think is influenced by others. Be careful of these influences, because what we think determines who we are and who we are determines what we do!!!

I believe in change!!!

I was very challenged this Sunday at church when the Pastor spoke about change!!! Change is something that presses us out of our comfort zone, and I for one do not like being out of my comfort zone. I like being comfortable in an enviroment that I'm used to, that is why I have never been an extrovert. I believe that change is uncomfotable,changing from one state to the next upsets our control over results. But also I do believe that as people we need to change, when you see that your way of thinking is not doing anything for you anymore,instead of being stubborn we just need to consider changing our views a bit. A perfect example is Intersexion (series on SABC 1), Intersexion makes us think about the way we live our lives and to those willing to change, it allowes that platform, I strongly believe that Intersexion has only being a waste of time to those who did not learn from it.Yes change is awkward at first, but as you get used to it you do adapt very well. I remember when I got to P.E last year, as excited as I was I knew a lot was going to change. I did not know exactly how but I knew that somewhere, somehow something was bound to change. I'm greatful that all changed for the best, because as uncomfortable as it was I believe that through that change I have become a better person. The Pastor on Sunday said this very profound words, that change is lkie driving in a fog, you can't see very far, but you can make the whole trip that way. CHANGE IS VITAL IN OUR LIVES!!!!

We are not to be blamed!!!

Nurses are most of the time the people who get blamed for everything that goes wrong in hospitals, especially in the Nelson Mandela Bay, mainly because they are in the forefront. According to a student   nurse, who would like to remain unnamed, at Livingstone Hospital in the Bay; the Department of Health is to blame for the health system state in the Bay. 

Upon visitation to Livingstone Hospital on 21 March there were only two nurses on duty and two student nurses, per ward and there are 8 wards at the hospital, with 30-35 patients. Sister Ngotsha who was the sister in charge that day, said they are under staffed and there are a lot of sick people at the hospital, but the Department of Health is not employing more staff because they say they do not have the funds to do so. “Yes we want to help these people, but we only have two pairs of hands and cannot attend to everyone at the same time,” she said. The casualty of the hospital has turned into a ward, as there is an overflow at casualty. Comparing Greenacres Hospital casualty and Livingstone Hospital casualty would be like comparing two different things that do not go together. There are people at casualty who say they have been there for 3-5 days, and they have not been attended to. A casualty is a place where you wait to be attended to, not a ward. “I have been placed here by The Department of Social Development, they are looking for a home for me, and I’ve been here for a month now, staying here at the casualty.” Said Dumisani Njoli one of the many people at Livingstone casualty. Zandi Mphothulo a student nurse at Livingstone said although there is negligence by the nurses, but they are not to blame. “Dora Nginza Hospital does not have equipment, so their patients are sent to Livingstone which then causes the overflow in casualty, and nurses cannot be blamed for that, because it is the Departments duty to give equipment to public hospitals, and that is one thing that the Department should be taking care of 100%.” She said. Nurses are not acknowledged for the good they do, but are always criticized for not doing a good job an emotional Sister Ngotsha said. Livingstone Hospital is like most public hospitals in Nelson Mandela Bay, they need more staff, more equipment and more attention from the Department of Health.

Student Life!!!

Who determines what student life is? I have been talking to a lot of my friends and a lot of them describe student life as, partying on weekends, having a lot of girlfriend, living for the moment!!! What surprised me the most is that most of them  never even mentioned school, which is the reason why we are all here in the first place, I believe. When I mentioned that they did not say anything about their studies, they started laughing at me telling me that "I'M FULL OF JOKES"and that that's not what student life is about, school is no fun and to them student life is just having fun. But that's not how I personally determine student life, so does that make my discription of student life wrong?? I describe student life as, having a lot of studying to do, being broke 2 days after you get your allowance, being single and living your life to the fullest. I believe that we all can describe student life the way we all experience it and not on how the majority describes it. Because we have different experiences, my experiences when I was a first year student are never going to be the same as all other first years, just becuase we lead different lives!!!

TREATMENT MATTERS!!!!

Love!!!! It is so overrated that most people don't believe in love anymore...I love talking about my own experiences. Earlier today I was talking with a friend of mine, and whilst we were talking another friend of mine came to us, when she got to where we were standing, she just stood there and did not greet us,me and my other friend finished talking, and she left. I now stood in shock and asked this friend of mine why she didn't greet us, and she tells me that she doesn't think that,that girl loves her, infact she knows she does not love her. I asked what confirmed that this girl does not love her, she stated a lot of  reasons; she never greets me, pretends she does not know me when she sees me and a lot of other things.As we spoke about this I realised that my friend treated this girl the same way, she also did not greet her, she also walked by as though she does not see her,and the scripture in the Bible that says  treat others as you wish to be treated became very relevant to me. We often complain that people don't love us, but we don't love aswel,we don't treat these people with the love we wish to recieve from them. Yes there are bitter people out there who just refuse to show any love, but one thing I know is that you don't love a person to satisfy them but you love them for yourself to bring joy and peace upon your own life. The next time you decide to accuse a person for not loving you look at the way you treat that person, do you show that person the love you wish to recieve from them?????

SENSITIVITY???

I have a problem with people saying the words "YOUR TOO SENSITIVE,I WAS ONLY JOKING" after they have told you exactly how they feel about the situation your in or how they feel about you. I'd rather have it you tell me the truth instead of lying and making me think I'm seeing things that aren't there. I guess I could say I am a very sensitive person(depends on how you rate being sensitive) and I analyse what you say to me and why you'd say it, this week a friend told me that I was incapable(putting it mildly) and when I reacted showing her that I was hurt and could not believe that she of all people would say this about me,only because I could not finish 1 task out 5 that I had to do, she told me that I was being sensitive, she did not mean it in that "way",she was only joking and that I of all people should know never to take her seriously!!! But at the end of the day I got the message of what she thought of me at that time,what frustrated me the most was not the saying I'm incapable part, but the part where she said I'm being sensitive and that she did not mean it that way,what other way can saying you incapable be explained??? I am a person who is always open minded about constructive critism, and accept being corrected, but I don't like people who say something then back down and say Hayi!!! I was only joking.

WE HAVE LOST OUR DIGNITY!!!!

We as young black women have lost our dignity. Last weekend I was on a taxi to Njoli, on the way I saw a car washing business were young black women were washing the cars wearing close to nothing, every asset they had was out there for everyone to see. What got me thinking the most was how everyone in the taxi saw it as a normal thing, something that should happen. One granny made me have goosebumps whe she said; young black women of our generation do not respect "UBUNTOMBI BABO". I believe that one of these days we are going to go around naked and no-one will even be bothered by that, because society has adapted to seeing young girls wearing close to nothing.I went up to central yesturday and walked up Parliament Street to go to Spar,and on the way I noticed all the posters that are hanged there,almost every poster had a half naked woman, it has come to the point were naked women sell products they make an event more interesting,and I wondered who do we blame for this, our parents for not instilling in us the value of being a woman and how we should carry ourselves, or do we blame the new South Africa for giving us to many rights to an extent that we refuse to listen to our parents. It's really heartaching that we are no longer viewed as beautiful young women but as cheap objects!!!!!!!!!!