!SiDoS: My-Jollof-Excuse
by ahjotnaija
Ms. Oladunni Talabi is a beautiful and wonderful addition to the AhjotNaija!BlogFamily. She is a Master student resident in Germany, young and very-full-of-life. She experiments with different forms of writing; this is one of them: Entertaining while strongly pushing for deep self-discovery/identification and cross-cultural dialogues among other interesting themes
Being a minority in a group comes with its plus and minus. Let me rephrase that: I am the ONLY minority in that group. So, I have to explain almost everything I do. But trust me, it is not all bad; I own the monopoly of explanation. And being mischief-personified, I turn to my pranks-bags, dishing them out at will.
Interesting is, if I have to explain what I cannot explain, I simply say that how we do it in Nigeria. It bails me out without further questions. Some things are so hilarious friends laugh so hard. They would ask: *Are you serious, Ola?* Trust me, I would be sure to wear my best mischief-face in response: *Yes, of course*. I would be sure to repeat the response long enough so it is believable.
Recently, I cooked rice. Half the pot of my precious rice was burnt! I had been busy with gist and lolling. When it was time to eat and my friend asked why/how our rice nearly got half-burnt, you can already guess my response.
Really, I searched for a different response other than the truth, but my dumb brain forsook me. I didn’t want to own up I half-burnt it because I was lolling to gist etc. So, my *That’s-How-Alibi* came in very handy. *That’s how rice is cooked in Nigeria. We get it burnt intentionally. It adds sweet flavor to the food*, I answered.
My friend laughed so hard she was almost rolling on the floor. She said, *Ola, give me another excuse. Don’t play the That’s-How-Drama* with me this time.*
She’s my second bestie. The start of our friendship sucked because my alibi. She knows better now. Seriously, our friendship could not have been so hilarious without the That’s-How-Thing. Well, I only have a person less to play my prank on. I will still use my mantra on other friends, who are yet to notice I might be lying 🙂
Anyway, it was jollof-rice I cooked. Of course, you all know a rice is not yet JOLLOF if it is not burnt! So, I was actually telling the truth with my That’s-How-Alibi. Thank Goodness my popular excuse did not forsake me when I really needed it 🙂
ajagunna 