The Pen Pal Project: AFREDA's Lockdown-Inspired Idea

-

 Back in May 2020, during the first global lockdown due to the Covid-19 crisis, AFREDA proposed The Pen Pal Project on their Twitter account. The aim was to 'promote human connection in a time of isolation'. My writer friend Angel suggested participating and so we did.

© AFREADA

I wrote a letter to a stranger. On June 1st, 2020, AFREADA exchanged the letters. I received one from my pen pal, a 28-year-old woman from Tanzania. Rehema received my letter as well. Three months later, we moved from email exchanges to WhatsApp messages. 

Today, over a year later, Rehema and I are still friends, despite our busy schedules. I cherish our friendship and hope we will be friends for a very long time.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I disagree With Paulo Coelho On This One

-
Image
 Some mornings, I wake up feeling blue. Sometimes, I don't know why because the night before, I had gone to bed feeling light-hearted. Sometimes, I wonder if it is my hormones. Sometimes, I wonder if it is normal to feel melancholy.  This morning is a perfect example. I went to bed feeling cheerful at 2 am but woke up cheerless at 6 am. While looking through friends status on WhatsApp, I discovered a tweet by Paulo Coelho. I admire his quotes most of the time, but this one left me feeling sadder than I had woken up. I disagree with what he has written. The problem with his tweet is that he said 'all' and not 'certain'. He first tweeted the quote in 2014 and then he repeated it in 2016. I would have loved to have a conversation with him. I would love to tell him that when one is struggling with loss and grief, for example, it has nothing to do with 'living to please others'. The stress, anxiety and depression that overwhelm me now and then are caused every ti...
Read more

Owning the Body

-
My hesitance to take the vaccine in the beginning wasn’t because I was an anti-vaxxer. It was simply because I was not ready. My husband received his first covid jab in April 2021. The first few days, he had a sore arm, followed by headaches and fatigue. As for me, having gone through four days of extreme uterine contraction pain induced by stillbirth labour and Bakri balloon – which had me begging for death weeks before – I was not ready for any type of pain, as little as it may be. I knew however that I would take it when I felt ready. I just needed time. I was in a lot of emotional pain back then and I needed time to heal from my deep emotional wounds. I needed to be physically, mentally, and emotionally ready before taking the shots.  On Monday 12th July, President Emmanuel Macron announced that a vaccine passport would be needed to access everyday places. The President said that he was doing so to encourage people to get vaccinated. He used the word ‘encourage’ as though it is...
Read more

FOR THE LOVE OF STORIES

-
Image
Every time I order a book and finally hold it in my hands, my excitement rivals that of a child unwrapping a long-awaited present. I love the smell of new books. Whenever I buy a new book, my first instinct is to bring it close to my nose. The aroma evokes joyful memories from my childhood. During my early teenage years, one of my favourite pastimes was visiting Abiola Bookshop in Yaba on my way home from school. I knew I had to be exceptionally well-behaved when I was in there because it was the only bookstore I knew with air conditioning, not to mention that it was the sole I frequented that stocked imported books. The sight of the diverse range of foreign books they had made me dizzy with thrill, even though I couldn't afford any of them. I took great pleasure in admiring Enid Blyton's book series, often cradling them in my hands and savouring their unique fragrance, distinct from my locally printed textbooks. I used to believe it was the smell of America, as I thought the a...
Read more