wasino

congratulations on your baby boy! so happy to hear that he is now doing fine! when you get the chance, you should post a picture of your lil cutie! all the best...

man this is just bullshhhhhhit!! so i went to L&D this morning for my check-up like my doc told me and guess what.. they took only my blood pressure, urin and monitored me for 30 min.. NOTHING else..!! she said i should go to my doc in 2 days and if i am not in labor by thursday then i have to come by to do some ''stress'' test and if that is ok i am gonna get induced on friday.. (april 20th..) they induce only 11 days after the due date.. so i went to my last hospital and they did check me.. i am still 4cm.. everything is ok.. but they induce only after 14 days.. so no matter what i am still preggers for another week if he doesnt come on his own... which he wont.. i know that.. does anyone what i can do.. here is what i did and do so far.. walking.. lots of walking, taking hot baths, drinking that leaf tea.. its supposed to soften up ur cervix.. but that stuff doesnt work either.. and castor oil.. it got me last weekend in L&D but then my contractions stoped after almost 8 hrs so they sent me home with 4cm.. UGH.. andf my doc did strip my membranes on thursday.. and so far i had only cramps.. what else can i do..? i cant take it anymore..

wow, sorry, i don't have any advice for bringing your naughty little baby out--i'm pregnant with my first! but i wish you the best--hang in there!

I know some of you have SOs from Tanzania, so I thought I would pass this along---it's possible to get Konyagi here in the USA. I haven't tried this website myself, so I can't vouch if it's good company or not. But Konyagi---there's absolutely nothing like it! I have sworn if off, because it makes me do wild and crazy things (it affects me like nothing else, lol). But maybe some are missing it....lol.

http://www.konyagiusa.com/

Thank you for all your kind wishes. I am happy to say that today, when Jacinta went to drop off her medical exam results, the Embassy officer had the good sense to carry out the interview today and had the kind heart to approve her! She can pick up her visa on the 26th and will be coming here shortly thereafter! I can't wait!

Congratulations!!!!!! I am sooo happy for the two of you! After all your frustrations, what sweet news! And the timing will be so nice---Jacinta will be here for the fun (and nice weather) of summer! Have a happy married life--it will be so wonderful for the two of you to be together and finally begin your life together....

Thank u all for sharing your experiences. I am now in the US and I did not have anyproblems at the port of entry. I just handed the documents and when the immigration officer checked he said all was ok. He chatted with me for a few seconds and then told me to remember I had 90 days. It did not take all more than 15 minutes

I am so glad you had a smooth POE. welcome, and have a wonderful married life now that you are reunited!

yes, the waiting to work and getting familiar in the neighborhood were the hardest parts. luckily, where we were living at the time there was a ymca walking distance from us, so we got memberships. my husband would go to the gym or play basketball for an hour or 2 while i worked, and was able to make friends there. definately a life saver from boredom. also, just walking around the neighborhood, locating places to buy calling cards and nigerian food helped out as well. also at the time, there was a guy from guinea (who was my friend first!), who became one of my husband's friends. just trying to find your partner stuff to do while they wait so they aren't so bored is going to help sooo much.

Hello all!

I had my 20 week ultrasound yesterday. And drum roll please! It is a boy. My husband is so excited. He knew it was a boy. My mom is a little disappointed because she wanted to dress up a granddaughter. It didn't matter either way for me, but I am a little relieved to not having to do a little girls hair. LOL. But, it would have been nice to have a mini me. Anyway, I can now pick out boys things. Yippee.

congratulations, shayrene, on the little boy on his way! my husband is hoping for a boy too, but we still have some time until we find out! good luck with the rest of your pregnancy!

flying from madrid, we had to change planes in amsterdam. going through immigration there was very tough, and we almost missed our flight. the immigration officer was an a**hole.

I found the security in Amsterdam to be a bit tough too, and I wasn't trying to immigrate anywhere, just get back to the US from Kenya! They asked me so many questions about what I was carrying in my bags, and then I had to explain in detail why I was carrying recording equipment with me. It was sortof intimidating, and I wasn't trying to do anything wrong and should have been the easiest kind passenger to deal with! The guy should have smoked a joint before work to lighten up a bit!

Yeah, I went through Amsterdam on my last flight, too! I didn't realize security was asking EVERYONE about where they had been and what they had done, so I thought I was in big big trouble for doing nothing but staying with a native male Tanzanian for two months. I was really worked up about it, but once I saw that they were asking everybody questions, I stopped freaking out. It was REALLY intimidating, though. Hopefully when Ombeni flies over, he'll change planes in a less scary (and confusing! man I hate Schiphol) airport.

i have a love/hate relationship with the amsterdam airport. it's a pretty airport and there's lots to do to kill time. BUT they are so tough with their immigration. i actually met my husband at a wedding in holland, on my way home from spending a couple of weeks in tanzania. the immigration officer was flipping out that i didn't have an itinerary. at that time, i worked for an airline, so i flew on open tickets----tons of airline people fly that way through amsterdam, so it's not an unusual thing. but the officer was such a jerk. he made me put every electronic item i had through the machine one by one, drilled me with questions, and scolded me for spending a few unexpected days in holland. he stayed with me the whole time until i physically boarded the plane. i was just glad to get on that plane!

so i have to yucky immigration experiences with that airport. they were much worse though when it was my husband and i, they actually made us go into the little office area to be questioned!

i can't tell you how your will be, but i can tell you how mine was, or rather my now husbands. my husband is nigerian, but went through the embassy in spain. our poe was minneapolis. going through immigraion in minneapolis was very simple,no problems at all. the officer even welcomed my husband and wished him good luck!

flying from madrid, we had to change planes in amsterdam. going through immigration there was very tough, and we almost missed our flight. the immigration officer was an a**hole.

Congratulations Kristi! Your little babies are so beautiful...you must be so relieved to finally deliver, lol.

Welcome, Missjones.....it seems like everyone knows the gender of the baby but me (and know you too).

you guys are all making me feel so much better! i have been feeling so guilty for not loving nigerian food..... i just am not a big fan of meat or fish or snails.... the food is so heavy--even the stuff i like i can only eat a little bit of it.

but the fruit and veggies over there are awesome though....so fresh and yummy. and the bread too---so sweet!

Congratulations!!! Now you can begin your life together....Wishing you much happiness!!!!

i wonder if the russian girl natasha's husband was ever a vj member? it's possible.....

i'm actually surprised no one here has mentioned the "mail order bride" gossip she has been receiving.

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hehe, oh man, I hate ugali with a passion! Actually, when I stayed with the Maasai, their ugali was really good, and made from cornmeal instead of finely ground flour. But then that's all we ate for five meals in a row, and I got sick of the good ugali, too. :-p I need to find a good Tanzanian restaurant in Madison! I got all excited yesterday because I found an East African restaurant, but it turned out to just have Ethiopian food. It was still good (and they had Tusker!), but I really wanted makande.

i actually like ugali (but nigerian pounded yam is way better). in the village i was living in tanzania, that's all they ate was ugali. when asked what their favorite food was...ugali was almost always one of the responses. they didn't really like rice so much, lol. if there are any somali restaurants in madison, you should check those out---that's where i find mandazi and sambusa. i went to a somali restaurant here in minneapolis a few years ago, and the cook was from zanzibar...i was able to get ugali there, lol. it wasn't on the menu, but my friend knew the cook....

Yeah, I generally stuck to what the locals ate when I went to Tanzania. It usually wasn't anything too excited... fried chicken and french fries, beef stew and rice, chapatis and beans. Beer was also a staple. I really craved a cheeseburger, but I've never been satisfied with Tanzanian hamburgers. They're really crumbly, and they lack Wisconsin cheese!

tanzanian food is sooooo yummy! you forgot to mention ugali, lol. and chipsi mayai. there's a few places here in minneapolis where sometimes i go and get mandazi and sambusas to snack on.

(excuse my spelling, my swahili is rusty).

Hooray! Congratulations to you and your wife! Now, you can finally begin your life together....... Wishing you all the best!!!

Has anyone ever gotten pizza in Lagos, Nigeria? What about a good ole American burger? What about anything processsed and chemically altered...you know good American food. Last time I was there I ordered a chicken burger from Mr. Biggs and that thing was not good To think of it I never saw a McDonald's...Hahaha!!! Also, no drive thru, no pizza or chinese delivery drivers, & no one eating/drinking on the streets on their way to anywhere(except for the chickens, goats, sheeps, cows). However, people will sell you food on the street. Aren't they aggressive sales men? They put it up in your face!!!

Just wondering what people ate when abroad especially if you are picky like me NAIJA gotta love that place!

i ate cornflakes and bread and lots of fruit and juice. it was also the beginning of my pregnancy and i had terrible morning sickness and couldn't eat. i definately lost weight while i was there. i just couldn't eat. it doesn't help that i'm a former vegetarian, and these days only eat chicken and turkey for meat. nigerian food is so meat centered. i felt bad because his mom or sister cooked for us the whole time, and i just didn't have an appetite.

this is my 49th post right here. i'm a long way away from anything. i need to work on being more of a #######, eh?

When my husband came, we both went together, at the same time. If I am not mistaken, we went into the new immigrant line. (I am fairly sure that was our line, hope I'm not mis-remembering something). Our POE was Minneapolis. The line was the shortest of them all! We had no hassles for doing this.

i took my husband's last name because my maiden name was johnson. millions of them out there...made international travel complicated... plus, my husband's last name is beautiful. when people compliment me on my last name, i always joke that i married my husband purely for his last name....

but if i would have married someone who's last name was smith or anderson, i probably would have stuck with mine.

one of my friends had a baby with her boyfriend...they gave the baby a last name that combined their last name into one. they are now engaged, and plan to have the same name as their daughter....lol.

My husband speaks English, Spanish, Dutch, Edo. He understands Yoruba and Ibo as well.

My husband speaks Edo as well! He can speak french and english. I am not as cultured! I can only speak english and a little bit of french due to a college requirement.

Are you trying to learn Edo? Do you have any tips? Here in the Minneapolis area, there is a decent sized Nigerian population, but none that we've met speak Edo--mostly Yoruba and Ibo--so it's hard to learn without others around to practice with besides my husband.

wow, you sure know your resources. I have only found one page of edo/english words...but i'm definately going to look up some of these books and see if they help out.

yes, i was teasing about needing to marry a swahili speaking man. love is definately mysterious, and that is part of the beauty of love.

i do want to learn edo...i'm just sad that i'm losing my swahili...i just think it is such a beautiful language.

Here are some Edo resources:

http://www.isp.msu.edu/afrlang/search.php?...ype=All%20Types

Not sure how useful they'll be, but it's a start!

In my case, I thought if I was going to fall in love with a Kenyan woman, it would have been one from the ethnic group I was studying and have been spending most of my days thinking about for five years. But love doesn't work that way, and I found someone whose language I knew nothing about. But I'm always up for a new challenge.

I learned a little bit of Nyaturu while I was living in a village in the Singida region of Tanzania.

I remember when I first returned home from Tanzania, whenever I would get tipsy....I would start babbling in Swahili only. Drove my friends crazy. But I did make friends with taxi drivers and random people in clubs....lol.

I was supposed to marry a Swahili speaking man, so that I would eventually become fluent in that beautiful language (and I had such a good foundation to build from). But of course, I fell in love with a Nigerian man, lol. So I have to start over with the language. And it's hard to find resources for the Edo language.

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I've gotta know the story behind this. How do you know Nyaturu? Very cool. I've written a paper with some stuff from Kirimi. I've heard that Rimi is maybe a dialect of Nyaturu? I dunno.

I had the opposite problem for a while when trying to speak Swahili; when I was trying to speak Swahili and didn't know the word, the French word would come to mind, and it was very confusing! And a friend of mine who's lived for many years in Kenya has picked up a lot of Kenyanisms when speaking English always says "you know, the nini" (thing/what) or "sindiyo" (isn't it?, no?) when speaking to other Americans in the midwest. He gets a lot of funny looks.

My husband speaks English, Spanish, Dutch, Edo. He understands Yoruba and Ibo as well.

Me (the USC) speaks English, some Swahili, even less Spanish, even less Nyaturu, and about 5 words in Edo (which I really need to learn).

I have the same problem with multiple languages. When I was learning Swahili, it wiped out a lot of my Spanish. I remember being in Costa Rica, and any word I didn't know in Spanish I would substitute the Swahili word. I was confusing people...lol.

I'm losing my Swahili, which makes me so sad. I haven't been back to Tanzania in over 2 years, and most of my Swahili speaking friends here in the States have moved away...

i think i saw a shooting star on the site....

this sight is definately cool....will be checking out from time to time...