10 things I love most about the place I was born and raised.

Oh gosh where do I begin? I am taking part in Writers Write WLD. I am late by a whole week. The above title is today's writing theme so here is my list…

1.  We got to play outside. During weekdays we didn’t watch more than one hour of television a day. There were only two channels before DSTV, so we learnt to play outside and use our imagination. We also learnt how to  enjoy reading books. This is before I got to secondary school, unfortunately it was all downhill from there….now I love reality TV
2. We went to church every Sunday as a family. People used to dress for Sunday Mass in those days. Until I learnt how to read, I used to spend my time looking at all the ladies' outfits, the shoes, the hand bags, the dresses… God please forgive me.
3. When they bought you a soda it was a treat! A plate of chips was a treat. Fried chicken was treat. Now its an actual daily meal for some people...
4. We ate together as family, which meant we watched TV together. We watched The Cosby Show, Roots, Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Family Matters all together as a family.
5. My school had great school lunches, never had posho and beans for lunch. Not once. Not never!
6. My father insisted we ALL learn how to swim, that meant swimming lessons on the weekend and swimming lessons after school, no excuses!
7. If I behaved myself my big brother would let me ride my tiny bicycle to the local shops with him (kiosks).
8. On Christmas eve we would go out as family and look at the Christmas light decorations on all the big commercial buildings around the city. It was also when our parents did the bulk of the Christmas shopping. But it’s not last minute people, it’s Africa!
9. Power cuts were fun. We were not addicted to so many little gadgets like phones and laptops in those days.  We would sit together with one candle or a lantern and tell stories. Once, one of  my brothers convinced me it was the end of the world and Cyclops was coming...
10. My parents would buy food in bulk. We used to sit in the back garden and help snap beans or sometimes we’d be in the kitchen with our Mum making a big batch of fresh passion fruit juice to be stored in the freezer for the week.