Journeyman Stories

Yes I know, I know. You missed me last week. I must admit. I miss my blog too (am I narcissist?). Jim, here I am. I cannot afford another reminder from you. I know you were thinking about how you were going to punish me if I didn't post my blog this week. For many years, great things have happened to me in the month of August. It is then safe to say that I am expecting great things this upcoming month. I don't know what it will be this time, but the expectation is so high. By far, the month of August has been the best month of my life so far. And if nothing special happens, at least I will celebrate a few days. August 6 is our wedding anniversary, August 7 is my wife birthday, August 8 is my eleventh year in Canada and five years as a Canadian citizen, August 15 is my birthday and my younger brother is getting married on August 30. How about that!? The month of July has been a great month as well. It's been a very busy month but I cannot complain at all. I did a few pr...

It is almost midnight on Sunday and I am putting the baby to sleep after a long day at the beach. She is exhausted, and so am I. You might be thinking how am I able to put the baby to sleep and write at the same time. It is simple. After a long time of trials and errors, I have found the secret. Do you want to know what it is? I will tell it to you and it is free of charge: Music When my daughter hears music, everything changes. Life becomes easy for me. However, lately I have discovered that, even though she likes music, there is one particular artist that does the job the best: Bob Marley. When she hears Bob Marley, she just stands still. Nothing can disturb her. All she wants to hear is the reggae song. As soon as the music starts, she widely smiles and she wants to dance. Guess what CD i play the most? You guessed it right; Bob Marley. She could be crying but, as soon she hears "little darling, still it up", she just stops crying. It is so amazing. The other day I playe...

My friend Jim has been promoting his annual event called Patio Power, it finally happened tonight. I was one of the speakers last year, I am glad he invited me again this year. I just came from there. Wow! Things happen for a reason. I had planned to write my blog yesterday, and then the flood happened in Toronto. Wow! I have never seen anything like this. My Internet went down (I guess the server crushed) , so I could not publish anything. And here I am now, talking about the Patio Power. I knew that I was going to be one of the speakers a long time ago, but Jim never gave me my topic. We had a conference call yesterday and he went: "Figure it out. You are the Journeyman". So, I had to figure out what I was going to speak about. To add to the pressure, Jim put me first. I was going to start the event. I was given 8 minutes to speak, I was done in 5. To tell the truth, I was more interested by other speakers' presentations. I don't know how he does it, Jim know...

Yesterday was Canada Day and celebrations were going on all over the place. In our household, it was triple celebration. I am from Burundi, my wife is from Rwanda (both having July 1st as their Independence day), and our daughter was born Canadian. Can you imagine some years down the road, our daughter saying " Hi, my name is Skylar, my father is from Burundi, my mother is from Rwanda, but I am Canadian..". I think she should call herself United Nations. How about that? Talking about Skylar, her new thing now is giving high fives when she is eating. It is so funny. By the time she finishes her food, we are down to about twenty high fives. My wife says Skylar is eating like her father. I think it is a compliment for our daughter. We stayed home on the weekend watching movies. We watched all kinds of movies, but the one that was the most interesting was Sacha Baron Cohen's "The Dictator". It is so hilarious. Even now we are still laughing when we remember s...