Basically here’s everything that has gone down since my mom passed…
When I got the call on august 17th I was devastated. After talking to my Rabbi, my roomies and I drove down to the Sacramento Airport for me to catch a flight later that evening. I reached Houston at 4am the next day’s morning.
My aunt Ophelia and Uncle Elmer, who have been taking care of my mom for the past 4 months until her death, picked me up from the airport.
My dad flew in Monday from Liberia.
I wasn’t sure though that they’d be able to make pick me up so I called Ashley Claypoole and she was there to greet me as well. Yes, at 4 frekkin AM. Do I have awesome friends or what? Thanks Ash Bash. I owe you. Love ya.
Anywho, when we got to my aunt’s I was so nervous for it is the house where my mom passed in. I couldn’t sleep that night. my brothers and Uncle Neah (who’s like my 4th brother) made it in to Houston at 10am.
As the day passed more and more people made it in. if you guys don’t know, my grand father had about 30+ children, my mom being the oldest was the leader and keep everyone in communication. She was like mission control.
We had about 25 people staying at my aunt’s house (her house is HUUUGE), about 15 at my mom’s house (which is 5 minutes away from my aunt’s house) and tons of other people crashing in hotels and other people’s homes.
Every night while in Houston, we had “family meetings” to confront my dad about all the things that he did to my mom and this family, which I really don’t want to discuss here though some of you may already know. We also discussed about my under-aged brother, the house, insurance, burial, and tons of other things. We were in meetings from about 10 to 2am.
The Houston memorial was quite large and I was only expecting the actual funeral to be about 4 times as large. I cried my poor eyes out, as well as everyone else, as we entered the hall to see my mom’s body. Before this, to keep from crying and being depressed, I kept telling myself that “nah, she’s only on vacation. She’ll be back. She can’t call because there don’t have phones there.” But, when I saw her laying there, reality hit…. my.mom.is.died.
Damn.
After the Houston memorial service, the plan was to fly from Houston to Brussels Belgium to Dakar Senegal to Monrovia Liberia. We wanted to burry my mom in Liberia because we always said how said wanted to go back there. Her plan was to move back after my brother John, who is 16, graduated from High School in 2 years. The tickets were about 3 grand a person and there was 8 of us going, not the mention the cost of flying the body to Liberia…. You do the math.
When the tickets came in the mail though, it said from Houston to FRANKFURT GERMANY to Brussels Belgium to Dakar Senegal to Monrovia, Liberia. Travel time was about 16hours of flying. Some of you may be thinking what’s the big deal?
Well, ya see, everyone except my middle brother Yousif has an American passport. It’s a long story but he only has an American Permanent Resident/Green Card with his Liberian passport. Germany WILL accept the American passport withOUT a visa but the will NOT accept the Liberian passport withOUT a visa. He didn’t have a german/schangan visa. It took too long to process and receive.
Problem is, this wasn’t common knowledge to us. PLUS, the travel agent AND the airline failed to pass on this info to us too. So, when we got to German, they denied Yousif access to proceed to Brussels Belgium. Ashton and I didn’t want to leave Yousif behind so we let the other 5 go on the plan and we, (Ashton, Yousif and I) basically got deported back to the USA.
9 hours later, we landed in New York City. Craig Kolk, Ashton’s friends from Ohio State picked us up and we crashed at his house in North Jersey for almost 2 days. He and his family we so nice to us. We had a great time there especially our Family Feud episodes, lol, and laughing at his brother, who is an anchorman, deliver the news on TV in Florida. Craigy, you rock. Thanks.
While at Craig’s house, I knew that SelfvsCity was in North Jersey too and we were supposed to meet up and hang out but it never really happened. I still love yous though. See you back in Sac/Chico. Good luck on the road boys.
We ended up having to buy whole NEW tickets to fly this time from NYC to Dakar Senegal to Monrovia Liberia. The flights were about 9 hours altogether. It was not only shorter than the original travel route but the tickets were 1 grand cheaper per person, the people/attendants were much more friendly/helpful, food was great and they had awesome entertainment.
When we got to Dakar Senegal on Wednesday, we had a few hours to kill until our plane left for Liberia so we decided that we wanted to go out and explore the city. We rented a taxi and traveled all around. It was so much fun. Good thing I speak French or else we would have been S.O.L. we went to a light house, to the beach, got some awesome Senegalese lunch, bought some art from a local artist, went to the further point west in Africa before hitting the Atlantic ocean,; Senegal was good times.
We arrived in Monrovia Wednesday evening. We meet up with the other 5 people and stayed at my Uncle Philip’s house for our 4 days stay. Starting that very night… you guessed right Johnny…. More frekkin meetings. This time with the entire family and talking aunts, uncles, cousins, half this, half that, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th everythings. Lol. For real. My family is sooooo damn large. Everyone’s trying to explain how he or she is related to my mom or me. I even met my great grandmother’s brother’s daughter’s husband, shit like that. lol. I was so confused but everyone was really friendly and happy to see us.
We had to meet with the Elders of my mom’s tribe, Krahn tribe, to discuss the funeral arrangements. I was hard getting them to agree with us at first b/c they wanted to do EVERYTHING traditionally, which would have taken a while week to do but we didn’t have that much time. We had to leave by Sunday. They eventually agreed. When we weren’t sitting in meeting all night, we got to drive around Monrovia, we went to the beach a lot and we visited family members. On Saturday night though, Yousif, Uncle Neah, 3 cousins and I went to a Dance Club downtown. It was so much fun. We danced and danced and danced until about 4am.
Friday was my mom’s official funeral. Probably about 600 people showed up. Mom my was BIG DEAL. She did so much for so many people. In Liberia, it was kinda like a Queen dying. Honestly I didn’t like the pastor and his sermon but whatevs, I guess. After the viewing and service, She was laid to rest in our family’s lot on the beach. Other family members are buried there too so she’s not alone.
Before we left, Liberia, my dad pleaded again for my brothers and I to forgive him for the things he did and to leave a line of communication open but honestly, I’m not ready for that yet. I want to be by myself for a while. I’m not saying that I hate him or don’t care about him or that I’ll never forgive him BUT right now, my heart’s not satisfied and I don’t feel that justice has been served yet.
We left Liberia Sunday night, 10pm, to Senegal to Washington DC.
I just left DC to fly to Dallas to Sacramento. I’m sitting here in the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport right now with 1.5hours until we board the plane for Sac.
Honestly, I’m a little nervous to get back to school even though I really miss it and my friends. I have 2 weeks of schoolwork to make up. Shit. I’m sure I’ll be fine. My mom would expect anything less than me doing well and I don’t intend to degrade my intelligence and myself.
Anywho, I’m gonna go try and find some food… I’m hungry. Hopefully, I’ll catch some of yous around sooner than later.
Stay gold.
xSanni.
p.s. I have a new cell and number, I switch to sprint from cingular. I actually don’t know the number yet so I can’t post but when I get I chance, I will. Peace.
My aunt Ophelia and Uncle Elmer, who have been taking care of my mom for the past 4 months until her death, picked me up from the airport.
My dad flew in Monday from Liberia.
I wasn’t sure though that they’d be able to make pick me up so I called Ashley Claypoole and she was there to greet me as well. Yes, at 4 frekkin AM. Do I have awesome friends or what? Thanks Ash Bash. I owe you. Love ya.
Anywho, when we got to my aunt’s I was so nervous for it is the house where my mom passed in. I couldn’t sleep that night. my brothers and Uncle Neah (who’s like my 4th brother) made it in to Houston at 10am.
As the day passed more and more people made it in. if you guys don’t know, my grand father had about 30+ children, my mom being the oldest was the leader and keep everyone in communication. She was like mission control.
We had about 25 people staying at my aunt’s house (her house is HUUUGE), about 15 at my mom’s house (which is 5 minutes away from my aunt’s house) and tons of other people crashing in hotels and other people’s homes.
Every night while in Houston, we had “family meetings” to confront my dad about all the things that he did to my mom and this family, which I really don’t want to discuss here though some of you may already know. We also discussed about my under-aged brother, the house, insurance, burial, and tons of other things. We were in meetings from about 10 to 2am.
The Houston memorial was quite large and I was only expecting the actual funeral to be about 4 times as large. I cried my poor eyes out, as well as everyone else, as we entered the hall to see my mom’s body. Before this, to keep from crying and being depressed, I kept telling myself that “nah, she’s only on vacation. She’ll be back. She can’t call because there don’t have phones there.” But, when I saw her laying there, reality hit…. my.mom.is.died.
Damn.
After the Houston memorial service, the plan was to fly from Houston to Brussels Belgium to Dakar Senegal to Monrovia Liberia. We wanted to burry my mom in Liberia because we always said how said wanted to go back there. Her plan was to move back after my brother John, who is 16, graduated from High School in 2 years. The tickets were about 3 grand a person and there was 8 of us going, not the mention the cost of flying the body to Liberia…. You do the math.
When the tickets came in the mail though, it said from Houston to FRANKFURT GERMANY to Brussels Belgium to Dakar Senegal to Monrovia, Liberia. Travel time was about 16hours of flying. Some of you may be thinking what’s the big deal?
Well, ya see, everyone except my middle brother Yousif has an American passport. It’s a long story but he only has an American Permanent Resident/Green Card with his Liberian passport. Germany WILL accept the American passport withOUT a visa but the will NOT accept the Liberian passport withOUT a visa. He didn’t have a german/schangan visa. It took too long to process and receive.
Problem is, this wasn’t common knowledge to us. PLUS, the travel agent AND the airline failed to pass on this info to us too. So, when we got to German, they denied Yousif access to proceed to Brussels Belgium. Ashton and I didn’t want to leave Yousif behind so we let the other 5 go on the plan and we, (Ashton, Yousif and I) basically got deported back to the USA.
9 hours later, we landed in New York City. Craig Kolk, Ashton’s friends from Ohio State picked us up and we crashed at his house in North Jersey for almost 2 days. He and his family we so nice to us. We had a great time there especially our Family Feud episodes, lol, and laughing at his brother, who is an anchorman, deliver the news on TV in Florida. Craigy, you rock. Thanks.
While at Craig’s house, I knew that SelfvsCity was in North Jersey too and we were supposed to meet up and hang out but it never really happened. I still love yous though. See you back in Sac/Chico. Good luck on the road boys.
We ended up having to buy whole NEW tickets to fly this time from NYC to Dakar Senegal to Monrovia Liberia. The flights were about 9 hours altogether. It was not only shorter than the original travel route but the tickets were 1 grand cheaper per person, the people/attendants were much more friendly/helpful, food was great and they had awesome entertainment.
When we got to Dakar Senegal on Wednesday, we had a few hours to kill until our plane left for Liberia so we decided that we wanted to go out and explore the city. We rented a taxi and traveled all around. It was so much fun. Good thing I speak French or else we would have been S.O.L. we went to a light house, to the beach, got some awesome Senegalese lunch, bought some art from a local artist, went to the further point west in Africa before hitting the Atlantic ocean,; Senegal was good times.
We arrived in Monrovia Wednesday evening. We meet up with the other 5 people and stayed at my Uncle Philip’s house for our 4 days stay. Starting that very night… you guessed right Johnny…. More frekkin meetings. This time with the entire family and talking aunts, uncles, cousins, half this, half that, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th everythings. Lol. For real. My family is sooooo damn large. Everyone’s trying to explain how he or she is related to my mom or me. I even met my great grandmother’s brother’s daughter’s husband, shit like that. lol. I was so confused but everyone was really friendly and happy to see us.
We had to meet with the Elders of my mom’s tribe, Krahn tribe, to discuss the funeral arrangements. I was hard getting them to agree with us at first b/c they wanted to do EVERYTHING traditionally, which would have taken a while week to do but we didn’t have that much time. We had to leave by Sunday. They eventually agreed. When we weren’t sitting in meeting all night, we got to drive around Monrovia, we went to the beach a lot and we visited family members. On Saturday night though, Yousif, Uncle Neah, 3 cousins and I went to a Dance Club downtown. It was so much fun. We danced and danced and danced until about 4am.
Friday was my mom’s official funeral. Probably about 600 people showed up. Mom my was BIG DEAL. She did so much for so many people. In Liberia, it was kinda like a Queen dying. Honestly I didn’t like the pastor and his sermon but whatevs, I guess. After the viewing and service, She was laid to rest in our family’s lot on the beach. Other family members are buried there too so she’s not alone.
Before we left, Liberia, my dad pleaded again for my brothers and I to forgive him for the things he did and to leave a line of communication open but honestly, I’m not ready for that yet. I want to be by myself for a while. I’m not saying that I hate him or don’t care about him or that I’ll never forgive him BUT right now, my heart’s not satisfied and I don’t feel that justice has been served yet.
We left Liberia Sunday night, 10pm, to Senegal to Washington DC.
I just left DC to fly to Dallas to Sacramento. I’m sitting here in the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport right now with 1.5hours until we board the plane for Sac.
Honestly, I’m a little nervous to get back to school even though I really miss it and my friends. I have 2 weeks of schoolwork to make up. Shit. I’m sure I’ll be fine. My mom would expect anything less than me doing well and I don’t intend to degrade my intelligence and myself.
Anywho, I’m gonna go try and find some food… I’m hungry. Hopefully, I’ll catch some of yous around sooner than later.
Stay gold.
xSanni.
p.s. I have a new cell and number, I switch to sprint from cingular. I actually don’t know the number yet so I can’t post but when I get I chance, I will. Peace.