TRAVELLING NEXT DOOR

Travelling next door was one of our favourite past times as kids. We looked forward to any opportunity we could get just to go to the neighbours. A 1 to 5 minutes time when mama was going to let us out of her sight to get matches or even salt from the neighbours.
Travelling next door was even more appealing during this time of the year when my mother and every other mother out there (at least I could tell not just from the arrivals of their kids to our house but the aroma in the environment) would wake up really early just to prepare their “Christmas rice” not just for themselves but for the neighbours. Every woman wanted to “best” their neighbours by being the first to get their delicacies out there and in to the neighbourhood.
For us kids, it was a time to actually wake up to the jingle bells and get dressed in our “Christmas attire” which was always ready months before then. We would get set and then prepare the trays which of course were meant to carry the food to the neighbours.
Our travelling always begins quite early. Early enough for us to get the food round the neighbourhood and still be ready in time for the “Christmas service”. Oh how I remember those days when we travelled sometimes with friends who were on the same mission as we were. It didn’t matter what tribe, colour, religion or race our neighbours were. It was just one happy big but small neighbourhood with love just enough to go round.
I still picture those travelling days when we not only get to “spread the food” but also ask for our “Christmas money” which was the most important part of our day. Back then we had a good time and always looked forward to Christmas for all we know it was a time for so many things but best of all money making. We knew what houses to go to and what houses not to go to. We knew where we would be given money and where we would be given food which of course was not the reason for our visit. We equally knew which house we must eat before we were given our “Christmas Money” and where we could reject the food and yet get money and then there is the accounting part of our day-when we sit down to count all we made that day (to think that I was really bad in mathematics but good in money-tics)I remember it just as if it was yesterday but now…….
“What really went wrong with the neighbourhood or is it with the neighbours?” I kind of miss those days and yes!!! Am all grown now but I haven’t outgrown the love to share but this time not just my food but my time, my love and my smile. At least if no one would take my food, they would take my smile. The point here is not to get the “made in china” out of the “show glass” in our rooms but to get the “LOVE” out there. This season is still the time to share as it was back then-not just on Facebook, twitter, Whatsapp or instagram but a time to share with all irrespective of our race, tribe, religion or political divide. I see a lot of young people daily becoming enemies because we now have a “tribe”, political party or religion that outshines the other. Isn’t this why the world is as broken as it is today?
My father once said to me “daughter, your world is confused”. My question is, “What made my world confused and his straight thinking, what made me so into my world that I forgot that it isn’t just me against the world but all of us together. What made my rice become poisonous and yours so tasty? What and what are the questions that I am not interested in answering.
Am only interested in getting my world working again but this time beginning from me and then to you and the next person and the next building up to a better house, a better street, a better area, a better city , a better state, a better nation and a better world. A world where our lives will truly make sense and meaning not just because we voted for a political party or because we went back to sharing food but because we truthfully and consciously travelled next door.