Thisday Tell:

*THE EXCHANGE* *Episode 3* Tunji came the next day like he said he would and that was the beginning of our relationship. It was like a match made in heaven. My dad was the last person to warm up to him in my family but it didn’t take long at all. Tunji had this charisma that made people like him; he‘s soft spoken, calm and focused…all the qualities of a young man well brought up. Tunji was an orphan that had lost his parents at an early age…he had been passed around different family members’ homes while growing up. At a point, he lived with one of his teachers; who took him in because he didn’t want him to stop school. Tunji was a very brilliant student...he wanted to study Medicine but he didn’t have the financial capability, so he opted for engineering. That must have been another thing that endeared him to my father. About a year after we started dating officially, Tunji completed his Higher National Diploma. Back then, only University graduates were allowed to go through the Na...

.............................................. *THE EXCHANGE* *Episode 2* I made Tunji leave and saw him to the gate, I could see the mischievous looks on my brothers’ faces as we were leaving. Tunji asked if I read the letter he sent to me, as that was one of his reasons for coming to see me…I told him I had forgotten and I would read it later that evening. He promised to come see me the next day, I begged him to come to the Salon and not our house. When I got back in, my dad was waiting in the sitting room “Who’s that boy?” He asked I didn’t have any answer but my mum quickly responded that he’s her friend’s nephew. My dad nodded and said “I like his confidence”. This boy must have two heads, I thought to myself…as the only girl; I was my dad’s most precious gem and he had made his position known that he did not want to see any boy in that house till I was done with my vocational training and had set up in my own Salon. That night, my mum asked if anything was going on betwee...

The journey begins today... Get set *THE EXCHANGE*  *Episode 1* It was the year 1977, I had just graduated from Secondary School and my dream was to be my own boss and start a hairdressing/beauty salon. I was not really the academic type and I knew what I wanted. I wasn’t dull but I just didn’t want post-secondary education…I actually passed my ‘School Cert’ (like we called it back then). My mum enrolled me with a friend of hers to learn the skills required for this ‘dream’. My dad was not really in support because I was the only girl, the last child and all my older siblings/brothers were in various institutions of higher learning and he wanted me to at least get a National Diploma even if I wasn’t going to work with it. My mum stood by me and somehow got my dad on board…he wasn’t going to pay for the training at first, but he later did. About a year after I started with “Aunty Betty” (My mum’s friend that was training me), I met one of her nephews, Tunji. He was a student o...