Ajodun part IV: This is for all of my people in the audience.

E se e ku idi de. Ajose wa o ni da ru o.

Board member, board member...

Another Alagba board member & his family above....

Lovely in blue...

Part of The Auburn ladies' consortium...

The ijesha delegation...

Part of the college consortium...

Omo dara, o d'ejo...

Our bride from the Niger republic and her husband.

Awon alagba montgomery

Guests from the Nigerian community at large

Our new Social Secretary and her husband.

Our new Financial secretary and his wife.

No, they are not twins...

Funke Abolade, 

M.D. Social/Publicity Secretary.

Yodaai 1st Year Blog Anniversary on July 21st, and ideas please for a Yodaai tagline.

 I feel like a  proud mother whose child is just turning a magical 1 year old!

The date? Yes, about a month from today, on the 21st of July, 2012, the Yodaai blog will turn a year old. Can you believe it! And just think about all the things we've shared with each other on the blog.

All 70 different blog posts so far, with blog readers from as far as England, Germany, China, Japan, Canada, Argentina, Kenya, France and Nigeria. 9,300 pageviews at least. i.e people clicking and opening on Yodaai blog pages. 266 comments - Yes, I can track all these things! The memories, photos, achievements, education, wedding, graduations, "On - line health fairs", the quizes. The proverbs. Even Yoruba culture and history was tackled.

This is worth celebrating. Many websites and blogs get started and don't make it to their first year mostly because of lack of participation and interest. Not this Blog! And all because you all stuck with it, coming back to it each time, leaving comments, taking surveys, making it a dynamic blog site with a back and forth exchange of ideas.

Thank you. Thank you and Thank you!

There is a tradition here on the blogosphere on blog anniversaries - to have a give - away contest to celebrate the occasion. To say thank you to all our faithful members who continue to actively participate and fuel the desire to continue to write for the association's blog.

So, I am donating a $100 gift card for this celebration. 

What's the catch? Register on the blog as a member - as only 12 people are registered and I know more than 12 people are logging on and reading this. Click now on the blue box on the right hand side,  that says "join this site.   Then make a comment  below on this post as to what our Yodaai tagline should be for the association and the blog. It will go with our new logo that is being designed to go on everything Yodaai like letter heads, t-shirts, pens, etc

Describe your tagline idea or concept in the comment section. The tagline usually goes after the Logo of an association or company. It describes briefly what we are about like for example:

 "Yodaai, Celebrating Yoruba culture and language"

"Yodaai, awa omo kaaro, o ji' re". O.K. I'm out of ideas.

So what is your Yodaai tagline idea? What has the association and the blog meant to you these last several months?

You have to register as a follower on the blog and then  comment on the blog here, below, to be in the running to win. I will be putting  the top 2 tagline ideas up for a vote for the final choice, to be democratic about it all.

Also, all the names of all the yodaai commentators will also go into the random number generator to choose a winner of the $100 gift card. Click where it says comments to leave your comments on the blog anniversary and your tagline idea...

The winner will be announced on the blog on the anniversary on July 21, 2012. Good luck.

How about some celebratory cake... Maybe a nice Riesling wine to go along with it, or champagne?




Funke Abolade, M.D.


Social/publicity Secretary

Ajodun n' bo l'ono...

Here we are thinking about our Ajodun and the end of the year is approaching fast...

AJODUN OMO EGBE YORUBA NI ALABAMA

• It got me thinking again of home and what the end of the year would usually bring - a big celebration involving lots of family and food.

You see, it's my father's birthday on the 31st of December and on that day, all the cousins and extended family would gather around. An agbo (Ram) was prepared and there was merriment usually all around. It was Christmas, end of the year, birthday party and new year's eve all rolled into one.

We got sparklers and ran around saying "Ina oluwa ki i jo yan", which is not true really since if you got touched by those sparklers you knew they burnt! Ahhhh. We exploded "knockouts", shaking the neighborhood with excitement and the anticipation of a new year approaching, may be a new beginning for all...

Moving here to the United states is a new beginning for most if not all of us. I dare say we could all tell stories on how and why we came here.

 We won't be preparing an agbo but we will be doing something equally meaningful, which is to each bring of ourselves, an offering to share with others at the Ajodun. I guess in my mind what we are trying to do is to re-create that sense of extended family and kinship for our children, and for ourselves,  if I may say so, who miss that "Je le n ke"  in Nigeria of days gone by...

So on we go. Planning our Ajodun with intensity and loaded meaning, for ourselves. Hope to see you there. It will be here sooner than you think....

Funke Abolade,

Social/Publicity Secretary.