Bukola Oriola

Author| Advocate| Mentor| Entrepreneur

Green Dot And The President’s Meeting

By

Green Dot Poster
Green Dot Poster

Several things have come up since my last post about my trip to Grand Rapids. I am still working on the part two of that trip; however, I will like to share a little bit of the event I had today. I had received a call at 2:36 a.m. from Nigeria, which disrupted by sleep. And guess what happened? I woke up late. Not only did I wake up late, my son, Samuel went to school late, and I was late for an important meeting – a meeting with the president of my current college, Anoka Ramsey Community College (ARCC), Kent Hanson. I must confess that it was an absurd morning.

It was a little chilly morning with a downpour. I brought out the umbrella today for the first time this year. I think that spring is finally here. As we finished dressing up in a rush, I picked out two umbrellas and handed the small one to Samuel and we went to the car. I dropped him off by going into the front office to sign in and explain our reason for lateness on a “late” sign-in sheet, while he was given a pink note for his class teacher.

I hurriedly left the office afterwards to my appointment with the school president. As I drove anxiously, I thought to myself, “I have a meeting with the school president and I am late.” I pulled up in the parking lot and hurriedly moved my legs as fast as I could towards the brown building. I know where his office is but do not know specifically which door goes into his office, so I asked at the front desk and was pointed in the same direction where I knew it was. I stood for a minute and read the signs. Luckily, I read one that stated, “President’s Office.” So, I walked in.

I was greeted with a smile by the receptionist. As soon as I introduced myself, she seemed to be expecting me and welcomed me warmly. I said to her, “I am sorry, I am late.” She replied, “Not to worry,” and quickly added, “Can I have your coat?” At that point, the tension in my body melted like ice in heat and I said, “Yes, thank you as I pulled my red and grey Columbia spring coat.” She offered me a seat and went into the president’s office to announce my arrival.

By the time I arrived at President Hanson’s office, I had closed my umbrella. It closed nicely into a small pouch so I left it by the couch in the waiting area. The receptionist came back to invite me into President Hanson’s office and as I walked in, he had left his seat to usher me into a couch in the sitting area in his office. He sat in a second couch. There were two blue couches with a glass table for casual conversation in front of his work desk. The window of his office overlooked the Mississippi River. The brown desk was neatly arranged.

As I sat down with him, I apologized for my lateness and he seemed not to be bothered about that. He was just excited that I would be meeting with the board of trustees. He said, “I see that you have quite a story to tell. You will be sharing with the board of trustees and I would like to be there with you. But I wanted us to meet first.” Then he went on to say, “I understand that we have met briefly before.” So, I replied, “Yes, during the Student Government’s Mock-up Party last semester. I took a picture with you.” Then he said, “Now, I remember.” I added, “I missed you when you came to the Student Government’s meeting though. I was tutoring at the Cambridge campus.” He said, “I understand that you are quite a writer,” adding, “You even tutored” with his eyebrows up in exclamation. I said, “Yes,” and showed him a copy of my book, Imprisoned: The Travails of a Trafficked Victim that I had brought for him. He seemed pleased and said, “I will definitely read the book. Thank you.”

Surprisingly, presenting to the board of trustees will not be at the ARCC campus in Coon Rapids as I had thought. The president made me to understand that we will be going to the board’s office in St. Paul in a sixteen floors building where it occupies about four floors in the building. I could see that the president holds the board of trustees in high esteem. He offered to give me a ride to the presentation, which will be coming up next month. According to him, he doesn’t want me to get lost or have any trouble finding the place. I look forward to meeting the ARCC board of trustees to share about my trip to the White House and how Anoka Ramsey has helped me in my career.

Meanwhile, I was scheduled for a presentation on human trafficking by the Green Dot Club on Campus today. Green Dot is an organization within the campus creating awareness about domestic abuse and sexual assault on campus. There are also counsellors available for students who might have been abused or be in an abusive relationship. The club had a two series presentation this week – one was held on Tuesday and I was invited to speak about human trafficking today. You never know who is in the audience. At the end of my presentation, a student came up to me to ask for help for someone who is out in Florida. According to her, she did not want to ask in front of everybody and the victim is being held against her will by her parents. I hope we can help her before it is too late. If you pray, please, pray for safe rescue for us. It’s hard to rescue a victim from a stranger; it is even harder to rescue one from a family member.

Thanks for reading. I hope to talk to you again through my blogs. If you have questions, comments or suggestions, please, send me a note – fill out the contact form. I want to hear from you.  You can also get my recent posts by signing up to receive updates.

Bye for now, until next time.

  signature copy

 

The Power of Your Tongue

By

In the morning, just before I left my motel room
In the morning, just before I left my motel room

Sometimes we speak without necessarily paying attention to what we say. Sometimes, we mean what we say, but it can be fulfilling when you say a positive thing and see it come to pass. That was exactly what happened to me yesterday. In January, I had attended the Empower Ladies Conference at the Calvary Church in Roseville, where I met some ladies that came from Grand Rapids, Minnesota. The conference was about creating awareness on the issue of human trafficking.

They visited me at the vendor table for The Enitan Story when we began to chat. We said so many things, but little did I know that I had said to them when they asked, “What can we do to help?” And, I had said, “Organize an event in your community to create awareness.” They bought a copy of my book, and for the first time ever, I signed one copy of my book to about four or five ladies. They said they would read and pass it around. It was snowy, the weather outside was very depressing, and they left.

Few weeks after, one of them, Rebecca contacted me via Facebook to ask if I would be willing to speak at their event in April. I said yes and asked her to complete a Speaker’s Request Form to help me plan with my team. I discussed this with some of the board members of The Enitan Story and after several messages back and forth via Facebook and email with Rebecca, to ensure our mission aligns with their request, my team agreed that I should honor the request.

Few days before the event, I received a program outline and my contact person, Beth upon my arrival at the venue. Rebecca also called to speak with me.  I left a voice message on Beth’s phone to find out what time I was expected to arrive, because, they wanted me in town a day before the actual event. Also, I wanted to have a proper plan for my son while I was gone. The event was going to start as early as 9:00 a.m. with guests’ registration. There were nine vendors, which comprised of vendor tables for their five speakers and four local organizations at Grand Rapids.

The two hours fifty eight minutes’ drive was smooth. I stopped to figure out where I was when I received a call from Beth. On the other side of the phone, she asked, “Where are you? I answered, I don’t know. My phone GPS stopped working.” She asked me to tell her what I saw around me. I told her then she asked if I was coming from highway 169. When I responded affirmatively, she said that I was already in Grand Rapids and that I should just keep coming until I saw a community school, then the church, The Community Presbyterian Church where they were getting things ready for the event would be one block after that.

When I drove into the town, I was pleasantly surprised. First, it was seeing Cub Foods that felt that Grand Rapids might be far away from the Twin Cities but it is definitely like one of the cities in the Twin Cities. I have been to some cities, where they did not have Cub Foods, but just a local grocery store. The place looked boisterous. There was Home Depot, Target, Mexican Restaurant, and so on. After a little bit of taking the wrong turn because highway 169, which I was on merged directly into a turning lane (by this time, it was rush hour at Grand Rapids, so I could not quickly change my lane), I had to tell Beth what had happened. By this time also, I had already called her back, and she offered to stay on the phone with me until I reached my destination. To cut my long story short, Renee, another member of the planner, came to pick me up at the community school, where I had agreed to park.

The group was excited to see me when I pulled up in front of the church. I saw some children and Renee pointed her children to me among them. She also showed me Beth’s kids, who would have been my son’s buddies, if I had brought him with me. The kids and adult helped to unload my car and I was showed my table, so I set up.

What happened next? Find out in another sequel I will be writing to this.

Overall, it was a great event. the hosts, comprising of women, who wanted change and their husbands and friends put together a very nice event.

Thanks for reading. I hope to talk to you again through my blogs. If you have questions, comments or suggestions, please, send me a note – fill out the contact form. I want to hear from you.  You can also get my recent posts by signing up to receive updates.

Bye for now, until next time.

signature copy

 

 

How Parents Can Protect Their Children From Trafficking

By

Take 25 Home Page
Take 25 Home Page

There are several ways that parents can protect their children from the preying eyes of pimps and traffickers. For the purpose of this presentation, which I will be delivering tomorrow at the Community Presbyterian Church in Grand Rapids, I have focused on four. They include:

  • Spiritual Nurturing
  • Open Communication
  • Use of Technology
  • Using school’s PTO to create human trafficking awareness in schools.

You can view or download the presentation here.

This event has been put together by a group called Support Within Reach and the conference is entitled End Sex Slavery Northern Minnesota.

Defying The Snow To Support Justice

By

 

Sheriff James Stuart's voting pin badge
Sheriff James Stuart’s voting pin badge

Yesterday was the fundraising ceremony of the Anoka County Sheriff, Sheriff James Stuart at the Harvest Grill in Coon Rapids. As at the time I arrived at the event, the snow had just started dropping some few stone-like ice on the floor. It was also starting to get a little bit chilly. When I arrived at the venue with my son, Sam we passed through a wide hallway painted in cream to the hall where there were guests seated and dinning. At the entrance of the room was a signing table with name badges to write your name on. But before we signed in, we greeted the Sheriff, who was also standing at the entrance to welcome his guests. He was excited to us. He was meeting Sam for the first time and asked, “Is this your son?” As I was saying, “Yes,” he turned to Sam and bent down stretching his hands forward to say hello with a hand shake. Then he said, “Nice to meet you.” Sam said, “Hello.” However, Sheriff Stuarts quickly showed his concern for the depressing weather that was beginning to show up after much publicity in the weather forecast about its unwelcoming visit.

Sheriff Stuart asked, “Are the roads bad already?” I replied, “No. Actually it’s just starting to snow.” With anxiety in his tone of voice, he said, “Let the road be good and let people arrive safely before it starts to get bad,” adding quickly, “let them go back home safely too.”  Having a bad weather looming when having an important event definitely can make the hosts anxious regardless of whom. Fortunately, guests kept showing up in their numbers at the event. After taking our seat with some guests at a table, I saw a crowd at the door signing in. Meanwhile, there was considerable number of guests already in the room by the time we showed up.

There were about 100 people in the room. I was not surprised at the turnout. Sheriff Stuart has been an effective sheriff, who is committed to the community. I know him personally with the human trafficking advocacy efforts he has continued to take active actions upon in the county. I am glad I went and hope that he get re-elected into office to continue his laudable efforts. Two slide shows were on featuring his efforts in the community.

As we went to take a seat, I decided to go to a table with guests, but had some free seats. I asked one of the ladies at the table, “Can we join you.” The lady I asked, Diana said, “Yes.” Sam took a seat beside her, while I sat next to Sam. I quickly recognized the other lady. She is the president of the Metro North Chamber of Commerce, Lori Higgins. After seating for a minute, I asked Sam if I could get him a plate of food. Then Diana, said, “The food is good.” I took Sam to the food table and got him a plate of meatballs, crackers, and chicken on a stick. I felt full because of the meal I ate just before I headed to the event, so I did not get any food for myself. I however continued to sip my cup of water, which was on the table, while Sam just nibbled a little bit on his food.

Diana asked me curiously, “How did you know the sheriff? With a smile, I said, “I know him through human trafficking advocacy. I have a TV Show called Imprisoned Show featuring issues of human trafficking and I had him and the county attorney as a guests on the show.” Nodding her head in agreement she said, “O yeah! He is a good man. He does good things in the community.” Quickly, she pointed the legislative member who was also sitting at the table to me. I greeted the other people at the table, but it was Lori first and she asked about my business. After telling her that business was okay. At some point in the conversation, Diana was confused about what I do because Lori had said that I had a hair braiding shop. In trying to explain what that meant to Diana, I pulled up a picture from Bukola Braiding Facebook page to explain what we meant to her. I also told her that hair braiding is what brings food to my table and that the TV show is my advocacy work to help others. Then Lori tried to explain further, she said to Diana, “The hair braiding is her work and the TV is what she does on the side.” I however said to Lori, “We have a nonprofit now. Imprisoned Show is under the nonprofit. It’s called The Enitan Story.” She nodded her head and said, “Okay.” Aside from Lori, every other person on the table asked me how I knew the sheriff and I had to explain again and again.

Diana asked, “Where are you from?” “Nigeria,” I said. “So, how did you get here?” “It’s a long story, “I replied. Then she said, “My story is a long story too. I was in a bad accident seven years ago and was in the hospital for nine months. I was in my own comma for three months.” I was speechless. I just muttered “Whoah!” I am sorry to hear that.” She continued and said, “I went to heaven. I saw my sister, who had died years ago. I saw Jesus but he told me you have to go back to earth. I said to Jesus, I want to stay here with my sister. He said no, you have to go back but make sure you help someone every day.” I was still trying to comprehend everything she was telling me when she added, “I have been helping people every day.”

As a result of the accident, she had to relearn her alphabets. She has even forgotten everything from her past. She uses a walker now, but she is a strong woman. I asked her, “Can you read now? Or can someone read to you if I give you my book? She said, “Yes.” I was relieved and told her I was going to give her a copy of my book so that she can learn more about me. I made a quick trip to the snowing parking lot (at this time, the snow had started falling heavily), grabbed a copy of my book, came back in and signed it to her. I wrote, “You are a gift to the world.” She said someone is working on a book about her story and that she will give me a copy when the book is out.

She excused herself from the table to greet other guests. Then she came back with a lady, whom she introduced to me. I greeted the lady and then, it was time for Diana to go. The man who came with her said, “I have a meeting to go, so we have to go now,” with a sense of urgency in his voice. Diana was leaving and said to me, “Call me, I will like to go out to coffee with you. I am serious, I mean it.” I said to her, “Sure. I will like to go out with you. You are a gift to the world.” She left and by the time I looked, the table was almost empty leaving me and Sam behind.

Shortly after, a lady came up to the table to ask, “Can we join you? I said, “Yes. The other people on the table seem to have left.” Her husband and son joined her. She turned to her son and said, “See, there is another little boy here,” as if to assure him that he was not alone. She asked how old my son was, I said, seven.” She asked, “Is he in second grade? I said, “No, first grade.” Her son is in second grade. We continued to talk and we talked about the sheriff and his good work in the community. After I told her how I got connected to the sheriff, she told me that she has a sister who is a board member to a nonprofit in another state where they advocate against human trafficking, among others.

Surprisingly, I found that she is the City of Ramsey Mayor, Sarah Stormmen. I gave her The Enitan Story’s brochure and she gave me her business card. I told her that I am planning to go to cities and do “Imprisoned Show In Your City” with the City mayors and some community members during the summer, and she welcome me to come over to the City of Ramsey. Like I said to her, you never know whom you will meet when you go to a community event of such magnitude. While I was talking to her, I caught a glimpse of the County Attorney, Attorney Tony Palumbo and wanted to make sure I saw the right person so I asked her to help me confirm and she said, “Yes, that is the county attorney.” I think he was also leaving, so I excused myself to go to him to greet just before he walked out of the door. He was excited when he said, “BUKOLA” how are you?” stretching his arms to embrace me like a father. I said, “Fine” with a smile and thanked him for his work in the community. He was with Sheriff Stuart on Imprisoned Show in 2012 to talk about their efforts in fighting human trafficking in the community.

Overall, it was exciting night. I hope that Sheriff Stuart get re-elected to continue with his commendable efforts in the community.

Thanks for reading. I hope to talk to you again through my blogs. If you have questions, comments or suggestions, please, send me a note – fill out the contact form. I want to hear from you.  You can also get my recent posts by signing up to receive updates.

Bye for now, until next time.

signature copy

Suicide On a Treadmill

By

On the treadmill
On the treadmill

I have been walking for three weeks now as a form of exercise from my online walking class and my legs hurt. In fact, it started with shin splints on the left leg, needless to say that at the end of the first week, I felt as if I had just lost my virginity with the pains I was feeling in the ball joints of my hips. It is the third week now and thankfully, those pains are gone, but new pains developed like the sprout of a new seed in the garden. This time, my right knee hurts, my laps feel tired, and I just feel like giving up, but I cannot.

When I started three weeks ago, it was my first time on the treadmill. When I entered the school gym (by the way, I pay for the gym in my tuition but never use it) there were two girls on the treadmill. I asked one of them to help me. I told her, “I don’t know how to use the treadmill. It is my first time.” She was nice to me and decided to show me. First, she asked me to step on the side by putting my legs at the edge of the treadmill before starting the machine. She said, “Press the Quick Start” and it will start, then you can step on it.” I did then the machine asked for my weight. At this time, I entered my weight and started walking holding the bars in front of me for dear life.

My pace was about 17 point something and I completed one mile in 22 minutes. I walked for three miles, which I completed in 55 minutes, but when I looked in the exercise specification, my walking was poor because I was supposed to complete my one mile in 14 minutes and three miles in 35 minutes. Three days after, which was a Monday, I went back to the gym. This time, I asked one of the front desk assistants to help me. I even asked her how to make the machine go faster. She showed me and I was going at 5.7KPH. I held on so tight onto the bars, as I was going so fast on the machine. I thought I was going to pass out on the machine. I had gone a little over half a mile when my instructor entered the gym and came to me. Looking concerned as if one of her students was about to commit suicide on a treadmill, she stopped the machine and said, “You are not supposed to hold on to the bars. It is also too fast, you have to be able to walk without holding on.”

I was short of breath, I was panting. I was light headed. My legs were jittery. I was hot and sweating. Then, I tried to speak. Struggling to get my words out I said, “I didn’t know that. This is new to me.” I felt like sitting down, I rested my back on one of the bars of the treadmill. After a short moment, I felt a little better. Then she said, “You can use the treadmill for your weekly training log, but not the walking assignment. You have to walk outside or on the school walking track.” Well, every week, we have to log in our walking exercise in an excel spread sheet that she provided for us, but then, she also asks us specific question about walking on a separate sheet that we have to turn in every week.

When I started this class, I knew that walking was a good and light form of exercise but never knew that it is a form that can help with burning calories and losing weight. It’s been three weeks and I have lost close to 10 pounds. Although, I drink a slimming tea which has also helped, but I noticed that the walking has helped to tighten my abdomen and I feel really light in my body.

Two days ago, I decided to walk outside since the weather was nice. The winter snow has melted. The brown soil is showing and the trees just lay bear with no leaves or snow. In fact, the ponds have melted too and there were ducks and geese swimming in the pond along the Mississippi Regional Park Wedgewood Trail in Coon Rapids. I walked almost a mile and half with my son, Sam who was riding his bicycle. On our way, we met two dogs – a nice white little dog, called Bailey and a black not so nice dog. The black Labrador was in a fenced house and he could  not help himself but bark at us on our way back on the trail. Meanwhile, while we were going, we had met Bailey and her owner walked past us. On our way back, Bailey looked like she wants to say hello, so I looked at her and said, “hello!” in a soft voice. Then, I turned to her owner to ask, “Can I pet her?” He said, “Yes.” I bent down and pet her on the head and under her arms and Sam left his bicycle to come and pet the dog too. Petting Bailey lasted about a minute or two and we continued to head back home facing the wind as I walked while Sam rode his bicycle. At the end of the walk, my laps and right knee hurt. As for the right knee, I guess it is because it has not healed from hurting when I fell in the icy snow four weeks ago in front on my apartment.

I have not reached my goal, but I am not giving up. I have improved in my pace and complete time, but is not at 14 minutes yet. I have five more weeks to go to reach my goal. I hope to bring you good news at the end of this class and exercise. I just want to encourage you today not to give up on whatever you want to achieve. It may take long, it may not, but just keep going and you will achieve it.

Thanks for reading. I hope to talk to you again through my blogs. If you have questions, comments or suggestions, please, send me a note – fill out the contact form. I want to hear from you.  You can also get my recent posts by signing up to receive updates.

Bye for now, until next time.

signature copy

Get a copy of the international best selling book by Bukola Oriola, A Living Label: An Inspirational Memoir and Guide.   Book Description: A Living Label is a memoir that documents some of the struggles and triumphs of the author as a survivor of labor trafficking and domestic violence in the U.S. Bukola Oriola’s goal is to inspire hope in other survivors that they can turn their lives around positively, regardless of what difficulty they might have passed through. She also provides practical solutions to the government, service providers, NGOs, and the general public on how to effectively engage with survivors, to value them as the subject matter experts they are. As someone who has dedicated her life to empowering other survivors, she has decided to contribute the proceeds from the book sales to survivors’ education or their businesses, starting with 100 survivors in the United States, Nigeria and Kenya. She believes that survivors want to be independent and contribute to their communities, and she wants to help survivors achieve this dream. Learn more from the inspiring author, Book Bukola now!
Featured on the (1)

Contact Bukola for Permission to Use