Happiness Chidinma Opara's Blog

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

How to Make Nigerian Zobo drink

Zobo drink also known as Zoborodo or Hibiscus drink is a popular nutritious healthy drink to make at home. It's an Ox-blood or red wine colored drink made from dry petals of the roselle plant (Hibiscus sabdariffa) which is a hibiscus specie. It goes by different names such as Rosella in Australia, Jamaican sorrel drink in the Caribbean, Sobolo in Ghana, depending on the region it's prepared. It's a rich and natural health drink filled with enormous benefits.

I love preparing my zobo drink with more of natural fruits including the peels of the particular fruit i use for the flavor I want but you may add artificial flavors and sweeteners such as Foster clarks, Nutri C, jolly juice e.t.c if you don't have the natural substitute. The Concentration of the juice also depends on choice as some like theirs concentrated while others like their’s less concentrated like me. Also, the more concentrated the drink is, the more likely it is to sour and ferment quickly. Traditionally, Zobo drink has been used for years and therefore seen as a herbal health drink which has been known to help several health issues including high blood pressure, loss of appetite, circulation, liver diseases, cancers, fevers, and as a gentle laxative and diuretic. Modern research also supports the fact that hibiscus has multiple health effects. This definitely makes it one of the top 10 healthy drinks to make at home.

How to make Healthy natural zobo drink:
•Prep time: 20 mins
•Cook time: Over 1hr

Utensils needed

• A Sieve
• A Large Pot
• A Sharp Knife

Ingredients::::

• 150g Zobo leaves

• 7 Liters water

• 30g Dry ginger or Fresh ginger

• 3 tbsps. Cloves a.k.a Konofiri

• 1 Large Pineapple

• Artificial flavors and sweeteners such as (foster Clark’s Pineapple flavor, jolly juice e.t.c) -Optional.

• Sugar Cane or Honey - Optional (You can substitute with Sugar)

Directions:::

Step 1: Before peeling the pineapple, wash the skin thoroughly and rinse with clean water. You can use both the inner part and the outer skin to get added flavor. (P.S: Use the skin only if you are sure of how it was stored or if it's been thoroughly washed.) Peel and Dice the fruit - Set aside

Step 2: Wash the dry leaves of the hibiscus severally with cold water. This is because the leaves are often times dirty due to the way they are stored. Once you're done washing, place the washed leaves in a large pot and add the water and turn on your burner.

Step 3: Add the chunks of pineapple, ginger and Cloves (Konofiri). The taste of the zobo really intensifies when it's boiled with the ingredients unlike when it’s left to steep. Leave to boil for about 25mins.

Step 4: Sieve out the extract into a bowl and leave the drink to cool. The boiled leaves in the pot can still be reused till the red color of the zobo totally reduces. You'd know when the red color becomes less intense.

Step 5: This is supposed to be a health drink so i ensure i use only natural sweeteners and flavors like honey, sugar cane juice, pineapple juice etc. Alternatively if you don't have the natural juices, you can substitute with Artificial flavors and sweeteners such as Foster clarks flavor, Nutri C, jolly juice e.t.c.

Step 6: Refrigerate and serve cold.

• A Sieve
• A Large Pot
• A Sharp Knife

- See more at: http://www.dobbyssignature.com/2014/01/how-to-make-nigerian-zobo-drink.html#sthash.V3a12mF1.dpuf

Woman Beheaded by Ritualists in Imo State PHOTO

Last week Monday March 31st, the Ibiasoegbe community of Oru West Local Government Area of Imo State, was thrown into chaos as one of its daughters was beheaded by suspected ritualists.
The 66 Year Old Mrs Josephine Okorie who was a church warden at St. Paul’s Catholic Church was in her farm at when she met her untimely death! The attackers allegedly laid ambush, matcheted her and slit her throat before fleeing as another woman approached. The family claimed that the ritualists were about to go away with the decapitated head before the woman who approached raised alarm, causing them to leave without it... May the gentle soul of Mrs Okorie rest in peace, amen...

Last week Monday March 31st, the Ibiasoegbe community of Oru West Local Government Area of Imo State, was thrown into chaos as one of its daughters was beheaded by suspected ritualists.

The 66 Year Old Mrs Josephine Okorie who was a church warden at St. Paul’s Catholic Church was in her farm at when she met her untimely death! The attackers allegedly laid ambush, matcheted her and slit her throat before fleeing as another woman approached. The family claimed that the ritualists were about to go away with the decapitated head before the woman who approached raised alarm, causing them to leave without it... May the gentle soul of Mrs Okorie rest in peace, amen... Pleease see he photo below, viewers discretion is advised

- See more at: http://www.definitelykingsley.com/2014/04/woman-beheaded-by-rituals-in-imo-state.html#sthash.Clrs1PzQ.dpuf

Last week Monday March 31st, the Ibiasoegbe community of Oru West Local Government Area of Imo State, was thrown into chaos as one of its daughters was beheaded by suspected ritualists.

- See more at: http://www.definitelykingsley.com/2014/04/woman-beheaded-by-rituals-in-imo-state.html#sthash.Clrs1PzQ.dpuf

Inspiring-Meet the woman who is now friends with a man who killed her baby & chopped off her hand

This is a touching story of Alice who lost her baby daughter and her right hand to a manic killing spree. Emmanuel wielded the machete that took both.Yet today, despite coming from opposite sides of an unspeakable shared past, Alice Mukarurinda and Emmanuel Ndayisaba are friends. She is the treasurer and he the vice president of a group that builds simple brick houses for genocide survivors. They live near each other and shop at the same market.
Daily mail reports.....
For Alice, a Tutsi, the genocide began in 1992, when her family took refuge in a church for a week. Hutu community leaders began importing machetes. Houses were burned, cars taken.
Hutu leaders created lists of prominent or educated Tutsis targeted for killing. They also held meetings where they told those in attendance how evil the Tutsis were. Like many of his Hutu neighbors, Emmanuel soaked in the message.

The situation caught fire on April 6, 1994, when the plane carrying Rwanda's president was shot down. Hutus started killing Tutsis, who ran for their lives and flooded Alice's village.
Three days later, local Hutu leaders told Emmanuel, then 23, that they had a job for him
They took him to a Tutsi home and ordered him to use his machete. A Christian who sang in his church choir, Emmanuel had never killed before. But inside this house he murdered 14 people. The next day, April 12, Emmanuel found a Tutsi doctor in hiding and killed him, too. The day after, he killed two women and a child.
'The very first family I killed, I felt bad, but then I got used to it,' he says. 'Given how we were told that the Tutsis were evil, after the first family I just felt like I was killing our enemies.

Alice, then 25, escaped with her 9-month-old daughter and a 9-year-old niece into Rwanda's green countryside, moving, hiding, moving. She hid in a forested swamp.
'There were so many bodies all over the place,' she says. 'Hutus would wake up in the morning and go hunting for Tutsis to kill.'

On April 29, Emmanuel joined Hutu soldiers searching the countryside for Tutsis. The attackers blew a whistle whenever they found a Tutsi hiding.
The murders began at 10 a.m. and lasted until 3 p.m. Alice had been hiding in a swamp for days, keeping out only the top of her face so she could breathe. That was where the Hutus found her.
They surrounded the swamp. Then they attacked.
First they killed the girls. When that was done, they came after Alice. She was sure she would die, but instinctively put up her arm up to defend herself.

Emmanuel, Alice's school mate, recognized the woman but couldn't recall her name. Perhaps that made it easier to rain down machete blows on Alice's right arm, severing it just above the wrist. He sliced her face. His colleague pierced a spear through her left shoulder.
They left her for dead.

She was bloodied, scarred, and missing a hand, yes, but not dead. Alice fell unconscious, she says, and was found three days later by other survivors. It was only then that she realized she no longer had a right hand.
In the months after the genocide, guilt gnawed away at Emmanuel. He saw his victims during nightmares. In 1996, he turned himself in and confessed.
His prison term lasted from 1997 until 2003, when Kagame pardoned Hutus who admitted their guilt. After he was freed, he began asking family members of his victims for forgiveness. He joined a group of genocide killers and survivors called Ukurrkuganze, who still meet weekly.It was there that he saw Alice, the woman he thought he had killed.
At first he avoided her. Eventually he kneeled before her and asked for forgiveness. After two weeks of thought and long discussions with her husband, she said yes.

Find Out What The Pope Gave The Queen’s Great Grandson

It's was the most unusual gift for an 8 month old child, but it’s got big history!

Prince George with parents - Duke & Duchess of Cambridge
For an eight month old kid who seems to have everything, what could anyone send to him as a gift?
Well, Pope Francis had the strangest gift ever and he handed it to The Queen of England who came visiting him for the very first time.
The Pope reportedly gave Prince George a lapis lazuli orb decorated with a silver cross of Edward the Confessor - the 11th Century English King who was made a saint.
Pope Francis gave The Queen the unusual and not very child-friendly gift for her great-grandson Prince George as she apologized for a delay in meeting him at the Vatican.
The Queen, accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, shook hands with the leader of the Catholic Church and said: "Sorry to keep you waiting, we were having lunch with the president", before heading into a private meeting with the pontiff.
The private conversation between the royal couple and the Pope lasted around 17 minutes and was followed by a formal exchange of gifts.
We hear The Queen gave the Pope Whisky. Wait, what!!!?

Monday, April 7, 2014

Flawless! Gorgeous Rita Dominic Stuns In Photos!

The actress posted a picture of herself on set looking all gorgeous and Stunning!

Isn’t she just Beautiful?

How to Cope With Frustration

Frustration is a form of poorly expressed anger. Frustration is about expecting the world and its inhabitants to be a certain way. In reality, things are as they are and no amount of ranting and steaming is going to change that. What you do need to change is your perspective.

Steps:

Look for the triggers that cause you to feel frustration. Common ones include:

Impatience at the speed of people, systems, or results
Slow comprehension of facts or a situation by another person
Lack of reliability of a person, item, or system
General sense of unfairness or injustice about things that are occurring in your life
Poor communications resulting in something not being done at all, or on time
Wanting things your own way without compromise Think through your answers. Do any of the above situations apply to you? If so, note down why. Draw another column and suggest ways that you might address each frustration in a fruitful manner instead. For example:
"I get frustrated when the traffic crawls to halt and I am sitting in it, sweating. Counter thought: "I do hate the traffic being slow but I can avoid it by leaving earlier or later; or I can ride a bike instead."
"I cannot stand the way George is so slow at understanding the point of every exercise! I'm tearing out my hair!" Counter thought: "I know that George is a slow learner but my goodness, when he grasps the concepts finally, there is no stopping him and he is often the person who points out errors as we go along, helping us to avoid greater problems at the end of the project. I need to be patient with him and remember that he has this latent skill."
"Jenny never turns up on time. It's as if she is deliberately trying to ruin every occasion I spend with her!" Counter-thought: "Jenny has a problem with punctuality. It's not my problem unless I make it one. Instead, I need to either make her arrive on time by suggesting she arrive at a time half an hour earlier than the real time set, or I just need to get on with enjoying myself until she does arrive, in the full knowledge that that is her way."
"Everything is so unfair! Even the weather is against me making my hair all lank and horrible. The people on the street are deliberately bumping into me. The taxi was late and I was late going into the meeting as a result. The whole world is against me!" Counter thought: "It's just one of those days where things happen over which I have little control. All the same, next time I will book my taxi for half an hour earlier to make time for possible delays. And as for my hair, it is probably time to see the hair stylist anyway!" Breathe deeply and count when you feel a bout of frustration coming on. This is a good opportunity to create your reaction rather than to react and create your frustration. One deep breath, followed by a slow count to ten, during which time you let your thoughts go. Return to reality and consider the situation before you carefully and with a reality check. Ask yourself:
Are things really as I perceive them?
What sort of reaction can I give that will properly express my concern, my annoyance, my wishes?
What good and positive words can I use to express the need for seeing things my way too?
Am I seeing things in other people's way too? Remember that frustration is born of wanting things or people to be a certain way that is fixed in your head. Your expectations of others and of how the world works is formed over many years of experiences and sometimes your personal overlay is defective; it might have been a source of self-protection once but when it continues to advise you poorly for future experiences, then it is stuck in time, and generally plain wrong. When you cease to expect other people to act in a certain way, when you start to look at the world with fresh eyes again and expect nothing apart from the fact that you are a member of a community of individuals and a world of many happenings, then you start to realize that things happen, people are the way that they are, and most importantly of all, how you react matters. For example:
Let's say that somebody yells at you for accidentally standing on the street, as you intend to cross the road at the same time that they're coming around. There is no real fault here. You thought the road was clear, the driver did too. Neither of you had malicious intent. To take offense at the driver's fear of running you over is to place an interpretation on this event that isn't there; instead, accept that the driver was scared they'd hurt you (and that's a good intent) and that your piece in the action was equal. Simply apologize, acknowledge your own scare in the situation, and move on.Practice talking back to yourself every time that frustration arises. It takes a long time to overcome what has become essentially a very comforting but demoralizing habit. While it might feel justified to feel a sense of outrage, persecution, and insult, where do those types of self-pitying feelings ultimately lead you? They lead to personal stagnation and a victimhood type mentality that prevents you from growing as a human being and from experiencing what the whole world truly has to offer. Don't give up on letting go the grip of frustration; it will take time but it will happen if you put in a concerted effort to change your perspective.

Law school student, 30, commits suicide

A 30-year-old student of the Nigerian Law School, Abuja, Auwal Haruna, allegedly committed suicide on Monday by hanging himself on the ceiling fan in his hotel room in Takum.

The state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), ASP Joseph Kwaji, confirmed the incident to newsmen in Jalingo on Monday, saying the matter was under investigation.

According to him, the body of the deceased was found dangling from a ceiling fan at Mairiga Guest Inn, Takum.

He said the deceased, until his death, was a suspect in a case of murder involving his younger brother, Ahmed, who allegedly connived with their mother, Aisha, to murder their father, Haruna Mohammed.

He said that the deceased’s brother (Ahmed), 27, was being detained for abducting and hanging his father to death in the suburb of Gembu over his father’s alleged marriage of a second wife against the wishes of his wife.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that there is an upsurge in suicide cases in Taraba.

Kwaji attributed the increase in cases of suicide to drug abuse and frustration.

“Most of these young men commit suicide as a result of drug abuse and frustration in life.

“Suicide is not the solution to our problems. Killing oneself is not only contrary to the laws of the land, but also against our religions,’’ Kwaji said.

NAN recalls that two incidents of suicide were recorded in Jalingo in February.

One involved a 400 Level student of the Taraba University, Friday Samson, 32, who poisoned himself to death over lack of funds to pay his school fees.

The other incident involved a watchman, Saidu Babura, 45, who hung himself on a tree at Hassan Primary School, Jalingo, after an alleged battle against drug abuse.

In January, 21 year-old Mansur Tanko burnt himself to death in Jalingo because his father, Tanko Mijinyawa, allegedly refused to approve of his plan to marry. (NAN)