{"id":7829,"date":"2015-08-15T14:10:55","date_gmt":"2015-08-15T14:10:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tayosolagbade.com\/sdnuggets\/?p=7829"},"modified":"2015-08-15T14:35:07","modified_gmt":"2015-08-15T14:35:07","slug":"heres-wishing-my-wonderful-beninois-friend-salifou-moumouni-and-his-heart-throb-zuliha-happy-married-life-as-they-tie-the-knot-in-parakou-benin-republic-today-sat-15th-august-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/tayosolagbade.com\/sdnuggets\/heres-wishing-my-wonderful-beninois-friend-salifou-moumouni-and-his-heart-throb-zuliha-happy-married-life-as-they-tie-the-knot-in-parakou-benin-republic-today-sat-15th-august-2015\/","title":{"rendered":"Here's wishing my wonderful Beninese friend, Salifou Moumouni, and his heart throb - Zuliha - Happy Married Life, as they tie the knot in Parakou, Benin Republic TODAY Sat 15th August 2015!"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article is a tribute of sorts, to my wonderful Beninese friend Salifou Moumouni<\/a>, to wish him happy married life as he ties the knot with his heart throb - Zuliha - over in Parakou today, in an event I'm sadly unable to attend, due to unexpected developments - despite being here in Cotonou.<\/p>\n

[NB:<\/strong> Photo taken 2 years ago, on 8th Aug. 2013, in Calavi]<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a><\/p>\n

Moumouni told me about the wedding on Thursday, and I'd excitedly told him I would make it down.<\/p>\n

I stayed back in Cotonou yesterday (Friday), to close out some online work till close to midnight - thinking I could make it the next morning. <\/em><\/p>\n

What I did not know was that Parakou is actually 400km away from Cotonou...!<\/h3>\n

[Hold it, don't ask me how come I didn't know despite being here since 2013: I've moved around but not had time to get that far...lol]<\/em><\/p>\n

That's a journey that cannot be embarked upon at 8.30a.m in the morning of the day a wedding ceremony in Parakou would be starting at 10a.m!!!<\/p>\n

As you can imagine, I felt so silly when I called Moumouni this morning when we had the following conversation:<\/p>\n

Me:<\/strong> Ol boy, I'm sure you're excited. Today is the day O!<\/p>\n

Moumouni: <\/strong>Yes O.<\/p>\n

Me:<\/strong> So, when is the ceremony starting?<\/p>\n

Moumouni: <\/strong>From 10a.m<\/p>\n

Me: <\/strong>Right, so how much does it cost to take transportation from here to Parakou?<\/p>\n

Moumouni:<\/strong> Ah! Noooo. If you're not here that means you can't make it. It's very far O. About 400km. You can't make it on time.<\/p>\n

Me:<\/strong> What? O I didn't know it was that far away. I actually got so busy yesterday that I decided to come down this morning. But I never realized it would take hours.<\/p>\n

Moumouni: <\/strong>No. Don't bother yourself. I will soon be back in Cotonou. No problem.<\/p>\n

After the call ended, despite what Moumouni had said, I still tried to find way...<\/h3>\n

I went out to ask a few friends about the fastest way to get down to Parakou. They told me to take the BIG bus from the park near Etoile Rouge, but warned that I would arrive quite late, and have to sleep over.<\/p>\n

I told them I would NOT mind, as this was the wedding for a good friend that I did not want to miss.<\/p>\n

So, I got back in to the room and began packing my things.<\/p>\n

Just as I finished dressing up, my phone rang. <\/strong><\/p>\n

It was a call from Nigeria - specifically Abuja, from a prospective buyer working as a technologist with a research agency.<\/p>\n

We'd been exchanging calls and emails for about a week and a half.<\/p>\n

This time around, he was calling to inform me that he had just made payment - via online bank transfer - for my Ration Formulator and Feed Formulation Handbook bundle, and wanted me to confirm receipt.<\/h3>\n

I told him I would check.<\/p>\n

Not long after, I called him back to confirm I'd seen the alert, and that I would get back to him.<\/em><\/p>\n

When the call ended, it occurred to me that I would have to fulfil the order BEFORE leaving for Parakou - because the promise made in my sales offer is delivery within 24 to 48 hours post payment.<\/p>\n

I realized there and then that if I went ahead to Parakou, in the hurried manner that had become imperative, I would be unable to fulfil my promise - since it would be a long trip, and I would have no access to the web.<\/p>\n

Years of experience have taught me NEVER to fail to deliver on a promise made to buyers<\/h3>\n

Especially buyers in THIS part of the world, who take a leap of faith to send you money, without ever meeting you in the flesh! <\/em><\/p>\n

If I went to Parakou, I could not be sure of Internet accessibility and connection reliability there since I'd not been there before. In fact it was not likely I would have the time to search, since I woud be there for the wedding.<\/p>\n

On top of that, I realized that tomorrow being Sunday, finding a cyber cafe open at Parakou (since I would have to sleep over), would probably also be difficult, if not impossible. Even here in Cotonou, only few cafes open on Sunday, and some don't have reliable connections.<\/p>\n

The above considerations made it apparent to me that I simply could not afford to go ahead with my plan to make the trip to Parakou.<\/h3>\n

That's why I'm typing this piece at my favorite cafe here in Cotonou.<\/p>\n

After I'm done, I will prepare the personalized copies of:<\/strong><\/p>\n

a. my Excel-VB Ration Formulator software<\/a><\/p>\n

b. the PDF Feed Formulation Handbook<\/a><\/p>\n

c. the FREE bonus PDF \"Annotated Pictorial Introduction to Feed Ingredients<\/a>\" (30 pages) that I give to EVERY buyer of my Feed Formulation Handbook<\/p>\n

d. a PDF invoice confirming payment receipt<\/p>\n

e. a FREE PDF gift version of my Agribusiness research paper<\/a> that I got paid for in December 2013, by a European Union funded NGO.<\/p>\n

I will then dispatch an email to the new buyer in Abuja - with download links to the above items & to video tutorials for the Ration Formulator.<\/em><\/p>\n

To make up for my absence, I've asked Moumouni to bring back as many photos and videos as possible from the event...<\/h3>\n

My plan is to use them to create a special commemorative presentation they can keep at home and also share with LOVED ones - even online. <\/em><\/p>\n

I'll be posting a version here on my website to celebrate them.<\/p>\n

It's the least I can do for my GREAT Muslim friend with a golden heart, who welcomed me to his country with open arms, when I was a LOST stranger in Calavi (a town outside Cotonou, where the national university is located), looking for rented accommodation, and having no luck.<\/p>\n

Moumouni helped me find a place to stay with friends who treated me like I was one of them. Less than a week later, I had found rented accommodation that I used for 3 months, in Calavi - before finding a self-contained apartment back in Cotonou.<\/p>\n

That happened back in 2013, and we've been the best of friends since then. <\/strong><\/p>\n

In fact, Moumouni is like a blood brother to me: he has gone out of his way countless times to do what most others - even my own relatives - would not. I exaggerate NOT.<\/p>\n

But do you know the best thing about this guy? <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

It's how he responds when you want to thank him using more than words: He always points out that Allah expects us to help one another and NOT to demand reward for doing so.<\/p>\n

Such a model God-fearing human being!!!<\/p>\n

Happy married life to YOU Moumouni, my wonderful friend!!!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article is a tribute of sorts, to my wonderful Beninese friend Salifou Moumouni, to wish him happy married life as he ties the knot with his heart throb - Zuliha - over in Parakou today, in an event I'm sadly unable to attend, due to unexpected developments - despite being here in Cotonou. [NB: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,1375,133,266,1440,103],"tags":[1828,1829,1830,1831,1827],"class_list":["post-7829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entrepreneurs","category-excel-vb-solutions","category-farm-biz","category-my-dn-travel-news","category-recommended-websites-articles","category-writingblogging","tag-and-his-heart-throb-zuliha-happy-married-life","tag-as-they-tie-the-knot-in-parakou","tag-benin-republic-today-sat-15th-august-2015","tag-heres-wishing-my-wonderful-beninese-friend","tag-salifou-moumouni"],"aioseo_notices":[],"views":1289,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/tayosolagbade.com\/sdnuggets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/tayosolagbade.com\/sdnuggets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/tayosolagbade.com\/sdnuggets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tayosolagbade.com\/sdnuggets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tayosolagbade.com\/sdnuggets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7829"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/tayosolagbade.com\/sdnuggets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7829\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7839,"href":"http:\/\/tayosolagbade.com\/sdnuggets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7829\/revisions\/7839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/tayosolagbade.com\/sdnuggets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tayosolagbade.com\/sdnuggets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tayosolagbade.com\/sdnuggets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}