How this project came to be
In London 2013 Olive and I reconnected. At that time I was towards the end of my maternity leave as it was nearly a year since I had my youngest daughter Carmella. We had planned a trip to London to see a few friends and family and Olive had recently came to do her Masters at London School of Commerce (LSC)
I met Olive for the first time in 1992 when I was visiting my uncles place in Kigali. I was in my teen and she was just a child. Her family was friends with mine still are to a level we have become like families with many ties and many shared memories. One of them comes to my mind, a shared party for the New Year 2008, with lots of great food, drinks and music and the next day, a meal at hers with a few more family and friends. At this point, I was more connected to Olive’s parents than to her but still had one off conversations here and there.
In February 2014, Olive came to visit us in Edinburgh Scotland and we did reminiscent. At that point I has been exploring the idea of finding an official channel to share my poems but hadn’t had a breakthrough. There was that but also many of my friends were encouraging me to share my writing with a wider audience as a result of my posts on social media, Facebook at the time where I was sharing either an old memory, a day’s account or some of my own or children’s stories as they happened. Some suggested I write a book or share my life experience amongst other things. I had also realised, I found joy in writing and find it easy to write about things for the simple purpose of just sharing with my friends. I was always surprised by the reactions from my friends on some things that were to me just relieving a memory or reminiscent. But I knew the timing was not right for me to take that next step, publicly share my writing; my children were very young with my oldest 5 and my youngest just over a year, I was working full time and commuting everyday to Glasgow, a 100 miles journey in total both ways. However Olive suggested something that might work, a Blog as a way of sharing my writing with more just my family and friends especially my poems.
Life happened and in 2017 the idea of a Blog was a constant subject whenever I spoke with Olive and at that time it was becoming clear that this would be a joint project.
Between 2014 and 2021 many life events happened for both, with Olive completing her Masters, starting a family and now is married with two young children, Saro and Simbi. My children are a bit older with my oldest Lainey 12 years old and my youngest Carmella 8 years old. I am still working full time only this time from home as a result of Covid 19.
In 2017 Olive and her family relocated to the UK and since then we have reconnected and we have been each other’s support to this day. To a point that she has earned a named Code for our call – due to our lengthy conversations 😄. Yes! Whenever my daughters confirm that a call is either from Olive or my sister Jackie, they shout: Code Teal Code Teal (Olive’s call ) or Code Turquoise if it is my sister Jackie 😅
Our calls have been a source of support to each other through thick and thin. Our conversations cover a range of subjects, from personal experiences, politics, life in general, parenting, cultures, spirituality and more. Though with lots of shared values, we have different life experiences and at times we have different perspectives.
Olive and I have different characters traits. I am an Extrovert, Olive is an Introvert. I do find it easy to say write and share things whereby Olive keeps herself to herself. I am older and she is younger. Through our conversations, especially through different life experiences, we found that each other’s perspective especially when they differ, we have been a source of inspiration for each other without at times knowing! After a shared perspective, at times I have been able to solve a problem I might have been stuck with for a long time. On the other hand, Olive has been able to change her mind on something she wouldn’t have if we hadn’t talked. This project is partly a result of our interactions through those long conversations and we are now confident enough to be sharing with you this Blog.
Through our connection and mutual respect, this project was born and you are seeing a result of a partnership that we are both grateful for and that brought us here: Share both our perspectives and hopefully some of yours with the world. Hope you find this place a space of reflection or simply finding joy in stories, poems, articles or sorts of writing we will be sharing with you on a “A Glimpse of Perspective”.
Our A Glimpse of Perspective Blog will feature, previous shared posts elsewhere, conversations, both of our writings about life, some of my poems new and old, published or not, our children writings, poems and more. We are also hoping to have your contributions through shared or different perspectives on a range of subjects we will be sharing.
Mimi MC
