Word of the Day: wahala

wahala (n)

Trouble, hassle (Nigerian pidgin English).

"'So, why the wahala?' Jimoh was persuasive, and Chester was already halfway convinced, when Jimoh made his next suggestion. 'To make things easy for you in Nigeria, I will lend you my passport. That way, no-one can make wahala for you. You go be Jimoh omo Garuba, proper Nigerian man. And me, I go be Chester Arlington. With your papers, I can work at McDonald's and make more money. I'll do three jobs at once. Then I can go back to my wife and pickin'."
--Buchi Emecheta, The New Tribe

Today's hassle? The heavy-duty cord to my electric lawnmower -- 300 feet of kinked up, knotted up wahala. We have a tiny backyard that needs mowing about once a week. It's a simple enough task, except for the damn extension cord, which twists itself into a convoluted tangle of pure frustration. I keep unplugging myself because the cord won't stretch far enough with all it's snags and snarls.

Why can't someone genetically engineer grass to only grow to an inch and a half in length, anyway? We can put a man on the moon....

Yeah, first-world problems. Do they have lawns in Nigeria?

~~~

Meanwhile....

White Whine - A Collection of First-World Problems