Busola

I met Busola this year at a childcare/ co-working space that both our daughters attended. She is extremely hard working, passionate, and such a sweet mother to her daughter, Rere. Busola was kind enough to introduce me to her friend, Kenny, who is the maker of our favorite dolls, Oremi Kids! Busola shared a little slice of her life with our community and we hope you enjoy getting to know her as much as we do! 

Q: Where did you grow up? 

A: I grew up in Nigeria. I am from Nigeria. I spent most of my life there. When I was about nine years old, we moved to England, and then we lived in England for about three and a half years, and then we moved back to Nigeria, and then we moved to the US. I moved to the US. For college after high school. 

Q: What was your childhood like? 

A: I feel like my childhood was exciting. It was fun. We moved around quite a bit, but it was always fun. And growing up, we didn't live close to family, but my parents had really close friends that lived near us, and we became friends with their friends kids. And we actually would travel to different parts of Nigeria together during summer break.

Q: One of your favorite memories as a child?

 A: Vacation. That's a memory that always sticks out to me, because we got to explore different cities in Nigeria, even in Africa, and where we went to Ghana, and then we went to other places as well. But that's one of the fun things that sticks out in my memory.

Q: What do you do for work?

A: Currently, I am not working. I am a PhD student. I am working on a doctorate in public health. I'm very passionate about health and preventing diseases, especially in low middle income countries. And my research topic is going to be about highlighting the harms of tobacco farming in some African countries. I'm pretty excited about it.

Q: Describe what becoming a mother was like for you?

A: I think it was exciting. I think I was ready to be a mom. I was excited.
But when I became a mom, when I had my daughter, I had no idea how difficult and how hard it is. I felt bamboozled or, like, naive, because I just never saw the hard parts of being a mom. I just saw the fun parts, the parts where people would post on Instagram with, like, their cute kids matching outfits.

And, you know, I was looking forward to do all that, and I didn't know there were other things involved, so that was shocking to me. But it's been a great experience so far.

Q: Something you want your daughter to always remember that you taught her?

A: I mean, she's two right now, but I try to teach her to be polite, to be respectful to others, and also to have fun and to just dance, no matter who's watching, just always have fun. So that's something I hope she remembers.

Q: Do you have a favorite experience with your daughter? 

A: I think a favorite experience I have with my daughter is probably dancing with her. We play a lot of Afro beats in the house. She loves music. And we just stand around the living room and dance, shake our heads, and she loves music. I love music, and I just love seeing her smiling.