The Bloggaholic is happly

I am really happy that I have done most of the needed tweaking for my blog to be basically functional. Now I am off to some keyword research and article writing.

Such a great feeling when you accomplish something worthwhile.

later,
Sunga

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About Me

 My name is Sunganani Manjolo. I have been fascinated
with computers since 1996 but only got really interested 
in the internet in 2005. A quick list of stuff that I am and 
do:

• Totally sold out Jesus follower.
  
• Husband of one really amazing woman...
• Dad of three children
• Bloggaholic
• Internet marketer
• Web and graphics designer
  
• Life skills coach and mentor for young guys and families
• Farmer
• Runs a car rental business
  
• I live in a country reputed to be the warm heart of Africa; Malawi.
• Did I mention bloggaholic?

If you find the posts helpful, you can sign up for my e-news and updates so that you get notified every time I make a post.


If you love to write on any of the topics on this blog and would like to be a guest writer, just contact me through here.


Later,
Sunga

I Got New Template

Hey people,

I just got this really great template for my blog and I can't stop thinking about it. I have been trying for months to get it but now it is finally here. The designer has been helpful and now I am moving forward fast to tweak it to my taste.

Have a great week.
Sunga

Malawi: Wake Up To Child Safety

The other day I was picking up my children from school and saw a very nasty incident. A friend was doing his turn at school runs and was driving away when his daughter fell out of the car. He was driving a twin cab and had put all the children in back without an adult there. It turns out they were playing and his daughter got pushed. She cracked her wrist. Saw her yesterday. She is fine.

About 100 metres down the road I saw another boy being taken home by his dad. He was standing with his torso outside the window (and I'm not kidding here) just taking in the air. His dad did not do anything. I prayed for no bumps or swerving of the car. I think he is fine since we did not hear of any funeral….

I recall back in 2004 I was travelling from Lilongwe with my family and we had an accident. A bad one. I thank God that we had both children in their car seats. Without them we would have been telling a different story.

In Malawi, Traffic Police do not ask you to secure your children in the car and I am not aware of any of any law or by laws to enforce child safety. I have observed that most parents do not enforce safety features despite what they may have seen on digital satellite or seen the few others do. I have also known of child injuries from road accidents that would have been prevented simply by having them wear their belts or investing in car seats.

So what is the best way to raise awareness for child safety on the road?

Catch Your Children...Doing Something Right

It is very easy, so easy that I do not have to think about it…not even twice, for me to catch my two kids (in the pic) doing something wrong. In fact, I am certain that they expect me to catch them whenever they are doing something wrong. I am not sure why, perhaps we are conditioned to see the worst in people. Seeing the good is really some hard work I admit but it is possible.

"Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged" (Colossians 3:21). That seems like a million dollar challenge but it is very possible not to embitter our children. They do look up to us for encouragement. A friend once note that nobody thrives on discouragement.

Now for this idea of catching them doing something right. In their book "How To Be A Hero To Your Kids", Josh MacDowell and Dick Day make an observation that if you catch your children doing something right and praise them, they will most likely do it again. I found this to be true of late.

Our kids were dressing up for school and Linga got his school shoes from the wardrobe and in a flash, went back and got his sister's school shoes. I picked up on that and thanked him for doing it. Even more important was the fact that Tami thanked him for it. We reinforced that several times and they do it for each other regularly. Once in a while we have to remind them but
they have gotten into the habit of doing things for each other.

So here is the challenge: can you catch your children doing something right over the next week? Come back and tell us the results.

Have a great weekend hunting!

Praying With Your Spouse: The Exhaustion Factor

Aumi, my wife is a woman of immensely high energy levels. She wakes up in the morning and she is on the go until she drops…literally. But that is how she is and I like her that way. I wouldn't change that for a million dollars (if there was a short time frame to the deal I could!)

Last Sunday she drove from Lilongwe to Rumphi and came back yesterday. That is close to 800 kilometers in two days. She did it in record time too. When I came home she was on the couch, exhausted. I decided to let her sleep off her exhaustion. We will talk and pray together in the morning. Fast forward to this morning and here is the crux of the matter.

She was still exhausted. I understood that she was still exhausted. I could have taken her to Antarctica hoping for the drastic temperature change to do its job but I don't think so. My sweet heart was totally exhausted. So I thinking: how is this praying together thing going to work? She was exhausted but came up with an interesting idea: Let's pray together with the kids. So in came Linga and Tami. We did not pray for a long time, 5 or so minutes at the most but we all took turns and that was it. Bringing in the kids kind of added and freshness we don't have when it's just her and me.

Consider the fact that Linga prayed for his cousin next door and thanked God that Mum is back safe. Tami went all the way praying for her teachers at school….

Get creative, once in a while include your kids. It will be refreshing plus, you will also be modeling the practice to them…

Pray With Your Spouse

It's not a typo. I am highly recommending praying with your spouse on a daily basis. You will be amazed what God will do in your life. This kind of praying opens up your intimacy levels like you have never experienced before. Okay, I will admit that it is awkward, very awkward at first. But the more you do it, the more natural it gets.

What my wife and I have done is to use a book by Dennis and Barbara Rainey entitled "Two Hearts Praying As One". They are at www.familylife.com . We have been at it for the past three days and already I can tell you that it has been rewarding. For me, I can tell you that;

1. I am beginning to be more open to her (I think she likes it)
   
2. I am praying and thinking about her more often. (I think she must like it)
   
3. There is a sense of growing intimacy about the entire practice.

How do we go about it? Well, we read the small chapters, share what we want to pray for and have talked about what we are uncomfortable with when praying together. There were things like posture, length of prayer etc. We have reached some points of agreement and we have just gone ahead and prayed. It's still work in progress but rewarding already.

My challenge is for you to begin as well.

The Difference Between Marriage and Wedding

You are really in love and all the sparks are flying as you look forward to the "Big Day" i.e. the wedding day. All the planning meetings, the guest lists, the limo you want to ride in, the honeymoon arrangements, venues issues and relationship issues. Your mother still thinks you are too young for the transformation and your father is lamenting about how they used to do it in their time. Ah well, the stuff weddings are made off.

Okay, what's happening here? You have two things going: the event of the wedding day and the institution of marriage lining up for the take off. I look at the wedding as a symbolic ceremony of the beginning of the institution of marriage. From what I have seen and experienced, the husband and wife to be are usually taken up with the bric-a-bracs of the wedding day and mostly lose sight of preparation for the long term institution of marriage. This where all the shocks of adjustment come in after the wedding. You know, she notices that he just won't check if the house is securely locked at night (a thing her darling dad did every night). He wonders why she thinks it's such a biggie…

So before you say I do, much as you need to tie up the loose ends regarding the wedding day, keep your focus on what is required for the marriage. That way, your adjustment period will not be as bumpy.

Bloody Maryz And Jumping Josephs

This is a post by my friend Wisdom Chitedze…a challenge for the men. Read on

Many of us have heard a lot about Mary the mother of Jesus. We have heard a lot about how humble she was and how great her faith was, so much so that in the Catholic and Anglican dogma she is highly venerated as the Mother of God.

The other references we hear about her are related to an alcoholic concoction called a Bloody Mary. I don't know what it comprises of, only that it probably must pack a flipping hangover in the end. I do digress

I have only heard a message/discussion on Joseph once. I believe he is one of the most underrated (to Borrow Brian Nkata's phrase) men alive.

Imagine this

1. You are a good man, a carpenter who never begs but works with your own hands and are a devout follower of the Torah or Jewish law

2. You are betrothed to a beautiful young woman (historians estimate that she could have been anything between 15 and 21, according to the traditions of the times)

3. Before you are finally formally married she is found with child and you know for real that you didn't get some, what do you do?

4. According to the Law he could have had her dragged to the public courtyard and lay an accusation against her and she could have been stoned and he d have been backed by the Law. Then people are amazed that Jesus had mercy on that woman caught in adultery who was about to be stoned. He may have leant such a merciful heart from Joseph.

5. Instead he chose to quietly put her away. If that is not mercy I don't know what mercy looks like

6. An angel tells him what is going on and he also humbly accepts the child and does all he can to guard the mother and child

7. He loved Jesus as his own fleshly son and gave him his heritage as someone born from the line of David.

8. He loved Mary all his life and had more children with her.

9. He was content to be in the background as we don't hear much about him later on, we only hear Mary saying things like "We were worried about you" when he stayed behind in the temple

For me Joseph is a man to laud and emulate. A man of great humility, faith. mercy and love. I believe just as Jesus would say "I do as I have seen my Father do" he meant not only the Heavenly Father but Joseph as well.

There are many unlauded heroes in our lives. Parents, siblings, friends, primary and secondary school teachers, neighbours, lovers (including exes), enemies too, pastors, community leaders, artists (who inspire with their music and artistry), authors, spouses, workmates, doctors and nurses, nannies, servants etc who seemingly do the ordinary which upon closer inspection aint so ordinary.

Some people come to stay in our lives for a while, others just pass through but whatever the case maybe, we must learn to be grateful for the smile, the love, the rebuke, the laughter, the care, the leadership, the sharing, the inspiration, the presence that made or makes a difference.

Sometimes its just as hard to say 'thank you' as it is to say 'I love you' or 'I am sorry'.

So if u kno u r a Joseph in my life. Even if you hurt me, or hate me. It works out for my good and I want to thank you.

Thank you to everyone who has ever prayed for me, encouraged me in my music ministry, bought a CD/tape, attended a show, invited me into their home, made me their friend, allowed themselves to be my friend, rebuked me (even when I didn't like it, I can assure u that I listen though I may not act at the same time).

Thank you Joseph(ina)

Meet The Parents Before You Say I Do

No, not the movie with DeNiro in it but the idea is similar. I am talking about the other thing you must do before you say "I do". In fact, I will go further and say meet the siblings; sisters, cousins, uncles, aunties…the whole lot…as much as you can. Don't pull your hair out if you cannot meet all of them. At least get to meet the parents and siblings or at least some of them. So exactly what are you looking for?

Well, there is soooo much you can learn about your husband or wife to be by just meeting his or her family…several times, before you say I do. You get to know the "support system" of your spouse. You will have an inkling of what to expect in some areas of your relationship. Although everyone has their best foot forward (if that will be your case!), you will be able to catch a few unguarded moments where a bubble (unplanned habit or comment is out) and bingo! You will have some much needed insight into your spouses' character. That's more ammunition to help you improve your relationship.

Remember that he/she has grown up with these people. They have been at the core of forming who he/she is today. I recall the afternoon when I first met my parents-in-law. You could hear a pin drop in the room, at least for the first few minutes. By the end of that two or so hours, I leant that my father-in-law likes the news channels, you know BBC, CNN, Sky News plus sports, football (soccer) to be exact. My mother-in-law on the other hand, likes BBC Food and anything to do with athletics. Translation: I like the news channels, sports and educational documentaries like Discovery, Animal Planet etc while my wife likes BBC Food, athletics….catch my drift? That visit and the subsequent ones gave me a good pointer of what to expect regarding the "remote control wars". Meet the parents, okay?

Another area has to do with the type of family your spouse comes from. My wife has five other siblings. Two sisters and three brothers. I have two sisters. That's it. You get to learn quickly, before and after the wedding, that you have to adjust your relationship in light of the number of siblings you grew up with. Your expectations regarding them will definitely affect your relationship. Meet the parents…and siblings. Okay, even after you say I do. It's the biggest favour you can do for yourself before you say I do.

How To Choose When It's Grey

I get a lot of questions regarding what is okay or not for Christians to do. You know, can I go to a party? What's wrong with wearing minis or tight trousers or low necklines? Is it okay for me to watch the Big Brother Africa or other reality episodes and other movies? Is sex before marriage okay? What's wrong with just kissing and on and on the questions come.

Recently I found the following guidelines helpful for me. Hopefully, they should put these questions in perspective. Although they are primarily designed for the husband and wife relationship, they can be applied to just about anything else that seems to be in the "grey zone".

1. Is it prohibited in Scripture? If not, we may assume it is permitted. "Everything is permissible for me." (1 Corinthians 6: 12, NIV)

2. Is it beneficial? Does the practice in any way harm the husband or hinder the sexual relationship? If so, it should be rejected. "Everything is permissible for me-but not everything is beneficial." (1 Corinthians 6:12, NIV)

3. Does it involve anyone else? Sexual activity is sanctioned by God for husband and wife only. If a sexual practice involves someone else or becomes public, it is wrong based on Hebrews 13:14, which warns us to keep the marriage bed undefiled.

(Intimate Issues by Linda Dillow &Lorraine Pintus)

Let's put that in practice. Based on what you know from the Holy Bible; ask yourself

Is Watching Big Brother prohibited?

Is it beneficial?

Does it involve someone else other than people married to each other?

Hopefully, that should set you on a path to discern what is right.

My Money Siphon Systems

This is my list of what I consider to be the best guides to making money passively online. Here is the great ingredient for making passive money online: knowledge + action=results. Ignore this at your own peril.

Secret Article Profits

This is a great introduction to making passive money online through article marketing. This guide takes you from market research, article writing basics, choosing products to sell and all the in betweens. It is a step by step guide that works. Apart from the cost of the guide, all the tools you need are free unless you have some more money to buy the other tools that automate much of the processes, thing I highly recommend because you want to spend your valuable time doing the things that matter. Read more about Secret Article Profits here.

Profit Miracle

This is what I call “article marketing on steroids”. Here is what to expect from this product: market research done for you, you do not even write the articles. You just insert your keywords into a window and out comes your article. You just edit and then submit. You are even given the marketing strategy to use. In a nutshell, you copy the business and cash in the money. Great community to belong to, great support. Read more here.

Money Siphon System

Here is a truly great product. The owner wrote this to help anyone, regardless of experience, to start from “zero and end with a Bentley”. You get 5 methods of making money online. No fluff, step by step PDF’s, videos, mp3 audios and great support. The gems here are how to do keyword research that tells you how profitable your keywords are in 5 steps! Also great strategies for making instant cash. I am going ahead of myself here. If you can stand some off-side language, at least according to me, you will do well to get the system. Read more here.

The Rich Photographer

I do not like the idea of sitting on money yet this what I had been doing all along. I have a digital camera and I have access to an internet connection. This guide takes me from finding out who needs my photos and what kind of photos. Where to post them and how to receive instant payments. Talk about getting paid for what you enjoy! For cash by camera click here.

Get Paid To Draw

From the  producers of Profit Miracle. This guide covers photography, art drawings, illustrations, cartoons and anything in between. You will be walked through the steps of finding cash in hand buyers for your “artwork” (if you are bold enough to call it that) to how to get paid instantly, passively. More here.

Remember, knowledge + action = results. No let me rephrase that, “exponentially growing passive financial results”

Your call,

Sunganani

He Did Something Right...For The Most Part

In the course of this week Linga has been reciting the Lord's prayer as he is being taught at school. It is very interesting. The first time he recited it I picked up two mistakes (me and my editor's head!) but I had to hold myself and let him finish his recital. I had to hold my all because of my last blog entry: catch him doing something right. Now allow the editor to kick in:

What he did right

He recited the prayer in record time without hesitation. He was glad he did and also that his mother and I were very impressed. Just for effect, he did it again.

What he did wrong

And I quote: "Our Father, Harold be your name….and forgive us our deaths as we forgive our death-ters…."

We are working on those two but I find that he is more motivated to work on his mistakes because of how we corrected him. This is something you will have to agree with your spouse about.

Enjoy your parenting!

Introducing Profit Miracle - Article Marketing On Steroids

Introducing Profit Miracle, article marketing on steroids. Let me explain; Article marketing online is a proven money making strategy. There are countless stories of how people have earned extra cash while at it while getting boat loads of internet traffic (visitors) to their website or blog.

To be very honest, article marketing is also a lot of hard work, especially when you are just starting out. You have to do market research, generate targeted keywords, write articles, do some html, protect affiliate links, track performance and earnings…that’s a lot of hard work.
Enter Profit Miracle, the complete set-and-forget article marketing system. Seriously, if you are not automating the hard work online, you are missing out on what you could do with the time you could save. You should check it out. Sign up for their newsletter and see the demo videos. You can always unsubscribe later if you think that is not for you. If you have any questions, ask the guys there, they will answer. Profit Miracle is what I call article marketing on steroids. Click here.



Later,

Sunganani

The World Of Movies: The Malawi Censorship Board

So we got going watching movies any way we liked…well, not really. Those were the days when democracy was a one party state affair. I was privileged enough to have a dad who was trotting the globe back then. Many times he would come back home with new movies in the form of video tapes…sort of. The Malawi Censorship Board was working hard to monitor what was coming in the country. There was procedure.

After declaring whatever needed to be, you were thoroughly searched. Any music or videos or books were screened. This meant that you left them there and picked them up from the Board offices when they called you. If there were parts of the tape they considered unfit for the consumption of the Malawian, they erased it…yes they did.  There was a time dad brought back some movies and they had more cuts than movie…that was the joke around the house.

Needless to say enterprising individuals found ways of getting the "banned" stuff around the Censorship Board and you still ended up with contraband movies or with no cuts. As we were cruising towards the late 80's, it was apparent that the Censorship Board was losing its grip on what came in the country. Video houses came up by the dozen per month and I assure you what we watched there definitely did not go through the Board!

What does all this have to do with the family? We saw a shift in a  lot of things. In my home, some movies were not for us kids. We got "creative" on how to watch them. We also found out that the video houses were a great place to hang out and watch the "forbidden". Language changed. Now we wanted to talk like Sylvester Stallone or Michael Jackson. We wanted to dress up like Vanilla Ice or MC Hammer or sing like Whitney or Bobby… That was the cool thing to do. What changed in your family?

 

The World Of Movies: Ratings and I

Ratings. Have you ever thought about them seriously and what they mean to you? You get a movie that is PG 13 VL or 18 VSNL with a synopsis in a movie or TV magazine. What am I to do with that information? Come with me and let's ask a few questions

1. What are the ratings all about?
   
2. Why are they there?
   
3. Who put them there?
   
4. What do they mean to me? What is their impact on my life? My family?
   
5. Should I even bother about them at all?
   
6. How effective is the enforcement of the ratings in your part of the world?

Last time I did mention the losing battle that the Malawi Censorship Board was fighting. In my opinion, that battle is lost big time. Digital satellite television simple blew the odds against the Board. Add to the mix 16 in one DVD's (16 movies in 1) for MK350 (US$3), reality shows all over and all, you can see where we have come from.

More questions since the Censorship Board lost:

1. Do we need to censor what we watch?
   
2. Who should do the censoring? What's the yardstick?
   
3. What is happening in our world as a result of relaxed censorship laws or practice?

Later

 

The World of Movies: Our First Video Set

Hello Screen

On the Saturday that week, my dad and some technician spent most of the morning piecing it together. I remember that it was Sony (he was a brand loyalist, even the stereo was a Sony. If they made a Sony car, he would have bought it). The screen was pretty big for those days (an 18 inch) and I looked forward to watching the videos.

Hello VCR

The deck was also a…you guessed it, a Sony. I laugh thinking about the fact that it had a remote control with a really long wire. Later on dad devised a plan to conceal it: under the carpet, and it emerged just next to his favourite chair. That was to be the source of countless remote control wars later on. It was a remote control with a wire. It actually had a wire. You would be hard pressed to find those nowadays

Goodbye Drive In, Hello VHS

I loved the fact that all we needed was to go to a video shop, rent a few VHS tapes for a few days and our weekend was a great family affair around that new altar: the video set. No more drive in cinemas. I hated them when it rained, not to mention the terrible speakers you had on the driver's window and dad had to keep the engine on to defrost the screen. We got to memorize where the speakers that worked were. then there were those battles between my sister and I of the "prime viewing spot" which was in the middle of the front seat. Then there were the long car lines when the movie was over…aah, those were the days. But now the Video is in. No more Apollo cinema too. The video was king.

A Lot More Came In

A lot of other things began to change in Malawi. With the dwindling popularity of the drive in and the Apollo cinema, the video took off. The first movies we had were "The Man from Hong Kong" and "The Man With The Golden Gun" (a James Bond movie). My sisters and I kept a log of the movies we had watched, under my parents' strict (mostly unfair, I thought, eye). Within the first two years we had clocked over three hundred movies. You do the math. That's an average of 2 per week…and counting. The video rent businesses began booming. Censorship became more strict and then dwindled. Smuggling illicit, under the counter, banned movies was big business. Video houses mushroomed. We started trying out some of the things we saw in the movies.
In was a trend that would change our lives forever. How did this trend change your life? You can comment at the top of the page where it says "comment".