Stories – Chef Braakman

Varanasi, Fear, and the Hypocrisy of Selective Holiness

December 17, 2025 No Comments

I was explaining my journey through India when someone confidently told me Varanasi was satanic, dirty, dark, and full of floating corpses.
I listened quietly. I had been there. He had not.

What struck me most wasn’t the accusation, but the fear behind it. We visit Roman ruins soaked in pagan blood, name our planets after ancient gods, celebrate Halloween without question, yet struggle to respectfully observe another religion’s sacred space.

Standing by the Ganges River, watching life and death coexist with reverence, stripped away my fear. It reminded me that faith is not threatened by understanding, and that open-mindedness is one of the greatest gifts travel can offer.

“Spouse”: My Journey Through Love, Labels, and Expat Life

September 29, 2025 4 Comments

When Hendrie and I started dating, people warned me to “make sure he was going to marry me”, because apparently, no decent Igbo man would marry a woman who had “frolicked with an Oyinbo.” I laughed then. I laugh now.

From Bonny Island to Dubai, Cairo to the Netherlands, and back to Nigeria, my journey as an expat wife has been anything but ordinary. I’ve navigated infertility, long-distance love, passive-aggressive playdates, expired snack diplomacy, and that dreaded word, “spouse”.

Now, nearly 40, I’m done biting my tongue. No fake accent. No pretending. No apologizing for who I am.

Expat Life: From Childhood Curiosity to Adult Clarity

September 22, 2025 No Comments

I watched the expat life first through childhood eyes, polished women throwing lavish parties, multilingual kids, and a lifestyle that felt beautifully out of reach. But as I grew older, I saw the cracks beneath the glamour. Affairs, loneliness, secret vasectomies, and the quiet desperation of trailing spouses began to surface. Expat life was beautiful, yes, but also chaotic, and sometimes painfully complicated. What I didn’t know then was how those early glimpses would help me navigate the journey when I eventually became an expat myself…

The Girl They Silenced, The Woman God Sent Back

September 8, 2025 20 Comments

At 13, I was called a husband-snatcher. But I was just a girl, tall, curious, full of life, trying to make sense of a world that misunderstood and mistreated me. The predators were protected, and I was punished. Years later, I returned to Bonny Island, not as the shamed teenager they once gossiped about, but as a healed, empowered woman with five children and a mission.

This is a story of enslavement and empowerment, shame and redemption. It’s about what happens when God sends you back, not to punish the past, but to reclaim it for His glory.

The Sourdough School of Life: My Cairo Bread Story

August 18, 2025 1 Comment

I never imagined that a move to Cairo, a scam over flour, and a blocked friendship would lead me into my true calling as an artisan baker. From struggling to find rye flour to selling my first loaf, and finally standing in a German baking academy learning that sourdough itself began in Egypt, it was a full circle moment I’ll never forget. This is the story of how bread found me

My Relationship with Lying: From Childhood Fear to Adult Clarity

August 5, 2025 1 Comment

Lying has always made me physically sick. From a traumatic early lie at age five to the complicated expectations of being a brand influencer today, this is my journey with truth, silence, and survival. A raw reflection on why I’ve never learned to lie well, and why I’ve finally decided to embrace my truth, fully and publicly.

Land Borders: Chaos, Costs & Character-Building

July 1, 2025 No Comments

I’ve crossed many borders, but land crossings have a special kind of chaos, equal parts bureaucracy, culture shock, and sometimes comedy. From paying “virgin passport” fees in West Africa to having my underwear shaken out at a Gambian checkpoint, I’ve learned that no two land borders are ever the same. Whether it’s hungry kids stuck in a car between Qatar and Saudi, or flexing through a gate with “European” Arabs suddenly fluent in Arabic, every crossing teaches patience, and sometimes, pure surrender. This is the story of how I’ve survived them all… and why I still trust God for grace at every gate.

He Brought Perfumes, Cash and Red Flags.

June 1, 2025 No Comments

That day, I made a vow to myself: never again would I accept gifts from men I wasn’t genuinely interested in. Because some gifts come wrapped in expectations. And some ‘nice gestures’ are just subtle manipulations. When you don’t give in, they show their true colors.

Vultures Over Lima’s Catacombs, Bats around Oba’s Palace in Benin: A Prayer for the Dying

May 30, 2025 No Comments

While exploring the catacombs of Lima’s San Francisco Basilica, surrounded by thousands of bones and the eerie presence of vultures, I found myself thinking about the burial traditions of my Igbo heritage, the taboos of Bonny land, and the bats that guard the Oba’s palace in Benin. In that quiet space between death and memory, I saw our shared humanity, and whispered a prayer for the dying.

Can Surrogacy Be Ethical? A Mother’s Journey Through Loss, Law, and Love

May 28, 2025 3 Comments

After three miscarriages and countless tears, I found myself exploring surrogacy, not just as a medical option, but a legal and ethical maze. As a Nigerian woman married to a Dutch man, the complexities went beyond borders. Dutch law demanded altruism, while unregulated markets in places like Nigeria exposed heartbreaking exploitation. I found solace and insight in the ancient story of Hagar, the Bible’s first surrogate, and saw how her pain echoes in modern realities. Can surrogacy be ethical? Only if love leads, laws protect, and no woman is made invisible in the process.