31.8.09

Visitors

This month has been a time for visitors. Some were welcome and some were not. I’ll start with the unwelcome variety as I’m sure that’s the more intriguing story. Anyway, last Wednesday morning I went to take some money from the little stash I keep in a drawer and discovered it to be missing. I knew this because I’d taken out a couple of thousand naira the day before and knew I had some left. The silly thief had also locked the document wallet that had contained the cash: something I never do. Upon further investigation I discovered that my mp3 music player was missing, a much more upsetting robbery, as I love listening to music while I travel. These grievances also seem to explain why my padlocks have been getting spoiled. Well, upon discussion with the head of the block, Mrs Okereke upstairs, I found out that she had lost some money, so we decided that there is a petit thief about. She advised me to tell my Director, Mr Kuzhe, which I did and he has informed the management. Everyone in my block was called into a meeting with the Head of Housing, where fingers were pointed at a local boy who is known to have had light fingers in the past. I was reluctant to initiate a witch hunt, but became increasingly annoyed and frustrated that someone had been into my place and could easily do it again. I awoke on Saturday morning disturbed by these feelings, but resolved that there was no point holding on to them. We’ve since had a meeting as a whole block with all the children too to discuss this further and to warn us all to be vigilant. Fingers were pointed again, but no confessions were forthcoming. One of the main concerns of my neighbours was that this whole business would make me go away with a bad impression of Nigeria, especially as I’m a volunteer on a small allowance. So I’m writing about it here to express the point that I made to them: since being here I’ve received so much generosity and kindness, and this incident doesn’t diminish my regard for all the people here who make me feel so welcome. Crimes happen everywhere and although you shouldn’t be naïve enough to take unnecessary risks, I feel safe and looked after by my neighbours and colleagues. The front door of the block also gets locked in the early evening, so security is very good when I’m in.

3 weekends ago I went to Abuja for the weekend. It turned out to be a volunteer get together. We went for grilled fish at the Barracks before going to a bar with live music till late. Great fun. The following weekend I went to Lafia and stayed with Trine. Then the following weekend Clare, Martyn and Monique from Kaduna came to stay and were joined by Trine and John from Lafia. It was great to have so many of us together. We went for walks around the campus, visiting the various Fulani villages nearby and on Saturday evening we went out in Akwanga for chicken and drinks.

During the following week I had a new volunteer, Angela, come to stay. She had arrived from Canada a few days earlier and is based in Abuja, so I hosted her to show her the ropes, so to speak. We met at Keffe, which is between Abuja and Akwanga, as I was doing a talk there about volunteering to graduates who are about to start their national service year. All graduates under 30 have to complete a year of service and they are currently at a camp to learn skills and train. They are then placed anywhere in the country to experience a different environment to the one they’re used to.

After Angela left, Mary, who is based in Kwara State, came to stay. She was the only volunteer here in Nigeria that I had met prior to coming. She is also a teacher, and we’d met on the teacher development course. Unfortunately I was feeling a bit under the weather, but well enough. On the Saturday, my new colleague, Alhaji, took us to some beautiful waterfalls at a place called ‘Farinruwa’, which means ‘white water’. He also brought along his brother, Babs, who was to be our guide. The journey was very interesting. Some of the way was on a main road, then we went off road and it was extremely bumpy. Many slippery slopes, rivers and scrapes to the chassis of Alhaji’s car later, we arrived. There was a small trek and when we finally got to the falls, they were breath taking. When I get round to adding photos to my blog, they will add to what I’m saying. We stayed there for some time, getting wet from the spray before heading off and visiting Babs and Alhaji’s village, which was nearby. By that stage they were quite happy to take some refreshments, as Ramadan had just started and they had been fasting (no food or drink) since dawn.

This weekend I’ve been saying goodbye to David. He’s travelling to Abuja before flying back to Canada. The future is a little bit uncertain for him and Eriye, as she still doesn’t have her visa to travel with him. She’s going to go back home to Port Harcourt, but will return in October to visit me, which will be something to look forward to. They’re been such great support to me and really good friends. It’s going to be very strange around here without them.

As for now, it’s a cool and quiet day in the office. Tashi and I have implemented our new plan, so team members are getting on with a few things on their own. I’m probably going to be winding down over the next week, as I’m travelling next week to the UK. So to those of you who are reading this – see you soon!