27th March 2009

Abuja

Well, it’s been quite a while since I checked in. I’m hoping that the internet will return, but for now there’s an internet café in town. Since I last wrote things at work have been fairly busy and I had a good weekend in Abuja the weekend before last. In honour of St. Patrick’s Day there was a party at a compound that belongs to an Irish construction company. We (myself along with a group of other volunteers) had food and drinks (including pizza, which made me very happy) all evening and chilled out by the pool. The following day we went for a late lunch at a famous fish restaurant, which is on an army barracks. A huge courtyard was full of smoking grills covered with large croaker fish. One whole fish was enough to share between 2 and we feasted on it with chips. It was yummy and, of course, very spicy. That evening the extortionate price I paid for some palm wine reminded me how expensive Abuja is, but I did treat myself when I found a shop that sold imported foods (tins of tuna and strawberry jam). The journey back to Abuja was quite straight forward. I made my way out of the city on a bus (a small Nissan van full of people – the one I used on my inbound journey kept stalling and passengers had to quickly jump out and give it a push) and got to a motor park in Nyanya. There, I was directed to an old Peugeot 505 that took me all the way to the Akwanga roundabout. From there I donned my crash helmet and caught an Okada back home.

Down to Work

The last week has seen the return of Tashi to the team. He’s just finished his teaching practise but is now back to work in the Centre for Research and Documentation. Among the team’s jobs is to enhance the teaching of literacy and numeracy in primary schools within the state, to expand and increase the capacity of HIV&AIDS services within the college campus and to carry out needs assessments that lead to effective training of pre and in-service teachers. For the past few months, CRD has been working on an externally funded project to make and distribute around 800 desks and chairs as well as blackboards to a host of primary schools around Nasarawa State. They have seen the project through, from a needs analysis of primary schools, to developing and submitting a proposal for funding, working with carpenters, to distributing the products when completed. Everyone is very proud of this achievement but are happy to see it wrapped up this week.

The CRD is part of the College of Education, Akwanga, and is very keen to increase awareness and mainstream HIV&AIDS education amongst its 13,000 students. So, we have been writing proposals for funding to develop youth (or peer) educators within the college, to produce educational resources and improve access to medical services. Hopefully we will be successful. As well as this, we are about to start working with the college’s demonstration primary school to determine what kind of further training the teachers there require. The CRD team have come from a variety of backgrounds, so we will also begin by ensuring everyone is aware of how to assess and evaluate teaching when we carry out our needs analysis. I guess we’re hoping to be a friendly Ofsted! I’ve also been helping an English lecturer here with a project that he’s going to present about the teaching of oral English in schools. Of course I’ve taught English, but English as a foreign language is a whole other kettle of fish. Any TEFL resources will be greatly appreciated!

Weekends in Akwanga

I’m spending the weekend in Akwanga as I did last week. A neighbour in my block of flats has been a very good host and we often sit outside in the evenings drinking palm wine or cola. Last Sunday I went with him and his family to the Catholic Church on the campus. The service is similar to the Anglican services back home and the hall (a lecture hall during the week) was packed, with people flowing out of the door. Religion is often a topic of conversation here and people are either Christian or Muslim but I’m known as a ‘free-thinker’.

That weekend I also went for a walk with Eriye to a Fulani village situated not too far from the staff quarters. The Fulani people are a roaming tribe. The men herd cows across the country for grazing while the women and children stay at home. I’ll post some pictures of their homes in the future, but they were very friendly and allowed us to take a papaw (not sure if that’s how to spell it) from their tree. On our journey there we also came across a huge mango tree. Despite throwing stones and sticks at it, the fruit was very stubborn and refused to come down. Luckily, some boys were walking by and one of them climbed it and threw some down, much to our delight.

Food

Back at home, my cooking has been a bit better. I now have a bowl of porridge with freshly picked mango on top for breakfast. Lunch is leftover dinner, a sandwich or fried yam and akara from the shops here. Mum and dad will find it funny to hear that I made tuna pasta the other evening and sat down to watch an episode of Hustle from a DVD that a friend lent me! I tend to have pasta, noodles, rice or couscous with vegetables (beans, peppers, tomatoes, and onions), tuna or egg for supper. Eriye has also treated me to her yam and red sauce (a very spicy tomato sauce). I hope to get my oven fixed soon too, because I bought a baking tin and ingredients to make a cake. The diet here doesn’t include much sweet stuff, which means that Nigerian teeth are very strong and can open bottle tops (don’t worry, I won’t be trying that with my weak sugary white man’s teeth!).

And finally…

Finally, I watched a hilarious movie this week called The Gods Must Be Crazy that I highly recommend everyone watches. It’s from 1980 and set in Botswana and I can’t believe I’ve never seen it before. What a treat. I also watched the Michael Moore film Sicko, which I also recommend. It made me feel very proud of the NHS – Nina, it wasn’t your hospital featured was it? Anyway, all is good, ‘Mungo-dey Allah’ (we thank god), apart from the extraordinary event of a cold that I’ve been suffering with this week. I didn’t have one all winter back home, and now, with it rarely cooling below 30 degrees at night time, I have one! After couple of restless nights I now feel much better though. Over and out.

11th March 2009

A Dancing Priest

Last week seemed to fly by. Nepa came back on Thursday night after men worked through the night to repair the pole. It’s good to have lights and fans working. On Friday, David, Eriye and I were invited to Sabine and Markus’ leaving party up in Gidan Waya so we left work just after 11am and made our way out onto the road to find transport. Everything that passed was full and the sun was beating down. Transport here can seem to take any form. Usually I would want to catch little buses or taxis. However, rescue that day came in the form of a kind stranger who picked us up in his nice car and drove us as far as a motor park in a place called ‘Forrest’. Along the side of the road men worked on the land in the scorching sun. I was also intrigued by the poles that stand erect at intervals along the roadside with plastic bottles hanging on the top. I discovered that these mark the places where you can buy ‘palm wine’. This is tapped from the tops of palm trees and bottled. Eriye described it as being like Smirnoff Ice and she wasn’t far off, although it’s not as sweet. It seems that it’s a naturally occurring alcoholic drink and I actually quite liked it when we stopped and tried some. At Forrest we went to find a taxi and found one that offered a price as long as the other seats were filled too. David managed to negotiate a price for us to leave then and there, however, and we managed to make it just after 1pm.

It was good to see Sabine and Markus again, as well as Richard the volunteer who was taking over their job at the college working on IT systems and had been there for the past week for some handover. Their fridge was stocked with beers, minerals and water and food was Jalof rice (rice cooked with tomatoes, onions and chillies) with meat and some delicious meat pies. Lots of people from their college came, as well as Cicely, Laurie and Dori. All in all it was a good evening, especially when Father Basil their local Catholic priest started dancing and even break dancing. Got to be seen to be believed!

We stayed in their vacant next door apartment and were treated to cups of tea and bread with jam the following morning. Yum! I was reminded how much I miss sweet things such as jam and have been going on about hunting down some jam ever since (haven’t found any yet despite assurances that it can be found on the market!).

The journey back was fairly straight forward, although I was made to negotiate seeing as I’d had an easy ride up to that point. We got a good price for a taxi all the way back to Akwanga and he drove fairly safely.

Entertainment

The weekend passed with a couple of trips to the market for more kitchen wares and food and some movie watching and eating round at David and Eriye’s. David was having a complete Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings marathon thanks to the addition of my DVD collection and in return I now have seasons 3-5 of Lost, which are very addictive. Monday was a public holiday because of the Muslim festival Edil-Molud (the birth of the prophet Mohammed) and I enjoyed some dinner with my neighbour Mrs Amu-Nandi, the Dean of Languages here. We had Cassava (the texture is like pounded yam or semovita – the starchy part of the meal) and used it to scoop up Obono soup or ‘draw’ soup. The consistency of the soup is very unusual as it is very gloopy and leaves a long string of liquid when you pick it up. Tasty though and I’m getting a lot better at using my hands to eat even though I’m usually offered a spoon. Before eating, you get a bowl of water with some soap (a tube of washing up liquid commonly known as ‘Morning Fresh’).

Right, well, hopefully next time I report in I’ll say a bit more about work, but for now I’m going to sign out.

3rd March 2009

Arriving at Work

So, after arrival and settling into my new place, I had a good night’s sleep and awoke to the smell of a new morning. I lay there thinking about what work might have in store for me. Breakfast was some bread and a cup of tea. I wasn’t quite sure about the water. It didn’t seem that sandy, but David had said that that was what I had to watch out for. Patricia arrived to clean and do my washing, which I was very grateful for. The walk to work is a fairly straight road that leads straight from the accommodation blocks down the centre of the college campus and my office. Students litter the road, ambling to and from college and being woven in and out of by okadas. Once in the office, I met various people: Manga, Becky, Tashi, Joseph, Aminu, Clement, Musa and Musa. They were all working on various projects so were in and out. The office was awaiting a current order of desks and stools for primary school in the state waiting to be completed. The prospect of this being achieved was very exciting, but until that was completed Becky was to show me round and get me orientated. We spent that first morning walking and talking around the campus, meeting Heads of Departments, enjoying the odd ‘mineral’ (soft drinks such as Coke, Fanta, Sprite, Schweppes or Guinness Malta (a non-alcoholic malt drink)) and generally greeting lots of new people. I’m sure they’ll remember me, as David and I are the only white people on campus, but I’m not sure whether I can do the same in return as we met so many people. We walked for about 2 hours, so we were quite tired that afternoon. People seemed very keen for me to work with them, particularly when it comes to computer skills, but that’s something that I will need to figure out in the up coming weeks.

Days and Nights

That night was another unappetising meal, but fortunately I’m not too fussy! Thanks to my friends, I have the box set of the complete series of Sex and the City so was very happy sitting down with a cup of tea and ‘the girls’. I did make a mental note, however, to spread my enjoyment of the DVDs out. It can easily become obsession that leads to devastation when the seasons run out. I know, I know. Anyway, I wasn’t that easily diverted from my new life, and after another bucket wash, had another comfortable sleep under my mosquito net. It actually makes me feel like a princess – look at the picture once I upload it and you’ll see what I mean!

Friday was another relaxed day and then I found myself at the weekend thinking about what to do. People tend to take it easy here in Akwanga on the weekend so I went with David into the town, which is 2 to 3 km away. He has his own motorbike that has been loaned to him by the college, so I sat on the back. After filling up my shopping bags with carrots, onions, cabbage, tomatoes, rice, sugar, cornflakes, matches, tomato puree, fruit juice and biscuits, we went and had some lunch at a local restaurant. I had my old favourite, egusi soup and pounded yam. Unfortunately I’d had a funny tummy for a couple of days so couldn’t finish. I won’t go into the ins and outs, but generally I’ve been ok. I’d heard from a fellow new volunteer in Abuja who had already gone down with a suspected case of malaria, which is a shame. I have to take anti-malarial pills everyday and sleep under a net to try and hold back the threat, but you never know when a mosquito might attack!

On Sunday I went to church with David, which was interesting. He attends one called Church of Christ. It was fairly long service with lots of hymns and some teaching from the bible where the congregation could join in by reading out passages or contributing thoughts. The hardest worker, however, was the man leading the service, who translated the sermon, teachings and quotations from English into Hausa, the local language.

On Monday, I had some visits from a couple of local children. I gave them each a biscuit, but unfortunately didn’t have anything like story books or colouring, which they built up the courage to ask for. News spread of the biscuits and I’m certain to get more visits from more children in the area.

That night disaster struck. Just as I was tucking into what I have to say is my nicest cooking yet (rice with a tomato and vegetable sauce), there was a crash and I saw the power line pole fall down just outside my window. Instantly, Nepa went. Some people gathered round to look at what had happened and as the whole area appeared to be in darkness I’m hoping that it will be sorted out soon. I will have to take things into work to charge for the foreseeable future though and will have to limit my laptop use at home. All is good though. Life goes on!

27th February 2009

Flying out from Heathrow to Abuja

My overbooked flight from Heathrow was scattered with 7 VSO volunteers like myself and we were all packed in tightly. The first half an hour onboard passed with folk cramming bags into the overhead lockers. The stories that painted Nigerians as a people who didn’t relish the notion of travelling light seemed to be confirmed by the very slight roll of the eyes and flicker of a smile that betrayed the otherwise composed demeanour of the diligent BA cabin crew. I didn’t help much with 2 largish bags for my hand luggage. It was a case of shove them in, slam the door shut and hope for the best. My weeks of precise packing had paid off, however, and I managed to get everything through, including the helmet that VSO had given me to wear as a passenger on the many ‘Okadas’ or motorbike taxis that I would use once in Nigeria. To those of who that are interested, I was 2g shy of my maximum 56kg that I was allowed in the hold. The trick now was to make sure everything stayed in tact and that there were some strong men when I touched down to lug them about.

Abuja

We arrived in the capital city of Abuja at about 5:30am on Saturday 14^th February. Milling about waiting for customs was when the VSOs met up and chatted, eager to discover who we all were and where we were headed. We then sailed through and met up with Matthew and Marlous from VSO, who ushered us outside to pack into vans and head for the city. I always like stepping off a plane and judging a climate by the impact that it makes on me as I step out of the sanctuary of an air conditioned airport terminal. This time I was expecting hot. And humid. It didn’t disappoint. The air was still and close and the sun was attempting to shine through a very orange haze that hung everywhere. Welcome to ‘Harmattan’ I was told. Harmattan are winds that carry and sweep fine sands across the country. It can give the appearance of smoggy air and makes life and belongings dusty.

On our journey into the centre of Abuja I tried to take it all in. I was finally here. After months of planning, I was finally here in a place that I knew could not be imagined from the pages of a book. The road was long and straight into the city and people were emerging, as if from nowhere, to push trolleys stacked with bottled water, cram into vans to get to work, climb onto the back of Okadas or to scratch heads at a broken down car perched precariously on the kerb.

After visiting the VSO flat for a quick meeting, I was then taken to the Crystal Palace Hotel where I finally got to lay my head down.

My first job was to get a SIM card for my mobile. Mobiles are the main form of communication here. They are everywhere and so are the sellers of top-up/charge cards. In fact, there were about 6 guys standing at the gates of the hotel waving strips of charge cards 24 hours a day. I presume they do a good business, along with the vast amounts of others who peddle their wares on the streets. But that’s not all. The prize for most courageous seller surely goes to the man who walks between the cars at Abuja traffic lights selling everything from a huge assortment of daily newspapers, to CD wallets, umbrellas and a store of Obama books (he is, of course, the man and worth risking life and limb for).

Life in the hotel was good. I got to sample my first Nigerian food and met some new volunteers who had arrived from Uganda, Kenya, India and the States. I shared a room with Mary, another UK volunteer, who I have to say was extremely neat, well at least when comparing here tidy suitcases with my explosions).

Most meals here tend to be made up of a main starchy staple accompanied by a spicy stew like soup. Crushed chillies (or ‘pepper’) go into most things and a lot of palm oil is used. My first meal consisted of a bag of pounded yam (it looked like mashed potato) and some egusi soup, which is made from ground melon seeds and bitter leaf (it looks like spinach). The goat and fish were pretty good too. So far so good.

We all gathered for seminars from Monday through Wednesday and started to learn about Nigerian culture and procedures. On Thursday 19^th February we were all dispatched to serving volunteers who would look after us and show us their homes. Trine and I went to stay with Sabine and Markus, a German couple who were here on a 6 month placement working on computer systems in the College of Education in Gidan Waya in Kaduna state. They had opted to buy their own Golf as they’d been fed up with the treacherous nature of Nigerian driving. The 2 hour journey was indeed a good introduction to this and I’m not sure whether words will do the experience justice. Suffice to say I, as front seat passenger, constantly had my ‘break’ foot slamming into the floor. Of course, this action did nothing, and we all arrived safely in one piece thanks to Sabine. Cars go quickly here and the road up to Gidan Waya was full off pot holes. Overtaking is audacious – coming up to a hill or a sharp bend would not put some drivers off speeding round a line of 5 cars and a truck.

Placement Visit

Visiting Sabine and Markus was a great introduction to volunteers’ way of life here in Nigeria: cooking, cleaning, water filtering and going to the market. Market was hot and busy. Throngs of people bustled through narrow, muddy paths, under ornings and passing sellers sitting on stools displaying their wares in baskets. Greetings came thick and fast. It was something that I found out fairly quickly about Nigerians – wherever you go and whoever you are, you will always be greeted with a warm welcome and a smile. Something I was pleased to find and a fun point of comparison when thinking about Britain!

The College of Education was a vast campus full of institutional offices and lecture halls, student accommodation blocks and employee houses. Markus and Sabine had been instrumental in setting up an internet café within the college and it was proving to be a hit. It’s a room of about 20 computers, all with internet access. Their presence seemed to hold a world of possibilities, which will hopefully continue. They would be leaving in a couple of weeks and taking over their reigns was a recent employee, Solomon, and a new VSO, Richard.

Back at their house, children played freely under the trees. Their excitement at the sight of us was overwhelming as they clambered to gather bags and goods from the car whenever we pulled up. ‘Snap, snap!’ they would cry when the cameras came out.

On Saturday we went to visit 3 volunteers who were staying nearby. Cicely from the UK and Dorie and Laurie from the US. They’d bought chickens and had cooked a delicious barbecue.

The following morning I went to a Catholic Church service with them followed a lunch with and lift back to Abuja with the priest, Father Basil. The main religions here are Christianity and Islam. Roads are chock-a-block with churches and they certainly play a very important part of life here. The service was vibrant with colour and sound. Fantastic singing. Everyone was very welcoming of us too.

Back in Abuja we all met up together at the hotel. Also arriving were representatives of our Nigerian partner organisations. I met Manga, from the department that I would be working with at the College of Education in Akwanga. We spent 2 days participating in training sessions together before saying farewell to Abuja. We attempted going to a local bar that we had been frequenting, only to find a Champions League match going on, so we couldn’t get in. Football appears to be the other religion here. Favourite teams are Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool and Man United. Not sure how teams are picked but, I’m sorry to say boys; Spurs don’t seem to get a look in!

Foreign (silver) Service

Before I forget, I should also mention that we visited the house of the High Commissioner and his wife here, Bob and Jenny Dewer. It was a nice place with palm trees, well kept turf and good food (and drinks). They were great hosts and it was interesting to discover that he and his wife had volunteered with VSO many years ago. My regret, however, was that I put my name in the guest book and put ‘Crystal Palace Hotel’ in the part where it asked where I was from. Sorry Essex. There was security but Howard, the only American in our party, pointed out that if it were the American embassy things would have been different (I presume he meant more machines and checks at the gate rather than general hospitality). Thanks to a conversation I had with mum and dad before I came, I also felt very proud to be the only one to really explain to him why we’re special and sometimes have ‘High Commissions’ rather than common garden ‘embassies’. Kids, ask your teacher. Having an American in the group also turned me into an uber Brit and I took great delight in explaining what Pimms was and why I was expecting cucumber sandwiches with the crusts cut off!

I haven’t actually said too much about the heat so far. It is hot, but I’m coping and think that I’ve gotten to grips with it. I have factor 50+. I don’t expose my skin too much. I don’t do the crazy tourist thing and walk for hours in the scorching sun. It remains humid all day and cools off in the evening. I’ve been sleeping quite well – I just try and keep still.

To Akwanga

The ride in Manga’s car out to Akwanga took about 2 hours. If you’re the studious type (which I’m sure you are if you’ve kept reading this far!) and are looking at a map, you can see that the capital, Abuja, is right in the middle of the country in an area called Federal Capital Territory. To the south-east of this is an area called Nasarawa State. Lafia is in the middle of this state and Akwanga is a little town just to the north of Lafia.

As I entered Akwanga, the sun was beating down on the dusty streets. I surveyed the place that would be my home for the foreseeable future and tried to take it all in. Okadas, market sellers and goats. I’ll have to post more pictures up to give you a better idea. I did a quick stop off at the college where I met Mr Khuze, my new boss, before being taken to my new home in the college grounds. I’m on the first floor of a 3 storey block. It’s quite a spacious place with lounge seats, a dining table and chairs and a bed and desk for me in my room. I was soon whisked away to the market with Maria, a college cleaner, and Patricia who was to be my cleaner. They helped me buy buckets for the kitchen and bathroom, pots and pans, knives, cutlery, plates and some food. All if this was then carried back to my door on the back of an Okada. As it was my first time I was let off lightly, but I soon discovered how easy it is to hold on to so much.

I attempted to cook that first night. Noodles with a sauce of onions and tomatoes. Quite unappetising really, but I’m hoping that I’ll get better and am kind of regretting not managing to stuff my copy of the Complete Delia Smith into my luggage somehow. My water filter also appeared to be broken, but fortunately David, an existing VSO volunteer who lives in the block next door with his wife, brought me round some bottled water. Apparently it’s fairly safe to drink, but needs filtering because of all the sand. By the way, the water doesn’t come out of the tap (very often), but Patricia fills up huge containers in the kitchen and bathroom for me to use.

That night I finally got to sit still and listen to the sounds around me. Car and bike engines. Various birds clucking and quacking. Children calling. Wind tapping at the window frames. People talking loudly in the stair well. Doors creaking. Fans turning. A TV in a next door flat.

It was then bucket bath time. I crouched in the bath and scooped the water from a bucket over me. It’s actually quite refreshing. There’s something so shocking and excruciating about a cold shower, but this is different. It felt nice to be clean. I had that clean warm feeling I used to get on summer evenings as a child when a British summer actually meant sunshine. I had been warned that power (or ‘Nepa’) here can be temperamental, so took advantage of the fact that there was still electricity and watched a whole movie on my laptop. And I have to report, folks, that out of all the DVDs that I brought with me, the very first one that I watched on Nigerian soil was True Lies. Can’t beat a bit of Arnie and I’m not afraid to admit it.

I was then so tired, so went to bed at 9pm and actually slept well until 4:30am when the TV went on downstairs with BBC world service. I listened to the dulcet British tones of the news reader and was soothed back to sleep again.