Hi everyone! I realise if you're reading this you will most likely be my family and friends (and therefore obliged to) but just in case......I am a volunteer for VSO and this is a blog about my experiences of life in Nigeria, first I was briefly in Calabar and now I'm in Abuja the capital city. You may also find some random references to uses I find for the tools on my Swiss army knife as well as my reflections on my everyday life as a VSO volunteer, just go with it.




Saturday 31 December 2011

Tis the season to be jolly

Well it’s supposed to be the season to be jolly and all that other Christmas related stuff but frankly it has felt anything other than Christmassy this December. It’s not for a want of people being lovely and sending Christmas things from home (thanks mum and Rachel and those of you that tried to send snow even though it’s potentially hazardous!) and I even had a lovely Christmas Day with some friends I met at the British Village but it just didn’t feel like Christmas this year. Was it because it was too hot? There was a major lack of family of friends to celebrate with? The decorations were weird/non-existent? There was no Christmas music on repeat driving you bonkers? There was no crazy busy high street to do battle with? There was no Christmas works do to go to and get totally trashed at? Or all of the above? I have to admit it has been nice not to have the stress of Christmas to deal with but I actually missed Christmas more than I thought, even the music on repeat, I mean where’s Noddy Holder when you need him?
Here in Nigeria they are obviously either not interested at all or big on the religious side of things. Bizarrely at midnight there were loads of fireworks going off just like there is at home for new years and everyone was stood outside watching, even the kids. Makes it hard for Father Christmas to come and deliver the presents I suspect and probably scares the reindeer, poor things.
It was incredibly sad to wake up on Christmas Day to news of more bombings in Nigeria, the people here are finding it increasingly hard to understand why this is happening and the tensions seem to be rising. Security is increasing around the city, but what can police in cars do against determined terrorists with explosives?  
The increased risk of living here makes me feel more relieved that in just a few days I will be returning home. It is not the reason that I have decided to come home early, my family and friends will already be aware of my reasons and of my impending return but I have to be honest and say I probably will feel more at ease once I’ve touched down at Heathrow. It’s not that I walk around in a constant state of fear, but there are the reminders that there is a very real threat, roadblocks, cars being searched in the city near important buildings and now churches, police and army vehicles outside the National Mosque. Armoured vehicles and armed men are a sight that I’ve just got used to. As I sit here on New Year’s Eve reflecting on what 2011 has brought for me in terms of lessons and changes to my life and thinking about what now lies ahead in 2012 I can’t help but wonder about what lies ahead for Nigeria, sadly I think it will be in the world news next year more frequently than it has been this year.
That seems like a very gloomy note to leave this blog post on, so I will finish by wishing everyone a Happy New Year, I hope that 2012 is good to you all.

Friday 16 December 2011

Nigerians behind the lens

A rather amazing set of photos I found on the BBC website today

A very happy visit to the Kaduna Demonstration School for Deaf Children

On Tuesday of this week I found myself on the way to Kaduna, a city about three hours north of Abuja. I was visiting a school for Deaf Children carrying out a needs analysis for a placement on behalf of VSO before a new volunteer is due to arrive in February next year. I had been asked to do the visit by the Education Program Manager as the placement was very similar to mine and quite different to the normal placements in the Education Program area. A great way to utilise volunteers in country if you ask me.
To say that I enjoyed the day is somewhat of an understatement. The school was amazing, the principal Victoria was so motivated and inspiring and meeting those children in that environment was really lovely. I haven’t seen such happy and hardworking children since I’ve been here, the teachers were brilliant, it was all about child centred learning and you could see how much it has impacted these very lucky children. They were proud of their work, they wanted to show it to me and ask me if they were doing it right. Their work was on the walls along with affirmations and posters, it was a lovely environment for them to learn in.
The school however is run as a charity and it desperately needs funds to keep running and to become self-sustaining, hence a volunteer is now going to be placed there to help with fundraising. I can’t deny I was jealous of this new volunteer, theirs will be such a rewarding placement, getting to work in the school and learn sign language (I managed to learn good morning, how are you and thank you) so that you can communicate properly with the children and directly see the impact that your efforts are having in helping to keep the school running. Without this school these children would have nowhere to go, there isn’t the provision for disability like there is back home and it’s not taken into consideration in mainstream education meaning children like this are excluded. Here they can enter the school at nursery age where they can learn sign language so they can communicate from an early age and get an education like any other child. They even offer signing lessons to the parents at weekends so that they are able to communicate with their children.
I can only sum up by saying I loved, loved, loved my day there and that I wish all the schools here could implement teaching and learning like this.
Nursery 1: Half the class work the teacher

Whilst the other half read, then they swap!

Nursery 3: Half of the class doing some writing work

Some maths in the Primary classes

Here the teacher was asking the children to demonstrate different types of movement, they took it in turns to have a go.

A science lesson in Junior Secondary

Monday 12 December 2011

The alarming incident of the cockroach in the night time

Cockroaches have made an appearance my blog before, in a slightly bizarre was I losing my mind in having a conversation with one fashion. This time I was not having a conversation with a cockroach, I was being rudely awoken by one on a night where I was not getting much sleep anyway. Normally my fan is on at night (power allowing) and as such I probably sleep on blissfully unaware of the beasties that prowl around in the dark but because it’s cold at night due to harmattan at the moment my fan is off so you can hear every little noise.
Anyway there I was finally drifting off to sleep somewhere around 4am when a nasty scuttling noise brought me back round like a flash, then it got a bit closer to my bed, then it sounded like it was actually in my bed!? No surely not, but I was sat up in a panic with my reading light in hand when I realised that a roach was climbing up my mosquito net, I made a funny sort of a ‘meeehhh’ noise and tried to bat it off from the inside with said light. Hardy little buggers though aren’t they and he took a few bashes before he fell between the bed and the wall and quick as a flash (or a Kash) I was out of the netting the other side and reaching for the can of raid. My lungs may not have thanked me but I was ever so relieved when he came to a sort of half dead stop, just close enough to the edge of the bed for me scoop it up with a hastily devised cockroach scooping device (Notebook and old plastic bowl for catching leaks in rainy season). Not bad for four in the morning eh?
I don’t think I have ever been so pleased for my mosquito net, apart from maybe that first night in Calabar. After disposing of the interloper I obsessively checked to make sure the net was tucked in very securely just in case there were any more lurking around waiting for me to turn the light off before striking and got myself back into bed. Weirdly I managed to sleep. Maybe it was the high concentration of Raid in the room?

Saturday 3 December 2011

Harmattan

Something very strange happened last night, so strange that for a brief moment I thought I had somehow been transported back home. I was cold, not just a little bit chilly but properly cold. We had gone out to meet some other VSOs for a drink and were sat in an outside bar called ‘Circle Gardens’ in Maitama. There we were enjoying our drinks (shockingly in my case a sprite) and it was like being at home in the summer when you’re in a beer garden on an evening and the sun has long since disappeared and you really should go inside the pub because everyone is shivering but damn it you're British and this is summer so you suffer on. It’s the first time since leaving home that I’ve been properly cold, even with air con in the office.
There is an explanation for the cold which is that currently we are experiencing the Harmattan a wind from the Sahara that means it’s hot in the day but cools down quite a bit at night. I should point out however that it was probably still in the mid-twenties temperature wise so not exactly freezing . I’m going to actually FREEZE in January and I can’t wait!

Sunday 27 November 2011

Abuja Carnival

This weekend it was the annual Abuja carnival, the bradt guidebook tells us that this has been an annual event since 2005 but that there is little information to inform people about the events and that this might get better with time. No, no it hasn’t. The information online told us that the parade started at 7am and the opening ceremony at 4pm. We (rightly) suspected the 7am start time to be false and so after seeking some guidance from a friend as to where we might watch the parade turned up around 12.30 to find it still hadn’t started. It didn’t actually reach us for another couple of hours but had probably set off from its start point around 1ish. Apparently they were still putting their costumes on at 12.30.
I feel I should actually have titled this post 'The day Sam (my housemate) had the words ‘Please come and snap me’ written on her forehead'. It became very amusing for the rest of us but less so for her as she was repeatedly asked if she would be snapped with various random strangers and members of the carnival as the day wore on. We almost got roped into the carnival at one point quite early on, we were looking for some minerals (drinks) to cool us down as it was on the bloomin hot side of hot and we ended up in a random car park buying our drinks where we were approached by the staff of a lone carnival float promoting the Igbo Youth Movement. They wanted us to wear t-shirts and have photos taken with them, I managed to duck out of this and stay behind the camera but I present Sam looking very ‘happy’ about getting involved.
Sam hoping someone else will get involved

Looking thrilled to be a member of the team

They managed to recruit Jenny as well

After managing to avoid being put on the back of the float as they waited for the carnival to arrive so they could join in with the parade we found some shade to sit in and wait for the parade to come to us. Bless them, by the time they did get to us they had walked for some time (still had a fair distance to go it turns out) in the blazing sunshine in some of the most weird and wonderful outfits I’ve seen. Most of them were still giving it some to the Naija beats but you could also spot the ones who had clearly lost the will to shake it like a goodun a couple of miles back, either way much respect due to don some of those costumes in that heat deserves an A for effort anyway.
We think it was a drum

Still going strong

Best bum wiggler of the day

I'm not sure what to say about this

or this...

Portable drums

Some fatigue showing

We're not sure Bauchi state have giraffes

What's that approaching?

Of course it's the Benue Dove of One Love


that appears to be on fire

loved the dancing sweetcorn

Please can we snap you?

I really have no idea what is going on with this?!?!

Loving the snapping

Some Fulani snapping

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Apparently it's an eagle fish. Of course.


Excellent signage on this float

Of Course Shrek and Ben ten are very Nigerian

As are these two!




Friday 18 November 2011

Errrrrr what’s that I spy?

OK when you leave your home country for a totally new and alien culture you do expect that you will see some sights that will leave you a bit open mouthed from time to time. This morning however I did not expect to see a dead cow on its back being burned in the middle of the pavement. It might not sound like that crazy a thing to some people but given this is a city and a residential area it was TOTALLY unexpected.  People often burn their rubbish here because rubbish collection is something of a novelty, although it’s not too bad round our way, we have a wheelie bin and everything!

Anyway I digress, so there I was strolling down the street on my way to get some veg from the dudes behind the fence before it go too hot to go out and I spied the fire in the middle of the pavement, I just assumed that someone was burning their rubbish until I spotted four hooves in the air just above the flames. I did a double take and then realised it was in fact the carcass of a rather large cow that was being burned, an extreme method of cooking if you ask me. No one was ‘tending’ the cow it was just there on fire, on the pavement. I even questioned whether I had imagined it but no there it was hooves akimbo burning away as I passed by on my way back up the hill. Bonkers (or maybe I am).

Thursday 10 November 2011

New experiences

The travels to Dutse saw me encounter many new experiences they are as follows:
·         Travelling to the north of Nigeria – loved it, think I must have been northerner somewhere in a previous life given my love of the NE of England and now in Nigeria, it’s like a completely different country to the south.
Kola Nuts
·         Kola Nuts – not sure they are actually nuts but I’ll tell you one thing they are grim! Apparently they are like natural nicotine or something, won’t be trying them again.
·         Tiger Nuts – seeds not nuts, strange but quite nice like the name more than the taste though.
·         Cooking goat – didn’t do a bad job either, made a marinade on the Monday night whilst Lucy found and cleaned meaty bits from the vast bucket of goat we had left after Sallah day on Sunday and then cooked it on our last night. Tasty.
·         Boiled Cassava – tried it covered with ground up nuts and peppe it was yum, but sadly no nutritional value whatsoever in cassava, bummer.
Kosai
·         Kosai also known as Akara – Breakfast food of deep fried mashed up beans with peppe of course, thought I’d had these before but they were different somehow so they make the list maybe it’s the different name in the north.
·         Coconut based treat from the market – I can’t remember the name of this one but rather nice and highly addictive.
·         Seeing a durbar – enough said.
·         Guinea Fowl – Tastes like chicken.
·         Boiled Yam – Had fried yam but boiled yam is gooood especially in a tomato sauce
·         Pounding Yam – Pounded yam is served with soups and similar dishes and is used as both part of the meal and in lieu of cutlery, you have a big sticky ball of it and use your fingers to tear some off and then use it as a scoop to pick up the rest of your dinner. I’ve had pounded yam before but never had the chance to pound it myself. Apparently it’s women’s work because they don’t tire. I found it strangely enjoyable, maybe it was the novelty factor?
Pounding yam - it's not for men they tire too easily

I think I’ve remembered most things but no doubt there’s something I’ve missed, I really did seem to be saying I’ve never tried this/done this before for most of the four days we were there. It made me feel like I’m missing out on lots so my mission is to try and see as much as possible and within reason never say no!

The Spectacular Durbar

In the north of Nigeria which is predominantly Muslim there are a number of Emirates where the celebrations for Sallah are super duper shiny and they put on a proper show. In Dutse the durbar lasted for three days with a parade taking place at a different time on a slightly different route with different outfits each day.
I’m not sure if he’s friends with the other Emirs in the local area and it’s a case of wanting to show that my army is bigger than your army or if they all band together against foes from further afield. I am led to believe though that traditionally in days of yore and yesteryear and all that the durbar was a chance for the Emir to see just how many men he had prepared to fight for him. The Emir also takes part in the durbar and he gets to ride his horse with someone following him with a giant parasol and lots of people around him fanning him and generally protecting him.
One of the best things about the durbar was the fact that we were as much of an attraction to the people in the parade as they were to us so that they all looked our way as they passed by. Many of them were shouting and cheering, some of them even thanked us for coming to watch them, lots of the people on foot stopped and ‘performed’ for us, they even stopped the Emir and his entourage on the first day so that we could snap him, all in all it made for some great photos. I have selected a few of my favourites to include here, there are many more on picasa via the link on the side of the page should you want to see more.
It was such an amazing event to witness, so colourful and loud and full of pride and joy. I loved every minute of it and feel very privileged to have witnessed something like this; it’s a cultural snapshot I will remember forever.














Lucy’s International Garden*

I’m not really sure where to start with blog post simply because there is so much I want to say, in fact I think I might end up splitting this up a bit, a general ramble post (this one), a photos of the Durbar post and maybe a new things I tried/experienced post……
A few weeks ago I was invited to join some other volunteers in the north of Nigeria to spend a few days in Dutse in Jigawa state for the Sallah celebrations. When I received the e-mail from fellow volunteer Lucy who lives in Dutse with another VSO called Lawrence I was immensely excited because since arriving in Abuja back in the middle of August I haven’t left the city other than on my couple of community visits with work and I was in dire need of a change of scene.
Another reason I was excited was that this felt like a proper VSO experience, to go on a road trip with other volunteers. Having read a lot of blogs of other VSOs throughout my application and placement process it struck me that a big part of the placements for many people was being able to travel around the country they were based in by visiting the other volunteers there. A great way to share experiences and see as much of the country that you are living in as you can. So here I was four months into my placement finally doing some visiting of my own.
The Sallah marks Eid el Kabir (also known as Eid el Adha) which is the biggest celebration in the Muslim calendar and it falls roughly two months and ten days after the month of Ramadan when there is a sort of baby Sallah celebration which I have previously blogged about. This Sallah is in recognition of the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son Ishmael to show his obedience to god, he was rewarded by being given a ram to kill instead. Hence on the Sallah day families will kill a ram, cow or goat depending on what they can afford and cook the meat as part of the celebrations. It is traditional to give away some of the animal to friends and neighbours as well as the poor who cannot afford to buy their own animal for Sallah. Lucy and Lawrence were well prepared and had purchased a goat a while ago in readiness! I should also note that I was given a Sallah gift when I came back into work today by a colleague of some cooked meat and chin chin snacks.
On arrival in Dutse after a very long journey because many people were travelling so the roads were busy we arrived to find dinner cooking which was really lovely and we were later told that the guard was going to kill the goat at 9 in the morning if we wanted to watch. In some places it is not uncommon for the streets to run red on this day, I hasten to add I decided I would not witness the ending of the goat knowing that in my specialness there was a high chance I might end up fainting, no one wants to wake up next to a dead goat.
As it happened everyone missed the poor goat bleating its last bleat as we were at the durbar. I intend to dedicate a whole post to the durbar which is a big horsey parade showing the local Emir how strong his army is basically so I won’t say too much here. What I will say is that it was somewhat of a mad dash on day one (the durbar goes on over three days) as we sat having a leisurely breakfast in the beautiful garden, or my case a tour we could suddenly hear sirens which announced the oncoming of the parade so we ditched our cups of tea grabbed our cameras and legged it. Luckily we didn’t have far to go and we timed it pretty well to find ourselves a lovely spot in the shade just a few minutes before the parade reached us. It was AMAZING but there will be more on that I promise.
The rest of the day passed in a lovely haze of sunshine spilling through the trees and sitting in the garden talking with old friends and new friends, friends from Ireland, Canada, Africa, Germany, the Netherlands and from home. There was haircutting, tea making, food prepping in the shade Nigerian style, laughter, beer, gin & tonic and even a heroic door kicking/rescuing. The goat cooked by Rachel from Canada/Kano was really good as were the accompanying dishes which I think just about everyone contributed to in some way and the night finished with music and everyone ‘showing their style’ on the dance floor. It was my best, most happiest day in Nigeria to date, I’m not sure I stopped smiling all day long. Barka da Sallah indeed!
In fact the whole trip has been my best experience so far, I loved the north of Nigeria it is beautiful, the people are friendly, the heat is even better because it’s less humid so when you do find shade there is actually relief when you’re in it. I found some nice things in the market and got myself some lovely fabrics which at some point soon I will have made into clothes, it is only right that every VSO gets themselves at least one traditional Nigerian outfit made at some point during their placement after all. I felt really sad when I had to leave but thankfully for me Lucy and Lawrence have welcomed me back anytime to their little bit of heaven in the north. I cannot thank them enough for being such wonderful hosts, on the Sunday night they had 12 guests staying with them!
*The title of this blog post is taken from a wonderful poem written about the weekend by the very talented Lea Knowles who is a fellow volunteer. Lea will hopefully be publishing some of his poems to raise funds for VSO when he returns home no doubt details of which will appear here on his blog here.
p.s. photos will appear in picasa soon!

A small filler

OK so this is a very quick interim type post to say that I’ve been away for a few days up north to Dutse in Jigawa state for the Sallah celebrations and that I’m going to write a proper post about that very soon but it will take me a while because so much happened. I just wanted to say that I had an amazing time, experienced many new things and can’t wait to go back.
Also before I left last week I went back out on the road to Gasaki and Cheta and took some photos of the things I mentioned in a previous post of the people on bikes and the like which you will find below, alas my efforts to capture the glory of the children’s plaything layby were a bit ropey at high speed…
Ocadas carry people and goods

A rare sight to see a helmet!


The smiles disappear when the camera comes out but they are always so keen to be snapped

Work in progress at the school to rebuild the classrooms

The headmaster's office


A very blurry section of plaything layby

The swingset section not very popular today

A special market for the Sallah