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.




Friday 15 July 2011

The bubble

I have to be honest, I'm feeling a little scared right now. All week I think we've living in a sort of bubble. By that I mean the 'newbies' have all been together and been shepherded about to and from our training. We've had a current volunteer with us to help us navigate around and answer any questions we might have which has been great. Yes we've had to start negotiating with taxi drivers and the like but essentially we've never been left on our own (apart from the minor incident on our way out to dinner one night this week). So whilst I feel quite happy at the moment and that life here isn't going to be that scary, I really haven't been challenged by it yet.

Tomorrow is the day I suspect the bubble bursts and it'll be interesting to see how I cope. We leave at 6 in the morning for the 8/9 hour bus journey, from what I can understand the buses only leave once they are full so we could be sat there waiting for it to fill up for a number of hours. That's after we've hauled my bags in a taxi that we will have to flag down from outside the hotel to the motopark of course. The only good thing is that when I told the representative from my organisation that I had two rather large bags and another smaller one as well as the water filter and mosquito net that the VSO office gave us today, he did say we'd need to buy two extra seats which I suppose will help to fill the bus up quicker! I think I will be really pleased when tomorrow is over.

Don't get me wrong I am really looking forward to getting to my placement, I'm just worried about the actual getting there part and leaving the nice safe bubble I'm in at the moment.
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Location: Abuja, Nigeria

4 comments:

  1. Anonymous15 July 2011 at 16:47

    Nothing like a good old bus journey that takes up the best part of a day. Will you be travelling with livestock do you know? Ben has travelled with many a goat on buses in Nepal. In India when there wasn't enough room and the women had too much to carry, they just randomly handed their children to me so they could free up there hands for a bit! Whatever your mode of travel my dearest, and who/whatever you share it with, it will be a journey you never forget; so soak it all up, every minute, because it's how you get to the next chapter :)Lots of love, Mol xxx

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  2. rachelfiderkiewicz15 July 2011 at 20:44

    I'm sure it will all be fine. Just make sure you wear a seatbelt and from the beep beep post it may be a good idea to buckle up the luggage. When you finally reach Calabar you can get settled and begin to make it home.
    Love you lots Rachel xxx

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  3. Gilly17 July 2011 at 19:56

    If it helps in the slightest, I am sending you happy thoughts on top of my dads total admiration for what you are doing (and that my lovely is something which isn't dished out very often!)

    xxx

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  4. Flip Flop17 July 2011 at 20:18

    I wonder, which side of the road do the buses drive on? The cheering news from home is that your "not in the Premiership" football team beat Bristol City yesterday in a pre season friendly.

    I wish that the previous poster (my other daughter , Rachel, for the wider readership)hadn't used the word "buckle" in her posting

    Love

    Pops

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