Barka da Sallah

Or Happy Sallah (I think). Sallah is one of the names given to the celebrations that follows the end of Ramadan and is the real reason we have had two days public holiday here in Nigeria I have now discovered. We were invited for some ‘chop’ by a member of the Programme office on the first day of the public holiday and it’s the first time I’ve been out of Abuja since I’ve arrived. We didn’t exactly go very far but it was nice to go on a wee adventure all the same. Along the way we passed what is supposed to be West Africa’s largest housing estate (Gwarinpa), and by largest I think it means it has the largest houses in it that you are likely to see, some of these things were HUGE. For a country that is dealing with poverty on such a large scale there is also a huge amount of wealth here.

Anyway we arrived after some debate as to which house it was we supposed to be going to and were welcomed with a feast of jollof rice, marinated meat, salads and cat fish. It was really nice to be social and meet some more locals and at the end of the evening we were kindly driven home and have been invited out to the cinema today, having seen the trailer for Conan the Barbarian last night I’m hoping we go for that! I shall report back later...

Friday

We are advised by VSO not to discuss political issues on our blogs so I’m not going to go into any detail about the recent bombing in Abuja. I did just want to thank everyone who got in touch to see if I was ok, my thoughts are with the families of those who were at the UN building on Friday and were not so fortunate.

I will say that despite Friday’s terrible actions I do feel safe here in Abuja and that the Programme Office do a good job of keeping us informed of any issues and contacting us when they need to. My phone rang within minutes of the bombing to inform me what had happened and check I was ok. If it was deemed unsafe for us to be here we would either be moved elsewhere or sent home, just to rest those parental fears!

Public Holidays…

In the UK we’re always complaining there aren’t enough public holidays and there’s usually some sort of campaign on facebook to get a new one each year, ‘St Georges Day’ or ‘We can’t be arsed to go to work today day’, you get the picture. The naysayers will tell you it’ll never happen, it’s too difficult to put in place, it’ll cost the economy too much etc, etc. I should mention we did get an extra one for the royal wedding this year at least, thanks Kate and Wills for the day off by the way!

In Nigeria it seems to be much easier to overcome such problems, the government has kindly announced that next Tuesday and Wednesday will be a public holiday. I get the impression this is a not an altogether random occurrence either as no one at work other than me seemed to be amazed by this. When I asked what it was in aid of the response was that it’s like x-mas day, okay….. On the news however it seems to be two days off in honour of the president. Whatever it’s for I’m not complaining I would just like the British government to take note, I suspect however as I post this that a large flock of pigs have just flown past the houses of parliament.

The aforementioned British Village

As a VSO volunteer sent to work in a developing country I’m not entirely sure the British Village is really in the spirit of this whole adventure but it’s within walking distance of our flat, we are allowed in for free and I’m not one to look a gift horse in the mouth (is that the saying or has the joy gone to my head?).

Yesterday afternoon we set off to go and find the British Village but first called in at the British Council rooftop terrace to meet up with another volunteer who was having a meeting there. This is a very lovely place to stop and have a beverage or two if you are on a proper salary. I studied the menu and found the cheapest drink after water as I already had a bottle in my bag and settled for an iced tea at 400 naira, our daily allowance works out at 1000 naira. It was lovely and as I said if you were earning a bit we would no doubt frequent it a bit more often as it was a great mix of locals and expats but a bit out of our price range. Anyway we had an appointment with the pool and some serious lounging to be doing so on we toddled. We realised a bit further down the road that we didn’t actually know precisely where we were going, I had a general idea from my investigative work on google maps but as none of us had actually been before, we called for back-up from Gordon our next door neighbour, who bless him promptly arrived in a taxi and drove us the last 200m. We were so close damn it!

What then followed was a nervous wait as we showed the security man our VSO ID cards and he consulted his list, we hoped, prayed, crossed our fingers possibly did a little please let us in dance as we had heard from past volunteers that it can take some time for ‘the list’ to be updated with the current volunteers names and thus our entry might be denied even with our ID cards. He managed to find my name pretty quickly, sometimes it pays to have an excessively long surname and I believed I exclaimed “Yes, I’m in!” We had already discussed that we would happily ditch each other outside if we didn’t all make it in, nice eh? We were under no illusion that the call of the pool and running water would’ve been stronger than the bond of friendship. Thankfully however after what seemed like an age and many suspicious glances from the list to us we were all admitted entry, hooray!

Behind the big security gates and bollards lies a secret paradise far away from the beeping and the tooting of the city and we very quickly realised that we would be spending a lot of our free time here, well it would be rude not to right? The pool is huge and there are lots of shady areas for those that merely have to look at the sun and find themselves a lovely shade of tomato red such as me. The bar area has lovely comfy seats and sofas to lounge on and there are two TVs to show different sports, I got to watch football AND rugby all on the same day and at the same time. Everyone was very friendly and best of all the prices weren’t too bad either, in fact they weren’t far off our local and the food menu contained many things with CHEESE, I can’t tell you how much I miss cheese. Happy, happy day. It actually decided to bucket down with rain so hard that we didn’t swim so of course we decided after spending over 4 hours there that we would need to come back on Sunday/today. I did however take the opportunity to use the shower facilities, hot running water (my first hot shower since I’ve left home) was too good an opportunity to pass up.

The Jacuzzi

I didn't quite get all of the pool in because I was too busy 'lounging' to move and get a decent photo :D

The two TVs for all important sports viewing

So here I am on Sunday evening having done some shopping this morning and then returned the place of joy for a swim this afternoon where I was able once again to indulge in sports watching but this time from the pool, genius! I do feel a bit like this is somehow wrong but at the same time I’m not complaining and the way I see it is that it’s a fair reward at the end of a week at work, right?

Life in the capital

Well I’ve been here nearly a week now and I feel really settled already. I still have lots of investigating to do in my new surroundings and I really need to pay attention to the routes that the taxis take so I actually know where I’m going. Yesterday on my way home from work I had my usual conversation with the taxi driver which went along the lines of,

“Q Palace in Maitiama?”

“Yes, enter.” It’s very important before you enter that you agree the price….

“How much?”

“500”

“No way, it’s 250”

“You will pay me 400”

“I will pay you 250, I do this journey every day for 250” Thus implying I know exactly where I’m going, which after a few days of doing the journey I really should but the problem is they all take different routes. Anyway the driver realises as they all do that they aren’t going to get any more out of you so either agree and you get in or they  drive off and you get another one, or sometimes they drive off and negotiate with someone down the street and decide they like your route/price better so reverse back to you.  So yesterday my dude agrees on the 250 so in I got. Then about halfway home as I’m already mentally working out how long it is before I can be drinking a beer he asks me if he should turn off at the next road. I have no idea where we are at this point so just tell him to keep going in the hope I recognise something soon. Thankfully I do and I’m then able to direct him but I realised he expected me to know exactly where we were going, fail. Next time I might actually be more specific and ask if they know it first at least until I get my bearings anyway.

There are a few things here that are the same as they were in Calabar, for example people still take the opportunity to sell things at busy traffic interchanges to the passengers of taxis etc. I always like to see what it is they’re selling as it’s usually quite random but if you look vaguely interested they’ll take it as a sign you want to buy. They sell all sorts, radios, hair brush sets, pants, wall clocks, newspapers and thankfully I haven’t seen them here but you could buy in Calabar sticky mats to catch rats/mice for your home! I haven’t bought anything yet but you never know I might find myself with a burning desire for a wall clock one night on my way home.

You can also get your phone credit just as easily here, there are always about 5 men on every street corner asking if you want credit, or just generally everywhere really.  There are however less little stalls which served as your local shops here in Abuja. I think you probably have to have a license here or something because people just set up outside their houses in Calabar which was really quite handy. There is one little guy over the road from us who seems to sell his stuff from a table but he’s quite well hidden down a little side street so I’m guessing he shouldn’t really be there.  The transport as I’ve already mentioned is more expensive, there are buses here like there were in Calabar but they are very much fewer and seem to only run on certain routes and I haven’t seen any in our part of town. However my employer is paying my transport for work so I only have to worry about the expense at the weekends and any evening journeys we do and mostly we’ll be walking or going places together so for the joy of having your own seat I don’t mind paying a little bit more!

Things that Abuja has that I didn’t have access to before, a cinema (hooray!) I think it will be a very occasional treat but it’s nice to know I can get to a cinema as I really love going to the movies. There are loads of good restaurants here, all out of daily allowance range but we’re thinking if we save up from time to time we can treat ourselves and splurge on a nice meal out. There’s also the British Village which we get access to through VSO, I may have mentioned this already but it has a pool and bar and shows football and VERY importantly for me rugby matches, so I will after all be able to watch the rugby world cup, great big whoops of joy!!!!!!!!!!!

We also seem to have constant power, I’ve been told it’s because it’s the rainy season and its hydroelectric power and I also think it has something to do with the district we live in because there are lot of embassies here but even if it doesn’t last it makes a nice change for now. However on the downside we don’t have water at weekends so I’m adjusting to that as bar a couple of days in Calabar the water wasn’t a problem. A cold bucket shower in the morning does wake you up though. All in all as if you couldn’t tell, I’m doing much better now, I have purpose again, I’m feeling better and I’m feeling far more settled.  Ooh and we’re off to explore the pool at the British Village later so I’ll report on that in my next blog post.

First Day

Ok so technically I came into my new office yesterday for the afternoon and yes technically this is also my second placement, ignoring those two things my first today in my new office has gone really well. Yesterday afternoon I was brought in after meeting up with my new employers at the Programme Office of VSO shown around and introduced to my new colleagues so that sort of doesn’t count as a proper day at work. For those of you that don’t already know I will now be based at the National Mosque in Abuja working for an organisation called USI (Ummah Support Initiative).

Everyone has been really friendly and today it was lovely to get a taxi all by myself to work from just opposite the end of my road to the gate of the mosque. I have to wear a veil/scarf to cover my hair when I’m in the public areas of the offices (thanks Ceri for your handy gift who knew it would be my staple work wear!), I felt a bit special putting it on in the taxi but wasn’t actually sure what classed as the ‘public areas’ i.e. is it ok just inside the gates to not be wearing it, or should I already have it on by then?? Anyway in I went at the agreed time of 10am, until I get my own key to the office I will come in a bit later as currently the staff are all volunteers and travel in from outside Abuja so they don’t arrive until around 10am as there’s no one to open up. They have promised to get me a key so that I can come in to do a full day’s work though! I was very much relieved to find that there is plenty here I can do and that as soon as my initial work plan is agreed they want me to ‘hit the ground running’. At the end of my first day I was offered a lift home and I arrived back at the flat feeling very positive and excited to go back into work the next day, how often can you say that happens?

New Home

I’ve updated my album with some photos of my new home and they uploaded so quickly I thought I’d try and experiment and see if I can actually put some pics directly into my blog. The connection in Calabar wasn’t great so it wouldn’t let me do it but it seems to be better here so I thought I’d try….

My new room, complete with mosquito 'fort'

The lounge

Kitchen and water storage bins!

New Beginnings (again)

Five weeks to the day after arriving in Abuja for the start of my VSO placement and In country training I was back. I decided my sooner than planned return journey to Abuja would not be by bus this time and that I would pay for myself to fly. Clearly in Nigeria the cost of flying is far out of reach of the ordinary Nigerian and so this was a very different experience all round. It also blew most of my additional ‘travel’ fund that I brought with me from home but I still think it was worth every penny to avoid 12.5 hours crammed into a sardine can on wheels and to be subjected to a roadside search. Although the check in experience at Uyo Airport was quite special. I had to accompany my bags when they were scanned at the check in desk through a door that was marked ‘No entry, authorised personnel only!’ so that if anything suspicious was identified in my luggage I could unpack the bags to show them, flashback anyone?.

Anyway I arrived safely and met my new housemates at my new flat and got to unpack all over again, this time with no tears, hooray! We went out to get some supplies later in the afternoon and I got my first gander at my new neighbourhood, I already know where to get my fruit and veg thanks to Susan one of my new housemates. It sounds very odd but at the bottom of our road there is a sort of big yard behind a fence and inside are the men selling the fruit and veg, you go up to the gaps in the fence and tell them you what you want and they bring it you and pass you order through the bars!! I’ll take my camera next time, I’ve never bought food like this before but it was surprisingly good value for money compared to Calabar. I was expecting everything to be more expensive here with it being a capital city. We also went to a supermarket and yes they had corned beef but alas no gin, sad times. I’ll have to hunt for that elsewhere as I had to leave my previously purchased bottle behind in the very capable hands of two VSOs who I know will enjoy it just as much as I would have!

So my first impressions of my new home are very positive ones and I’m about to hit the sack at only 9pm as it’s been a very long day, it started with a phone call at 4.50am from the taxi driver informing me he was picking me up at 6am instead of 6.30am, thanks for that! Tomorrow I go into the programme office to find out more about my placement which I’m really excited about, onwards and upwards as they say.

Ooh in a totally unrelated but very noteworthy point can I just say well done to Torquay United for beating Bristol Rovers yesterday and giving every gulls fan the satisfaction of seeing Paul Buckle lose his first home match against the team he left in such a nice fashion at the end of last season. Brilliant and indeed highly satisfying!

A month

What a month it’s been. It looks like the next 11 will not be spent here in Calabar as I will be moving to Abuja. The reasons are a bit complicated to get into on my blog but let’s just say I am happy about it and looking forward to moving, only downside my blog title wont sound quite as snappy, ‘Kasia in Abuja’ doesn’t have quite the same ring to it….

As soon as I can I’ll tell you all about my new placement and where I’m living but for now I’m going to have to work out how to pack everything back up again and this time, I’m definitely flying!

Milestones

Today marks 4 weeks in Nigeria, I have to say there were times when I really didn’t think I’d make it this far so this feels like a big milestone to me and Tuesday makes it a whole month, working on technicalities. It seems very strange only five weeks ago I was having a weekend away with some of my friends and wondering what my life would be like right now, where would I be living? What would my housemate be like? How would I be finding the heat, food, culture etc? I was sat pondering these things in beautiful landscaped gardens sitting under a sun umbrella because it was actually a hot and sunny day for once and it seems like a million years ago. Ironically it was hotter that day than it is here today!

So what have I discovered in the last four weeks? Well I think in some respects I’m both tougher and weaker than I thought I was. Things that I thought I wouldn’t find hard or be bothered by I have been and some things that I thought I would struggle with haven’t been a problem. For example, I really thought the erratic nature of the power here would be a problem for me but I’ve adapted to it really quickly and no longer bat an eyelid when the power goes off. I always have a torch to hand and always have everything ready to charge as soon as the power returns. It makes me smile when you hear one of the neighbourhood children shout “NEPA!” when the power does come back on. The power company here in Nigeria used to be called NEPA, fondly known as Never Expect Power Always (or Again) and it changed a while ago to PHCN, Problem Has Changed Name. I don’t actually know what it does stand for, Power something Company Nigeria maybe? Everyone still calls it NEPA though and you will often be asked, “Did you have NEPA last night/over the weekend?”. It was big news when the President sacked 4 top PHCN executives for failing to resolve the issues with the power, we shall see if their replacements make any difference…..

In terms of other discoveries, I’m finding the lack of anonymity very hard. I think I’ve mentioned it before in another post, I didn’t think it would bother me as much it does and it's not something you can easily ignore.

I still don’t like the prospect of going anywhere on my own which aged 29 I find a bit pathetic. I do however get great satisfaction when I do go somewhere on my own and manage to get home again, however this also makes me feel quite pathetic.

I want to get out and explore but the weather here really is very preventative, when it rains it really rains and the streets sort of turn into rivers and you really don’t want to think about what’s in the water. Supposedly this month should see the rain easing off a bit which will be good.

Other interesting cultural learning, Dog is a delicacy here in Cross River State (I wasn’t very good at hiding my horror when told this) as is Goat’s head. I won’t be eating either, EVER. I’m rather relieved I’m still not well and can’t eat properly at the moment as at least I have a legitimate excuse to avoid anything I’m uncertain of like is that meat dog? It all backs up my reasoning to become vegetarian for the duration of my placement, unless it’s corned beef out of a tin of course. I hasten to add that I have eaten Nigerian food and do intend to eat more of it but my tummy says otherwise at the moment so I’m sticking to a rather bland diet of crackers, noodles, tomatoes and corned beef sandwiches. It’s doing wonders for the weight loss!

And so it begins

The football season that is. Whilst back in Blighty I didn’t get to see my boys play all that often because being a Torquay fan and living in Newcastle didn’t aid me with getting to many matches. However I used to get regular telephone updates from my Dad at all the home matches, he’s been doing a gate at Plainmoor since he was about 15 (correct me if I’m wrong Dad!) and if I was watching a premiership match with friends in a bar in the Toon I’d always have one eye on Sky Sports watching out for the League Two scores coming in.

So whilst I didn’t get to many matches I will very much miss my interactions as the new season starts, I’ve been assured that I’ll get text updates with the scores, thanks Dad and I can of course log on to BBC and the Torquay Website for a full match report. I just hope when I come home in January for a visit that I can make it to a match (I bet it snows and they’re all postponed!), in the meantime I shall have to rely on my mobile to get the scores, as League 2 is about as real as Harry Potter here. First up its Torquay v’s Burton, come on you Yellows!!!

A police escort

Picture the scene if you will, it’s ten past eight on Tuesday morning and we’re running a little late, it’s raining pretty hard and we’re standing at the our usual spot trying to catch transport to work but everything is full because of the weather so it’s not looking good. Then a policeman comes and stands next to me. He asks if we’re trying to get a drop. I tell him no drop (because we can’t afford them), but he’s quite insistent that we should be trying to get one. “No drop, we’re only going to Watt” I tell him. “Ok sister, you will come with me”.

Normally you wouldn’t accept lifts from strangers but he’s a policeman so it’ll be ok, right? Well we thought so, so he flags down a car, tells the man he is paying and that we are stopping at Watt to drop us off on the way. I feel a bit unsure about this but get in the back of taxi with Sarah anyway. He then asks where we are going next so I tell him that we work in Bayside on Edem Street and we normally get transport to Watt and then walk down to Edem Street from there. Apparently we are not allowed to do this in rain, so they will take us all the way. He wouldn’t let us pay anything and dropped us at the door of the office. It was a very lovely experience, all done out of goodwill and nothing expected in return. I have no idea where the policeman was going but I’m pretty sure our bit of the journey was definitely not on the way.

When we did get in the office I took the opportunity to take some photos of our surroundings and have updated the album so you can see where I work and the area around it. It was a very grey morning I’m afraid but at least it had stopped raining!