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.




Thursday 1 September 2011

Christmas come early

In the style of Noddy Holder, ‘It’s Chriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiistmmmmmmmmmmmmmas!’ Well that’s how it felt when I got one of my parcels sent by mum and sister this morning, it had arrived in Calabar a fortnight ago and been sent up to Abuja via another volunteer last week and I finally got my hands on it this morning. I was literally like a child on Christmas morning in the fashion of tearing open the parcel to get to the contents inside. I had managed to receive the parcel in a more rational/lady like manner and even managed to wait until I got to my office before I opened it, thankfully no one was around to witness the savage opening of the goodies, I’m not sure what they would’ve made of it! 
Inside were some much needed new tops (why did I think bringing lots of ‘nice cool white shirts’ would be a good idea in a place where I have to wash everything by hand?!), kitchen things, face wipes (the joy!), tea bags, cous cous, sweets, a copy of my subscribed lonely planet magazine that I couldn’t bring myself to cancel and some of the cards I forgot. I am a very happy girl, it’s not necessarily the normal kinds of things that would make you happy but the concept of a tea towel is definitely a foreign one here. Also I’ll tell you the tale of the forgotten cards because it’s a bit spesh….
When I was back in Calabar and putting up things on my walls I got to the stash of good luck/bon voyage cards that everyone had given me before I left and I realised it was a bit thin and I remembered that I had ended up with two piles of cards in the mayhem of unpacking stuff from Newcastle at my mum’s house in Somerset in the few weeks I spent there before I left. Anyway there I was in Calabar putting up the cards I had and as I got to the bottom of the pile I realised that some very special ones were missing and that I had probably left them at home and I promptly burst into tears.  Remember I was having a general mare at the time, anyway I text my mum and asked if she could try and find them and post them out to me, it’s daft really I knew I had them safe at home but I really wanted to have them all with me. So now they have arrived in Abuja via a trip to Calabar and tonight I will be sticking up the newly arrived cards on my bedroom wall, it’s just like being back at uni really but it’s nice to see my photos and cards every day and be reminded of all the good wishes from the folks back home. I might even have cous cous for tea!

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