Some random thoughts…..

I don’t blog for ages and then it’s twice in a day, what’s gotten into me?! Who knows but there I was on my journey to the meeting under the mango tree and indeed on the way back and I was noticing lots of things as I do every time I travel here and it struck me that there are lots of sights that have become so much a part of the fabric if you like, that I don’t really pay much heed to them anymore but when I first arrived I used to look goggle eyed at them. Things like (and this not an exhaustive list….)

·         The mobile shops i.e. people carrying their wares on their heads, everything you can imagine like bananas, groundnuts, cooked products etc. Then you have the people with literal mobile shops selling a bit of everything with huge containers on their heads full of toothbrushes, toilet paper, noodles, sachets of various powdered drinks, a kind of mobile corner shop on someone’s head. You also have people on bikes with drinks and I’ve also seen mobile ice cream sellers on bikes too that play a tune just like at home and people with wheelbarrows usually full of sugar cane.

·         Roadside signs, might not sound very fascinating but they are everywhere and for everything. You get dizzy looking at them and you would be surprised at the services on offer in the strangest of places. Nestled in amongst signs for various churches and schools you’ll see ‘Ultrasound and x-ray here’ and you’re looking down a tiny lane of huts thinking, really?! Or perhaps a sign for ‘God’s own business centre’ next to a shop selling tyres and kerosene.

·         Motorbikes and their amazing array of passengers and cargo. Motorbikes are used here as taxis (although not in the city of Abuja itself) and you can see anything up to 4 passengers squeezed on, this will usually include some children and a baby strapped to the back of its mother looking totally nonplussed as to its mode of transport on a frighteningly busy road. Then there's the passengers carrying brilliant varieties of cargo, maybe a jerry can of kerosene in each hand, live animals, dead animals, 6ft sections of fencing which they balance precariously on the handle bars so the driver has to put his hand through them in order to actually drive the motorbike and my favourite sight so far a huge section of glass windows with both the driver and passenger having their heads sticking out of one of the windows with it slid down, the words horror crash and decapitation flitting through my mind. All of this whilst they weave in out of the traffic like they are just the motorbike and nothing else.

·         The children’s plaything layby just outside of Abuja. The first time I saw it I really thought it was so odd but now I just sort of nod at the parents shopping there. Imagine a huge layby just by the motorway filled with everything made of plastic a child could ever want ranging from small toys right up to giant playhouses and swing sets. It’s not the concept of buying toys for kids it was more the fact that you went to a layby by a really busy expressway to do it. Why not in a shop or at least not by the side of a road which leads me to my next point.

·         Roadside shopping. I’ve mentioned this before I know but actually this week I did have a surprise from the roadside shopping. On our way back to Abuja I must have dozed off as we came into the city and woke up to find a giant stuffed wolf at my window. My reaction was not great in a car full of muslims but thankfully they were too busy talking to hear my shocked ‘sweet baby Jesus!’ utterance. I’m not sure why I said it, the wolf looked nothing like Jesus after all. That is by far the most unusual thing I have seen for sale in amongst the traffic in Abuja but I have seen the same wolf (or maybe it’s his brother) sat on an armchair on one of the routes home the taxis take me. I was never sure what was being advertised the wolf or the chair or both?

So there you go some things that I have stopped taking proper notice of, but I will now be on guard for the wolf as I am beginning to think he might be stalking me. I really must try to get some photos of these things, I just keep telling myself I’m here for such a long time that I’ve got ages before I need to worry about getting photos but I will forget that these things were ever worth snapping if I’m not careful, especially if a man on the back of a motorbike with a window on his head doesn’t even cause me to bat an eyelid.