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!



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).

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