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!