Adventures

Doesn't look like much, but ahhh to be out of Abuja!

I was lucky enough to be able to travel for work last week. We went to two of the other offices the charity runs in Nigeria to do some training for the members of staff there. It was brilliant getting out of Abuja for the week. I’ve said before that whilst I don’t think I could handle a rural placement for a full year, few things make me happier than being surrounded by nothing but trees and greenery. I know, I’m odd. That’s what growing up in the middle of nowhere on a very small Island does to you. Some highlights of the trip:

• Getting on the back of a motorbike with 2 rucksacks, my laptop, a projector and flip chart paper and giving the driver the fright of his life when I then went very quickly off the back when he pulled away. He’d been driving off from a steep muddy hill way too fast, and that combined with the amount of things I was carrying on my back meant I just disappeared off the seat. Much to the amusement of all around me.
• Going to lock my door at one of the hotels we were staying at and the door handle coming off in my hand.
• Being told the electricity had come on in the hotel, so I could put my air conditioning on. I spent about 15 minutes messing around with various switches and electrical sockets in my room, but could I get the air conditioning to work? Called a guy from reception who came into my room and pressed the switch marked ‘water heater’, that was situated no where near the air conditioning unit, and on came the air conditioning. Silly me.

Clearly the switch for the air conditioning, how could I not have known that

• Day two of the training, going to set up the powerpoint presentation and realising the projector wasn’t around. Where was it? In the car of someone that worked in the office, we’d kept it in there because she said that would be safer than keeping it in the office. Where was the car? Ohhhhh someone had borrowed it… it was on its way to Abuja, 2 hours away, with the projector in it. Perfect.
• A driver stopping the car to answer his phone. First time I’ve seen it happen in 7 months.
• The driver of one of the cabs turning to me and saying ‘don’t worry auntie, I’ll drive very slowly for you’ and then proceeding to drive at the craziest speed I have ever known. I shut my eyes and pretended it wasn’t happening. I dread to think how he drives when ‘auntie’ isn’t in the car.
• Arriving in one of the towns we were running training to be told that all the hotels were fully booked because there was a massive conference going on.
• The place we then had to stay for two nights because all of the other hotels were fully booked. Basic doesn’t quite do it justice. Suffice to say it made My Old Squat look like the Hilton. It came complete with many free additions, including pets of various descriptions in my room, sticky sheets, no electricity, and no water. The no water thing wouldn’t have been so bad if the person that had been there before me had flushed the toilet before they left. I wasn’t too sad to check out.
• Being told by some of the staff in one of the offices that they wanted to ‘buy me yams to help my body’. Why? This was answered by moving their hands up and down in a straight motion. I wonder how many times someone is going to tell me that I don’t have an African woman’s figure this year. If Nigeria created food that didn’t include meat AND fish in it, then I’m sure I’d be able to maintain a slightly heavier or more rounded figure! Being away for the week really reminded me how difficult it is for me to eat anything here, I’m fine when I can make things for myself, but otherwise it’s just a case of buying ground nuts, biscuits, and yogurt drinks, and hoping malnutrition waits a while before setting in!

So all in all it was a great week, and I hope I get to spend some more time in the other offices again soon. I’m getting used to Abuja, and I’m happy here, but it’s just not somewhere I would have ever chosen to do my placement. For many reasons I’m very glad I got to spend 6 months in Calabar before coming here.