Flexibility and Adaptability

Two of VSO’s key selection criteria. And I now know why. Some things that have recently tested these characteristics:

1. De-worming. The less said about this experience the better.
2. Constantly being covered in bites and finding creatures crawling on my skin. I’m hoping that in the same way that whatever was living in the mattress in my Old Squat gave up and stopped chewing on me, the same thing will happen in my New Squat.
3. Being prepared to start a new placement in a completely new city 6 months into a 12 month placement. This hasn’t been easy. Abuja and Calabar are very different places. The local dialects are even different.
4. Electricity. Whilst I now have electricity most of the time, it’s weird how little it now affects me when we don’t have it. I now know I can easily live somewhere with a poor electricity supply. There have been several instances in my New Squat where I’ve found that I’m sat in my room in the dark without even realising it because it didn’t occur to me to try and turn a light on.
5. Water. The water in my New Squat is off every Friday until the following Monday (as well as several other times during the week!). Before I came to Nigeria, I would have thought this would be something that would have bothered me. But it doesn’t bother me in the slightest. Especially as we generally know it’s going to go off, and so we can make sure the bins of stored water are filled. I realised the other day how used to having a poor water supply I have become when I poured a bucket of water down the toilet in the office, only to then hear the person that went into the toilet after me actually using the flush. It hadn’t even occurred to me to try and use the flush, I’m so used to using a bucket. Sad but true.
6. Going to long drop toilets (or really just any toilets, plumbing isn’t Nigeria’s strong point) and trying to then avoid noticing that the hems of my trousers are soaking wet.
7. And finally and most importantly: accepting that there are things I have absolutely no control over. And that sometimes even when things are going very wrong, there’s nothing I can do about it apart from just waiting to see what happens next. People who know me well and know how much of a control freak I am will appreciate that this has been the hardest lesson for me to learn.

Life in Abuja has been ticking along. I’m getting into a routine, and finding my way around. Last week we got an extra two days off work as public holidays for Eid ul-Fitr to mark the end of Ramadan. Someone from VSO invited us to his house to chop. I’m so used to not being able to eat food here that I really wasn’t expecting to be able to eat anything and was just looking forward to catching up with people and going to a new part of Abuja. So I was very very excited when he brought out not one, but TWO massive dishes of salad. Not just salad, but salad with LETTUCE. It was a good day. We’ve also now got a DVD player in our flat, and we can buy DVDs from the market down the road for 200/250 N each (about £1). We’ve also found a place that does live music at the weekends that might be one of my most favourite places in the world. I’m developing a bit of an unhealthy obsession with the singer. I consider it to be a bad weekend if I don’t get to go there. I’ve so far managed to refrain from walking up to the stage, throwing myself at his feet, and clinging onto his ankles, but give me time.