REAL cocktails, shopping and abandonment

I went to a really fun place the other day – a friend from work took me to Designer Marketplace, which is held the first Saturday of every month and is full of local designers selling their work. There was also music, endless amounts of yummy food and PROPER COCKTAILS. I spent far too much money, and drunk a cocktail that was far too strong for 2pm on a Saturday, but it was really good fun. The downside was the blow to my self-confidence – I have never seen so many incredibly beautiful people in one place. Every person there was the height of fashion with immaculate hair, nails, and makeup. And there I was in clothes that I’ve now been wearing over and over again for 15 months and with hair that is in dire need of being coloured and cut. Someone came round to take photos and took one of us. She showed it to us to check we were happy with it before she uploaded it to the internet, and I said no because I looked pretty hideous, and her response? “Don’t worry, when I upload it I’ll try and make you look less… white.” Oh good, thanks!! Then we went to a tailor and I’m having 3 dresses made, so we shall see if these turn out any better than my last attempt, which have been confined to home because they consist of two rather bright and garish dresses, one of which contains a truly hideous 80s Madonna style pointy chest area.

On Sunday I experienced how the other half live here, as I went for breakfast at the house of some lovely people who I met on a plane journey home back in November. They’re ex volunteers, and so now want to help out current volunteers, and they’re so kind. So I had a yummy breakfast and a swim and got to meet some other lovely people who are also previous volunteers. I wonder what percentage of international development workers are ex VSO. From the people I’ve met here, it must be pretty high.

And now begins the mass exodus of volunteers. My housemate left this morning, another volunteer is staying in the flat until Friday when she leaves, and from June onwards there’s a steady stream of departures (including my own!). But there are also some new arrivals on their way, so I’m looking forward to that as they’re hopefully due to get here before I leave. It’s going to be a busy couple of months getting everything finished and preparing to come home.

Water water everywhere

And some other ramblings…

I mentioned in a recent blog post that our water supply has been pretty crap - our taps have been more for display purposes than anything else. So when I woke up the other night and heard water I was more than a little confused. It was coming from the kitchen, so I walked in there in the dark, stepped down into our kitchen (thankfully our kitchen and the bathrooms are all a step lower than the rest of the flat, presumably for this very reason) and was submerged in water. We must have left the kitchen tap on, and the water had come back on for the first time in God knows how long. And it had flooded our kitchen. Not just a small flood, a big big flood. Our kitchen was under about 4 inches of water. Uh oh. So after trying unsuccessfully to remove some of the water I realised this wasn’t a task I could easily undertake on my own, and woke my housemate up. We then spent two hours bailing water out using various cups, bowls and mops. Not my most fun activity at 2am when I’ve got a busy day at work the next day. Although Squirt seemed to have a wonderful time. Thankfully our downstairs neighbour hasn’t yet come knocking to say he’s got a new water feature in his kitchen. I was telling my friend about it the next day and he pointed out that perhaps next time (I’m kind of hoping there won’t be a next time!) I would want to be a little more careful in terms of potential electric shocks, given the fridge was also submerged in water. This hadn’t even occurred to me. Then the next night I went to turn off my bathroom light, and got the most painful electric shock I think I’ve ever had. My finger was almost stuck to the socket, and my arm went numb. The next morning my finger felt char grilled. So all in all I think I’m going to be a little more careful with electrical supplies in future.

The animal saga continues. Someone has “got rid” of the four kittens that were living downstairs. One day one of the downstairs neighbours was moaning that they were a “nuisance” and the next day they had disappeared. The security guard said a car came and “got rid of them”. Whatever they did with them (I prefer to not think about it) they spared the mother, who now doesn’t know what to do with herself and spends all her time sitting outside our front door howling because she can’t find her kittens. The approach to animals here is something I’ll never get used to. The kittens weren’t doing any harm, they meowed occasionally, and used to run up to see you when you came through the gate to our compound, but other than that they were completely harmless. And most people in the compound seemed to really like having them around, and would always put bread and rice and water down for them. Why they couldn’t have just left them be is beyond me. But one thing is for sure; Squirt is NEVER going outside here.

And now for non-animal related updates. I got invited to a “cocktail party” at the Sheraton Hotel the other night. I was so excited; I had images of pina coladas, margaritas, mojitos, and cosmopolitans. Silly me. The “cocktails” were wine glasses filled with soft drinks. Fanta, sprite, coke, orange juice. There were however mini chocolate cakes, so I ate about 10 of them to make up for my disappointment. And then I got bought beer instead, so it wasn’t a total loss.

I treated myself with a trip to the cinema on Saturday. We initially wanted to go and see the Hunger Games, so looked it up online and it said it was showing at 3pm. So off we went to the cinema in time for 3pm. Only to try and buy our tickets and be told the film isn’t showing yet, they haven’t received it from Lagos. Not only are they advertising it as showing on their website, the viewing times were also being advertised on the screen in front of us in the cinema when we went to buy our tickets. Never mind, we got to see another good film instead, and a coffee shop has opened up in the cinema that sells iced coffees – pricey but AWESOME! Then we went shopping at the Craft Village afterwards, so all in all a very fun Saturday.

Something not so fun are the run-ins I have been having with insects recently. My bed is being eaten alive by termites. I can hear them gnawing away even over the sound of my ceiling fan. It’s a little off putting when you’re trying to go to sleep. Then the other night the electricity was off, so I was sat eating a mango by candlelight. And then the electricity came back on. Oh how I wished it hadn’t. It turned out the mango I had been eating was crawling with maggots. I don’t think it’s possible to explain how disgusted I was by this. I brushed my teeth about ten times, and had a cup of scolding hot tea in the hope they’d shrivel up and die immediately. I will never again eat fruit in darkness , and it’ll be quite some time before I feel able to eat a mango again.