Truest statement of the week...

'Ah, the heat is much'
There were days last week when I thought my internal organs were cooking

... and a close second

'Ah, it is the flying madame'
I haven't quite managed to slow down when I walk yet, and a fellow long-term hotel guest has me sumed up just right

Holidays...

Just back from a lovely Easter break in Kaduna - lounging by the pool, murdering 'Waterloo' at karoke, singing and dancing at easter mass and taking a trek into the bush to visit a little village. And now, I'm off on holiday again - am going home for a week. To cold, wet, wonderful Limerick!
So, some things to remember:
....1. not to skip the queue, expect preferential treatment or greet total strangers in the street
....2. not to haggle with taxi drivers and vendors, 'kai! 300 niara, I could buy my own okada for that...'
....3. not to hiss at waiters to get their attention no matter how hungry/thirsty I am...

Should be an interesting week.

Y'wha...

I thought it was my imagination – that feeling that sometimes people just don’t understand what I’m saying. When I forget to speak slowly and clearly. But I switched on local tv yesterday and they were showing a programme on the Euro changeover in Ireland… with subtitles! So as the Loughrea farmer explained that ‘ah, sure twas grand’ the subtitles read that ‘the process was very successful’. So much for English being a universal language...

On the road...

Rumours of my accommodation are looking a little more positive, so I wont be taking my regular morning okada ride soon. Thought I'd try to describe it but its hard to do it justice: so this morning I left my hotel and hailed a passing okada (right hand out pointing to the ground). My first haggle of the day - I said the correct price (40 niara), he said 50 and we’re off. The hotel is situated on the by-pass so it’s a long open road to work. We passed stalls selling fruit, bbq meat, newspapers, petrol and phone cards. We passed individuals selling yams, carrots and mangoes which they carry on trays or bowls on their heads. We passed Fulani men (a nomadic tribe) herding their long trails of great white cattle. We passed a group of laughing Muslim women, covered from head to toe in a variety of primary colours. We passed a group of semi-clad boys playing football on the rich red soil. We passed goats and kids nibbling on the sparse grass. We passed chicks running under the feet of hens. We passed (and were passed by) scores of other okadas carrying men, women and children (sometimes all on the same bike). We passed the fruit seller who works opposite my hotel gate and waves hello. We passed young boys with their begging bowls. We passed uniformed students wandering to school in cheery groups. We passed the local car wash – a bucket of water and plenty of elbow grease. We passed farmers tending to their rows of piled earth. We passed the rust orange-flowered trees that have appeared all over Minna in the past few months. 10 minutes on a Nigerian road.

The life of Aine...

Life in Nigeria is becoming normal...
... work is hard work
... traffic is crazy
... weekends are too far apart

Hence the fewer journal entries. Life is great - its just getting more and more ... normal

Volunteering Nigeria style...

Nigeria has a Youth Service year which is very impressive. All graduates spend one year doing civil/social service after finishing college. I recently met a chap who is setting up a library in a local school as his youth service year - isnt that an amazing start to your working life?
The Youth Corps spend the year in another part of the country (the scheme is a legacy of the military regime and one of the aims is to promote unity among the different ethnic groups in Nigeria). I guess its just another type of gap year - but the social justice and volunteer ethic that underlie it are very impressive.

Work update...

Work is beginning to shape up now. VSOs are chosen on the basis of a placement description (or job description) but placements usually evolve and change by the time the vso arrives. So the first few months are spent deciding what can realistically be achieved. And thats all starting to fall into place for me now. I'll be working with local schools alot more than I originally thought - training teacher/librarians to establish small school libraries or to improve on the services they have. How cool is that!?! Am also working away on our own library here in Minna CERC. Its exciting and exhausting in equal measures and probably doesnt make for riveting reading... but there you go, thats what Im up to!