Books glorious books...

Okay, so it's still not the Library of Congress but we've gotten our first books in the library... yiiiiiiiiiiiiippppppppppppppppppeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Here's myself and Shu'aibu starting to accession them...

The best of answers...

One of the local schools, Army Day Secondary School, opened it’s first library last week. Which was the perfect answer to my moaning about corruption – the reason I am wrong to say there is no hope for education is that there are so many decent teachers and educators here and they are all the more commendable for continuing to be good teachers in difficult circumstances.
A group of Youth Service Corpers spent the last year renovating an old classroom, finding furniture and books and creating a library for a school that never had a library before. I spent last week preparing the books for the shelf (with a lot of help from the senior secondary students) and training 5 student monitors to work in the library. It was one of the best weeks I have spent in Minna. This is Mr Tunji and Waje Emmanuel from ADSS and Mallam Sadisu from CERC; and here are some students at work.

Akwanga...

I visited Akwanga, Nassarawa state, this weekend to see a couple of VSOs that work there, Karin and Jenny. Karin will finish her 2 ½ year stint soon and so they entertained 18 people for the weekend! A great weekend with birthday cake, a trek in the Egon hills, and a roast dinner on Sunday. Yum! So a weekend of mostly eating but with a little bit of exercise in the middle...

Rain...

The rain has been getting heavier and more frequent, and my initial theory that it only rains at night and in the early morning has been thoroughly disproved!
But the rain cools everything down and I sometimes even forget to turn on the ceiling fans (which I would never have believed 2 months ago!) The appearance of bomber jackets and shoes & socks here is still a funny sight though – it’s over 25 degrees every day. But even funnier is an Irish girl who refuses to go out in the rain – I had a meeting last week and I needed to go to town to do some printing before it, but I had a postpone it for 30 minutes until the worst of the rain was gone. Generations of building up a genetic code that is oblivious to rain and wind (from the Kerry border to West Clare) have been melted away in just 9 months...

Snapshots...

I travelled to Abuja last week - something I do quite often - but this time I travelled in relative luxury. There were only 3 of us in the back seat! So instead of spending the 2 hours staving off pins & needles I enjoyed the opportunity to appreciate the journey. Rainy season has arrived with a bang and the countryside is a wonderful mix of orange earth and long green grass - the growth is amazing here, the earth soaks up every inch of rain and grasses, flowers, trees grow overnight.
So every 3 minutes on a Nigerian road theres a picture-perfect image - 3 girls walking along a track with calabashes on their heads, a young man washing his clothes at the bend of the river, chubby goats feasting on the grass that is almost as tall as them, 5 tiny uniformed boys holding hands as they cross the road, 2 women laughing as they cook over an open fire... ordinary life thats extraordinarily beautiful.

A bit of reality...

The Nigerian concept of time continues to fascinate me - the often heard "we are expecting ...xyz... any moment from now" is actually more long-term than you might expect. Infact you may need to expand your understanding of the term "moment" to cover months or years... The unfortunate thing is that many public services crumble away while these moments pass - schools, clinics, roads all wait for money that is long-promised but bogged down by bureaucracy or worse. Despite all the briefings about corruption before I came I am still surprised when it impacts on the world close to me - I shouldnt be really, not when I am surrounded by people who have so little. But then its not the people with little who are the problem. There's a huge divide between the haves and the have nots in Nigeria, and the lack of a substantial vocal middle class leaves the country open to this kind of abuse. I keep asking people whether the upcoming elections will not change this - whether the candidates will not try to improve the lot of the ordinary man - but it seems my concept of democracy is decidedly niave.
This isnt really the most upbeat entry (!) but sometimes the realities of the lives of my neighbours and colleagues are hard to take. Corruption is endemic and accepted and so its very hard to know how things will ever change.

Work in progress...

I spend much time complaining about how slow things are here at work so I thought I’d track it for a while…

Monday

To do
1. Cyber café
a. Print letter
b. Answer 2 supplier emails
c. Print book orders
d. Email minutes of meeting

2. CERC admin
a. Have letter signed
b. Meet accountant re orders

3. Library
a. Type up notes on evaluation manual

Actually do
1. NEPA people turn up and disconnect my electricity (had cheque to pay bill but had to be returned to Abuja to be split into 2 cheques for separate NEPA departments cos of stupid bloody bureaucracy)
a. Scramble around for photocopy of cheque
b. Explain situation to NEPA guy/brick wall
c. Round up useful CERC staff to explain situation
d. Put NEPA guy on phone to VSO staff member (who achieves in approx 180 seconds what we couldn’t in 45 mins)
e. Wait hour and half for NEPA guys to come back and reconnect us

2. Cyber café
a. Print letter
b. Answer 2 supplier emails
c. Cant print book orders as Microsoft not installed on PC & all other PCs taken
d. Yahoo crashes as I try to attach minutes and I’m out of internet time

3. CERC admin
a. Cant have letter signed – staff member ‘not on seat’
b. Don’t try to meet accountant – not enough time

4. NEPA cheque
a. Try to organise quick payment with Abuja folk

5. Library
a. Begin to type up notes until light goes, and then computer battery goes

Unexpected bonuses
Spent time chatting to colleague while waiting for NEPA guys to return – about elections, family life, why all women love chocolate… cant schedule that!

Tuesday

To do
1. NEPA cheque
a. Follow up with Abuja folk

2. Cyber café
a. Print book orders (get there early enough to choose PC with Microsoft)
b.Send minutes of meeting

3. CERC
a. Have letter signed
b. Meet with accountant re orders

4. Business Centre
a. Photocopy documents for visa application

5. Post office
a. Post letter and documents
b. Collect post

6. Library
a. Finish typing up manual notes

Actually do
1. NEPA follow-up
a. Much texting re urgency, transfer methods, addresses etc

2. CERC
a. Have letter signed
b. Need to print orders before approaching accountant – will come back later

3. Business centre
a. Photocopy

4. Post office
a. Go to DHL with letter – too expensive. Go to post office and get directed to EasyPost. Greet and wait. Wait and greet. Send letter.
b. Collect post including newsletters I’ve been waiting for

5. Phone call from local teacher/librarian
a. Arrange meeting for tomorrow

6. Cyber café
a. Send minutes
b. Relevant PCs busy again – can’t print and won’t wait!

7. Home
a. Read newsletters – its research!

Unexpected bonuses
Located cheaper postal service and new chop house (restaurant) at the back of the post office – very useful!

Wednesday

To do
1. Cyber café
a. Print book orders (get there early enough to choose PC with Microsoft)

2. CERC
a. Meet with accountant re orders

3. Library
a. Finish typing up manual notes

4. Meet with local teacher/librarian

Actually do
1. Supplier turns up unexpectedly (and v early)
a. Look at samples and discuss supply terms

2. Library
a. Tidy library while I wait for meeting, so no cyber café this morning

3. Meeting with local teacher/librarian
a. Discuss ways of approaching book donors

4. Home for lunch
a. Neighbour comes to greet. And stays and stays. Nice to chat and easy to forget about work for the afternoon

Unexpected bonuses
Chat with neighbour about local politics, past VSOs in Minna and all sorts of useful info

Thursday

To do
1. Cyber café
a. Print book orders (get there early enough to choose PC with Microsoft)

2. CERC
a. Meet with accountant re orders

3. Library
a. Finish typing up manual notes
b. Make some posters to brighten up library cos it felt a bit dull yesterday

4. Phone 3 suppliers re finalising supply terms

Actually do
1. Library
a. Start to make posters but very little clip art on my laptop

2. Cyber café
a. Print book orders (hallelujah!)
b. Download relevant clipart from internet and search for inspiring (!) quotations. c. Loads of fun so I stay long time!

3. Library
a. Match quotes and art to make posters

4. Business centre
a. Print first 5 posters

5. Library
a. Use colour markers to brighten up posters
b. Too tired/distracted to track down accountant

Unexpected bonuses
Colouring-in is fun!

Friday
I travel

Next week
Start all over again (ah, with meeting the accountant re orders!)

Kabba-sandwiched month...

Had another great weekend in Kabba - fun with hats!