True crimes...
I’m gradually coming to realise that the worst thing you can do to a Westerner (me!) is to rob them of their time. At home I was incensed by people not moving quickly enough at traffic lights, skipping the queue, delayed service in a restaurant. Even after 9 months here I get irritated by the (very healthy) Nigerian attitude to time – why rush!
- I go to a business centre to print something but the chap ahead of me is having his CV typed up. So I wait 30 mins for a 3 min task.
- I need to speak to a senior colleague. I wait hours.
- The light goes. I wait. Every now and then I think of something to pass the time – I’ll iron clothes, I’ll write my diary, I’ll clean out the garage – and then I remember I need light for each of those things. So I sit back down and wait.
- I want to travel to another city I wait until 7 other passengers want to do the same.
- A meeting is arranged for 10am. I turn up at 10.30 and wait.
Paddy Casey has a great lyric about the ‘things we waste trying not to waste our time’ and it’s very true. Some of my most entertaining moments in Minna have been spent sitting around the business centre or motor park.
- I go to a business centre to print something but the chap ahead of me is having his CV typed up. So I wait 30 mins for a 3 min task.
- I need to speak to a senior colleague. I wait hours.
- The light goes. I wait. Every now and then I think of something to pass the time – I’ll iron clothes, I’ll write my diary, I’ll clean out the garage – and then I remember I need light for each of those things. So I sit back down and wait.
- I want to travel to another city I wait until 7 other passengers want to do the same.
- A meeting is arranged for 10am. I turn up at 10.30 and wait.
Paddy Casey has a great lyric about the ‘things we waste trying not to waste our time’ and it’s very true. Some of my most entertaining moments in Minna have been spent sitting around the business centre or motor park.
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