The most beautiful place in Nigeria...

I spent this weekend in Kagoro - a small village in the south of Kaduna State. Hiromi is heading home this week and she decided to mess with the oyibo-levels in Kagoro by inviting piles of us to visit ;-)

The weekend was a lot of fun including a hike on Saturday up a mountain (not a hill, dammit) and one of the nicest markets I've visited. There was also some indepth testing of the age-old theory about how many oyibos you can fit in a minibus. Many.

Hiromi might be right, Kagoro could just be the most beautiful place in Nigeria...

Celebrating 10 years...

On Friday, St Peter's Nursery and Primary School in Mikunkele celebrated their 10 year anniversary. Marie, one of the Sisters of Mercy in Minna, is the head mistress of the school. There are many many Irish religious quietly doing amazing things in Nigeria.

The anniversary celebrations were wonderful - they were very child-focused which is a little unusual in this neck of the woods. There was traditional dancing, a perfectly-choreograped (sp?) march-by, television news (in the photo) and, best of all, the nursery students had us all up doing 'head shoulders knees and toes'. Exhausting business!

Oh, and I think I've discovered the secret of spraying. Spraying is a Nigerian custom of dashing or tipping a performer. As a person dances or sings, members of the audience will show their appreciation by 'spraying' them with money. They touch the notes off the person's forehead and allow the notes to fall to the floor. Nigerians aren't big fans of entry fees, they prefer to donate or tip in this manner. It has always felt a little odd to me... until Friday. For many mothers, spraying the dancing childen was just a rouse to dance themselves :-) And they danced and danced...

The rains...

I managed to get caught travelling in the rain twice this week. The first time was late as we were returning from a workshop. It took me awhile to distinguish between the normal fall of dusk and the darkening clouds of rain. It looked as if someone had spilled a jar of dull blue ink across the sky. The dome of the sky seemed to lower making the rain feel very close. Of course, at the first sight of rain NEPA departed taking the few street lights with it. Within minutes we were travelling in a heavy darkness and struggling to make out the sides of the road. Other vehicles stopped as they were carrying people in their open trailers – these trucks routinely transport agricultural pickers along with whatever they have spent the day picking. Drenched, the people ran from the trucks to find shelter from the bucketing rain. And it was bucketing down. It was almost like a bad movie with extras on the roof of the car pouring sheets of water down on the windows.
Then I got caught again yesterday, but this time it was still bright. The winds rise and the clouds darken warning you ahead of time. There are two parallel roads that carry you to Abuja and they are joined by a short perpindicular road. I was lazily winding up the window as we turned onto the perpindicular road when bullets of rain started attacking me! Suddenly we were driving into the rain and the rain was driving into us. Honestly, it was like a hundred tiny hoses aimed at the side of the car. When we turned back onto the parallel road 5 minutes later the bullets aimed elsewhere. African rain falls enthusastically and dramatically in sheets unlike the perpetual misty stuff I’m used to.

Noises...

One of my favourite noises in Nigeria is the gurgle of the toilet cistern. It means we have water. I can hear it in my sleep; I can abandon any conversation or meal to answer it. Strange Nigerian poetry.

Geckkos are a noisy bunch. In my early days in the house I spent a terrified hour listening as the burglary-proof on my windows rattled over and over in the dead of night. Only to discover that it was a geckko running up and down the grate. Proportionate to their size, they make a hell of a racket.

Was sitting in a car yesterday when I heard the most stupid ring tone ever – a baby crying. After about a minute of wishing the phone would be answered, I realised that there was a actually a child bawling behind me. Hmmm....

Library workshops...

I got to see a bit more of Niger State this week when the library hit the road! The Eduction Resource Centre (an entirely different organisation from the Community Education Resource Centre!) organised library workshops in the 3 zones of Niger - Minna, Kontagora and Bida. My role was to introduce cataloguing and classification to approx 150 teacher-librarians over the 3 sessions.
2 hours to learn cataloguing and classification is a bit of a challenge but it seemed to go okay. The sessions were very simplified but none of the participants in Kontagora or Bida could remember having attended a library workshop before. So I guess its a start...

Workshop ettiquette...

Attending workshops in Nigeria can be a frustrating experience in some ways. Workshops tend to begin with an opening ceremony - the big men (usually from government) are invited to make speeches and hopefully pledge support to the organisation. But of course they rarely turn up on time. So a workshop that is scheduled to start at 9am will routinely start by 10.30 or 11. The best part of the day is spent waiting around, and the practical 'learning' part of the day is rushed through.

Amy's birthday...

We got back to Guara Falls this weekend – it was Amy’s birthday & so that called for a picnic and some swimming. Here are Pia, Amy, Anita, Julia & Thessa.

The rain has made a real difference to the falls from our trip 5 weeks ago...

The Olympics Dutch-style...

The Dutch were celebrating again last weekend – crazy folks. We were all invited to the traditional games for Queens Day. A lot of obstacle courses, eggs & spoons and some very dodgy karoke – all pleasantly doused in Star & Heinekin.

Oh, and Julia found the trampoline!