Money and Fresh Fish

Google search 'Naira Exchange Rate' 

Adjusting to the exchange rate has been a big challenge for me. The largest Naira note is 1,000N and this is equal to $6.36 USD.  Lagos is one of the most expensive cities in the world if you want to live comfortably. And by comfortably, I mean US standards of comfort (air conditioning, security, potable water, quality food). It's safe to assume that the cost of goods here is about 3x as much as they would cost in the US. I haven't bought much at the store other than snacks, but a (luxurious) box of Nature's Valley granola bars was 1500N or $9.54. A can of Pringles was 480N or $3.05 USD. A 6-pack of small raisin boxes was 800N or $5.09. Outrageous! But you have to keep in mind that these goods came a long way to get to Lagos, and are items that only desperate-for-home Americans will be buying, so they can pretty much charge as much as they want.

Nigeria is cash-only. So when I go to the grocery store, I need to have a fat stack of cash to buy only a few items. The check-out drawers are just filled with cash! Imagine how much money we're going to need to buy appliances and furniture! I can't even imagine. And if you were going to buy a car here - there's no way to finance something safely when you're dealing with cash. So you have to pay up front! I wonder how people can possibly afford the cars I see on the road here. There must be a system in place that I don't know about.

Nice, new Naira

So above is all the money they use here. No coins. Although I have now seen coins, but they are useless and really not used. So the smallest note, 5N equals 10 cents and you can't buy anything with it. No one even wants it, the only way to get rid of it is to hope that your total at the store includes that amount. Sometimes at the store if they owe us small bills they just give us cough drops instead, since those are actually useful. Crazy. And the money is absolutely filthy. Think of the filthiest dollar you've ever seen, then add a few layers of sewage, dirt, sweat, and other miscellaneous grime and that's what some of the notes look like here. So we keep the antibacterial gel nearby at all times.

We are able to exchange money at the hotel's front desk, but they often claim to have no cash and tell us to come back later (and repeat 3-4 times until you get lucky). We did this little song and dance for a few weeks before realizing that they just wanted us to go down to the souvenir store (??) at the edge of the property to exchange our money. We seldom see anyone down there buying any souvenirs, but there are always lots of vendors supervising the overpriced goods. Ryan has a theory that they are solely there for the purpose of exchanging dollars to Naira, since they do make a small profit off of us. So for $100 we usually get around 15,000N, anything less than that and you are getting ripped off. If they won't give you that rate,  just go try with the next guy eagerly waiting, and repeat until you get at least that deal. We've heard all sorts of excuses for worse rates too, like this $100 was printed after 1996 and we can't accept it, or it's a holiday so I have to give you less. One of our friend's who has been here for over 10 years says that 15,000N for $100 is still a ripoff, but we're really only losing like $5 and it isn't really worth the hassle. So we're okay with it for now since we're still "fresh fish". Sometimes it's easier to just let it go and hope that the little bit extra is providing food and clean water for a family for a week.

"Fresh fish" is the term for Lagos newbs like ourselves. Apparently, everyone can tell that we just arrived by the stunned look on our faces during traffic, the way we count money, and our general lack of assimilation. We are trying to incorporate local phrases into our vocabulary such as the following:

• Small-Small: any small bill under 500N
• Fast-Fast: go quick now!
• Go Slow: traffic jam
• Yellow Fever: traffic cop (they wear a yellow shirt)
• Sorry-o: just means sorry
• Dash: to tip or bribe with money
• How was your night?: How are you doing?
• Kobo: pennies or something/someone cheap
• Big Wahalla: big problem
• No Wahalla: no problem
• Oga: big man/boss/chief
• 419: a scam of any sort
• MoPo: mobile policeman - he can be in your car or in the car escorting and providing security for you

2 Months Done

We have now been in Nigeria for over 2 months! Sorry for the lack of updates lately, there just isn't much to say. We are still in the hotel, and will be for at least another month. That's just the way it goes, everything takes about 3x longer than it should. We are still waiting for contracts to be signed, negotiating to finish, and our housing expenditure to be approved. All of this should be happening this week (we hope!). After that all we have to do is obtain a Nigerian Tax ID #, a Short Term Residency visa, have our chosen apartment inspected for security, and order furniture to be made! So, it's getting closer... but we still have quite a few milestones to pass. In case you're wondering, it's quicker/cheaper/better to just have someone make you furniture rather than find it here or try to have some imported. Oh, and another issue is that until we have a delivery address to give the shipping company in Houston, our air and sea shipments are just sitting there. And currently, my passport is over in the Niger Delta (eek!) because my tourist visa expired and needs to be renewed. We are also in the process of trying to set up a bank account here so that we can have access to money. Right now we only have what we brought in with us at the beginning, which is fine for now since we don't have (m)any expenses. But it certainly feels weird to have a dwindling amount of cash and no way to get more. Have I mentioned that Nigeria is a cash-only society? Some fancy places will accept a credit card, but only if it was issued by a Nigerian bank. Which we can't have until we have a permanent address! So it's a bit of a mess, but progress is being made, albeit very slowly!

I sometimes feel really frustrated about things here, but try to keep things in perspective. A running joke around here is how we have "First World problems in a Third World country". All we have to do is take a short drive down the road to realize how lucky we are in all respects.

My social life outside of the hotel has gotten a bit more exciting. Every Monday morning I go to a sewing group where I don't have anything to sew so I just sit and chat. This group meets weekly at various members' homes and can consist of a group of 4 to 14 ladies. The meetings are just as exciting as you would expect a sewing club to be, but it's great meeting people from all over the world, seeing their houses, and hearing about their adventures. I have information on a quilting group (and a teacher!) and a book club that I am hoping to join eventually. We also go to The American Women's Club, which meets the 3rd Tuesday of every month. I'm hoping to get more involved with some of their non-profit efforts just as soon as I have a dedicated driver assigned and get a bit more settled. The AWC's big event, Small World, is on Feb 23rd so most of their attention is focused on planning that event. The event consists of every nationality present here getting their own booth to decorate and give out food and drinks indicative of their country. Each nationality also puts on a 3 minute performance. I'm NOT involved in this performance, but my best expat friend, Andi, is and has to go to dance practice several times a week - so it will be legit! She was actually coerced into performing against her will, but that's another story for another day. For the American booth, they are preparing sloppy joes, sugar cookies, and long island ice teas!

I've been reading a lot since arriving, here is a list of books I can recommend:

•  WOOL: Omnibus Edition and all of the Silo Stories by Hugh Howey - I keep recommending these Kindle-only collection to people and no one has read it yet, PLEASE READ IT so I can discuss it with someone. So good! And WOOL won Amazon's Best Indie Book of 2012 Award! It has 5 stars and thousands of reviews, please someone read it! It's made up of several short stories and the author is still coming out with new stories every few months. I just checked his Amazon page and he has another that came out last week - score! 
• Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer 
• Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn 
• Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick (I haven't seen the movie yet)
• Zeitoun by Dave Eggers
• The Fellowship of the Ring by JRR Tolkien
• The Hobbit by  JRR Tolkien
• Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (I'm actually only 60% done with this one, I needed a break --   but it's actually really good.)
• Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
• The Snowman by Jo Nesbo (This was a weird one)
• Most Talkative by Andy Cohen

Cats, Rats, & Malaria

Poor Ryan has been sick the past couple of days with flu-like symptoms. We are thankful that the tests for malaria came back negative, so it's most likely just a nasty strain of the flu. The symptoms of the two are very similar, and since we're in a country where malaria is endemic, one tends to think of the worst case first. We are lucky to be able to test for malaria at home using a finger prick kit we got at the clinic here. The kit is actually a series of three blood tests, to be taken every 12 hours that give a reading much like a pregnancy test: you prick your finger, gather the blood on to a test strip, place it in solution, and then wait 5-10 minutes before checking to see if one line appears or two. The kits are especially helpful if you aren't able to get to a doctor right away, or are in a country where malaria isn't as common because doctor's won't suspect it right away given the symptoms. After testing negative three times, we were able to start Ryan on a prescription of Tamiflu last night, so he should be feeling back to normal soon.

We are required to take a daily prophylaxis, Malarone, to lessen the severity of malaria if one does get it. For some, Malarone can cause stomach aches, anxiety, paranoia and "vivid dreams". I was a little interested in the "vivid dreams" effect, because it sounds kind of fun, but they really mean vivid nightmares, which I'm glad not to be experiencing. Fortunately, we haven't really had any of the side effects (other than night sweats that were remedied by taking the pill earlier in the day) and are feeling quite lucky about it.  Malarone doesn't actually prevent malaria, but it does lessen the spread of the parasite in the blood. We also use DEET when we go outside in the evenings and keep our room chilly to keep them out. We also stay on the higher floors of the hotel since maybe they can't fly too high.  Mosquitos are just the worst.

In a slightly related, but only in the sense that they are also disease-carrying pests, we've seen several rats here. We saw the vile creatures scurrying along an outside wall a few nights ago when dining (yay out of the hotel!) with friends. These were definitely RATS, not small cutesy mice. They were disgusting, well-fed, city rats.  Realistically, we are in a major urban area, so rats are bound to be attracted to the filth produced by so many people. But it is scary to see them while you're eating. Not to mention it gets you started thinking about all the health codes that don't exist here. Ewwww....

At least here there's a lot of food and stuff for them to eat in the streets, so maybe they stay out of buildings. Wishful thinking, right?

In pure speculation, I think the rat population here might be unusually large due to the absence of cats! I haven't seen a single feral cat prowling around. It seems like the only people that keep cats as pets are expats. We're starting to get the idea that some (most?) Nigerians don't like cats, for "superstitious reasons". I'm not sure exactly what that means, but I hope to find out soon. When discussing the lack of cats with a fellow expat, she said that her compound posted a notice saying that on so-and-so day they would be exterminating all rats and cats around the property! Cats are not in the same category as rats! I  suspect the "superstitions" surrounding cats will be similar to the stigma some attach to black cats back in the states, but I'm really not entirely sure. I'll have to report back on this issue when I learn more.