Stateside

I'll be heading back to NG this coming Sunday after spending a (very) full month in the US. I've been fortunate enough to visit with many members of my family, spend quality time with my sister and chaperone her 11th birthday sleepover, attend the wedding festivities of some dear friends, see 80% of our favorite people in the world at aforementioned wedding, ride in a St. Patrick's Day parade, take a road trip, help a family member paint her house, see my dog (!!!!!!!), and be in town to meet the newborn baby of one of my oldest friends!

It's been a wonderful trip back home. Thanks to everyone who helped make it so memorable!

(Pop) Culture

When I was researching Lagos before we moved here, I came across the following quote by George H.T. Kimble and it has really stuck with me:

"The darkest thing about Africa has always been our ignorance of it." 

While here, I really hope to learn more about the continent, because I feel like we didn't cover it much in grade-school history class. We learned a lot about the slave trade, maybe a little about colonialism, and then concluded the African section with apartheid in South Africa. Or maybe I just didn't think it related much to my then life in the states and I didn't absorb any of the information. That very well could have happened, but I'm here now and I should know more. I'm still struggling to wrap my brain around how big this continent is (see map above), I mean, Nigeria alone is bigger than Texas. That's pretty darn big. So while we are somewhat concerned about the recent happenings in the Northern part of Nigeria, it's pretty far away from where we are. It would be like worrying about a murder in Dallas when you live in Corpus Christi. Concerning and upsetting, yes, but not exactly pertinent to your current wellbeing. That's not to say we aren't vigilant, we hear and think about safety precautions daily, and there are lots of protocols in place to keep us secure here. Sorry! It seem to have veered off on a bit of a tangent here. But following the news of 7 expats being kidnapped near the northern city of  Kano yesterday, I felt like I needed to reiterate the distance and differences between here and there. 

Anyway, Africa is huge and I know almost nothing about any of it. But I'm trying to rectify that and absorb as much as possible in my time here. Some of what I'm trying to learn is actual history, and the rest of it is cultural in an attempt to better understand this oh-so-foreign-to-me place I now reside.

I'm currently reading Half of a Yellow Sun by Nigerian author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. I'm only about 1/3 through but it's very good and offers a lot of insight/explanation into Nigerian culture and attitudes. I definitely recommend it even if you aren't currently living here. Like I mentioned before, I don't remember learning about this stuff at all in world history, so any historical fiction about Africa is an enjoyable refresher for me.  Adam Hochschild's King Leopold's Ghost has also been recommended to me, but I haven't started it yet. I'm thinking I should have started with it first since it covers the carving up of Africa into European colonies in the 19th century and the other takes place right after British rule ended here in Nigeria. Too late now.

I keep hearing about a few nice museums in Lagos to check out. We haven't made it to one yet but this morning I heard about this online collection of Nigerian art:

Virtual Museum of Modern Nigerian Art

I thought it would be nice to share for anyone interested. If you visit the site, click on 'Artists' to select and browse an individual's work.

Now for some less intellectual, popular culture:

In my spare time, I don't listen to too much Nigerian music, but in the car the driver often has the radio on and we've heard a few good songs. Our favorite right now is a song called 'Chop My Money' and it's played EVERYWHERE: Sunday brunch, shopping malls, around the hotel, and all 3 bars we've visited.  We prefer some of the covers over the original version but you can hear it here:

Spoiler alert: it's rap. We haven't tried out that sweet dance move featured in the video yet.

Below is a slower song called 'I Luv U Nigeria' by VECTOR. We heard it in the car and thought it had a nice message. Nigerians are very proud of their country.

Nigeria television broadcasts a lot of soap operas during the day here. There are whole channels devoted to these programs. They all seem very dramatic and some of them involve tribes and chiefs and that whole business.  But usually I can't follow them very well since they speak one of the tribal languages or pidgin English. The dramatic acting does help me to figure out what's probably going on, but I don't really enjoy watching. They were filming a reality tv show at our hotel for a few weeks that will eventually air on EbonyLife TV, a station that doesn't exist yet. I have no idea what the plot for this show was but sometimes one of the characters would put on lip-synching performances while we were trying to enjoy cocktails at the bar. Ryan once tripped in front of the cameras (but didn't fall) while they were filming so we're confident that he will at least make the blooper reel.

Our favorite television shows here are on National Geographic and Animal Planet. The African lineup for these channels is definitely more exotic than back in the states. For instance, Animal Planet is less 'Animal Cops: Houston' and more salt water crocodiles or almost being eaten by lions in your backyard. Understandably, these shows are a lot more exciting than 'It's Me or The Dog' given the abundant natural wildlife people here deal with. (Except in Nigeria, we only have cool lizards because the other exotic animals have all been eaten. Not a joke.)

The best on Animal Planet is a show called 'Baboons with Bill Bailey' that follows a few South African baboon tribes as they steal things from people and wreck havoc on everything in their path. They even have people whose entire job description is keeping the baboons out of trouble, they're called Baboon Wranglers. Our other favorite show is called 'Air Crash Investigation' on National Geographic. It details why actual planes crashes occurred and comes on at the nightmare-inducing time of 10:45pm. We've made our selves stop watching it though in preparation for our upcoming flights home!

Just An Update

In case you missed it on facebook, Ryan and I will be making a somewhat unexpected trip home next week. We have to head back to the US to deal with some visa issues, which is a pain, but we're happy for the break from Lagos life. While home we'll be able to attend the wedding of some dear friends that we thought we were going to miss, so, the timing is absolutely perfect and it's amazing that we didn't even plan it that way. The trip will come right at our 3-month mark here, and we're looking forward to stocking up on a few things that we forgot to bring (need more sunscreen!), and of course, getting a break from the hotel. I'm planning to spend 4 weeks in the US, and hopefully by the time I get back we'll be very close to moving into an apartment. Hopefully.

Our lives here have been sort of busy lately. This past weekend we joined the Lagos Wine Club, which was a lot of fun and actually a great bargain. The cost is 7,000N per couple (or, about $45.00) for a year's membership which includes 4-5 events. This past Saturday's event was sponsored by Nederburg, a South African winery, and they brought about 10 wines to sample and all were quite good. I was expecting the samples to just be tasters, but they kept filling our glasses all the way up, so we definitely got our money's worth. The event worked out really well because we weren't familiar with any African wines, and now we have a go-to brand. (I just realized I keep telling people the name of the wine was Nuremberg, but that's clearly not right. This wine was delicious and had nothing to do with Germany or war crimes, so I'm trying to get Nederburg stuck in my head instead.)

All in all, it was a great night and I recommend the wine society to all expats looking to meet other expats in Lagos. It's hard to imagine how many of us there are here when I keep seeing the same 30+ people on a regular basis. But there were a few hundred people at the wine event, most of which I had never seen/met before.

Not a very good picture from my phone at the wine tasting Saturday night. Nobody fell in the pool this night but we heard it had happened before :)

I now have an established Thursday activity to go along with the stitching group on Mondays. Thursday mornings we go to a Motherless Babies Home located nearby to help out with the babies. Really, the babies just need people to hold them so that they're properly socialized rather than being stuck in a crib all day. Babies aren't really my thing, but I couldn't very well say no to babies in need... so I've started going with some other women every Thursday. There are about 30 or so kids under the age of 4 that we visit with and even more living there go to school during the day. A group of ladies has been going to the home for quite some time now and have a very impressive routine worked out that all the kids follow. When it's time to leave, the kids help put all the toys away, sit down quietly, and then receive an animal cracker. The hour and a half preceding this routine is borderline chaos (hitting, toy stealing, screaming, crying, pushing, pinching, runny noses, ball throwing, etc.), so it's amazing to see the kids be so calm for a few minutes.

Located in Lekki about 10-30 minutes away depending on traffic.

The ladies that have been going for a while bring their own toys for the kids to play with and take them with them when they leave. The sad truth is that any toys that get donated end up disappearing, probably going home with the workers for their kids to play with, so there aren't many toys to be seen other than what they bring. There are lots of donated clothes, diapers, formula, baby wipes, and baby blankets on hand so the employees are doing a good job of providing the essentials. 

I'm not sure if I mentioned it here, but a few weeks ago the contract was finally signed! We had been waiting on it since October 1, but others know that it was supposed to have been signed way back in July! Glad we didn't get here any earlier than we did! We were very excited about the signing for a few days because we thought that the proverbial ball had started rolling, but alas, we are now waiting for other things to be signed, so we probably have another month or so in the hotel. I just have to keep reminding myself that patience is a virtue. 

Africa Cup of Nations

This will be the only time I ever write about soccer, ever.

Super Eagles! This was obviously the best picture I found when searching for a team logo.
Thank you to the forums of Nairaland.com

The Nigerian national soccer team is playing in the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) finals tonight. The team has done unexpectedly well in the tournament after years of mediocrity. This year’s success comes as such a surprise that Nigerian tv stations didn’t even bother to buy the rights to tonight’s game! Consequently, the only way to watch the game tonight is through a satellite provider. How crazy is that! Officials are still trying to work up a last minute deal to get it on the local stations, so let’s hope they figure something out.

Before the tournament started, we had asked one of the company’s drivers about Nigeria’s chances, and he didn’t exactly speak very highly of the team since they failed to even qualify for AFCON last year. The last time they won the tournament was 1994.  Nigeria does have one major international soccer star, Yakubu, but he makes the big bucks on a Chinese team and didn’t even bother to come back for the tournament. What a jerk! So the team is winning without their biggest star and still managing to defeat the really good countries that have had their international players active!

Despite my personal loathing for all things footie, we are planning to cheer on our adoptive country and watch the game with other fans down by the pool this evening. Ryan and I both made a conscious effort to wear green today to show our support for the team, but when we went down to lunch we found that we were the only people who had thought to do so. Good thing I decided to forego the face paint.

Side Note: The team they are playing tonight is Burkina Faso, a country that I had never heard of before last week. Over lunch with friends, we voiced the idea that maybe it was a new country that had formerly been part of Mali or Ghana or something. WRONG. Burkina Faso has been around since 1984 (says Wikipedia), and before then it was named the Republic of Upper Volta. Whoops!

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.