Locked in!

After yesterday's interesting day, today has started off with a bang as well! 

I went out to my kitchen to make a cup of tea, just in my dressing gown with no phone on me. I unlocked the kitchen door and left the keys in the lock and then pottered around - momentarily closing the door to keep the mosquitoes out. After making my tea I suddenly realised that the door wouldn't open and I was locked in my kitchen! The door in the corridor is the same, so I knew exactly what had happened, but I don't think I had ever shut my kitchen one before! Feeling a slight panic I shouted out of the window. I started off a bit quiet at first but after getting nowhere I banished my English sensibilities about making a fool of myself and started really hollering. I also tried climbing on to my gas bottle and out of the window but I was worried about getting stuck and making a bad situation worse!

Eventually a small girl came on to a balcony above me, but was very shy and didn't speak much English. I tried to convince her to come down, explaining and miming that I was locked in while hanging out of the small window! After what felt like ages she went to get her mum, who grasped the situation slightly quicker. Interestingly her first question was 'who locked you in?'! Maybe they thought I was being punished. 

By the time security came and let me out it had got quite warm in my little kitchen, so I feel like I have had an adventure and a sauna and it's not even lunchtime! I have now learned a) to keep a key in the kitchen and b) not to shut the door! 

It's not easy

In the two West African countries I have lived in, the phrase ‘it’s not easy’ is common. It is often used at the end of stories about ‘challenging times’ and repeated back by the listener with a lot of feeling and empathy.

Today was one of those days.

I went out last night, and received an invitation to go out tomorrow, so today I was more than happy to chill. I finished my book, drank tea, ate the remains of the delicious coconut rice I made last night, and generally enjoyed some quiet time. I knew I needed to go grocery shopping, but I kept hearing rumbles of thunder so I put it off until the weather looked brighter. By late afternoon it seemed that the storm in the air had moved on, so I walked out in the sunshine to catch a taxi to the supermarket.

I whizzed round ‘park and shop’, enjoying my self-set challenge to try and buy something new and interesting each trip, and got to the checkout with a full basket. One of those baskets on wheels, which is far too big for the space within the supermarket so you constantly have to lift it around people, and watch out for others who use theirs to swipe your legs out from underneath you, like commuters with wheelie suitcases. But I digress.

While waiting in the queue I realised that it was pouring down outside. The first real heavy rain – torrential, with thunder and lightning. I was quietly thankful that I had asked the taxi driver I’d come with, a harmless looking old man, to wait for me and take me home once I had shopped.

As we drove home, aquaplaning through flooded streets and watching the water run down the storm drains like rivers, the taxi driver asked if I wanted to take his number to use whenever I needed a taxi. He had been really nice, and I don’t have many taxi numbers in my phone so I said yes and took it. He said ‘whenever you need a taxi, around town or to the airport call me. And if you need me to go with you to the US or the UK I will come’. At which point he rested his hand on my thigh. I did the leg equivalent of shrugging it off, and so he rested his hand and arm on the side of my seat, alongside but not actually on my leg. Harmless old man suddenly didn’t feel so appropriate, so I said ‘erm NO!’ and pushed his arm away! I don’t think he will be my regular driver!

Once back I waded through the water that had built up in the compound and decided to wait for the generator to kick in before unpacking and cooking. And waited. And waited. Turns out there is a problem with the generator today, so I fished out my head-torch and started cooking – fending off the crazy mosquitoes and a mouse that kept trying to come into my kitchen as I did so!

I am now sitting in the dark, gratefully drinking a cold bottle of pear cider and watching the lightning as the storm lingers over the city, with the phrase ‘it’s not easy’ buzzing around my head.

Youth Agric Festival

I enjoy the randomness that my job can bring. Yesterday, without notice, I was invited to drop in on the 1st National Youth Agric Festival - an event that brought young farmers and 'Nagropreneurs' (Nigerian agricultural entrepreneurs) together for speeches, awards, and a whole programme of activities. 

On arrival my colleague and I were handed the obligatory free t-shirt and agenda and ushered to the plush VIP seats at the front. We quickly realised that they were, of course, way behind time and were still doing the 'goodwill messages'. This is where various sponsors and officials make speeches, praising the event, talking about their own organisations and of course going through the necessary 'protocol' - very formally thanking every notable person in the room (often represented rather than actually in attendance). My colleague and I were announced, and we had to stand up and smile to the room, and from then on I settled in to what I assumed would be some long-winded speeches.  

I was pleasantly surprised. There were some long speeches, with some great references to the fact that getting into sustainable agriculture would draw young people out of poverty and ultimately 'closer to God' (!) but generally the event was quite enjoyable. 

Much of the focus was on YFarm - a project run by the Fresh & Young Brains Development Initiative (a name which I find quite peculiar - makes me think of eating brains for some reason... is that just me?). They played the YFarm theme song which was quite catchy. The main chorus is 

Youth we go farm, 

Crops we go plant, 

Animals we go raise, 

Food stuff for sale. 

but quite amazingly the second chorus in part 2 is 

Grow, grow, grow your seed, 

Gently down the farm

Merrily merrily merrily 

Life is in the seed

which was kind of rapped to the tune of 'row row row your boat'! Very funny stuff (for me anyway! I think it was taken pretty seriously by everyone else!). 

Then there was some cultural dancing which was genuinely brilliant, and will probably be the highlight of my week. A group of young men and women with some seriously impressive moves, accompanied by some great drummers. I just wish I had thought to bring my phone to get a picture.

After the dancing the 'light' went (electricity) so we were saved from further tedious speeches and ushered out to the market place outside... the group would later have to go back to the speeches but my colleague and I used the moment to make our getaway. However, before escaping we had a look at some of the farmers' stalls and display tables and then I was selected to give an interview for one of the news cameras! 

I'm pretty sure I was only asked due to the colour of my skin, not my expertise, and I warned them that I didn't have all that much to say on the matter of youth led agricultural projects, but they were quite insistent. So I managed to answer some questions about what I thought about young people investing in agriculture, what the challenges were, and what initiatives like YFarm etc were like. This was all going fine until they asked me whether I thought the government was doing enough to support young agriculturalists in Nigeria. I did NOT want to be talking politics on TV just before the election, especially as we are advised to avoid talking about the government at any time let alone in the lead up to the polls. I hope I managed to give my best politician style answer and talk without saying anything at all, but seeing as I don't know what it was being filmed for or when it might be used, I may never know!  

Film night at the Institut Francais

After a few days of malaria and a few days of taking it easy / recovery time, by last Saturday I found myself pretty eager to get out of the house and do something. The week before malaria I had been really busy - my team had visited and it gave me the chance to go to some new restaurants and take a fresh look at the city again. We had a great time eating Lebanese, Nigerian, Chinese and Indian food - I didn't cook all week! So after this week of activity and then a week of nothing, I wanted to find some weekend entertainment. 

During the day on the Saturday I went for a long walk around my area, went to the veg market, and had a beer with my neighbour in our 'garden' (outside). But the real highlight of the day came when I went to the Institut Francais. I had been meaning to go for ages. Like the Alliance Francais in The Gambia they run French classes and a range of social events, including weekly film nights, and cultural exhibitions (for example they co-hosted the Female Artists in Nigeria exhibition mentioned in my last post). This month they have organised a two week long film festival featuring films from French speaking countries, sometimes with cultural dances and food from that country. For example, they have screened films from Chad, Belgium and Senegal to name a few. 

On Saturday night they were showing an animated film from Cote d'Ivoire, so I decided to go. They had chairs set out in the front courtyard, and a screen, and it was quite busy. The event started with some cultural dancing, and then the film was shown (with English subtitles thankfully). I really enjoyed it! The film was Aya De Yopougon, and apart from a bit of an abrupt ending, was really interesting. It really made me think of my friend Alexandra and her partner JP.

After the film I was hungry. My appetite had been really poor due to being ill, so I wanted to find some food that was a bit different to what I would usually eat... low and behold, opposite the Institut was a big fast food restaurant similar to KFC or MacDonalds, so I bought myself a cheese burger and chips and thoroughly enjoyed it back at my house! 

Art in Abuja

I would really like some art work to brighten up my walls, and between my house and my office is a little roadside gallery - so last Saturday afternoon I took a walk to check out what they had. I found a couple of paintings that I really liked - although they were pretty pricey. They were also a little bit bigger than I was anticipating; with my slightly nomadic lifestyle I want something that could fit into a suitcase when I move on, and these paintings were all larger than they appeared from a taxi window. But, I really enjoyed walking to look at them, and it felt like being in a little open air gallery. 

 

 

And then yesterday I went to an exhibition at the Hilton, hosted by the Institut Francais, in celebration of International Women's Day. The exhibition is called 'Shades of Unity - Women Make It Happen' and features paintings, sculptures, textiles and pottery created by women who are members of the Female Artists Association of Nigeria. There weren't that many paintings there, but in a city pretty devoid of art galleries, theatres and things to do at the weekend, the opening event drew a fairly large crowd. I was also given a couple of large glasses of champagne which was a nice treat! I think I might have to look out for a few more of these events!