Rap News 21: "The News"

Yep, I'm still rocking the Rap News and keeping anyone that reads this blog updated with the latest.



This is wonderful and even has a guest weather forecast from Sage Francis!

Nigerian Dancers

On the weekend the Abuja International Choir, that I am a member of, performed at the International Community School Charity Bazaar. We sang a few carols and then enjoyed wonderful food from the many different countries that were represented!

One of the highlights of the afternoon (besides the food of course), was the Nigerian dance troupe that performed a number of traditional dances! It's not as good as actually being there but you can still get an idea of the different vibes:

Hausa:

Igbo:


Yoruba:


There were a couple of other dances too. Unfortunately my camera had run out of memory and I was unable to capture them.

Who needs diamonds?

Or chocolate or hot water or all you can eat vegetarian food or constant electricity or constant internet or Japanese food or bike tours or poetry slams or. . .


When you've got a SWEET GUITAR!!!!

Ube na Oka

Another Nigerian delicacy!

Most fruit and vegetables in Nigeria are seasonally available. Different street foods pop up along the side of the road and flood the market until their season is up. Then they are gone again until the following year. It was mango season when I got here in March and there were crates and crates of mangoes in the market every week. Branches of mango trees everywhere were drooping under the weight of their swelling fruit. Then some time in June, they just disappeared.

Now, it is Ube and Oka season (Ube na Oka is Igbo which may be difficult to pronounce, but is certainly easier than Dacryodes edulis and zea mays).
That means, African pear and corn season. African pear seems to have some relation to avocado. The extent of that relation may be that they are both referred to as 'pears'. Ube only resembles an avocado in that it is the same colour green on the inside and has a large seed. And when Ube starts to go bad, it tastes how an avocado tastes when it goes bad. Otherwise, the taste is different and the shape is different and the way you eat it is different. And of course the name, class, order, family, genus species. . .all different!

Ube on the left, Oka on the right

So what is to be done with Ube na Oka?

Eat it!!!
Roasted corn reminds me, very vaguely,
 of tortilla and Ube reminds me, very vaguely, of guacamole :) yum!

Of course, there's nothing wrong with French Toast and a good book from time to time either :)

Window Shopping in Abuja

 While I am a volunteer in Nigeria, I am also taking a correspondence creative writing course from Humber College in Toronto. I am trying to write a book and applied for a workshop at Humber last year which I was accepted into and very impressed by. My mentor was Esi Edugyan who won the Giller Prize that year for Half Blood Blues. For this seven month course, my mentor is Sally Cooper who is the author of two books, Love Object and Tell Everything. I can't speak for Love Object because I haven't read it yet but I very much enjoyed Tell Everything even though it dealt with some very dark, Paul Bernardo/Karla Hamolka resembling, subjects.

The book I am attempting to write has to do with some of the experiences I had the first time I backpacked through India in 2009/10 which, if you go back through the records, you will realize is uncharacteristically absent. To be truthful though, a large majority of the important events in my life are not documented on my blog and remain somewhere in my body until they are ripe for the world to taste. So now I am weeding the soil around the seed and fertilizing it and doing some Biodynamic pest control rituals on the side for good measure to ensure that fruit is as sweet as I can make it. But as my good friend Kristine from Blue Chicory always said “It's best to make all your mistakes before you buy your own farm.”

For writing, it is all your own farm, but making mistakes and having a mentor to submit them to has been very helpful. It has helped me to see where my story is weak or awkward. Sally has also asked some insightful questions that have helped to pull out the story from the places it is still more comfortable hiding. I have already rewritten drafts and the results are much stronger but still not final. Writing is not an easy process. There is no real road map and no concrete directions. There isn't even a particular destination. After the peak of the mountain, you still wish you could fly higher. But somehow, the more you write, the more you understand yourself, the more you hear your own voice, the more you know what it is you're trying to say.

Good for
Phone cards, detergent, food, drinks!

One book that I've been reading is “Writing Fiction” by Janet Burroway which has been recommended as a text for the course. I think it was in that book where I read a suggestion to take an idiom or cliche that has lost its meaning and write a story detailing a new interpretation of the cliche that gives it meaning again.

Nigeria has provided the perfect example:

Siddharth checking out the goods

Window Shopping. :)

Secret Nigerian Food

Ok so I lied.
There are still things about Nigeria that are interesting and new and exciting.
Like this:

Licki licki?

It's a seed of some kind. The outside is a thin fuzzy shell that opens to reveal a red powder covered seed. The red powder is tangy and sweet. Kind of like nerds. Remember nerds?

Except it can't be nearly as bad for you since it grows on a freaking tree! Somewhere. . .
A magic tree full of magic.
What is this mysterious seed?
Where does it grow?
How did it come to be?
The only answer given is: Licki Licki

You could grow a garden!

I'm growing a garden on my balcony in an old cooking stove to spice up dinners while I'm here in Abuja.

Basil, Coriander, Parsley, Aloe Vera

I've got parsley, coriander, basil, hopefully mint and there were supposed to be chives but they didn't sprout. . .at least not yet!

I'd still like to grow oregano and
sage if possible but I haven't found
any seeds yet. Would appreciate any suggestions about where I could find some!

Turning Reservoirs into Mountains

Sorry for being so whiny in my post last week. I'm taking a correspondence writing course through Humber College and have been having a lot of trouble letting the words flow lately.
It's like agreements were written up, contracts signed and somehow before I had a chance to protest, the river was dammed and the crops I was growing in the fertile flood plains shrivelled.

Now I am hatching a terrorist plot to blow up the dam (but shhhhhh don't tell anyone!)*  FREE THE WORDS!!!! 

Please feel free to comment with hilarious puns that I can use as ammo :) (I'm confident there are at least a million) Your support is appreciated!

Anyway, here are some weird/interesting things that happened in Abuja this week so far.

They banned commercial buses in Abuja on Monday! They have replaced them with these buses!

shoddy picture of new 'high capacity buses'
from my 'low capacity' taxi

Many commuters in Abuja were unhappy with the sudden transition (transitions in Nigeria are often sudden. . .) and complained about long waits, increased traffic and poor planning by the transportation administration in Abuja who implemented the ban. High capacity buses were supposed to decrease traffic and cost to commuters but people are reluctant to embrace the change. Maybe because it was so sudden!!

I don't use the buses very much so my opinion is totally irrelevant and should be taken with a grain of salt but generally, lower costs and less traffic are good things, no? Especially if the cost can contribute to society and the local economy. Whether or not that will actually happen is another debate.
There are, of course, victims. Mostly, the owners of the hordes of green 16 seater commercial buses that used to crowd the streets and who are no longer able to operate. I wonder how their families are taking the ban. . .


Interesting thing number 2: carpets!

Carpet Mountain!

I went to get some clothes tailored last week at the tailor that operates under the stairs at a shopping plaza. I wanted to take a picture of that too but felt that it was kind of inappropriate. They had finished my two dresses and one shirt and let me try them on (under the stairs) to make sure they fit. Who knew that you can fit 4 sewing machines, three tailors and piles and piles of colourful fabric in such a tiny space!

Across the plaza from the Harry Potter tailors; carpet mountain!! Behold the wonders! A towering mountain of beautiful carpets to furnish your home.
It's not really that interesting or strange really. I just liked that it was outside. And since it was about to rain, Ogadi was curious about what would happen to them in the rain. . . . .
But don't worry, it has a rain coat!

It's bat time. . .in Kwara a
few weeks ago

So that's been interesting so far this week. It is only Wednesday though so lots more could still happen! And I think that maybe, just maybe, I've pulled myself out of the slump. . .perhaps (^^)V









*Wonder how many hits I'll get from the CIA/FBI/other security monitoring personnel for that metaphor! If you happen to be one, Thanks for visiting. I'm not really a terrorist! That metaphor was just a desperate attempt to keep my creativity alive! Hope you have a wonderful day ♥

A New Friend

 Look who stumbled onto my balcony. . .


He also pooped on my balcony (-__-;)

Me: "Can we keep him? Can we? Can we?"

Ogadi: "Throw that cat away!"

Abuja pace

9ja.
What has been going on lately?

Entrance to Millenium Park

Well, I've started to get my life into some kind of rhythm. Of course, it's not perfectly complete yet. But the essential bits are there. The congregation of birds that sing sun salutations from the trees outside my window, the rising but muffled call to prayer, the jangling beats shoe repairers drum out on their tool boxes to attract those in need of their services, the tapped horns of wandering taxis signalling vacancy, the drip of the leaky air conditioner in the office, the droning buzzzzzzzzz of the generators whenever the power's out, the more aggressive brrrrrrrrr of the community vegetable grinder who has his business just outside of my flat, the hiss of the gas pressure when I open the tank to light the stove, the click of the lighter, the whoosh of the flame. . .the thick silence of the nights.

I remember noticing, specifically, the sound of highway traffic from my bedroom window in Canada before I left. I was lying in bed around 3am (my usual bedtime when I'm at home) and I could hear transport trucks and cars speeding across the asphalt in that low familiar hum. The highway is more than a kilometre from my house but it made no difference.
I remember wondering if it had always been like that. If the highway sounded so busy at that time even 5 years ago? Was everyone always in this much of a rush to get somewhere else? The hum stayed with me until I woke (around 11am) and even grew to include the attitudinal wheeze of aircrafts forever landing or taking off.

Aso Rock at Sundown

Here, I love watching people sitting on benches behind corner vegetable stands. Security guards watching football all day sitting back, teasing each other, doubling over with the kind of uncontrollable laughter that makes it sound like something is caught in your throat. Girls and boys and men and women walking with perfect posture and balancing a day's earnings worth of peanuts or 'pure water' on their heads while they dodge in and out of crowds and stopped traffic. It really makes you reconsider the limits of willpower. I've seen someone accidentally brush shoulders with a girl carrying a giant tub of something and the girl was able to turn her head back and scold him without even the hint of a wobble.

It doesn't mean it's easy, or better or even more desirable necessarily. . .but it is a nice and eye-opening change.

Field Trip To Ilorin

Last week I went on a field trip to Kwara State to visit my colleague. She is a the volunteer management and training adviser for the NGVP Program through the Kwara Ministry of Education whereas I work in the same position but remotely for the NGVP program running through KSSSSMB in Kano.

She was hosting a training for NGVP volunteers on project management and I was invited to observe, contribute and meet the volunteers involved in the project. The volunteers in Kwara were working on proposals for small grants and needed some guidance on proposal writing.

The Ministry of Education

NGVP volunteers are sent to schools to support teachers, build capacity and ultimately help to improve the quality of education in the schools they work. They can also apply for small grant funding from VSO for support. One group of volunteers applied for funding to purchase computers for the schools they work in. Another for setting up a library. Another to host a soap making workshop, a skill that could help generate income for the workshop participants. Most of the projects were well thought out as far as sustainability and logistics were concerned but lacked explanation and left too many questions unanswered for the funders. That means VSO.

Bat Migration

mmm Mango season

Ilorin, the capital city of Kwara state, was where I was staying with volunteers that had been placed with ESSPIN. They're provided with a pretty sweet house! Air conditioning, a huge generator, washing and drying machines, flat screen TVs and even hot showers!!! What luxurious treatment I was given in Ilorin!! I was most excited watching the huge migration of bats from the balcony as they confetti-ed the sky in their nightly migration for food, the massive thunderstorm that I watched from the same balcony, inching further inside at about the same speed the storm progressed, a full moon-lit bike ride to Kwara Hotel and joking with the guards about protecting my friend's bicycle, the mango tree branches bending with the weight of countless green mangoes swelling to ripeness. . .

The trip home was also amazingly beautiful, for me. Forest covered hills, mist rising from valleys (though there weren't really mountains, just hills) all against that rust-red dirt.

When the bus stopped at the half way point for food, I met a guy who had recognized me from the Ilorin Shop-Rite. --In fact, I was lost in the Shop-Rite. Not lost like I didn't know where I was going, lost more like that song by The Clash. I feel lost in big box stores anywhere. They make me uneasy. . .it makes me even more uneasy to see the number of people that flock to them everywhere. But I also wonder if the rise of big box stores in the global south will mean the rise of small farmers markets in the global north. . .?--

Wuse Market in Abuja

Mr. Shop-Rite was going to Abuja too. I expressed my preference for Ilorin. He, who had grown up there, preferred Abuja.

That is the way, isn't it. People from cities preferring rural areas. People from rural areas preferring cities. . .there always seems to be a longing for that which is unknown. . .it's a rare occurrence to find someone that is completely content with exactly what they have.

It was really interesting to travel to Kwara and get some first hand experience of the NGVP program.

Ogadi's Egusi Soup! Yummy

The trainings in Nasarawa and Kwara and then reading past notes from the volunteer that established this project has helped me get a better grasp on what exactly my job entails. So has asking a bajillion questions to my project manager in the VSO office (who has been very patient, repeating the same things over and over). So I'm starting to understand. . .but being so far away from my project and volunteers in Kano makes it difficult to know the specific challenges that volunteers and partners are faced with there and how best I can support them.

But for now, in my little apartment in Abuja, with my little Aloe Vera plant, unfolding volunteer placement and the wonderful, Ogadi. . .I have nothing to complain about :)
(except the power cuts and the rat that infiltrated the kitchen while I was away. . .!)

Welcome to the NYSC!

A telephone booth!

I've already been in Abuja for almost a week!

Moved into my new flat with a VSO staff member and Ogadi's help yesterday and then went to the market to buy some household necessities with another volunteer who is finishing his placement and heading back to Uganda on Friday.

NYSC Orientation Camp

Before the move, my supervisor called to let me know that one of my colleagues in Nasarawa was requesting my attendance at the recruitment of NYSC volunteers happening at the National Youth Service Corps camp on Thursday in Nasarawa.  I was supposed to be taking the day off to settle into my apartment but it seemed like a good opportunity to learn more about my placement, meet some key players and get some insight into the overall process of the NYSC. After moving in and dusting/mopping the dirt and dust that had settled in the apartment (because of the dry season), I called my supervisor to confirm my attendance.

Then we went to Wuse Market where my household allowance quickly disappeared into the hands of a few unyielding vendors.
The necessary purchases:

• A chargeable LED light/radio (2 items in 1!!) for frequent power outages
• An extra pot (there are already a bunch here)
• An iron
• A flask/lunch container for carrying food around
• Laundry soap and a bath sponge
• Tomatoes, onions, garlic, ginger, oil, salt, chili, mango, green leaf, roasted fish. . .

Training for aspiring teachers

 Today I was picked up at 8am to accompany my colleagues (who I met for the first time in the car) to the NYSC camp in Nasarawa. NYSC volunteers train at the NYSC camp for three weeks before going out on year long volunteer placements at different institutions in the state. VSO was recruiting some volunteers who had their degrees in education and agriculture. The selected volunteers in education will be placed in schools around Nassarawa and supported with teacher trainings (that I will be organizing as part of my placement). The idea is that the volunteers will help to increase their own employability by participating in these special training sessions and gaining a lot of classroom experience and also increase the capacity of teachers that they work with. All of which is ultimately beneficial for future students.

Volunteer supervisors matching new
recruits with schools

However, there are a number of issues that have been brought up already! The supervising volunteers (ie. past volunteers who have gone through the National Graduate Volunteer Program which is also supported by VSO, and were recruited to supervise new volunteers) are seeing big gaps between what VSO seems to have in mind for the program and the reality for the volunteers, their logistical constraints and limitations due to red tape. For example: classrooms of 100 students!! Volunteers who have graduated as teachers but have no practical experience with lesson plans or classroom management. Work placements for volunteers in places that are unable to provide accommodation for the volunteers.

Volunteers drying their uniforms on
the grass in the afternoon sun

It will be my responsibility to try to mitigate some of these issues by acting as a spokesperson between them, VSO, funding bodies, government officials or whoever it is I may need to talk to in order to find solutions.

It's been good to be kind of thrown into the position already but a bit overwhelming too! I feel like I have one very very very tiny piece of a giant puzzle that I am just starting to understand the dimensions of (because they were printed on the box. . .? but I couldn't spatially imagine it til I actually started trying to put it together. . .). Lots more investigating, questioning, listening, reading, learning to do!

But I'm taking a rest tomorrow :)

A Timeless Existence

Abuja.

Friday Night.

International Women's Day.

2013.

Timeless existence.

Abuja. The capital of Nigeria. Today was the first time I've really seen it, even though I was here in 2010 for over a week and drove through it twice in 2011. From the backseat of a car, you miss a lot. Squished in the middle seat of a mini-bus stuck in a soul-crushing go-slow for hours should provide the perfect opportunity to get a very detailed view of Abuja. I assure you, this is not the case. Night doesn't help either.
So, this time, driving through the tropical landscape at dusk's glow, progressing towards high rise buildings at a comfortable pace was a very nice welcome to my home for the next year.

Friday Night. The music at the bar next door starts with a mediocre cover band singing their hearts out to songs that mediocre cover bands in Canada would play around the same time of night. At some point which I am not cognisant of, the drum beat deepens and drives a much more dance demanding rhythm. Eventually I realize that there is a club next door, and I will not be sleeping soundl(essl)y until well after 4am. Will the sunrise call to prayer signal the end of the madness??!!! I'm sure I will be able to let you know tomorrow!

International Women's Day. Didn't do much to celebrate. Ogadinma made it to see me which was gift enough. At 12:05am we realized it had been International Women's Day. Fortunately, I am fresh enough off the plane that recognition within the limits of Canada time was still acceptable :) Unfortunately, within that grace period, I was also told that I must obey my Nigerian husband if he tells me to stay in Nigeria. I said, to the young man who really had no understanding of our relationship outside of the very obvious factors, that we were trying to figure out what was best for both of us and do whatever made the most sense and still enabled us to be together. I'm not in a relationship with him, after all.

2013. Is that significant? Probably. In a bajillion ways that won't begin to become clear for at least 10-15 years. Likely longer. Some very vague but obvious things. . .At other times in history travel this far overseas wasn't very possible by a female commoner like me! Wars at various points in history would have prevented the kind of work VSO does from happening. Scanners/fax machines/email and the internet definitely helped me to get my visa processed quickly (although it didn't stop a lot of hold ups and red tape!). I am old enough and experienced enough with a few things that I feel that I can actually make a valuable contribution to VSO in 2013. Even last year at this time, I didn't feel like that.

Timeless Existence. All this travelling around and stuff has made me feel kind of like a time traveller and very jet-lagged. It didn't help that I watched Cloud Atlas on the plane (very cool movie and I've heard, even better book!!). The stars were amazing from the plane. I've never seen so many before. It made me feel like I was floating through space. . .and then I realized that in fact, that's exactly what I'm doing all the time. That is what we all are doing all the time.

First visit to Nigeria: Part 1

I guess I was in Nigeria at a pretty interesting time.

It was December-January so the Christian community who are generally Igbo and Yoruba were busy preparing for the celebrations. The roads were full of more "go-slow"s than normal as Igbo people generally flock to Igboland in the East of the country to visit their families and homes and Yoruba people to the West I guess.

Most of the people who wanted to meet me, were living in the East.  However, there have been a number kidnappings of foreign nationals in many areas.  It seems that this tactic has been adopted by some groups in the Delta states due to residents being enraged by the destruction of their land and livelihoods by oil companies.  Kidnapping for ransom not only brings international attention to the problem but also pays pretty well.  That doesn't mean that I condone kidnapping, but I can understand the people's resentment of oil companies at least.  Unfortunately, it seems that others have followed suit for less political and more financial reasons; seeing an easy way to get rich quick.  It seems unlikely that a kidnapping would be possible though, if I was only there for a short time and moved around a lot.  It seems to me (and others that wanted me to go to the East) that something like that would take a bit more organization and planning to be carried out effectively. . .but oh well, hopefully next time it will work out.

We ran away from Lagos on the 24^th by bus to Abuja to escape the festivities.  Very few people were going to Abuja so we couldn't get a coach bus, only a small van-bus thing.  There was a lot of traffic leaving Lagos;  we were stuck in a “go-slow” for 4 hours before even getting out of Lagos!  We left around 7am and didn't get to Abuja until 10pm.  Interesting note about buses in Lagos (and Abuja and maybe many Christian dominant parts of Nigeria), just as the bus begins to depart someone in the bus will begin a group prayer complete with singing, making sure to pray for our safety and security throughout the trip.  Road accidents and robberies aren't uncommon, so it's understandable that people like to ask for a little more insurance.

The next day we woke up in my boyfriend's brother's house in Abuja.  We went to visit one of their friend's and went to a small outdoor shop to have some Star beer.  The shop was in a market area and there weren't many people around.  It was sunny, dry and dusty, chickens were wandering around and some people were tending to cars or their businesses.  I hadn't heard the news yet, but the atmosphere was tense.  Abuja has a larger proportion of Huasa (who are usually Muslim) people than Lagos and, it being my first time in the country, I wasn't sure how tense the relationship was between Huasa and Igbo people.  Apparently it differs depending on the area, but I had no idea at this point.   It didn't help that I was reading Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's novel depicting the civil war.  At one point a Muslim man came over to our table and started talking to the guys in another language that I couldn't understand (they were speaking Igbo before).  When he left I asked them what he said and they told me he had asked if he could join us for lunch.  I knew they were lying.  Their insistence that everything was fine and safe and that Nigeria had no problems, made me uneasy.  We stopped at another house on the way back home where I heard the radio announcer mention a "tragic incident" and "prayers for the families of the victims". . .I asked what was going on, but no one was ready to tell me.  Finally when we got home I asked my boyfriend to tell me the truth and he confessed that they knew that there had been bombings at a church in the neighbouring state.  No one felt that it was anything to worry about for the time being but I preferred to know the truth at least, so I could act appropriately and understand the situation.  The tenseness I felt earlier in the day made sense and I believed that we would be safe for the time in Abuja and have a few days to monitor the situation before heading back.  In fact I was half expecting there to be an attack of some kind on or around Xmas day due to the rising presence of the Boko Haram in the country and the recently elected Igbo president who they seem to be upset by.  It's horrible that so many innocent people are being killed senselessly for their religious beliefs.  I think though that if you look at the pattern of the Boko Haram and their beliefs, one could have easily predicted that something like the Xmas bombings would happen.  It's horrible, but not surprising.

The next day my boyfriend's brother had to leave for a business trip so we had the house to ourselves for a few days.  Since we had had a very stressful week with very little sleep and way too much movement/travel, we took a much needed rest and recovery period.  We watched Nollywood movies, Avatar the last airbender, read books, slept, cooked and washed clothes.  We left the house a few times to visit people and buy groceries from the market but otherwise we just rested.  On January 30th we went back to Lagos for the next great adventure!  Fuel Subsidy Strike!

Part 2                                                                                                                                            Part 3