mai koyarwa
on Fantastic Voyage (Nigeria), 13/Aug/2010 09:04, 34 days ago
So, we just waded through about 20 metres of river to get to the merely muddy puddles which comprise the majority of our road.  My feet have probably come into contact with the waste matter from more people and animals than I’ve ever spoken to in my entire life, and my ankles are itching as if they’ve suddenly realised how deeply infected with every manner of tic and monster they are.This is the rainy season.  Having felt slightly like a misnomer since we arrived, I’m beginning to appreciate what it actually represents.  It’s not that it rains all of the time (anyone who relies on the BBC international weather reports for any remotely accurate information, I can assure you that for at least three months it’s been completely wrong about Abuja), or even that it rains every day.  It’s just that when it rains, it really really rains.  In the last twenty four hours, there’s probably only been about an hour – if that – of precipitation (a fair proportion of which was directed at me while on the back of a motorbike).  But it’s enough to soak everything, and to turn about a third of our road into an actual river – with currents strong enough to knock you off balance and everything.  (Like most rivers, and unlike most planets, it almost certainly has its own species unknown to science.)(I have now washed my feet and am holding some highly chilled (sorry, Chris) whisky.  Things Are Better.)And it leads me to a whole new level of dumbfounded respect for Nigeria and Nigerian systems.  (That’s right, kids: those very systems I spent most of my life abusing.)  They construct buildings, roads, businesses, footwear, and children which keep on trucking through months at 40 degrees with dense red dust swirling around everywhere, and months at 20 odd degrees (which already feels cold) with flash floods once a week.  There might not be a tv in every home and a net import of food– but they survive and they laugh and they have families in conditions either end of which would break every piece of public service in Britain into unrecognisable shards. ‘nuff respect.