Six months in Nigeria
on Emily Bullock (Nigeria), 29/Aug/2010 21:39, 34 days ago
On Saturday, I was having a drink with my fellow British volunteer, Richard, and he said it was our six month anniversary, a little confused, I asked for clarification, six months since we arrived in Nigeria. Yes six months ago, Richard, Heather and I stumbled off a flight from Heathrow to Abuja at 05:30am into hot hot Nigeria.Well hot hot Nigeria, has become cold wet Nigeria, it goes down to 22°C at night and I have a blanket on my bed! The obvious question of course is what if anything have I achieved, or if you are VSO, have I “shared skills and changed lives?” I’m a bit of a realist about what I expect to achieve, I even have a document at work that I add to occasionally called “Small, small achievements!"So here is a list of achievements…..1– Skill shared, I helped Ugochi prepare for her telephone interview for the Climate Change Media Fellowship, you can read about ithereandhere2– Languages – very basic greetings in Pidgin and Hausa, ina kwana, ina auni, lafia, how dei, I dei fine, well done, sannu.3– Inches lost around my waist, at least that is what the tailor told me last time she measured me.4– States visited, I live in Abuja, which is in Federal Capital Territory or FCT, the Centre of Unity, but I have been to Kano, Centre of Commerce, Kaduna, the Liberal State, Nassarawa, the Home of Solid Minerals, where I met the Deputy Governor, and Niger, the Power State, where there were still power cuts!Look at my map to see where I have been.5– Church services attended - Family Worship Centre, Baptist, Methodist, Summit, Redeemed, these are marked onmy Abuja map.6– Oibo I love you! – Well actually I didn’t count but a certain number of men have claimed to be in love with me, want to marry me and so on!7– New outfits, one of the great things I’m enjoying about Nigeria is buying fabric and getting it made up,pictures here.8– Exercise, 4 times running, 4 times swimming, rather poor for six months I know but it was very hot when we arrived, and I’m working on it, but I have lost three inches!9– New types of food, egusi, vegetable soup, bitter leaf soup, pounded yam, eba, semovita, jollof rice, suya, shawarm – I will write about food another time, but if you would like to you can look atthis great blog postby Richard, a different Richard!10– Haven’t made it to 10 yet! – but I have passed one module of my MSc since I have been here.Mmm well let’s hope that after 12 months I have some more concrete achievements to share with you.