My Take on Living in Nigeria: Dog Eat Dog World

I was walking to the other side of the office compound this morning with 3 of my colleagues, when I saw a stray dog. It hit me then that after being here for almost 4 months, this was the first time I have seen a stray dog in Nigeria. The only dogs I have seen here so far are the police guard dogs standing by the gates.

So I asked one of my colleagues why are there no stray dogs in Nigeria. Apparently, as my colleague reluctantly explained for fear that I am of the queasy sort, people eat them. Simple as that.

I guess this beats seeing squashed dogs with splattered brains that we see on a daily basis on Brunei roads.

My Take on Living in Nigeria: Hot in Herre

The Harmatan season has finally arrived. Harmatan to Nigeria is what kemarau is to Brunei. So the dry season has definitely made its presence known after months of non-stop rain. Thankfully it is not as humid as it is in Brunei. However, the air can give off the feeling of thickness and dustiness.

Mornings, strangely enough, is quite cool and sometimes misty. Cool air breezes by and you get that feeling as if you are in the UK during summertime rather than in the middle of Africa. You can thank this, and the dustiness, from the wind coming from the Sahara desert.

However, come mid-day it's a different story altogether. The temperature rises and the air starts to feel a bit thick. It's times like these you start to miss the rainy season. You dream of the days when you have a swimming pool in your backyard so you can chill and cool off. *SIGH* I long to see the day when my seafreight arrives so I can unpack and install our pool. But at this rate, by the time we're ready, the rainy season would have come again full-circle.

My Take on Living in Nigeria: Generation Generator

It has just occured to me that my blog entries have been *for want of a better word* rather "inward". I have been living and working in Nigeria now for almost 4 months, and not one entry has given much insight to what life is like living here. So I thought, once in a while I should dedicate an entry to such a topic.

Being ill at home means that I get to be aware of occurances that normally happens in the camp while I'm at work. 2 days in a row now the generator has come on at specific times of the day.

Generator. Now there's a word or object that I have not heard in a long time. I thought those things were long obsolete - what with all the new-age ways of generating energy these days.

The last time I know of someone who had used it was my grand-uncle (Nenen Anggah). My maternal grandmother's third brother. This was way back in the early 80's - 1982, if I'm not mistaken. Nene Anggah and family had just moved house from Jalan Kumbang Pasang to Kampung Tanah Jambu. At that time, there was hardly any house being built in that particular "simpang" (of course now it's practically a village within a village). So no sign of existing civilisation meant that no electricity supply was available in that part of the village. For quite a long time, everytime we went there for any occasions/functions/events I will always remember how noisy it was - I will learn later that this was courtesy of the generator. Gosh, what must that have been like to live with?

Fast forward that to the next millennnium - almost the end of 2006 to be precise - the use of generators is pretty much a big part of daily life here in Nigeria. With so much oil money and untapped talents, you'd be surprise by the standard of living Nigerians are having to live. Electricity, something we have taken for granted in the 21st century, is still not in steady supply.

Nigerians (those who can afford it) have lived to depend on generators to keep daily electrical goods, like refridgerators, running. I have recently discovered, much to my surprise, that generators are not economical to maintain. I've been told that most people will only run their generators for certain periods during the day, just enough to keep their fridges running to keep their food fresh for as long as possible. So you can forget about having all-day air-conditioning in your house.

This new insight about generators has made me think about my very own "lush" living conditions within the residential area. You'd be surprise what spoilt and idealic life we lead here inside the camp. We have electricity running 24-7.

Being employed by a big company means that it can afford to provide it's employees with decent homes complete with a golf course, a club (restaurants, tennis courts, olympic size swimming pool, warts & all) and the all more important electricity. Mind you, the company has it's own power station which is why the electricty supply is so reliable.

Of course, in the event that the power station suffers a shut-down (which is not very often, I must say), we have these gigantic generators placed between every few houses or so all over the camp to help out. Normally it doesn't take long before the generator takes over in cases of power failure. So quick that you don't normally notice it until you hear the noisy drumming, humming and vibrations coming from the generators. Oh. Did I tell you that one of the generators is just opposite our house?

I shouldn't complain really. It has its perks living within close proximity to the nearest generator. But the main perk has to be sharing the same generator as the top man of the company's abode. This means that whenever power's down, it's our generator that gets switched on first - wouldn't want the First Lady of the camp to be in the least bit "perspiring" in distress, do we?

Before I even begin to have any more thoughts that remotely resembles as complaint, I should count my blessings that we live a stone throw's away from the nearest generator - well, for the existence of generators in general. I should think about the Nigerians living outside the camp whose daily livelihood depends so much on the generators.

Come to think of it, I should also thank my lucky stars before I start complaining and swearing all words beginning with every letter of the alphabet the next time we have a power trip in Brunei.

Happy Birthday Nigeria

Got a sungkai invitation last night at another one of our Malaysian colleagues' house. Am starting to feel pressured and obliged now to reciprocate somehow. The curse of not having the ability to cook means we might never get to return the favour. Oh well. At least we - well husband actually - contributed teh-tarek last night.

Today is a public holiday. 1st October is Nigeria's Independence Day. There will be a big party planned next weekend at the Thisday Music Festival. Check out the article below to find out who will be there:

Beyonce To Play Nigeria’s Independence Day
by Andrew Tijs

September 27 2006

Superstar Beyonce has agreed to headline Nigeria’s first annual Thisday Music Festival.

The inaugural festival is a celebration of the West African nation’s independence from the British in 1960. The two-day event will take place in Lagos on October 7. And Beyonce isn’t the only high-profile US star to play the show. Hip-hop and R&B royalty will fill out the bill, which includes Jay-Z, Ciara, En Vogue, Snoop Dogg, Mary J Blige, Missy Elliott and Busta Rhymes.

In a press release, Beyonce said "It's a great thrill to come to West Africa for the first time to celebrate Nigeria's independence. I feel blessed for this opportunity for my all-female band and me to appear on stage with some of the world's most talented artists and share the universal message of peace, hope and beauty that music brings to all of us."

The name of the festival comes from Thisday, one of the largest African-owned media groups on the continent, publishes newspapers, magazines and online.

Source: www.undercover.com.au