what to bring

This is a list of some of the stuff i have found useful, someone may find this of use in the unfortunate circumstance they find themselves heading to nigeria for VSO and have taken to reading my blog for inspiration. Also i suppose it highlights the daily issues of living here.

This is based on being placed in a city and also includes some things I wouldn’t bring and discussion on other aspects of life here. I am a bit techy so this may be reflected in some of the things I suggest.

The main challenges (outside work) are lack of power, water and things to do in the evening. Power can be managed through excessive battery purchase, water through really really big buckets and entertainment through books, dvd’s, scrabble, internet and excessive battery use.

Wind up Lanterns - Some of these work really well and some are complete rubbish, if possible try and get wind up lights which also charge from the mains as you can leave them to charge over night and can only resort to winding after a couple of days without power.

Rechargeable batteries - These are useful to go in head torches etc, bring lots along with a really bright led torch, some come with magnets on the back so they can be put strategically on doors/fridges etc

Solar chargers (Don’t bring)- I can see how these could be useful if you have your own compound. I brought a phone charger, which i’ve not used enough to justify the expense. The main problem is that as they take a while to charge during which you have to leave your shiney charger out in the open, which is just inviting it to be borrowed.

If you have a bit more cash or a birthday present/Christmas to use up consider a power gorilla. Its basically a giant external battery which can charge your phone and laptop (depending on size it gives 2-5 hours of extra laptop use) which can be quite useful for playing movies/music in the dark, powerless nights.

External hard drive and flash drives (lots). The hard drive is useful to back up all your photos etc and for borrowing movies from other volunteers. Make sure it runs off the usb power (i.e. doesn’t need to be plugged into the mains). Flash drives are super useful as emailing is slow, if possible get a flash which has the option to be locked, this means the drive is turned to read only and the computer you put it in cant load viruses onto it, very useful for getting things printed etc. Flash drives also make good presents.

Internet access is possible via numerous mobile networks, although only MTN currently supports ‘broadband’ which allows skyping (and occasionally video skyping) which is very handy and gives you something to do in the evening. If you have a smartphone which can be “tethered” bring it if you are planning to get internet access, as it will save you having to buy a dongle here (also if you have an unlocked dongle you could bring that too).

The internet is costly, at £32 a month for 24h access, so you might want to decide before you come to bring extra cash to cover this if you think you will need this. It is now possible to buy one day plans, which will cover you if you want to simply to skype once a week/month.
Check here to see the MTN mobile broadband coverage in Nigeria
http://www.mtnonline.com/index.php/broadbandaccess.html

There are internet cafes, access is normally slow (outside Abuja) and expensive but can be used to pick up emails etc (ideally not from the same email account to which your bank is registered, but I haven’t heard of anyone actually having their login details stolen).

If you don’t have a camera and are considering purchasing one, it would be a good idea to consider ones which are dustproof or better fully waterproof. Most of the volunteers in my group’s camera’s broke within the first 3 months, we think because of dust.

Amazon kindle (3G version) - If you live in the MTN coverage area (see above) and bring no other bit of technology this should be it. Apart from the endless supply of books, it gives FREE internet access, with which you can check your emails/facebook/news etc, the battery lasts for about a month of reading and about a week if your using the internet a lot. It is amazing and I love it.

Surge protectors have been suggested, we used these religiously until a transformer problem gave us about 400V, which happily fried our laptop chargers which were plugged in through surge protectors. They may be of some use, but they are not infallible

Dark coloured clothes - there are no (or few) washing machines in Nigeria, so its hand washing only, dark hides the evidence of the dirt which didn’t come out in the wash.

For boys a few shirts are useful if your work is formal or you need to smarten up occasionally.

Lightweight raincoats are useful in rainy season (pac-a-mac etc) as they can be carried in your helmet bag (which if you live outside Abuja you will carry everywhere with you).

Cheese - Cheese is either difficult or too expensive to buy here. If you think you will miss your cheese hit we have found that the supermarket pre-grated parmesan doesn’t melt, and lasts long enough to be worthwhile. Also if you have space, bring some cheese for the in country volunteers, they will love you forever for it.

Going back (temporarily)

For the past 3 weeks I have been back in dear old blighty, the thinly veiled excuse for this was a need to attend a wedding. I did wonder if I would be able to return to the old ways very easily but being a pretty no-nonsense kind of guy I didn’t think there would be much of a problem. There wasn’t much in the way of reverse culture shock, I found it quite easy to flick the switch and return to my life of washing machines, running water and an electricity supply which isn’t trying to kill you half the time. I am still amazed by supermarkets.

Being home did remind me of how easy life is for us, much of my time here in Nigeria has been taken up with the everyday chores of living, e.g. washing, going to buy water, cooking, and sitting around waiting for the electricity/water to return. The idea of having a daily routine involving 9-6 work, commuting, going to the gym then cooking a meal from a packet in the fridge does seem a bit odd, like the activities of those who live on an alien world (if I was being dramatic) or something like that anyway.

To all my friends who read these ramblings of a madman, I will say Hi and thanks for making the trip a very pleasant one it was nice to see everyone and I’m glad not too many of you have changed too much in my absence.

The other issue of going home was that everyone would expect a present on my return, and when I say everyone I mean, everyone from the people who run shops on our road to all colleagues. The other volunteers asked with varying degrees of politeness and subtlety for things to be brought from home. In the end I brought back about 2kg of cheese, a similar amount of chocolate and enough pens, key rings, small toys etc to keep most people happy.

I also bought a new kindle, its amazing, and if there are any prospective volunteers with a little spare cash wondering what to bring with them I would recommend it - long battery life, endless books and free internet (even in Nigeria!)

When I got back the first thing said by almost all my colleagues was, you must have enjoyed yourself, look how you’ve added (i.e. welcome back fatty) whilst this is true it’s a bit of a shock when everyone says it. I really must do some/a lot of running over the next year to return to my original sate of only being slightly podgy.


In all its nice to be back, but going home does remind me that I’m not going to be here forever and I really should try hard to finish up what I’m doing so at least something carries on after I’ve left. I think wondering what I’ve actually achieved here will be the subject of another blog post, navel gazing is not my favourite of sports but I suppose everyone does want their time here to mean something, even though we know statistically that this is at best unlikely.

Hopefully I’ll be here for another 3 months, but this will be contingent on VSO trying to extend my visa by a month (it runs out on 31-Oct), so I will be back permanently from either the 1st Nov or more likely sometime around the 24th Nov.

When I return permanently I guess there will be a re-run of the emotional rollercoaster effect which thankfully I seem to be able to take very little notice of. I’m sure VSO will put on lots of ‘supporting’ workshops so we can all sit around and be reminded of how depressed we are supposed to be feeling, I may just put the invites in the bin. I’m not sure in my fragile state I will be able to handle a jolly ‘facilitator’ armed with a flip chart and a mantra that “all the answers are in the room”, it maybe just me but I find nothing as depressing as hanging around in a room full of depressed people. I think a swift beer down the pub and curry should sort any problems, this may mean I am emotionally cynical and should seek group hug therapy immediately.


There are some photos of the durbar in Kano on facebook now (although you have to be my friend or friend of friend to see them)

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/album.php?aid=235168&id=515547849

Food Pt I - The Starch

Right its finally here, the often promised and never delivered blog on the Nigerian culinary extravaganza. This will be divided into two parts, this part is an homage to starch. Ask for what food is available in a Nigerian restaurant (or chop house in the local parlance) and you will be given a list of the available starch, no further explanation is necessary.

Typical beside the road 'chop house'

There are many places which serve Nigerian cuisine, they range from upmarket air-conditioned restaurants which remind me of a kind of bling version of McDonalds to a lady by the side of the road with a cool box. Price is normally inversely proportional to tastiness and directly proportional to the probability of bowel problems in the hours afterwards. I think this is mainly due to turnover, the women with coolers normally have to sell out within an hour or two of opening up, whereas at a proper restaurant the food can sit there for days and still be re-heated by enthusiastic if olfactory ly challenged staff.

One other thing to note about Nigerian food is the temperature, even breakfast here is served with ground dried hot peppers (called peppe) up north the amount of peppe added to food is manageable (for someone who like madras), but every so often you get a land mine which can blow your mouth off. Like many things in Nigeria food is something that should be approached with caution and the ground either carefully prodded first or follow in someone else’s footprints to avoid nasty surprises.


Following on from the format of the wildly successful drinks post I give you…. Starch:

Pounded yam

Pounded yam:

The undisputed king of the Nigerian starch based hierarchy, ask any Nigerian their favorite food (a more common question than you would have thought) and the answer for ALL men and most women is pounded yam. All households have somewhere a yam pounding mortar and pestle (a novel use of such a device to prop up a car is provided for illustration purposes only). To prepare your yam you must get dry yam (new rainy season yam is too wet apparently) boil it (err.. .didn’t you just say it had to be dry???), once soft you just wack it in your novelty giant mortar and pestle and pound away to your hearts content.

Most of the time no knife or forks will be provided and the accompanying soup or stew (for soup read stew and the stew is more like a spicy tomatoes soup) is eaten by rolling the yam into balls/shovel shapes then scooping the stew up with the resulting sculpture.




Other lump based starch:
Semovita - yellowy lump based starch made from corn flour at a guess.
Gari  - Like pounded yam but sticks to your fingers more, less flavour too.
tuwo schincafa (Stirred rice) - Rice but beaten to a pulp, then formed into balls. Its pretty good actually and most importantly is the only way to consume rice if you don’t want to also consume half a gallon of palm oil.

Yam Porridge
This is my favorite kind of starch, amazing considering its not normally served with meat. Its boiled yam which has been fluffed a little bit with a stew of beans and served with spicy palm oil based sauce. Looks disgusting, tastes great and a huge plate is only 30p

Jallof rice
This is a Nigerian staple, the wikipedia article for Jallof rice sums up the dish quite nicely:
“The most common basic ingredients are: rice, tomatoes and tomato paste, onion, salt, and red pepper. Beyond that, nearly any kind of meat, vegetable, or spice can be added.”

You can safely omit “nearly” before “any kind of meat”.

Also they have omitted one major ingredient, palm oil, lots of it. Rice here is not complete until it’s been thoroughly greased up.

Any form of rice must be cooked on an industrial scale in giant comedy caldrons, which do have the effect of making any group of women chefs look like the coven of witches who decided that black was so last year and floral oranges were a better summer look.





 


Street Food

Kosee
In all parts of Kaduna you can buy deep fried bean cakes on the side of the road, these have the advantages of being cheap and pretty much safe (nothing survives boiling oil) but you do have to start your day with deep fried food and pepe

Moi-Moi
These are similar to kosee except the bean cakes are boiled rather than fried, also for some bizarre reason certain evil people stuff crayfish in the mix so the whole thing tastes and looks like boiled vomit.

Corn
From March to August you can get bbqed sweet corn, which is similar but dryer and tougher than western sweet corn. Like many shops in Nigeria they tend to clump into groups so that at some roadsides you will see 4 or 5 women in a row, proving there is comfort in numbers, if perhaps not profit.

Also available are fried yam, sweet potatoe etc etc, if you can put it in oil and it contains starch you can more or less buy it on the streets of nigeria.


Right that’s It for now I leave you with a cute picture of the kitten and some video of an idiot being forced to dance for the Hausa people… who ever he is he didn’t get to keep any of the money and is very angry about this.