Blogs from Nigeria, Africa - page 2

Gideon was the Health and Safety Manager in Ghana and has featured many times in my blogs, I grew very fond of him over the 18 months that I knew him, he introduced me to Ghana, he insulted me, he made me laugh, we had many long conversations about Ghana, England, politics, religion and his family and he met my family and Joe when he made his first ever journey on a plane to the UK... and even if he is not politically correct at all I very much consider Gideon to be a friend, as does the rest of the safety team. Gideon got himself another job with career progression, so sadly he left the company last week. Ghana will not be the same without him Good luck Gideon, I wish you all the best ... read more

Hi all, for the past two nights I have been staying in Port Harcourt, it is filled with hustle and bustle and complete Chaos and no one follows any rules or maybe its better to say they make up their own rules - it reminded me of Back to the Future "Where we are going we dont need no roads" everyone driving on the pavements, driving up and down the wrong side of the road at high speed to get there before everyone else and you cant help but fear for the cyclists! why would you cycle on these roads - are you crazy? no just Nigerian - crazy is in the blood! the last few nights I have had an admirer at the hotel, his name is Prince - not to be confused with Prince ... read more

Nigerians to me are friendly, incredibly happy, they make me laugh constantly, they are very smart and then there are those that the media catch hold of, those that we in the UK have heard of but maybe dont understand and they let Nigeria down. one of those is Boko Haram (BH), they are a Nigerian Islamic terrorist group, Boko Haram means “Western Education is Sin” and they cause much if not all of the grief that you see on the television about Nigeria. Bombings in Jos and Abuja, and kidnappings and killings. They attack Police, government, teachers and anyone who may get in their way. There are over 160 Million people living in Nigeria, 50% are Muslim and they live mainly in the North and 40% are Christian with the other 10% being other or ... read more

Hello all, firstly you will notice my Nigeria Blogs will not have any photos, I will be taking them but on my old camera. For my own securty due to going to Port Harcourt I decided it was best not to bring my SLR. I have not brought the cable for my old camera so I will upload any photos when I get home. This time I flew Virgin airlines and atually they were really good, the plane was almost empty so many of us did the ritual of moving fast to get the best seats so we could lie down - two women even had a row over it. at that point I laid down and got at least 20 winks. On the flight I met a gent called Valentine, he was keen to show ... read more

For many Nigerians, news of the resuscitated Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) is an incredible one. To them, it is unbelievable considering its long years of tragic decay and the tedious efforts made by civilian governments for more than a decade to bring back the erstwhile moribund corporation but which ended up in futility until recently. My findings revealed that few decades ago, the Nigerian Railway Corporation was considered as the mega revenue source for the Nigerian government, whose revenue was used to establish many other organisations. In fact, “it is the NNPC of those days,” an elderly Nigerian confided in me. To investigate the current state of the Nigerian railway service, I flew from Abuja to Lagos on Thursday, June 9, 2011. I visited the train station, especially its Iddo Terminus in the heart of Lagos ... read more

Well… it may have started with the King and the finest champagne but it ended with home brew poured from a huge yellow drum made from distilled palm trees and dancing in an R&B video stylee! We were heading home – prepared to get tucked up for a night of sweet, sweet slumber. Then, we heard the African beat and just had to get involved. I’m not exactly sure what the party was for, I’m not even sure if there was a reason for the party but we spent a good couple of hours dancing like crazies! I’m starting my blog now (at 2:30) because the music is still loud and there is no way in hell I’ll be sleeping any time soon… just as I typed that last line the music stopped. Spooky! Oh wait… ... read more

It was SO hard to get up and get motivated for teaching today. Even Jim, the most perky and keen of all of us, was on a go slow. Today is our last day of teaching and we are all starting to feel ready to come home. The last couple of days have felt like we are here just for the sake of it rather than here to really get something out of it. I’m not sure if that’s because we are starting to feel a little home sick for things like hot showers and real food or if it’s because we’ve had so little freedom to do what we what to do whilst we are here that we are just craving normality. It’s not the fault of the school or anyone else for that matter ... read more

This morning was an early start as we had to be at Steve’s house before eight to set off to the local high school. The school is owned by the King but is for the local children and children of the teachers at Olashore International School. They still have to pay but it’s much less than at OIS but still, in Nigeria, education isn’t for everyone. We set off at Nigerian 8:00am (9:00) in a bit of a muddle as nobody seemed to know what was going on and Steve is at a conference in Lagos for a few days. Upon arrival at the school we were dumped out of the van and pointed in the general direction of the Admin block. We found the principal’s office who took Jim to chemistry, Jade to Business Studies ... read more

First of all, sorry that there was no blog yesterday. I did better than all of the other white types and lasted a whole week without picking up a single illness - not even a mosquito bite! Yesterday however, I was really quite poorly in the morning. Just couldn't keep anything down at all. After loads of sleep and plenty of water I was right as rain by about 5pm. It was weird, 8am I was dying and 8pm I was perky and bright. Maybe that’s just the Nigerian way too?? Today was the cutest day of my life! We went to the local primary school where James is working. There are 400 (ish) kids who range from one to twelve years old and range in cuteness from very cute to exceedingly cute! When the car ... read more