Nigeria - Driving Licence Optional!

---

I’ve now been in Africa for 26 hours and already I think I can understand why people are enchanted by the place. I'm not sure if I'm just being incredibly nieve or if it’s because we are being really well looked after but all the worry and doubt I had before I left the UK seems to have dissolved away in the heat. People are so nice and friendly here. Their greeting and general way of dealing with things is “you’re welcome!” The staff here and at the hotel we stayed at last night seem genuinely happy to meet us and hear what we have to say. Well, I probably should tell you about last night…
The flight over was really good – the plane was about 1/5 full (possibly less that that!) so I had a whole row to myself and I had a great view over Africa on the flight in. I was shocked by the scale of Lagos as we flew over the city. Tiny ramshackle tin roofed shacks for as far as the eye could see, and I could only make out a couple of paved roads nestled in amongst the browny-red dirt tracks which were crammed with cars, buses, lorries, tankers and people - so very many people!
The customs at Lagos airport are notoriously awkward and crammed but we just flew straight though. One security guard looked at my passport and told me I looked like Kate Winslett ( I think it’s just the fact that we shared a first name) and the customs guy, after being told that this was my very first time in Africa, asked me how I was finding it so far. This really amused me as, at the time, I had only had my yellow fever vaccine card checked and seen the customs lounge at the airport!
We collected our bags and headed outside to meet the headmaster of the school we were to be working with. After waiting about 20 minutes we spotted a tall white man striding out towards us. He stuck out just as much as we did. There are very few white faces in Nigeria; there is nothing here to bring in tourists, or any visitors for that matter there are just the occasional business type out here for the oil industry which is big business off the coast. I have never felt like such a paleface in my whole life! Steve took us to our drivers and after a hike across a muddy puddle filled car park we all, after mild harassment from people trying to sell things in the dark, bundled into the vans.
About half of the city centre was in pitch black as there was a power outage as we arrived. The airport had their own electricity supply but the rest of the city did not so was only bathed in the lights of vehicles on the roads. Once out onto the dual carriageway, which would take us to our home for the night, two things struck me; how each lane was home to at least four cars and how driving in Nigeria seemed to consist of putting your foot to the floor to squeeze into a gap followed by slamming onto the brakes to stop yourself from crashing into the other car that had their eye on that gap too! All in all it took us about an hour to cover just a couple of miles. That is an hour I am proud to have survived unscathed! Actually the fact that I am alive and able to write this blog is quite a miracle!
Once at the hotel we went for a meal and then just headed to bed as we were all shattered – I had to share not only a room but also a bed with the other female teacher who is here. This wasn’t too bad as the beds were huge but rock solid. I am now typing this in total and utter pitch back as the generators have just gone off (it is 11pm after all!) and the national grid can only be relied upon very very sporadically!
This morning we woke up after a bit of a lie in and after showering and breakfasting we set off for the north to Osun (pronounced oSHun) state, where our school is based. The city looked so different in the day light. The morning was very dull and cloudy and not anywhere near as warm as it usually is in the dry season. We passed more on that journey north that my eyes could absorb and my brain could process. There were police road blocks and bribes openly given so that people could just get on with their day. Before and at the road blocks hundreds of people would rush around the van trying to sell everything from newspapers to bread to fruit to kettles. The road was only partially paved so where the rain had washed away the tarmac people would just drive around the hole – even if that meant crossing the central reservation and driving up the fast lane of the carriageway moving in the opposite direction. This was of course accompanied by the obligatory horn honking. We saw oil tankers on their sides with people trying to collect all of the spills from puddles on the road. We saw whole villages of people living in houses made from rubbish on the sides of the road, people carrying everything from shopping to furniture on their heads and people in general just trying to earn enough to put food on the table that night. All in all that journey took us over 4 hours, and I am so glad it will be another two weeks before I have to repeat it! I managed to take plenty of photos though, but I haven’t had the opportunity to upload them to this laptop yet so im not sure how they turned out.
Just after we arrived at the school, there was the biggest thunderstorm I have seen in years - Including when I lived in the southern United States. It poured with rain, and places that had been scorched cracked earth just seconds earlier were now flooded and with the trademark reddish brown soil tinting the rain water. This deluge delayed our tour of the school until tomorrow but we still got to meet our host teachers as the headmaster organised a buffet in our honour at his house.
I best leave it there as I have written a small essay and as the power has gone and my battery isn’t charged I probably don’t have much laptop left! I’ll update a blog as soon as I can.

---

Photos

Surveying his Kingdom
I took this on the road north - there was a sort of shanty town built around the "motorway" it was full of rubbish and there were loads of women and children washing in puddles in the middle of the two roads. I managed to take this traveling at about 60mph.

Comments

[Paula sistersloth Douglas]

Umgalla
Howdy, gosh wish I was with yer mrs, what an adventure and an eye opener. sounds like the school is chuffed to bits you have come over, just dont do too good a job or they might not let you come home, love ya little sis. happy adventurin !!!! pp ee x