So I'm back in England....whoopee. You can probably tell I'm not exactly feeling too enthusiastic about the whole thing. It took about 5 minutes (between the plane landing and getting to the terminal building) for me to get over the 'looking forward to coming home' feeling and getting a severe case of get me the hell out of here! Ok, so I may be being a lil melodramatic, I have after all only been away for just under a month and it's not like I've been climbing mountains or anything (;-), but I do feel like I have been on a whole other planet and I kinda prefer it to my normal life!
Nigeria is somewhere I can see myself living; once I get over reliance on the following: regular electricity supply, always present mobile phone network, tarmacced (spelling?!) roads, pavements on every road, orderly queues, peace and quiet, privacy, UK driving standards oh and CSI (unless DSTV or Hi manage to secure rights to broadcast it in Nigeria). Not much really!! On a serious note, it just wasn't that bad. You will hear scary story after scary story about Africa, Nigeria and yes Nigerians, but to be there, to live there you come to realise why so many of our parents are going back.
Nigeria is a perfect example of the devil you know. Nothing is 100% so people are always ready to adapt, change, manage and survive. You cannot be disappointed if you expected something to go wrong anyway right? Might sound totally out of it to us who are used to a system of rules, regulations and don't do's, but actually its exactly what makes Nigeria so amazing. Despite so blatantly ignoring everything that we are led to believe constitutes an orderly and civilised society, it maintains a level of civilisation that is to be admired. And lets face it, we live in a constant mood of disappointment here, between delayed trains, weather depression and gas price hikes (wouldn't it be great if everyone could just buy their own keg of gas?!) everyone always wants to be somewhere else...well...not so in Nigeria!
So, I am armed with a new perspective already, I had a quiet giggle to myself on the train to Birmingham this week (yes I've already been there and back!). I was stuck in the quiet coach as the train was packed and sat two rows behind a Nigerian lady. No surprises when her phone rang (loudly), she answered it and had an very lively Ibo conversation for about 10 minutes. You just gotta love us!
Ok, so on to the next leg, I have a few busy days sorting out some final arrangements and getting some girlie and family time in and then I'm off again. I'm still sh*tting bricks about the whole thing, but onwards I go!
P.S. Pics are up! Check out my Flickr page
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1 comment:
Well said Lola! I just moved back and I'm loving every minute of it.
All the things that you say you need do exist in Nigeria....in a place called VGC! Hehe....tarred roads, NO power outages, a state of the art gym, a park, like 4 restaurants, a suya spot AND peace and quiet. This is paradise!!! ;-)
Oh, check out my blog sometime!
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