Caboose

Here are some pictures of my house in Kaduna. I moved in on the 7th but since then I’ve been busy with a combination of work and another dose of malaria. The house was originally just another one of the suites at the NTI Conference Centre but they’ve built a kitchen and refurnished it.

This is a panorama of my living room. The front door is to the right of the fridge, the door to the kitchen is to the left of the TV, then the bathroom door and the door to my bedroom. The tiles are new, I requested that the carpets be removed as they’re impossible to keep clean in this climate.

This is my kitchen, all new and with a nice gas and electric cooker.

Last of all is my bedroom:

The house is very nice and the few teething troubles are gradually getting sorted out. The most irritating thing is the poor water supply, the conference centre’s plumbing is very bad so I only get water for a couple of hours each day.

Sunday 19th March

I arrived into Abuja at around 8pm but the heat was still almost overpowering as I stepped out of the horribly air-conditioned plane.  The immigration desk officials were efficient and very friendly (thank god the Americans haven’t been training them!) and I was soon collecting my luggage and meeting Kevin.

As it was dark I could not see much as we drove into Abuja and to Radio House where we would be staying with Marebec for the night.  I met Marebec and Russell before gratefully heading to bed although 5am alarm call had been set!

Monday 20th March

Up very early and off the Jabi motor park (which is actually called some other name which no one actually calls it) to get a car to Kaduna where Kevin now lives.  My mum and dad had prepared me for the state of the cars and I think being half asleep made me distinctly relaxed about the safety of these vehicles.  We got a car quickly and were soon heading off.

We headed to NTI when we reached Kaduna and greeted the many security guards before dropping off the rucksacks in Kevin’s room before a greeting tour of all the staff in NTI, many who appeared to be asleep.  We then went into Kaduna for a look around the market and the city itself.  It was overwhemingly busy with people and traffic everywhere in no apparent order, not at all like British cities.

That evening we met some of the other VSO’s in the Air Force Club for a few beers and then for some dinner in the form of suya, which was unbelievably spicy, so much so it brought tears to my eyes!  It was then a white knuckle ride on the motorbikes to get a car back to NTI.
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I haven’t updated this site for a little while because I was away. I had a VSO conference in Abuja for a few days and then my little sister came to visit for a couple of weeks.

She’s going to be writing about her visit to Nigeria here and I’ll also be putting up some pictures of my new house, which I moved in to on Friday.