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[Nigeria]Nigerian glossary

2006-11-22

Back in Nigeria

Filed under: VSO — kevin @ 11:06

I got back to Nigeria on Sunday night and it’s actually good to be back.

Arrival at Abuja was relatively trouble-free, a longish queue at immigration but nothing too bad. Some random airport employee demanded that I let him see what was in my bags, so I checked his ID, established that he wasn’t a customs officer and said no. The real customs guys greeted me, peered in the top of my rucksack (mostly full of socks) and waved me on.

It was quite pleasant wandering about Abuja on Monday, Harmattan has come earlier this year and all the dust in the air reduces the heat a bit.

I immediately felt at home, but then that tends to happen wherever I am.

Back in Kaduna it’s almost like I was never away. The weather has obviously changed, it’s now cold enough at night that I need a blanket. I picked up an electronic thermometer at Schiphol, so I’ll have to update this with the current max/min temperatures.

I spent most of yesterday wandering around NTI handing out presents (lots of nice National Trust calendars) and greeting everyone. Everyone was asking about my family and expressing horror when I told them about the cold and darkness in Scotland at this time of year.

Anyway, I’ll stick up some pictures from my trip back home once I’ve got round to downloading them from the camera.

2006-11-02

Culture shock

Filed under: travel,VSO — kevin @ 17:09

It’s always interesting coming home from overseas, to see what you notice as being different and what ‘everyday’ things seem strange.

Things are going OK on my holiday, although I’m finding it a bit weird to be in places where almost everyone is white! I went down to London last week for a lunch at the Tallow Chandlers’, who are sponsoring my VSO placement.

London was quite overwhelming, although it was fairly quiet. It seemed so inhuman and unfriendly. Wandering the streets of a Nigerian city it’s impossible to feel isolated from other people because people are so friendly, in London you might as well be invisible. This could just be part of having to get used to not being noticeable because of the colour of my skin but I think it’s also related to cultural differences.

Back home in Stirling things are less strange, I’m enjoying spending some time relaxing and visiting friends and family in the area.

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