Bananas…a simple fruit, yet somehow they were able to represent so much more in my hyper-reflective and emotional state that I was exhibiting during my 2 days of travel home from Nigeria. In Nigeria, bananas were small, green or black in color found in large bunches often looking less-than appealing and often acquired by happenstance-chance yet tasted soft, sweet, extra-banana-y and delightful…and people never eat just one!
While sitting in the Amsterdam airport, a cute couple in their early 70’s, presumably from Scandinavia (based on the language in which their newspaper was written) carefully took out a bag of 4 large, perfectly yellow bananas. Each took one and then they put the remaining 2 back in their bag for a later time. I feel these bananas illustrate a bigger truism. Many things in Nigeria aren’t packaged as attractively, planned as calculatedly or carried out with as much restraint, which can lead to frustrations, disappointments and no bananas when one wants them, but when the little boy clad in a torn shirt and flip flops walks by with a tray of bananas on his head just as late afternoon hunger begins to gnaw, those bananas couldn’t taste any more divine!
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Contract Marriage
Many misconceptions exist amongst Nigerians about how life is in the US that I blogged about when I was here before, but the one that comes up the most often is contract marriage. Ezekiel defined it to me at some point during the last two years as when two people enter into a marriage with an agreed upon ending point. While I have made the common observation that divorce is prevalent in the US, I was confident that contract marriage didn’t take place, and I confirmed that in Iowa, it’s illegal!
Nonetheless, it comes up often. Most notably, I was in church on Sunday and the pastor talked about it in his sermon and Ezekiel had to practically hold me back from jumping out of my seat shaking my head and finger emphatically that it wasn’t true! The pastor was intelligent, articulate and seemingly exposed, so I decided it was my responsibility to go talk to him after service to tell him how much I’d learned and clarify the misunderstanding. He was a good sport and verified that he watches many international films and news broadcasts and therefore continued to argue that contract marriage was a reality. Finally, he acquiesced and promised to correct his mistake next Sunday. I told him that many impressionable and educated minds were being misinformed. I’m continuing to do my small part in helping to create a more accurate perception of the US.
Nonetheless, it comes up often. Most notably, I was in church on Sunday and the pastor talked about it in his sermon and Ezekiel had to practically hold me back from jumping out of my seat shaking my head and finger emphatically that it wasn’t true! The pastor was intelligent, articulate and seemingly exposed, so I decided it was my responsibility to go talk to him after service to tell him how much I’d learned and clarify the misunderstanding. He was a good sport and verified that he watches many international films and news broadcasts and therefore continued to argue that contract marriage was a reality. Finally, he acquiesced and promised to correct his mistake next Sunday. I told him that many impressionable and educated minds were being misinformed. I’m continuing to do my small part in helping to create a more accurate perception of the US.
Transition
I feel slightly strange about posting blogs about Nigeria while I have already transitioned to El Salvador, but I had already written some (using the archaic method of pen and paper in the airport since my computer stayed behind in Africa while I proceeded home to the US) and decided they should be posted, so the next few posts are a little dated, but still true!
My new adventure in El Salvador has started out great and will be chronicled soon! :)
My new adventure in El Salvador has started out great and will be chronicled soon! :)
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Grad School in Jos
I traveled to Jos to visit my friend Laitu. Since she is currently taking classes for her Master’s Degree in Entomology and Parasitology, I had the opportunity to attend some of the lectures and get to know her course mates. I LOVED it! The pursuit of knowledge, debate of understanding combined with scholarly (and less than scholarly) camaraderie brought me right back to my grad school experience at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, TX! Despite somewhat compromised facilities there at University of Jos: limited electricity, old, crumbling buildings and no running water, the atmosphere on campus was comparable to that of any other campus I’ve ever experienced: alive, invigorating, enlightening.
African time strongly applies to Nigerian Universities. Laitu simply goes to school every day from 9-5 Monday through Friday and isn’t even sure what the schedule for her classes was initially scheduled to be. Professors show up and deliver lectures when the spirit moves them. As far as I can tell (and I’ve asked many of my Nigerian friends for insight) there is no rhyme or reason as to when they will have class. It’s no problem for me during these three days, but I’m certainly far from genetically African with respect to having a schedule!
I was lucky to be privy to a 2-hour class discussion teasing out the details of the parasite malairae that causes malaria. It was fascinating to hear the epidemiology (how it enters the body and physiological damage it causes while it is there), treatment and prevention techniques to control this disease that is haunting the inhabitants of Africa. My friend is doing her thesis project on Long-Lasting Insecticide Nets and their effectiveness in knock-down of mosquitoes within a variety of local regions. The level of passion, desire and dedication regarding the eradication of malaria was palpable within this class but it was mixed with a certain level of frustration regarding the mobilization of their citizenry to buy in to the multi-faceted control techniques presently available.
I firmly believe that the people of Nigeria are intelligent and becoming more and more educated each year. Increased education will further enlightenment and development. At most points, while I was in class listening and participating in the informal conversation regarding class topics and other random ones I wasn’t experiencing an exciting cross-cultural experience, I was engaging in stimulating and engaging conversation that could have just as easily been taking place at OLLU. It made me realize how much I miss the university environment. I love it and must return. Maybe I can take classes in San Salvador…hmmm…ideas! :)
African time strongly applies to Nigerian Universities. Laitu simply goes to school every day from 9-5 Monday through Friday and isn’t even sure what the schedule for her classes was initially scheduled to be. Professors show up and deliver lectures when the spirit moves them. As far as I can tell (and I’ve asked many of my Nigerian friends for insight) there is no rhyme or reason as to when they will have class. It’s no problem for me during these three days, but I’m certainly far from genetically African with respect to having a schedule!
I was lucky to be privy to a 2-hour class discussion teasing out the details of the parasite malairae that causes malaria. It was fascinating to hear the epidemiology (how it enters the body and physiological damage it causes while it is there), treatment and prevention techniques to control this disease that is haunting the inhabitants of Africa. My friend is doing her thesis project on Long-Lasting Insecticide Nets and their effectiveness in knock-down of mosquitoes within a variety of local regions. The level of passion, desire and dedication regarding the eradication of malaria was palpable within this class but it was mixed with a certain level of frustration regarding the mobilization of their citizenry to buy in to the multi-faceted control techniques presently available.
I firmly believe that the people of Nigeria are intelligent and becoming more and more educated each year. Increased education will further enlightenment and development. At most points, while I was in class listening and participating in the informal conversation regarding class topics and other random ones I wasn’t experiencing an exciting cross-cultural experience, I was engaging in stimulating and engaging conversation that could have just as easily been taking place at OLLU. It made me realize how much I miss the university environment. I love it and must return. Maybe I can take classes in San Salvador…hmmm…ideas! :)
Rules for Taking a Taxi
1. Magically know which car is a taxi and which car is a private vehicle. (Wrongly assuming a private car as a taxi is offensive, but taxis aren’t marked in any particular way.)
2. Know the proper hand signal to indicate where you are going and match it with the ones that occasionally come from the taxi.
3. Assess where you should sit according to the standard of 4 in back and two in front passenger seat.
4. Greet others as you are entering, but then don’t say much more.
5. If you are the 2nd person in from the passenger side of the back seat, you sit forward so that everyone fits.
6. Once you have seated, you don’t move regardless of how awkward or uncomfortable the position is.
7. Magically know how much it costs and have exact change ready the moment you get out. (You don’t get it out beforehand and you don’t get it out while you’re sitting there because it’s too crowded but you don’t wait until after you’re out because then you’re standing in the middle of traffic and holding the taxi up from moving.)
2. Know the proper hand signal to indicate where you are going and match it with the ones that occasionally come from the taxi.
3. Assess where you should sit according to the standard of 4 in back and two in front passenger seat.
4. Greet others as you are entering, but then don’t say much more.
5. If you are the 2nd person in from the passenger side of the back seat, you sit forward so that everyone fits.
6. Once you have seated, you don’t move regardless of how awkward or uncomfortable the position is.
7. Magically know how much it costs and have exact change ready the moment you get out. (You don’t get it out beforehand and you don’t get it out while you’re sitting there because it’s too crowded but you don’t wait until after you’re out because then you’re standing in the middle of traffic and holding the taxi up from moving.)
New Sandals...New Experience!
My running friend Philip told me he wanted to buy me some new sandals. I was resistant at first, but he was so insistent to bring me to a specific place and buy them for me, that I couldn’t say no. We took bikes to this place that was far off the main road and all areas of commerce and if I hadn’t been with a trusted friend I might have been a little apprehensive. However, when we arrived we entered inside and I encountered a small, functioning factory!
I met the owner and designer and he showed us around. Besides two sewing machines that were present, all the other cutting, forming and detail work was done by hand. There were approximately When I started asking the young owner about how he was able to get his small business going, I realized that I had met him back in 2009 when I had lived in Jalingo. I had broken the unwritten taxi rules and struck up a conversation with him and learned about his fledgling shoe factory. I had always retained a desire to check it out, but it had never happened. You can imagine my delight when I realized that my happenstance taxi meeting had come full circle with my visit to buy sandals! The cute sandals (they stretch my style) were made all the more beautiful when connected to the experience of being reunited with the designer and witnessing the production process. Thanks to Philip: the sandals are appreciated, but the experience is treasured! :)
Moments of Beauty
I attended a Nigerian Pentecostal church today and was struck by the different methods of praying, preaching and worshiping God that take place all over the world. The preacher kept repeating that the “ground will swallow your enemies…the ground will swallow your challenges…the ground will swallow evil forces…the ground will swallow…etc” and I almost had to giggle because I thought about my Clinton United Methodist Church that was my most recent church family and how different the prayers sound there. I was struck with just how beautiful it is that we can worship a God that’s so BIG and can be worshiped in such a variety of ways by a diverse set of people and he receives it all for His glory!
Later, Ezekiel and I rode his motorcycle on a beautiful new road that had been a dirt path riddled with potholes only two years earlier. As I looked around, my eyes landed on a holy scene: distinct, grey clouds in a misty haze sitting amongst the mountains formed the background of a luscious, verdant pasture with a few stray trees and a man dressed in a brightly-colored caftan kneeling toward the east to pray to Allah. God was present in that moment.
Later, Ezekiel and I rode his motorcycle on a beautiful new road that had been a dirt path riddled with potholes only two years earlier. As I looked around, my eyes landed on a holy scene: distinct, grey clouds in a misty haze sitting amongst the mountains formed the background of a luscious, verdant pasture with a few stray trees and a man dressed in a brightly-colored caftan kneeling toward the east to pray to Allah. God was present in that moment.
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