Journal

August 31, 2006
The Chicken Murder

My new cleaner is working out great so far. It’s one of the things I will miss in Canada, having
someone to get my groceries, wash my clothes and clean my house! I mean I guess I could still
hire someone in Kelowna, but not for $4 a week!!

I got brave yesterday and got her to buy me a chicken. It cost 500 naira ($5) to buy the chicken and
have it murdered and chopped. It came home to me in a small plastic bag which when I peeked
inside and saw eyes and feet looking back at me I yelped and almost dropped the chicken on the
floor. Bose laughed at me. I asked her to help me prepare it. I know that all meat here has to be
boiled before you can cook it, fry it, whatever you plans are. So she said first we have to wash it.
Huh?? Yup, into a bowl it all goes and gets washed twice. So I am watching her do this for me
and squealing each time she comes across the head, heart, stomach, developing eggs, feet, and
other assorted bits.

Once she is done washing I pick out the parts of the chicken that are appealing to me – legs and
wings and what looks like ½ a breast – for boiling and tell her to take away the rest for herself.
Into the pot goes the water, salt, maggi (msg), and ½ an onion to boil for 30 min. After the boil I lay
it on a plate to cool then I can cut the meat off the bone to use in my tikka masala curry. When I
am done I have meat equivalent to about 1 chicken breast from home – but almost all dark meat.

Even though I split it into 3 meals it’s an expensive venture. I have come to the conclusion that
what we buy in Canada that is labeled “chicken” in the supermarket is not really from a chicken. It
must be some other animal or synthetic product with chemicals to make it taste like chicken.
Either that or the butchers are magicians!! My chicken resembled a chicken in every way. In
Canada there’s nothing resembling a chicken about those big juicy breasts that come all clean
and lined up and no bone or skin in sight!

Well back to tuna and beans for me for a few more months. I won’t be murdering another chicken
on my own. I’ll wait till I can enjoy that product we call chicken that I am sure is not really a chicken.

August 28, 2006
Birthday Weekend

Well maybe turning 30 isn’t so bad after all. I had a fabulous birthday weekend in Kabba with my
friends. I headed out to Kabba Thursday night and Friday 20 of my friends from around Nigeria
arrived to enjoy the weekend together.

Friday I relaxed with Noel and Leo and went to the internet café before everyone arrived in late
afternoon. Hillie’s Bar was hopping by 6pm. At 7:30 we were treated to Lydia’s yummy cooking
then back to the bar for more good time. The hats came out like always and I proudly sported the
new Canada hat that went well with my “The hottest girls are from Canada” T-shirt. The party
wrapped up early at 1pm we all decided to save some energy for night two.

Saturday our plans for early morning run and late morning hike were thwarted by a thunderstorm
and it was movies in the morning followed by naps or watching soccer in the afternoon. We all
gathered back at 5:30pm for tea and Super Moist Chocolate Chocolate Chip cake with Chocolate
icing that I brought from Canada. It was a big hit as Nigerian cakes are quite dry. There were 5 of
us celebrating birthdays in August who got sung to and got to blow out candles. Nicole arranged
a quiz to see “who knows Tammie best”. It was 20 fun questions answered in teams of two with
interesting animal team names. Simon and Aine scored the highest and know me the best with
Noel and Ellie as a close second.

After another lovely dinner, including the famous yam cakes, we sat outside for party round 2.
Unfortunately after a bit we got rained on and had to retreat to one of the conference halls. The
change of atmosphere had Noel wind us all up for a fun game of pass the pillow. The game
included throwing a large pillow around the room and trying not to knock over anyone’s drink. If
you had the pillow you had to tell a story, joke, sing a song, or get us all to play a game. It actually
was a lot of fun and lasted a few hours. With all these party games it was more like turning 3 than
30!!

Sunday most people had to leave early to catch their rides home and I slept in late. Wendy and
Ellie stayed and we watched some movies and relaxed most the day. In the evening we broke
into the specialty cheeses that had been brought for me, yummy stuff like Brie and Blue Cheese
and Gouda!! So wine and cheese for our last night and early to bed to make it to the bus for
7:30am this morning and a smooth ride home.

I am really struggling with the class I am teaching now. ½ the class are angels and the other ½
are completely out to lunch. This afternoon I had them write a test on Word and ½ almost aced it
where as the other ½ got anywhere from 0-3 out of 30. Ouch. I am really trying with them. Giving
them extra attention in class, helping them study and practice outside class but they just stare at
me with these blank looks. The big challenge is just getting them to think for themselves. It’s
hard to get motivated to help them when they just don’t try at all. Ah well, it’s my last class here,
got to try and enjoy it as much as I can.

August 23, 2006
Turning 30

Yes, I did. Yesterday I turned 30 and I am still alive. Do I feel old? Yes. I feel like I should feel like
a grown up or an adult and stop gallivanting the world and get serious or something. Chances of
me doing that? Slim. True I am going to move back to Kelowna, and maybe I’ll stay there for a
while. But I am not ready to slow down or get serious about anything but having fun every day.

It was actually a pretty great day. Since one of my teachers classes graduated last week and he
doesn’t have a new class to teach we made a deal that he would teach my class yesterday for me
and today, his birthday, he can have off. My day started at 6am with calls from Jen and Gord in
Canada. Especially nice since I haven’t heard from my family! My parents are forgiven since they
are in Vegas.

After an hour on the phone I got up and started cleaning. Bola has been too sick last week and
this week to clean for me. She did send her boy to help me so he fetched water and swept. At 10:
30 it was all clean and ready for guests so I headed out shopping. I bought cheese and tuna,
baguettes and 2 birthday cakes. At 1pm all my staff and Nigerian friends came with cards and
enjoyed cake with me.

VSO’s Simon and Kate arrived from Abuja around 3pm. After a yummy lunch of balsamic
tomatoes and cheese on baguette we headed to the cloth market for a nice long wander through
the stalls. Returning home at 6pm we had some cake and put on a movie. I am having bad luck
with the movies I brought back from Canada they all skip constantly so we ended up resorting to a
couple old movies that are originals. For dinner we made a very yummy pasta with cheese sauce
and tuna. I am really looking forward to the leftovers tonight!

So that was my 30th birthday. Very nice with lots of friends around. Today after a leisurely
morning Kate and Simon headed off to Osogbo but will be coming to Kabba for this weekends big
birthday party.

August 21, 2006
Weekend in Abuja

Like a bat out of hell we shot speeding into the wet darkness Friday night to reach Kabba. Cause
what you can’t see can’t hurt you right? Well luckily it was true this time. Although what we could
see was every car that came from the opposite direction turning on it’s brights as we drew close
just to ensure we know they are there and to cause complete blindness for us. On one such
occasion of blindness we went off the road but our laughing daredevil driver recovered without
taking his foot off the gas and giggling the whole time! Lucky to be alive I arrived safely in Kabba
at 8:15pm where Lydia’s lovely cooking and the good company of Noel were waiting.

Saturday morning we rose early I went for a run then we had a leisurely breakfast before hitting the
road to Lakoja at 8:15am. Noel attended an Ordination Mass while I took a 2hr nap and watched
CNN. At 1:30 we were back on the road but before we could get out of Lakoja we had a flat tire.
We were lucky to still be in town where there were people to help us repair it and get back on the
road. Heavy traffic and a long drive got us into Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, at 5pm starving since we
missed lunch we went straight to AJs for pizza. After dinner Noel dropped me off at the Irish
Embassy where I was staying.

Bob, the Deputy Ambassador of Ireland, threw a great party. It kicked off around 8pm with drinks
and food by the pool and moved on to the air conditioned lounge for some dancing. As the party
was beginning to wind down Noel and a guy I believe was the Swedish Ambassador decided to
go swimming, fully clothed they performed a graceful water ballet, pictures to come next week!
After Noel departed it was another Irish who began another round of pool fun, this time stripping to
boxers and joined by many for some water polo. As tempting as it was to hop in and join the fun
since it was 3am I decided to retire to my room and get some rest.

Sunday I slept in late then headed to Nicole’s for brunch which turned into 1pm pizza and ended
up being pasta when the dough went on strike. I still managed to make it to the Craft Village at the
Hilton for 2pm to meet with Chantal and her cousin. I had planned on heading back to Ilorin on
Sunday but when I found out Chantal was in town and it was my last chance to see her before she
leaves the country I post phoned my return to Monday. I hadn’t been to the craft village before and
although it was a bit more expense there were some things I hadn’t seen before so I made 3
good purchases to add to my collection of Africa carvings. After Chantal left for her plane I headed
back to the Embassy for a rest then joined several other VSO’s for Indian food and a movie.

This morning I got up early and headed to the taxi park at 6am to ensure I would be back in time to
teach my 2pm class. Unfortunately my driver had other plans including stopping for lunch and
repairing a flat tire and I didn’t make it home till 2:30pm. But I was able to send word at 1pm when
I knew I would be late for Abdul to start my class so no harm done and I took over at 2:30 when I
arrived. I am now feeling very grubby and exhausted but going to head to the Internet café anyway
to post this entry.

August 14, 2006
Kabba

After an excellent and relaxing weekend in Kabba with Noel I am feeling a lot more like myself. I
always love traveling, even if it’s not the safest pastime and each moment on the road is taking
your life in our hands I thrive on it. I love watching the country go by. It makes it so real that I really
am here in Africa. Little towns with smiling people going about their business, goats, chickens, &
dogs, areas of intense green jungle, it’s all fascinating to watch.

Previous visitors brought Noel about 10 pounds of cheese that really needed to be eaten since
there had been no power to cool the fridge for 3 days. So we were on a mission to eat cheese all
weekend breakfast, lunch, and dinner! In the cool of the early mornings I went for a run through
the neighborhood. It’s nice how cool it is now in the rainy season. The rest of the day we watched
movies(thanks goodness for solar power) and had long chats about life and this country.

Since I don’t have a class to teach till 2pm today I decided to stay an extra day and only returned to
Ilorin this morning. The weekend helped me readjust to living here. It’s not too often in life you get
the opportunity to live in Africa so I have renewed determination to enjoy my time here. It’s lonely
in Ilorin these days since the staff changes at Satcom so I plan to travel every weekend if I can to
ensure I get contact with friends and enjoy myself. Next weekend the plan is to go to Abuja with
Noel to attend a party at the Irish Embassy that promises to be a fun time.

August 9, 2006
Digging for Answers

People in Africa are funny. They never tell you anything that you don’t ask for directly. So I’ve only
slowly been uncovering all the changes since I left. Each hour seems to bring a new surprise
despite my attempt to ask all the right questions and get all the info.

For example when I called here from Canada last week they told me no new classes were
starting, but then they started a new 2-4pm class the next day. I guess they weren’t including that
one? Then today they told me that a new 9-11 class is about to start. This really surprised me
since we talked yesterday and all agreed that they are resigning Aug 31 and I would stay will the 2-
4 finishes Sept 21. So who did they think was going to teach this new class???

I told VSO today that I will stay here will Sept 21 then take 3 weeks vacation I have which will take
me to my 1 year anniversary in Nigeria. I have offered to give Chief the option of my training new
people to take over or closing the school and receiving full documentation. I am waiting till I meet
with VSO to decide if I will take a new placement in October or return to Canada.

August 7, 2006
Returning to Nigeria

Where to start? I haven’t been back 48hrs and it’s been a roller coaster. I managed to almost
miss 2 flights, once was Air Canada’s fault and once my fault for sleeping at Heathrow. But after a
long journey with delays I emerged from the Lagos airport at 9pm Saturday to thankfully find Deb
and CJ who had been waiting for me since 6pm. Unfortunately a German diplomat choose to
park in front of them and abandon so we were stuck till after 10pm before we could finally head to
Panni’s where after a brief chat I managed to sleep for most of 12hrs.

I woke at 11am on Sunday feeling exhausted, depressed and lonely and completely unable to
face public transport to Ilorin so sent word that I wouldn’t be home till Monday and rested for the
rest of the day. After another reasonable night’s sleep I felt strong enough to face the trip today
and made it home safely. The trip seemed to go fast with my nose in a book, but I was certainly
reminded I am back in Nigeria. The roads have worsened with all the rain and the potholes were
everywhere. We got a flat tire but within 15min the spare was installed and we were off again at a
break-neck pace.

It’s hard for my brain to make sense of the world. Canada and Nigeria just can’t be compared
and are so different. It feels like Canada was just a fantasy and sitting here now, I feel at home,
as if I never left. Unfortunately the dust and endless spider webs tell me I’ve been away.

The first thing that struck me when I got off the plane was the smell. It smells like Nigeria. To me
it’s not a bad smell, but you would probably disagree. It’s the smell of a hot place where things
have rotted in the heat, people sweat, burning garbage, and the exhaust of millions of vehicles
who have never heard of Air Care. This country definitely has a distinct odor. Next the chaos and
crowds of Lagos. I forgot how walking down the street is taking your life in your hands as I
attempted to get to an Internet café near Panni’s.

Today, well rested, I felt relaxed and unfazed by all the chaos that makes this country what it is.
Canada is an easy and beautiful place but Nigeria breaks your heart and gets inside you. I love
this country and its people and it will be in my heart forever.

Despite my love for this place I left my heart behind in Canada when I returned here. In the two
hours I have been home I have been pummeled with stories of all the trouble since I left. Chief
has suspended Bisola and both the teachers want to leave. No one has been paid for July and
everyone is very unhappy. So right now I just feel like repacking my bags and heading back to
Canada. Not to mention that my phone was stolen as I got out of the taxi on my way home which
is very upsetting and expensive for me. Tomorrow I will start to make sense of it all and see
where things lie. Then I will request a meeting with VSO to fill them in and review my options.