Journal

February 27, 2006
Hillies Bar, Kabba

Ah the Monday morning blues! I had a wonderful weekend away with friends, after such a nice
time it sure makes it hard to come home and go back to work. At least today is a somewhat
eventful day: Our 1st day of class! I think we have about 5 students registered and starting today.

Friday I headed out in the morning to Kabba, the trip was a smooth 3 & ½ hrs to the next state. In
Kabba there are 2 Irish Priests at pastoral center set up to help people develop life skills. Noel
and Leo have been in Nigeria for over 4 years now and have really made the center home. In their
house they have setup Hillies Bar, the best Irish Bar in all of Nigeria. They are known for throwing
great parties with lots of tasty food and drink. They used to work with VSO and have ties going way
back and always welcome them to visit. I know I will be visiting again! It was so quiet and relaxing
there compared to my home in the middle of town. Their compound is green with beautiful
landscape, a project of Leo’s. There are several buildings with accommodation, the set up is very
comfortable with running water and solar power as a back up when the electricity is out.

I don’t think I’ve ever really known a priest before, definitely not an Irish priest, but I did have a
certain stereotype in my head. These guys were nothing like I expected! They were a lot of fun,
really normal guys who also happen to be priests. I couldn’t really see any difference between
them and all the rest of us. And I was really impressed with the work they are doing. I can’t
remember their exact motto but it was something to the effect of “Skills for living”. They offer
workshops for Nigerians to strengthen and develop skills in leadership, peaceful conflict
resolution, and all the other type of stuff that many companies back home are sending their staff to
these days. They also always include a section on HIV/AIDS in all their workshops.

Unfortunately due to the religious tension that has been causing problems, riots, and deaths here
since the publication of the Danish Cartoon that has offended Muslims worldwide a warning went
out to the 3 car loads coming down from Abuja for the party on Friday that they should not travel.
We were really sad on Friday getting calls from everyone canceling their trip. Fortunately on
Saturday morning 1 carload decided it was safe enough and came down anyway so between
them, a few expats living around Kabba, plus myself and Chantal from Lagos there was still a
good number of people to have a decent party and a lot of fun Saturday night. The Kabba Boys, as
the priests are known, have a large collection of silly hats from around the world. Once a few
beers have gone down the hats come out and everyone suits up which adds a lot of fun to the
atmosphere. You can see the pictures of a few of us in our silly hats behind Hillies Bar in the
Photo Album. There is also a picture of me feeding little Arthur practicing my skills at being an
aunt.

The time in Kabba was a much needed break from here. I was craving the good conversation and
socializing with friends. The weekend was almost too good though because I am finding myself
very blue and a bit short tempered today dealing with life here and missing the ease of being with
westerners. I am hoping that our 1st class will go smooth and that by the end of the day I’ll feel
we’ve accomplished something and my mood will have improved.

February 20, 2006
Baby News!

This morning in Canada it’s my sister’s 27th birthday so I was woken with a phone call from her
that I was expecting. The news I wasn’t expecting is that she is expecting! In October of this year
my sister should have her first child which is very, very exciting news for my whole family. I am very
happy for her and yet very sad and home sick today since I will not be there with her.

Not too much is new around here. Bisola cut my hair last Thursday. Just trimmed about 2 inchs
off the end that was fried. So weird how strange and how nice to have her do it. I've always loved
going to the hair dresser, but I realized out here I get no human contact or touch. No parents to
hug me, no friends to hug or goof around with, no Country bars to go 2-stepping in someone’s
arms. I can't remember the last time I had contact with someone! Crazy how much I didn't realize
I miss it.

I had a fairly relaxing weekend, Karate in the mornings and watched movies & read in the
afternoon’s & evenings. Yesterday one of the girls who is working the payphone out front for
Chief, Tosin, invited Bisola and I to her house for lunch. I eagerly accepted as I would like to see
more of how people in my neighborhood live. It was about a 10 minute walk to her place. As
always I attract a lot of attention and people calling out to me which I tend to pretend I don’t hear.
Tosin seemed quite proud to have me with her though, she was really excited about the attention
and her reputation for being friends with an oyinbo (white person).

It’s hard to describe the layout of the house where Tosin lives with her parents. Inside the
building there was a long hall with many doors, some doors belong to her and some to other
families. There was one door to the bedroom and another to her sitting room and kitchen. We sat
down in the small sitting room to eat the food she had prepared for us. During the hour or so that
we sat there a goat and a chicken came down the hall and poked their heads in to see if we had
any food for them. She gave us a big plate of rice, a small bowl of pepe stew with 3 pieces of fish.
I haven’t had pepe in a while and boy was it hot! I downed a lot of water to get through my part.
The fish and the rice was very good. Bisola and I had 2 spoons and ate off the same plate. Tosin
did not eat with us and was very embarrassed at my compliments. Shortly after we finished
eating there was a fuss outside, water had come.

The water situation here is very sporadic. So far we have had water turned on only twice at my
compound. Both times it was around 4am on Friday morning when everyone is sleeping and
there seems to be no electricity to pump the water into our tanks and therefore most of it is wasted
and puddles in the road. So Bisola and I decided we should head home to see if our water was
on too since there was power and we could turn on the pump. Unfortunately there was no water
for us.

Water is an ongoing problem here. We have paid the water bill and water is supposed to be
turned on twice a week: Thursday & Sunday. No one seems to know what to do about the fact this
isn’t happening. We have a well for backup which is where I’ve been getting all my water from.
When Chief was here the well went dry. So he hired someone and got a quote to build a deeper
well that would have a pipe to pump the water into the tanks and therefore into the building. Chief
told us it would take 10 days and that he would get a tanker of water to tide us over. Chief left the
next day and has not returned and no one has come to dig the well or make any changes. This
isn’t a big problem as there is enough water in the well for Bisola and I for now, but I am worried
about providing water for the toilets when the students arrive which could be next Monday.

February 11, 2006
Deep Thoughts

This week the Chief was in Ilorin with us. The place always has a different feel when he is
around. Everyone is tense and wondering what he’ll be shouting about next. After a long and
unpleasant meeting with him on Monday I steered clear the rest of the week. He also decided to
give myself, Bisola, and the teachers Austine & Abdul “Leadership Management” training for 2
hours a day. As I’ve said many times Chief is a good businessman and he does know his stuff.
For the most part I think the ideas he’s relaying are intelligent and useful, and though I have heard
them all before it’s always good for a refresher, and I will admit I am benefiting from the reminder.
We all are human though and that means that although we may know that works best in practice
we also have emotions and life circumstances that effect us.

The staff this week have been quite frustrated with feeling like there’s a lot of meetings and no
action. Chief has asked us to put our heads together and come up with solutions to the
outstanding issues we have and things that need to get done to open the school. He explained to
us that we should brainstorm ideas, make a decision, and present our recommendation to
SATCOM (himself). It is understood SATCOM can accept or reject our recommendation.

As an example, how to print handouts for the students. The options we investigated were having
a printer do it, taking them to be photo copied, or purchasing our own photo copier. The most cost
effective was the printer, but it means we had to print for 1000 students up front, next was buying
our own copier, high up front cost but ongoing returns, and the most expensive option is taking it
to be photocopied where the quality would be low. As a team we made the recommendation of
buying our own copier as the cost would keep our expenses low and the office would also benefit
from having a copier to reduce cost of using the computer printer. This was all written up neatly
with our recommendations, reasons for it, and all options investigated. Unfortunately when we
gave him our suggestion he didn’t read it, just said no, we won’t buy a photocopier, we can’t use
the printer, we’ll have to have it photocopied. We knew he could reject our idea but the staff felt let
down after the work we did to investigate it and present it.

This same thing happened several times, we’d discuss, come up with what we thought was most
cost effective & practical, and each time our idea would be rejected. Chief knows how he wants
things done, he has the experience to do so, and it’s his money so there’s no reason it shouldn’t
be his way. The frustrating part is if we ask him to save time and effort how he wants it done then
he says we took no initiative to solve the problem, but if we present a solution then he always
goes with his idea anyway then you feel defeated over and over.

I think it’s fair to say we are all learning from this experience. Personally I am trying to learn what
methods work best for getting through to him and getting things done around here. None of us
have experience is starting up a business. I have experience in managing people, but not running
a business. The two teachers I hired are computer guys who just want to teach and didn’t sign up
for all these meetings and stuff and I am afraid they are going to quit on me before I can get them
in front of a class.

At this point the target to open the school is March. In light of everything VSO has agreed we may
need to reconsider this placement. My program officer unfortunately doesn’t have any free time to
come visit and sort things out till April. If needed they can pull me out of here before then but it
would probably mean I’d be sitting around in Abuja for a long time with no work to do again. At
least here I can work with the teachers and perhaps get some teaching done till things are sorted
out.

I am very torn as to what to do. I’m not a quitter so I don’t want to give up on this place. I’ve also
put a lot of time and effort into it and this is my home now. A part of me says that I didn’t come
here to be friends with Chief and worry about all this business stuff, I came to teach people
computers to improve their standard of living. So long as the school opens that could still
happen. So perhaps I should just continue to avoid Chief and focus on teaching. At the same
time do I want to stay 2 years in a place where I have to deal with this type of frustration on an
ongoing basis?

For the last 3 days I’ve also had a killer sore throat and really bad cough. So bad today that I’ve
been in bed since noon and it’s night now. When you are sick in bed with no power to watch
movies there’s not much else to do but think. So it’s one of those life questioning times when you
ask yourself all the big meaningful questions to which I usually find there are no clear answers.

Like what’s most important to me in life right now? Where do I find happiness? My family and
friends at home are very important to me, is this an opportunity to go back to them? What about
my career? What sort of jobs will be open to me after 2 years here? Somehow Africa feels like it’s
where I am supposed to be right now. I know this place is full of challenges but I feel I am strong
enough to face them. But am I beating a dead horse staying with this placement? Or does
another placement just look tempting cause times are tough yet it’ll have it’s own problems?

If I try to step away from tackling it all and keep it simple would that be better? I should eventually
get to teach, that’s what I came for, so can I hang in there till the school opens and this painful part
is over? For now focus on enjoying the friends I’ve made, the little things I enjoy like going to the
market and bartering for my food, my karate lessons, and traveling around the country on
weekends and breaks.

It’s hard to see which is the better option: putting up with Chief, finding a way to work around him,
and seeing results here, or starting over in a new placement in Nigeria. I’ve told VSO I’d like to
give it a few more weeks here to see if things improve before making my decision. This is fine
with them since they are busy right now and it’d be a lot of work to relocate me.

On a totally different note I was able to buy a new phone so I can take your calls again! Keep in
mind I am on GMT time without daylight savings so for you on PST that’s 9 hrs ahead. So the best
time to catch me is my morning 6am, around 9pm your time.

February 3, 2006
Highlights

TGIF! This week has flown by I can’t believe it’s almost the weekend again. As I mentioned
earlier there has been some frustration and strain with Chief and today I will be seeing him for the
1st time in 3 weeks so I am a little bit stressed out. Now I have just received news that his car
has broken down on the way here. That will either mean he will not make it today, or if he does he
will not be a happy camper so to speak. So I am a bit tense not knowing what to expect. Other
than greeting him I am hoping to avoid him tonight and catch up with him tomorrow when he has
rested and will hopefully be in better spirits.

On the up side it has been a very productive week. We were able to get quotes for the computer
equipment that needs to be replaced or repaired and made progress in installing and fixing the
computers we could access. My karate lessons have been going well and the exercise feels
great. Bisola also got permission from Chief to move into the flat below me, which is good news
because I’ll have another friend around even after Lola leaves.

Today has been an active day with one excitement after another. At 4am I woke to the sound of
rushing water. I jumped out of bed and shone my torch (flashlight) through the window into the
street and could see it was flooding from a burst pipe. I decided to check our water source incase
our water had come too. I traipsed downstairs and found a torch in my face as I came out the
door. I hadn’t realized the gate man, Baba, sleeps on a mat on my door step! I guess there is
some security after all. Anyhow the two of us went to check the tap and sure enough there was
water, but there was no electricity. So I told him he should on the generator. He said no, he had
to check with madam first (Lola). So back upstairs we go and wake Lola so she can confirm he
should on the gen. Back to sleep.

At 9am we had the news that Chief’s car was on it’s way and he was about to depart so it was all
hands on deck to ensure this place is clean and presentable so that he cannot find fault
anywhere. We had power from about 8am to 10am to work on the computers more and try and
get some of the course material printed. Just after the power went out the gate man arrived
escorting the mailman with a package for me!! How exciting! It was sent a week ago from my
friends in Wales and contained goodies such as peppercorns, coffee flavored chocolate, soups,
and fair trade coffee. I can’t tell you how good it feels to get packages and know people are
thinking about me, especially when I’ve had a hard week!

Since there was no power I then took the opportunity to go to the Internet Café and catch up on my
emails and upload another 2 pictures to my site of the office. I got 1 disappointing email though
informing me that the conference/program review in Abuja next week has been delayed till March
16/17th. I was really looking forward to getting a break from here, visiting with the other
volunteers, getting some extra money, and visiting a supermarket. There is also a good-bye party
on Saturday for the volunteers who have finished their 2 years. Now I will not be able to attend or
say goodbye to them.

But just to brighten the day again shortly after I returned from Internet the car from Lagos with
Chief’s driver, his cook, and Ayinde arrived. With them was a package for me from Kelowna that
had been sent back in early December. It was like Christmas for real! It was a big box filled with
many items, each individually wrapped in Christmas paper. There was popcorn & 2 different
cheese flavorings, KD Mac & cheese, soups, pasta sauces, oregano & other spices, 3 kinds of
rather melted cheese, camp shower, mossie net, wet ones & hand sanitizer, long last candles, a
tone of ZipLock bags, Body Shop goodies, and a map of the world. Along with this was Christmas
cards from the 7 of them and a CD of Christmas carols which I am playing as I write this. The
map is already up on my office wall so I can proudly show everyone where I come from.

After I put a way all my presents, and with thoughts of the great dinner I will be having tonight, I
headed back to the office since there was power to continue working on the computers. But when
I got downstairs I found my 3 staff chatting in reception with no light. At that time the electrician
happened to show up so I sent him to find the source of the problem. It turned out that when the
power was switched from gen back to PHCN this morning one of the levers broke and could not
switch back so no power for the office. This is not good news cause it means a new bill for Chief
and I know he is going to flip about what a hassle this place is with things always breaking. So at
the moment my 3 staff are watching the electrician and hopefully learning a bit from him while I
have my laptop upstairs where there is power.

No big plans for the weekend. I hope to make it to Karate both mornings and will probably spend
a lot of time meeting with Chief. Hope all your weekends are merry! I’m singing off to enjoy my
Christmas music. Merry Feb to you all!

February 1, 2006
Time Flies

Wow, I can’t believe it’s February! Time is just flying by. Even though the school hasn’t opened I’
ve been managing to keep fairly busy. Things move slowly here so each day it’s a big deal to
complete 1 task. I now have 4 staff employed, 1 Office Admin: Bisola, 2 Teachers: Austine &
Abdule, and 1 cleaner who works ½ days: Bola.

So far things with them are going smoothly. Bisola is reliable and strong. The boys need
supervision but are eager techies showing off who knows Q-basic better when I’m not watching.
They seem to know a lot about a few applications but since they are eager they catch on fast when
I show them new things. Today we were able to get a computer repair person in to give us a quote
to fix the computers. Many need the CD ROM fixed or replaced, we are short 1 monitor and 3 mice
and there are other random problems. Altogether we estimate it will be about 60,000 naira, or
$600. Now I need Chief’s approval and the money.

We had some more fun with the gateman today. He suddenly decided to personally screen
anyone coming to the office and in 1 case decided he didn’t like a boy who wanted to sign up for
class and blocked him from entering the building till Bisola came to the rescue. For now we just
have to work around him and keep an eye out for people trying to get in.

Karate is going well, I am taking lessons 4 times a week and enjoying the social interaction and
the exercise. It also gets me out of the house on the weekends and gives me something to do for
2 evenings.

I am very settled into my house now. We still don’t have water but I have arranged with a girl from
the neighborhood, Shun, to come every morning before school and carry 3 buckets for 20 naira.
She is also coming after school on Wednesdays to help me clean the house and do laundry for 4
hours and 300 naira. She doesn’t like to work and is always complaining she is tired, but when I
tell her she doesn’t have to work she quickly gets back at it as she wants the 300, it’s a lot of
money for her.

Last night before bed I took a candle lit bath. Sure sounds relaxing and romantic, till you picture
pouring shocking cold water over your head and reaching for the soap only for a 2 inch cockroach
to run out from behind! Life’s always full of excitement here. It seems to be getting hotter at night
so I haven’t been sleeping well. It’s usually 32 degrees when I go to bed and never any power so
no fan. Speaking of power what was NEPA (Nigerian Electrical Power Authority or Never Expect
Power Always) has officially changed it’s name to PHCN (Power Holding Company of Nigeria) or
what is now known as Problem Has Changed Name! It’s funny how quickly they came up with a
new nickname. But as the name suggests it’s the same old problems. We have power on and off
for about 4hrs a day. We almost never have power after 6pm and get a few blessed hours to
sleep in the middle of the night.

All of the above isn’t that bad. I have moments of frustration but it all passes and slowly things are
moving forward. Unfortunately with Chief not being here trying to get things done has been difficult
and put a strain on our relationship. It is very difficult to have phone conversations and he is rarely
able to check email, unfortunately by the time he does it’s often well out of date and causes more
problems and confusion than good. Abdul, the lawyer, has been a great help though in mediating
and helping to keep the progress going. Here’s to hoping the problems will be smoothed out and
we can continue to move forward.