African Journal #4: Sala’am Alla’am

April 4, 2008

#4: Mythbusters & Discoveries

It’s so incredibly hot right now with the sizzle from the hot desert afternoon sun that it’s become unbearable to just sit around by myself in my dark bedroom counting the hours until there’s a spark of electricity and I can get back to my cool as a cucumber routine and be able to do several errands online while the air conditioning blares on. But right now, the only thing I could think of doing was sitting at my desk typing away as the laptop charger whittles down from an hour’s worth of energy to none and get in some free-thinking journalism Coco style. Zach’s gone off to the internet café where they have cool air conditioning, running electricity and delicious mineral (they call it soda in the States)… while I’m here in the house all by my lonesome. No point in paying for more internet hours while I have my own system at home.. which doesn’t run when the electricity’s off, pfffttt.

Last night, Zach, the school’s principal Umar, and I took our out of town guest, Liz Gupta of VSO Nigeria, out for some grub at the Mami Market by the military base. Liz’s my VSO supervising officer, so she was in town to do a checkup as part of a routine she will be repeating every two months to ensure that my placement is going along effectively and my safety is of top priority.
The fish we had was incredibly spicy, covered in pepe (the spiciest Nigerian pepper). Liz and I could not stop breathing as if we had severe asthma with some spontaneous laughter and overflowing tears in between. The tough guys kept at the skins while I had to wash my burning tongue out with some ice-cold Star beer.
I had an interesting discussion with Umar, who is Muslim himself, about a variety of things associated with the Islamic law in which Kebbi State governs itself, and the Islamic religion that is practiced by nearly 75% of the population in Birnin-Kebbi. Umar stressed that many things we hear about Islam and its people outside of their religion are mostly propaganda, falsehood and myths. For instance, when I arrived in Abuja, someone told me these following shockers: if I was caught with alcohol in my hand on the street in public in a Sharia state, my hands would be cut off; if I was caught with any drug paraphernalia, I would be placed in jail for my entire life! Umar assured me that there are several Muslims who drink alcohol, and that it was a complete falsehood about chopping off hands of law violators. People who desire to drink alcohol may do so, they usually come to the Mami Market, where Sharia law is not applied, and drink a few, even buy some bottles to take home. It is not encouraged to drink in public, as it displays respect for many Muslims who choose not to drink. For Muslims who do drink, the religion is not vindictive when it comes to discipline, rather, it encourages Muslims to avoid drinking alcohol; but when they do consume some, it is advised they do not come to pray during the five times of prayer in the day after. Muslims can drink during celebratory ceremonies, it is not taboo in their religion as many non-Muslims think.

As for drugs, while a variety of substances may bring harsher punishments in America such as jail time for possession, in Kebbi State, if caught with marijuana or a softer drug, the police usually demand some thousands of Naira (1,000 N = $8.50 USD) and then let you go. That’s it. But if you continue to abuse it, then there might be harsher punishments.

Later on in the night, I was feeling a little sore from having pulled a muscle in my lower back earlier in the day, and electricity wasn’t running and we were out of clean water so I had to boil some water to fill the water filter tin and go to my sauna bedroom and try to sleep. On the way from the kitchen to my bedroom, I had completely forgotten about the box with the new A/C on the floor in the hallway and I tripped, dislocating my shoulder. Oy vey! Thankfully, I brought my black sling in case these things happen so I put it on to restrain my left arm from being displaced again. It marked the 16th time that my arm had disassociated itself from my shoulder, they have a love/hate relationship indeed!

Guess what? I’m thrilled to announce I dropped a whopping 20 lbs in my first month here in Nigeria – that is how hot the country is, I’ve continuously broken out rivers of sweat and downed hundreds of large water bottles to replace the lost water in my body, as well as eating small portions since I felt full immediately from the searing heat. I have hooked up with a physical therapist in town and he has this small gym – I became a member on Thursday and look forward to the miracles Sanjo can perform!
Me frustrated with the high-starch foods here. The cheapest and most common foods we could get here in Nigeria would be rice, rice, rice, potatoes, enriched white bread, pasta and more rice. When we go to restaurants, usually they have four choices: white rice, fried rice, jollof (spicy) rice and semovita (mushed rice). I prefer jollof or fried rice but sometimes I choose to have some chunks of beef with Nigerian-style salad (chopped lettuce, tomatoes, cabbage, baked beans, egg with some kind of white cream). Then there’s the Top Ramen that is easy to cook and affordable and that’s what Zach and I usually have for lunches. I’m getting wary of starches, and with the limited choice of vegetables and protein out there, I have to focus more on portions of veggies rather than high-starch foods. A while ago, our Hindu-Muslim friend, Sadit, brought us to a delicious bakery not far from my home – Oasis Bakery – and they serve many delicious desserts, French loaves, cookies, meat pies, chicken or beef burgers, andddddddd wheat bread???? One huge loaf costs 100N which is around 80 cents! So I’m deliriously happy and munching on wheat bread for breakfasts or having wheat sandwiches with tuna. Mmmm. I surely took healthy foods in America for granted and when I return I’m going wild on these herbs, organic foods, plenthora of green veggies and of course wholesome oranges and cheap apples! Apple by individual price cost 100N – a small apple has the price of a huge wheat loaf?? Could be a rip off or it could be the market price as in the desert it’s impossible to grow apple trees so they are imported from the South so hence higher prices.. maybe.

Have mercy, I stink! Skipped the shower this morning to sleep in a bit and wash the dishes (even with my injuries) and a lazy afternoon – so I’m going to lug a heavy bucket full of tank water with my good arm and give myself a good scrubbin’. There is no running water for showers & sinks here, so we have a medium sized scoop bowl for washing ourselves, and we use fresh bottled water for brushing our teeth. I’m used to this routine, but look forward to the day I have a long, relaxing bath with a glass of Merlot and delicious baked Ghirardelli brownies. A cold, running shower sounds so good and heavenly right now but I’ll settle for a scoopful of warm water with some cockroaches sitting by the sidelines having a good peep show!

One more thing before I close off – please do not believe everything mainstream media tells you about Muslims – ask one, talk to one, experience their religion for a day and you’ll be surprised that most of what you hear is false. Umar said there are many different sects of Muslims and that they have different ways to worship Allah and how to behave, think and talk. Come to Nigeria – especially a Sharia state – and see for yourself that they’re not that bad! I think they’re cool, actually.

Tactile love,
Coco
xoxo

African Journal #3: The Saharan Heat

April 1, 2008

Sizzling Temperatures and Ice Cold Coca Cola

Sannu!
My goodness, the heat is climbing upwards each day I wake up to the desert sun of Birnin Kebbi, and it even continues into the night – which isn’t pleasant to bear when the electricity decides to black out and we’re stuck laying in bed in the pitch black darkness with a couple of cockroaches, buzzing mosquitoes and sweat streaming down our backs!
It’s something I’m quite not used to, having grown up in frigid Canada for the past 28 years, but any day I would pick this heat over the icy cold snow weather! What’s important is that I quench myself with continuous safe H2), keep my body slathered in SPF 30 and keep my cool, polarized shades on!

This past weekend, Zach and I hopped on the kabo-kabo, which is a motorcycle driven by a cabbie, to the local military base where there is a market. At the Mami Market, the sharia law (the law of Islam in which Kebbi State government runs its policies and state under) is not in effect and alcohol is served. Zach and I had a beer, and brought some back home with us. Sunday, we went to my friend Sadit’s home, he is an ex pat from India who works at the local eye hospital, and we had some delicious soup, potatoes & rice… starch laden foods have become the norm of my food intake here – as delicious as they are, I hate the fact that every meal I have is consisted of 60 percent starch!!!

No worries – I was hooked up with an occupational therapist through a former volunteer from the Netherlands – Hiljkje – who came into town to visit. Sanjo, the therpaist, is going to whip me in shape in the next few months – as he had done for previous VSO volunteers looking for fun and a way to keep in shape with all the weight dropped from the extreme heat. Looking forward to this!

My VSO supervising officer, Liz, is coming tomorrow, so have to get the house in tip top shape, and stock our pantry with food….. market, here we come.

INo news on my lost blue baggage… I am sooooo BUMMED… there was a lot of stuff in it I absolutely needed to survive the weather, the bacteria, the boredom here… VSO is working, working, working on finding it… fingers and toes crossed!

On April 11 and 12, Zach and I are off to Minna, a state four hours south of Birnin Kebbi, for a goodbye party for a VSO volunteer, Aine, who has completed her stint and is returning to Ireland, so it should be fun… then we’re off to Abuja, the capital city of Nigeria, to bid Zacheroo goodbye as he flies off to the States on the 14th. I’ll be sticking around the southern states for a bit, visiting Akwanga to see my dear friends Jane, David and Helen, then off to Jos on the 18th to visit vols Heather, Julia and Sebastian and mingle with the Deaf community there… see if I can share any of my expertise and resources with them… then its back to Abuja on the 23td and meet up with some important people who came to BK to visit – the Federal Government Dept of Education – they requested a meeting once I came to Abuja to discuss resource sharing and the possibility of funding for Deaf clubs, language programs and classes for the Deaf Blind… so this is a perfect opportunity for me to start networking with the national level… I have connections already with the state and local governments!!!! amazing networking so far!!!

Even all the Deaf schools in the nation are aware I am here and the heads of these schools want to meet me – either for networking or to have me give a lecture or worksop on Deaf Blind issues and culture.
Things are definitely looking up!

I made three vlogs – but the net here is so slow and my single diles alone are so large, I’m not sure where I can compress my videos on the Internet then download?? Any suggestions??

I’m off – kabo kaboing and Mami-ing – so y’all have a great day, wherever you are in the world… or time zone, that is!
Stay warm, stay cool and stay tuned!

Tactile love,
Coco xoxo

African Journal #2: Sweet Home Sweet, Birnin-Kebbi

March 22, 2008

Second Week In Birnin Kebbi

Sanu, friends!

What an absolutely crazy week I had! Where do I start????

Last weekend, Erin, Zach and I traveled to Argungu, a small fishing village half an hour east of Birnin Kebbi in the principal’s car and endured the hot desert heat to attend the annual world-famous Kebbi State Fishing Festival. I had looked this up on the internet before I came to Nigeria, and seems the fishing festival attracted more than 500,000 visitors every year with some radical celebrations that got recognized in the National Geographic, media outlets, and its reputation was said to be extraordinary.
Indeed it was! On Friday, we went to the Processional Ceremony and got the luxury of sitting in a sheltered seating area in a row behind the emirs, wazhiris and the governors of Kebbi State. Their headresses and clothes were so exquisite, and they emitted very strong influence and respect towards the other distinguished visitors. In the rows behind us, we saw what was mainly men, not women, and a few speckles of Bature (white) people who came from all parts of the world to watch this legendary fishing sport event.
A large processional of camels from the desert, strong horses, and colorful costumed natives from different sectons of Kebbi State pranced around the track field, and all around the shelter were thousands of spectators (villagers). Billows of dust smoke continued to penerate the air, and often I found it difficult to breathe and had to clear out my air pipes. Yuck.
The next day, the big day, was just…. sectactular, extraordinary, inspiring…. I have never been so amazed at something like this before, and the best thing was – we got the best seats in the house!!! Erin, Zach and I got in the secured gate area quite so easily because we were foreign batures (more global recognition for Argungu, the better) and we were urprised to see so many Nigerian and worldwide media outlets (BBC, Nigerian National News, Lagos newspapers and National Geographic) strewn all over the grounds. We got seats in the nosebleed section which did not fare so well for me because I wanted to see up close the action we had so much heard about. Zach tried to talk to several event coordinators, trying to see if we could get seats in the front area but we were given the run around. There were a LOT of bature people sitting in front, we decided to go over the railing and sit right on the edge of the river bank!!!! In front of us was a journalist from Lagos and his staff, a cameraman, and one bature man. In Nigeria, time does not occur quickly or promptly, rather, it takes sooooo long to start anything… so the event, scheduled for 9am, started close to noon???? Dehydrated but excited, we saw thousands of fishermen lining up half a mile away across rice paddies with homemade fishing nets, special bowls to store fish. Their resolve was to run into the ice-cold muddy river and catch the BIGGEST fish and win the 1 Million Naira (dollar) and car prize. There was a weighing scale behind us, waiting for the biggest fish to come out of the Argungu river.
The men started running, and dust filled the air, it became a scene of madness! The gun hadn’t gone off, it was a flase start and despite the attempts of the local guards, the men kept on coming! The air was so thick of euphoria and desperation, as the fishermen started filling the 30-foot wide river almost instantly. Their bodies were strewn all over, with fishing nets dangerously tangled around their bodies and the ground began shaking with thunderous stomping from local villagers who came to watch the action from behind the fishermen. One by one, big fishes were thrust in the air, and the men’s faces looked around in jealousy and glee, hoping their fish would be the prize of the Argungu fishing village. In a camoe, one of the men hoisted upon a very large fish, which I’m assuming easilyy won the prize, crept up to the stairs leading to the weight scales. We stayed among the craziness for an hour under the hot sun, and decided to walk back to meet the principal. We had a man singing Hausa lead us to our car, for whatever reason that was for!!!!

On Monday, it was my first day at the Kebbi Dchool for the Handicapped, and boy, can I tell you it was rather overwhelming, exciting and eye opening?

The school has around 300 Deaf children, 50-something crippled and blind children, all split in different groups and into the Primary and Secondary levels. I met the vice Principal. Mustafa, and through our Principal. Umar, he introduced us to the schoolchildren in a 7 30am ceremony. The smiles on the children were so wide and beautiful, their eyes big with curiousity.
I met a Deaf Blind man, who SEEMS to have Usher’s. at the school. He was not much younger than me, and his tactile methods were so different than the method I use. I put my hand on the signing hand while they sign freely, while with the man the signers forced his hand to form the signs and clamped down his hands – I viewed him as a jailed bird wanting to be free. And I resolved to be the one to open the cage door and let him fly free.

The week went by quickly, with some things happening here and there, then on Friday we went to Sokoto, the nearest biggest city, 2 hours away for the day. I bought some beautiful fabrics to make a dress, and was the center of unwanted attention on the sde of the street with 200 children watching us all around, while we waited for our friend, Sadeet, to come pick us up, His car broke down on the way home but fortunately it wasn’t so far away from Sokoto, so we had to come back to the big city and wait for a tow truck and a saviour to come get us.. travelling during night is NOT recommended in Nigeria, but we took the roads anyway…… crazy.
Today we’re off to a military base, where sharia law does not apply, and finally have some alcohol to enjoy… and hopefully they have some good chop (food0.

My box is still missing and I am devastated. There was around 5,000 dollars’ worth of things in there, mostly from donors… many things I needed to survive up here. Most depressing especially, was the two photo books – one with my ORIGINAL childhood pictures – and the second with all of my friends’ pictures – is missing in action. I really wanted those books to remind me that I am not alone out in the desert, but to be reminded how far my life has come and how much my family and friends love me.

If you’d like to send a care package, please do… the address for mailing it is on the facebook group’s page.

I will have internet installed at my home pretty soon, so I’ll be able to update often! Yay!

It’s so nice to get supportive messages from you… please consider coming to visit!!! It’ll be a rich experience for you!

Tactile love and surely sweatin’ it out,
Coco xoxo

African Journal #1: Nigeria Welcomes Coco!

March 17, 2008

First Update from Africa!!

Sanu, everybody! I am sitting in the local internet cafe shielded from the hot desert sun and thrilled to finally be able to get some internet access and get the message out to y’all loud and clear: I AM DOING GREAT!

Of course, there was some wahala (problems) and stomach churning incidents in the past two weeks into my first month here in Nigeria. It’s a blessing to have friends and interpreters Zach and Erin with me – if they didn’t come with me, I seriously would have lost my cool and unable to communicate with people here at all. So, it’s thanks to them, my experience so far has been a less difficult one and I look forward to the rest of my African experience.

I landed in the Nigerian capital of Abuja on March 2nd via London, UK (by the way, thanks for the Guinness and great company Tish and Arlinda) and was greeted by gawkers and several suggestions to be “friends” (meaning sexual partners)… ha. I was told by the military guy at Immigration that I should find a good Nigerian man to marry. Oh boy.
I had brought four bags/boxes and turned out I had only gotten ONE???? wahala wahala wahala…. dododo???? so within a week and half, I got the two others… one remains missing. In that box is my original childhood pictures and essential suvival kits, and even DVDs and coffee beans… how will I live without them???? Coffee here = instant. Ugh.

The In Country Training was long, interesting and boring. Had built a great network of friends with the other VSO volunteers who had just arrived in Abuja at the same time, and with the rest of the serving VSO volunteers scattered in Nigeria who came together for a PATCH meeting in Jos the weekend after the ICT. What fun!!!!

I had the fortune to meet several Deaf community members through Anadestin, a hearing interpreter and leader in the Deaf community and he brought along some Deaf people whom had a literal culture shock when they met a strong willed independent white deafblind woman! One woman, Doris said, “Thank you so much for coming to Nigeria. Now we have hope”. That made me almost cry…. They begged me to stay in Jos permanently during my volunteer service period, but I was already committed to work in the desert town of Birnin Kebbi, 9 hours away. I promised I would come to Jos once a month and visit. They mentiioned there was a Deaf Blind woman that had her education stopped at 12, and now she is 30 – she had stayed at home all this time doing nothing. Broke my heart but inspired me to do something for her and other DB folks. See what I can do.

The journey to Birnin Kebbi from Abuja was long and dreary. The temperatures rose as we drove more north. Erin, Zach and I were so cramped in the back of the truck while the driver and the principal of the school I work at, sat comfortably in the front. 9 hours and counting, we finally arrived in Birnin Kebbi and I entered my casa. A four bedroom house with kitchen, bathrooms, living room, a courtyard. It’s nice – middle class for Nigerian standards. I drain my water from the tap and use it for showers, washing dishes, washing clothes… and use a water filter for drinking water. Speaking of water, I’ve drank so much water in the past two weeks it’s insane!!! I am pretty sure I dropped more than 10 pounds and I can see myself wasting away (the good kind).
Speaking of waste, too… oh my gosh. I had the terrible stomach aches, had several embarrassing incidents with my bowel and having to drink conocotions for diarrhea. It’s still not over, but soon I hope…

It’ll probably be a while before I am able to update, and seems the internet cafe doesn’t recognize my USB card, would have been so great to download pictures for you all…

It truly is an AMAZING experience living in Africa especially the desert as a Deaf Blind white woman. I feel very welcome here and there’s been an astounding outpouring of support in this town. I met several important people today – te Waziri (vice president for the town), High Commissioner on Education for Kebbi State, the school administration, the teachers, and most importantly, I met several students who look forward to my presence everyday.
Tomorrow the school is having a special assembly where I will officially introduce myself and make my place at the school. I am truly blessed to have this experence, and look forward to the huge challenges that lie ahead.

I hope all of you are doing well, I’ve missed checking facebook, so you’ll have to email me and tell me any news you have.

Like we say in Hausa *the language of the North* Say Anjima (see you later)

tactile love,
Coco
xoxo