Desiree's First Week

My first week here has been very busy and interesting. When first landing in Nigeria I was feeling a little stange, being the only white woman on the flight. There were a lot of American men who work with Ryan on the plane and they were very kind - telling me I was brave to come! First few days were just spent getting over jet lag and unpacking.

As though moving to Nigeria wasn't enough stress, Ryan and I volunteered to care for a fellow expat's dog, named Buddy. We expected that Buddy would be a nice house dog that could keep me company during the day. When Buddy came to us, he looked like he had been living on the streets for months, smelt like it too! He was missing hair, scabby, thin and full of fleas... his owner had left him in the care of his staff while he was in the USA and he wasn't well cared for. Ryan and I tried our best to bring Buddy back to good heath and house dog status by washing him, cleaning the mites in his ears and tending his wounds. Unfortunately, Buddy was in great need of a Vet and in Nigeria, a Vet costs an arm and a leg. Needless to say we were not sucessful in fixing Buddy up and we elected to return Buddy to his owner after only 1 week. It took another week to get rid of Buddy's aroma in our flat!



Over the weekend, Ryan and I attended a Yacht Club Party themed "Sail around the World." It took a little over 2 hours to travel about 5kms because the traffic was so bad. We eventually just jumped out of the car and walked! The party was set up with booths from different countries around the world, serving drinks and food common to those countries. The Scottish had Single Malt Scotch and haggis and the Dainish had european wieners and some Jagermiester type of liquer. The Canadians even had a booth and no, the didn't serve beer and clam, much to my disappointment, instead Rye and Coke. For food, the Canadians had mini pancakes with maple syurp and smoked salmon. We met a few more Canadians and we are hoping to attend a pot-luck in the coming weeks. That night I learned that the expat community here is big (3000+) and very strong. Most people ar very friendly and quick to show me around.

I started tennis lessons with a local named Nelson. He learned to play tennis as a kid and because he was good, he was able to go to a tennis academy. He said that when he was young, it was affordable, but now with so many rich Nigerians playing, Tennis is too costly for the average Nigerian. That is only one example of the HUGE gap between the rich & poor. For instance, the vehicles on the roads are either mercedies benz, Land Rovers, big Toyota SUVs (nice expensive imported cars) or junky chinese motorbikes called Okadas. The yellow cabs running around are old and dirty, but other than them there is no vehicles in between - like how there is no middle class in this country.

I have been to the market a few times already to buy fruit, veggies and other things for the house. Things are cheaper if you are able to bargin, but I still pay more than the nigerians because I am white, understanibly. It is very strange being a minority - Caucasians don't have a good reputation here either. I guess I'm not accustomed to segregation. It is very difficult to integrate with the average Nigerian - it seems as though they feel uncomfortable with us in some circumstances & they would prefer to just deal with themselves - For instance, our driver will say 'No Madam, you don't go there' as if that place is 'below' me. There might be a bit of a language barrier there too which makes it difficult to integrate. I guess it is tough because in Canada we don't have segregation on such a large scale due to class or colour.

Over the past week I have learned so much already. All of my expectations that I had before coming over have been thrown out the window. We are so fortunate in Canada, in so many ways. We do have great healthcare - here if you get in a car accident and you are injured, you will lie there and die, because there is no good samaritan laws here. If you help someone, you take financial responsibility for their health care and burial if they die! That is a burden most people can't handle, so the injured person just lies there waiting for family. The traffic is so bad that the ambulance (looks like a 1970 stationwagon) can't even get there in a reasonable time.

I am still surprised with how quick everyone is to become a friend. In Canada is it not common to meet someone in passing, either on the street, grocery store, or bar, and exchange numbers and become good friends. The expat community is very strong here. It is very easy to meet other people and go too many different functions.
This first week has been pretty eventful and from what I am seeing, that is the way the social life works here.