I was ready to eat some Nigerian food and we ended getting some amala with obe (soup) with efo (vegetables) and chicken. Very traditional West African food. The amala had a nice texture which is kind of pasty/starchy which I enjoyed and I thought the soup was nicely spiced. You are suppose to take a piece of the amala with your hands and dip it in the soup. Dayo ate with hands and I ate with a fork. This was in part because we brought the food to the guesthouse to enjoy and discovered more cockroaches (one of them crawling next to my laptop in the dining room... you better know that I disinfected my laptop!) in the dining room. Bunmi was pretty adept at killing them with her shoe. I of course was useless and squealing and therefore ate food with a fork. This is when we also realized that the generator was out of fuel and we ate using light from the flashlights.
While we waited for the food to be the ready, Dayo, Bunmi and I talked about life in Nigeria. I expressed my stress and discomfort with the unpredictability of having electricity and running water. We discussed the sad cases of patients who could not receive care because of intense poverty as Bunmi is an ENT ward nurse at University College Hospital (UCH) Ibadan. She talked about how she would use a manual suction in the dark to suction out her patients during power outages. We also discussed how Nigeria was so rich in oil (resulting in much of the fighting and violence again foreigners related to the oil trade in the Niger-Delta region up north) and yet most of its people up to 60-75% live in poverty and where I've seen quoted, on less than $1 USD a day.
Having electricity and running water is something that I've taken for granted every day and if there was no electricity or running water, there was a clear reason and I would wait knowing that something was happening to get it resolved as soon as possible. However, there just seems to be no rhyme or no reason why the electricity goes out or why we don't have any water. If you are living already in poverty and now you need to worry about how to cook food for your family or how to have water to bathe and drink as well that is already a lot of spent energy and thought.
This now brings me to the all important Nigerian elections for state assembly, governor and president that will be happening 3 consecutive Saturdays in April. Each Saturday, starting this coming Saturday, April 9, there will be a curfew that is imposed between 8 am to 4 pm. People are only allowed out of their home to vote during that period and otherwise should be at home. This is because of the election related violence that has been happening, has happened in the past and is anticipated to occur. It seems like the violence is related between members of different parties killing each and assassinating politicians. Being an elected official is quite a coveted job as it pays extremely well including perks valued at up to $1 million a year. Crazy.
In part, because of this, Nigerian government has been viewed to be corrupted, self-oriented and ineffectual in implementing nation wide changes to improve health, clean drinkable water and electricity among other things. In fact, I was told that the Chinese mafia in Nigeria (who are quite the entrepreneurs) run an very lucrative business of importing and selling generators that almost every household has with such spotty electricity. Perhaps the power outages are in part driven by this profit margin?
In any case, these upcoming elections are very important in electing officials that will advocate and work for positive change. The elections were to start this last Saturday but had to be delayed because ballots were not received in time to be distributed throughout Nigeria before the voting was to start. Then, it was suppose to happen on the Monday but ultimately rescheduled to start this Saturday. From all the locals I've spoken too about this, they hope for a clean and fair election as prior ones had been marred by tainted votes, ballot stuffing and the like. From what I've told, the violence is very directed to specific people and specific locations that does not reach the UCH complex (thank goodness!). You can be sure I'm staying indoors!
This now brings me to discussing being an oyibo. Literally, in Yoruba, oyibo means white man but over the years has evolved to mean foriegner with any skin color other than black. Of course, I find lots of humor in this because well I have never considered myself white! Growing up, I was always 1 of a handful of minorities in the schools I attended in the suburbs of Chicago. In fact, I knew I wasn't white esp when my white classmates and strangers would make a point to say things about my squinty, slanty eyes. Thus, to be considered white and what that means historically in Africa and the US, is kind of amusing. Everywhere I go, everyone looks at me as it appears I'm the only oyibo that is around the hospital complex. Children look at me with wonder as previously the only oyibos they have seen might be on TV. Men and women squeal "oyibo!" when they see me. I've been told to take this as a term of endearment. Quite frankly, it just makes me feel much more self conscious. Where I work in Chicago, most of my patients are African American and while I know that I'm Asian and they are African American, it's not something I think about. Here, being pointed out, albeit in mostly a friendly manner, draws some unwanted attention. I suppose I'll get use to it.
Here's Dayo and Bunmi
I suppose relatively speaking... I look white....
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