To Ibadan!

[aggienaut]

   Just a short scene today. Recall that our protagonist has just arrived in Nigeria and spent the previous day in the capital, Abuja.

Ibadan
February 14th, 2012 – “There’s a dead man there in the road!” the driver exclaims in surprise.
   “What, where?” Michael the Country Director peers into the crowd behind us, as do I. We’re driving from the airport into Ibadan city, and it’s already very different from Abuja. The road is lined with decrepit-looking cinderblock buildings, pedestrians throng the edges of the road and the dirt beside it, and frequently weave between the steady flow of cars to cross the road. I don’t see the body but Michael does, turning back tsking in disappointment, “Why do these people just leave it there?”
   The flight from Abuja had only been forty minutes on a small plane. Seeing the outskirts of Abuja for the first time by daylight, during the drive and as we took off, I found the land outside the city to be a savanna of intermittent trees punctuated by almost Dr Suessian abrupt hills rising suddenly out of the flat land, no doubt more giant rock escarpments of which Aso and Zuma rock are particularly big examples. The flat lands are thoroughly peppered with little houses and small fields.
   During the short flight they served us complimentary hot sandwiches and beverages, which I noted even multi hour flights in the United States no longer do. It seemed a perfectly safe flight at the time, though the fact that one of three such aircraft operated by that small airline crashed a month later into the “Mountain of Fire” church with the loss of all aboard leaves me feeling I’ve come closer than I ever wanted to to a plane crash.
   Presently, over a rise, the city spreads before us, an endless sea of rust-red roofs draped over uneven terrain. The vehicular traffic gets thick and viscous, as do the crowds of pedestrians flowing around and amongst the cars. Many aren’t afraid to stare upon noticing me in the car, which makes me feel a bit self-conscious, and among the babble of voices I can hear even through the windows, “oyinbo!” can occasionally be heard. Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa, has half the population the United States does, all crammed into a land the size of Texas, and sometimes it really feels crowded.

   “Goll!” Doug exclaims over the phone that evening, “Blessing’s driving! I’m scared for my life!” I too had noticed driving seems to be a wild adventure here, though Blessing hadn’t seemed to me to be particularly worse than anyone else.

The reference to the later plane crash might be moved elsewhere. I thought about wriitng about the hotel check in because once again they showed me all the lightswitches, turned on the tv, and set the AC to blast, but altogether it seemed too mundane and similar to the previous hotel check in only a few pages earlier.

---

   In other other news, in real life yesterday we had an earthquake! Here! In Australia. All my coworkers attested to not figuring out what was going on until after it was over, even though two were in the warehouse where tall shelving swayed alarmingly. Being from California I stopped what I was doing the moment it started and was like

an earthquake? no it can't be??. I looked around for hanging lamps or other items that might be swinging, but there were none in the vicinity. A nearby coworker was workign away as if nothing was happening, so I was just starting to wonder if maybe I'd just had a random feeling of vertigo when the coworker asked me why water was spurting out of a hole in a water-tank, that must have been just above the waterline. Finally I had my proof that it was an actual earthquake! How exciting!

It was apparently 5.9 on the richter scale, and just about 200 km away from me, I'm really surprised by how strongly it could be felt at such distance.

Comments

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

I like your description of "Dr Suessian abrupt hills rising suddenly out of the flat land". I have known a fair few Nigerians but none mention how crowded their land is.

5.9 Richter is a pretty decent earthquake. No wonder you felt it.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

It's funny it's all a matter of perspective, the crowds may be normal to them, but a Nigerian I met who had been to Atlanta had remarked "it was so empty! seemed almost deserted!" and I realized the lack of crowds had seemed super abnormal to him. Also it of course depends on where you are. Ibadan was always thronging with crowds, but Abuja just seemed kinda "normal" level of people about (which is obviously a subjective judgement but I mean people were about but not in throngs). I unfortunately haven't really been in Lagos which I gather is the real heart and soul of Nigerian society, most Nigerians you meet will be from Lagos and I really can't speak to what their experience there was like since I've never been there (well passed through briefly twice but don't remember a thing)

[wpadmirer.livejournal.com]

I don't like earthquakes. I'm quite happy to suffer our hurricanes and storms, as long as I don't have to deal with earthquakes.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

It's funny I guess it's what you're used to — most people I know from California prefer earthquakes and people from hurricane places prefer hurricanes. Kinda funny one prefers the natural disasters one gets, but I suppose one is accustomed to them. Also perhaps I'd feel differently if I lived in a different time or place where earthquakes regularly caused significant damage and loss of life, but because in California they rarely do terribly much damage these days they're just kinda fun and exciting. Now hurricanes on the other hand, they seem pretty scary to me! :D

[wpadmirer.livejournal.com]

Only if you're dumb enough to stay by the beach when they hit.

[adafrog.livejournal.com]

I heard about that earthquake. Weird.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

It was super weird. I was very much like BUT WE DON'T HAVE EARTHQUAKES! I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS IS HAPPENING!! as it was happening. (:

I saw but didn't click on a video using a pavlova (an Australian dessert that is basically all merengue) to demonstrate how one gets random earthquakes in the middle of a plate. (:

[adafrog.livejournal.com]

lol I'll bet.

Weird. But I can see how that would be a good example. :)

[waitingman.livejournal.com]

I was once on a small plane - between mainland Australia & one of the Reef islands, when it ran into a headwind & basically stopped going forward... just hanging in the air. If I'd been less concerned that we could be about to plummet into the Coral Sea, I'd have whipped the camera out for some aerial Great Barrier Reef shots. A wasted opportunity, but not one I'm prepared to repeat in the name of art!!

Sydney was barely shaken & certainly not stirred by the 'quake. I only found out about hours later on the news!

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

I always like to think that if I'm in a plane crash I'll have the presence of mind to take pictures ahaha