My Grand Tour of Northern Nigeria – rat survey

Kaduna – rat no 1


Since my previous employer granted me an extra two weeks leave, I took the opportunity to see a bit more of the North, which now I am based in Ibadan, ten hours South of Abuja, is much more difficult. 

Heather and a hat

I started by travelling to Kaduna, where I spent a few days with Heather, fortunately as I was leaving my house a fellow volunteer warned me that it was cold in Kaduna, and I grabbed a fleece.  Wow was I pleased, I was sleeping in it, and wearing it on motorbikes, it was cold, according to the BBC website reaching 13°C at night.  The reason it was so cold was because it was Harmattan, the name given for the season where sand blows south from the Sahara blocking out the warmth of the sun, it creates a hazy impression, see photo below, and a lot of dry skin, cracked feet, cracked lips, coughs sneezes and so on.

Sports ground in Harmattan dust

Anyway in Kaduna, rat no 1, made an appearance, it didn’t alarm me too much as when I saw it it was stationery, so it didn’t make me jump.  Zippy the cat didn’t take too much notice either!

The view of the river from Sea Breeze

Heather’s local bar is called Sea Breeze, it must be at least 500km from the sea, but it does have a view of the river.  Two other volunteers live close by just along Rat Alley, named due to the proliferation of rubbish and therefore rats.  The river also floods in the rainy season, Heather had to move out in August because her road flooded, and no doubt the swamps that are left create a great breeding ground for malaria, which Heather has managed to contract six times in her 12 months in Nigeria.  It is now my third year in a malaria zone, and so far I am unaffected, lucky me!


Dutse – rat no 2 and many ants


My next stop was in Dutse, the state capital of Jigawa state, where I visited Lucy, a British volunteer from Bournemouth and Lawrence a Ugandan.  Jigawa state is very different from any other part of Nigeria I have seen, it was much hotter, and felt much quieter and more rural.  Dutse the capital only has a population of 17,000 according to Wikipedia.

View from The Tower

It’s a challenging place to live, especially for a woman, you hardly see any women anywhere, and when you do they are well covered.  Lucy really misses female company.  It also got me thinking about whether religion is a choice or not, Lucy works at ESSPIN, Education State Sector Support Programme in Nigeria, which is UK funded.  Although there are only around 10 staff a mosque is provided in the building, so I imagine if you are a Muslim man, the pressure to go to the mosque at the appropriate time, and to fast during Ramadam, is pretty high.

Emir's Palace

Lucy and Lawrence have some consolations though, a wonderful house, inside and out.  Ensuite bathrooms, and the most amazing garden, and a mosque just outside, should they feel the need.  There were a few disadvantages, here I saw rat no 2, boldly in broad daylight helping itself to the rubbish bin, at least this time it was in the garden not in the house, along with several thousand ants in Lucy’s bathroom, and the neighbouring mosque calling you to pray five times a day!

Lawrence in the secret garden

Dutse – means rocks and is surrounded by these rather beautiful rocks.

It wasn’t all relaxation while I was there, Lucy got me making resources for her Sangaya classes, she is training teachers to train the Almajiri boys.  These boys are sent to be trained in the Quran, Lucy’s organisation is making sure they get at least some basic skills in English, Maths, Hausa (the local language) and Social Skills.  You can read more at her blog here.

My hard work, hopefully now being used to teach Nigerian children

Kano – rat no 3 – fortunately a no show.


My next stop was at Kano, where I have been several times before, but I really wanted to go to Kurmi Market, (last time I went it was Friday afternoon, during an Islamic holiday everything was closed).  The market is ancient, allegedly has been there for thousands of years, and traded slaves, now it is famous for all sorts of crafts, I bought a leather bag, it also sells blankets, and the traditional “dresses” for camels and horses. 

Kano street view from the back of a bike

I got a lift to the market from Jusuf who works at the Dye Pits, on the way back he took me on the back of his bike down alley ways to see the tannery, crocodile and snakes skins were there along with goat.  I even went to the museum, what a lot of culture!

Crocs!

I stayed with Abbe, a Ugandan volunteer and Beth, unfortunately Beth wasn’t there, she is in the UK on sick leave.  Much to my relief I didn’t get to see their resident rat, which apparently is as big as a yam!
Zaria – no rats
I stopped in Zaria on my journey South from Kano, to take a look at the Emir’s Palace.  I also learnt about the Queen of Zaria, who was a great warrior, and never married, but had a series of “temporary” husbands who were killed in the morning so that they didn’t tell tales. 

Emir's Palace Zaria

I also visited Miriam, a Dutch volunteer at her workpace, which is a rehab unit for sufferers of HIV TB and leprosy, and is set in amazing scenery.

Miriam and a tree

Kagoro – rat no 4


My next stop was to visit Kim in Kagoro.  I have been hearing how beautiful Kagoro is since I arrived in Nigeria, and how it has a mountain.  So I was hoping to climb the mountain, unfortunately I didn’t get time, so it is still “calling” me!


Kagoro is a very small village, and probably the most rural place I have been in Nigeria, it was very quiet, mainly due to the lack of electricity, no microphones, music, calls to prayer, loud churches, cars “horning” there were of course cockerels and a rat.

Me and a mountain

Rat no 4, made its appearance when Kim and I were sitting chatting to the light of a paraffin lamp.  We heard a pitter patter of running around the room, and yes it was a rat which we managed to chase around the house, but not to get rid of.  It was definitely smaller than rats no 1 and 2, however Kim’s squeals definitely won the award.

We did go for a nice walk on Friday evening, but I didn’t get to climb the mountain as I left to go to Panyam on Saturday morning. 


Panyam – no rats


My next trip was to Panyam, and I nearly didn’t make it, due to trouble in Jos.  To travel between Kagoro and Panyam, I had the option of an eight hour journey changing several times or a two / three hour journey via Maraba-Jamaa.  The question was how far is Maraba-Jamaa from Jos?  


The reason for the question is that every since I have been in Nigeria VSO volunteers are banned from travelling to Jos, or within 10km of Jos.  Anyway after much research, deciding Maraba-Jamaa was more than 10km from Jos, talking to local people etc I decided to make the journey.


The reason I am mentioning it here, is because the journey was fine, the scenery beautiful and if I hadn’t seen a number of military road blocks along the way and known that very recently there had been local killings (and more since) I would never have known.  This got me thinking about how easily we distance ourselves from conflict, because we can’t take any more, or don’t know what to do about it, or because it is easier not to care.  Anyway on a lighter note…

Dan and Stella in Panyam

I spent the weekend with Daniel, Stella and Joel, Kenyan volunteers and Mike, Canadian, relaxing, playing scrabble and cooking chapatis and of course eating them!


On my return to Abuja, again via Maraba-Jamaa, more military road blocks, no conflict, but we lost a wheel on the vehicle, see previous blog, perhaps another reality check, I am sure the number of deaths in Nigeria in road accidents greatly outweighs those from any kind of conflict, and is probably more easily prevented, wheel nuts for instance!


More photos

Finally the Christmas holiday blog post

For those of you who have forgotten, Christmas occurred about two months ago, and while for you it was cold and snowy, for me it was hot and sweaty. I spent two weeks travelling in Nigeria and Cameroon, and will attempt to give you a summary below.


First to Obudu Cattle Ranch
The first part of my Christmas holiday involved seven of us, Beth a volunteer in Kano, and her man Dan, who visited from the UK, Heather from Kaduna, me, Richard from Lafia, Lucy (also from Bournemouth) who lives in Dutse, where she is seriously deprived of female company and alcohol, and Sarah, a Dutch volunteer who lives near Calabar.

Intestine road - view from cable car

So off we went to Obudu Cattle Ranch. This is a proper tourist destination, with proper tourist prices, we stayed in a small guest house, Abebe’s to avoid such prices. It is beautiful and has been called Nigeria’s lake district, we walked down a steep hill, in fact it was more like a mountain, to swim in a freezing river, walked back, drank some beer and sang some songs in the evening, and enjoyed a trip in the cable car and swim in the pool complete with water shoots and slides!

Clearly something was funny!

More Obudu photos


Then to Athi
Athi is a drill reserve, the drill being a monkey, related to a baboon. It provides a habitat for monkeys that will eventually be released into the wild, these have often been intercepted when people try to smuggle them across borders, its also houses some rescued chimps. It is also a rather wonderful place to relax and chill out, as you will see from the pictures. There is no mobile phone reception there, but we did get a daily alarm call from the pit latrine, unfortunately Beth managed to drop her phone in the poo! Needless to say at seven the following morning it sang from the depths!

Chimps!

More Athi photos
To Akpap Okoyong for Christmas!
Dutch Sarah bravely invited six Brits for Christmas to her little village Akpap Okoyong, it took us a while to learn to say that. The village is also known as Mary Slessor village, she was a Scot who campaigned for the end of the killing of twins, traditionally twins were seen as a bad omen and had to be killed at birth.

Fixing a throttle cable in the dark, with the engine running, no wahalla!

Our journey to Akpap Okoyong, was a bit stressful, we had arranged to be picked up from Athi at 8am, no sign of our driver by 9, and no mobile phone reception. Fortunately there was an okada driver (motor bike taxi) and I was sent to the village to order seven bikes for the one hour trip to the village. Even that journey took around 15 minutes and was a bit too exciting for my liking due to the rather steep wet road. So when I got back with seven bikes and drivers, I was relieved to see that our car had turned up, of course we paid the bikes, before squeezing seven of us plus driver into the car, we went for five in the back, and two on the front passenger seat. A couple of times we had to “dismount” to make it up a hill, and the driver also hit the engine with a rock but eventually we made it to the main road and then to Ikom.

Pancakes and Bucks Fizz for breakfast on Christmas Day

The next journey took us to Calabar, where we did a Christmas Eve “supermarket dash” before proceeding to Akpap Okoyong. Our driver said we should swap vehicles as the alternator wasn’t charging, it was already dark so we said drive on. Then the throttle cable snapped, he just happened to have a spare one and fixed it with the engine running and in the pitch dark. We tried not to get run over, become victims of armed robbery or kidnap, we succeeded.

Dancing

Finally we made it to Akpap Okoyong, Christmas Eve 9pm, and so to bed!

My poem from Secret Santa

Christmas Day, Bucks Fizz (gin, orange juice and sprite) with pancakes for breakfast, no stockings as Santa couldn’t find a chimney, scrabble, fish and chips for dinner. We had an afternoon walk, presents from secret Santa, and dinner complete with crackers. Only problem was when the water disappeared unfortunately before we gutted the fish! We managed to get some more, and fortunately it returned the next morning, but when we went to bed we were rationed to 3 bags of Pure Water each, that’s about 1.5 litres, to drink, wash with and clean our teeth!

Christmas Dinner

More Christmas Day photos
Boxing Day off to Calabar
So next to Calabar, for the carnival and the route to Cameroon. I liked Calabar, compared to other Nigerian cities; it seemed much cleaner and calmer. There are litter bins, no okadas; and good public transport. The carnival was fun but not quite up to my expectations, the atmosphere was great though, lots of Nigerians out to have fun, and as it was purely carnival no fear of “trouble” unfortunately that came later, to Abacha Barracks on New Year’s Eve.

Calabar carnival

More Calabar photos
Cameroon
Cameroon was fun, but brief, three days climbing a mountain, two on the beach and back! The mountain was great, really hard work, we started at 1100 metres above sealevel and reached the summit the next day which is 4095m, so basically it was a steep steep climb. It was beautiful though and very interesting being an active volcano, last erupted in 2000. As we walked through the lava flow, some was just ash, the more recent, but other areas, had started to host their own habitats. Some of it reminded me of a coral sea bed. I asked our guide whether there were local beliefs about the mountain, he said that they used to sacrifice albinos to the mountain when it erupted, now they sacrifice goats instead. The guides are mostly former hunters, and have been trained as guides to give them an alternative livelihood. Bush meat itself is not bad, we got to eat some unknown species, likely to be rat or squirrel, yum! but it includes threatened species such as chimps and gorillas.

We made it 4095m above sea level

After the mountain we went out in Limbe to welcome in 2011, and just about managed to stay awake until midnight, and then had a couple of days on the beach before returning to Naija!

Is this the sea or the ocean?!

More Cameroon pictures
Differences between Cameroon and Nigeria
OK a big disclaimer, I have spent six days in a very small part of English speaking Cameroon and nearly 12 months in Nigeria. However it seemed quieter, ie not the Nigerian insistence on turning up the volume so loud that everything is distorted, “horning” for no apparent reason, nobody shouted Oyibo, Baturi, or Onyocha (Nigerian terms for white person) or equivalent words, apparently they don’t have such words in Cameroon. Pepe was optional in Cameroon, but the people were less friendly, I think. I didn’t get to taste much Cameroon food apart from fish and plantain which was very good, but is also good in Nigeria. There was of course the spaghetti omelette!

Choosing fish and prawns for lunch

Start of Part 2 – NEST

 

Last Sunday I travelled to Ibadan to start my new placement at NEST.  My job is called “Climate Change Technical Writer” and the aim of it is to support the finalisation of a three or four year project (can’t remember which), BNRCC – Building Nigeria’s Response to Climate Change.

NEST has had four VSO volunteers, Sarah who was transferred to Abuja, and Brent, Karen and Ellen who arrived a year ago and have all just left.  I overlapped with Brent and Karen for a week, and together with Brent and Abdul from VSO facilitated a two day Organisation Development Workshop for NEST on Wednesday and Thursday, talk about being thrown in at the deep end!

Organisational Development is not in my job description, but fortunately for NEST I have already had some experience in this area, as I helped my friend Patience, a Ugandan volunteer in Abuja (sadly leaving shortly) deliver a similar workshop.  The idea of OD, is that it helps the organisation to assess its strengths and weaknesses and come up with a plan for addressing them.  The process involves a series of one to one interviews, where staff  rank the organisation against various indicators, the workshop was similar, we ranked around 50 indicators, on a scale of 1 to 4, NEST has done nothing in this area, to NEST is doing very well, along with suggestions of how it could improve.  There are indicators for around ten capacity areas such as Strategy and Vision, Staff Management, Programme Management.

I will be living in Bodija, near the university, where Karen was living, she is leaving today, making me the only VSO volunteer in Ibadan.  Currently until Tuesday I am staying at the rather nice Davies Hotel, and enjoying a big bed, my new place only has a single, air conditioning, hot water, and constant electricity, while I can.  However the novelty of eating alone in the restaurant is wearing off, romantic dinner for one on Valentines Day coming up tomorrow!

End of Part One - Farewell to ICEED

Farewell drinks at Ibiza

My placement at ICEED was originally supposed to be for two years, however this was shortened by my employer first to 12 months, and then to 11 months with the final month in leave, which I took full advantage completing my “Climate Change Strategy” assignment for my masters and going on a “Grand Tour of Northern Nigeria / Rat Survey”.  No explanation was given to myself or to VSO, although I have my ideas about what bought this about.  Fortunately for me VSO have found me a new placement at another environmental organisation in Ibadan, which I began last Monday, 7^th February.

Hamzy and Slim - so cute!

Naturally, I have asked myself what I achieved during my time at ICEED, and this is what I came up with:

·         one of the colleagues with whom I was working closely has improved in confidence, writing skills and professionalism

·         I played a key role in a successful pilot project that installed improved wood burning stoves in a school in Niger state.

·         I supported a colleague in her successful application to the Climate Change Media Fellowship which enabled her to attend the COP16 in Cancun.

Dancing Ewah!

I have since heard from a friend of mine who works for VSO in Namibia .that visited ICEED, that they have had three VSO volunteers, one of who was an Energy Expert and made a big impact on the organisation, clearly once you leave you are fantastic!

New dress coming shortly!

Whoops we lost a wheel

Yesterday as I was travelling back from Panyam to Abuja, I heard a loud bang, panicked as the driver tried to control the vehicle, breathed a sigh of relief when he brought us safely to a halt and then after taking advantage of the unplanned "comfort break" took a look at the damage.

Now I thought we had a puncture, so I wandered why some of my fellow passengers were running along the road, Nigerian men don't go that far to pee after all, then I saw them returning with a wheel.  I realised that we had lost the whole wheel and had come to a halt by scraping along the leaf springs and whatever the inside bit of a wheel is called.

In true Nigerian style the driver quickly assessed the damage, and despatched the conductor to the nearest town for some new wheel nuts.

I took a bit longer for me to see the evidence that two wheel nuts were sheered off, and probably we had been driving with only two nuts, (out of five), the two nuts were adjacent to one another and could not easily be removed.  Therefore if I re-entered the vehicle it would have three nuts, better than two, and whatever damage had been done to it by dragging its underside along the ground.

I decided not to get back in the vehicle, and never to get in a vehicle again without counting the wheel nuts!  With a fellow passenger we flagged down a vehicle and travelled to Keffi, and then to Abuja, I didn't check the nuts, so much for good intentions.

The thing that amazes me, is how calmly everyone takes it, I tried to imagine what would happen if a National Express Coach lost a wheel, "sorry madam, well you see we only had two wheel nuts, and with the pot holes in the road, and the speed at which we were travelling, it was kind of inevitable, but inshallah God was with us, and we are all alive, soon we will get some more wheel nuts and be on our way, sorry for the inconvenience"

Nobody made a fuss, and as I panicked everyone told me it was perfectly safe, I suppose it comes down to if there is a choice, and if the alternative is guaranteed to be better, I got into another two vehicles, at further cost (covered by my fellow passenger, again another Nigerian characteristic, welcoming of strangers, not the first time I have had my fare paid) and arrived safely, maybe my fellow passengers weren't worried because there isn't really a choice, and maybe the driver drove really slowly for the rest of the trip as a precaution.  I don't know because I had a choice, and chose not to re-enter that vehicle.