I had my first driving lesson last weekend. You may be asking why I need driving lessons since I've been driving for over 13 years, but it truly is like almost starting again as a learner driver! Not only am I having to get used to driving on the right side of the road and driving with the gear stick on the right side of the car not left, but driving when you have archabas (motorbike taxi's) on all four sides of our vehicle, or a crazy big truck blowing black diesel exhaust in your face or random people pulling out, not sticking in their lanes and doing 'U' turns in the most inconvenient places with a) no warning and b) no indication, is a challenge to say the least! I didn't have any life and death experiences however and only managed to put my friend Sterling in a ditch on the side of the road twice, so I considered it an accomplishment. I can only improve from here. After a year if driving in Nigeria, you'll all be thinking twice before getting a car with me I'm sure :)
Speaking of driving, I was recounting some of the more insane things I've seen on the roads over the past month with a friend the other day and thought I'd share them with you all too. The best was a man on the back of a motorbike taxi carrying a 3m ladder over his head, not on his head, his head was between the rungs and it was sitting on his shoulders. I'm NOT kidding. If he had been struck by anything he would have been decapitated instantly! I've seen motorbikes carrying people holding massive 2mx2m mirrors or sheets of glass, families with a mum or dad and 3 kids wedged between and many of them carry babies on their backs (this particularly scares me when I think of how often they have accidents) or the worse is when they position a young child on the front of a motorbike! I've seen so many cars that I'm amazed are even running, let alone being considered road worthy by any standard in the West, but there are no WOF's here! (See pic below) I've seen cars so laden down with people or produce I swear they're scraping the ground. The funniest ones are the cars jam packed, floor to ceiling with big brown yams! There are some not so funny things though too, like the other day a huge 12 wheeler truck was doing a U turn, lost control and ran over a taxi full of 7 people. They all died instantly. The mob of people who saw went to kill the driver only to find it was a young boy! They spared his life but set fire to the truck. I passed the burning wreck an hour or two later and saw the taxi car too. Really horrific. Not all trucks have breaks you see, most use their gears to slow down so it's a bit disconcerting being in front of a truck, or behind for that matter!
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| Still driving on the road!!?? |
Getting petrol here is
such a 'Wahala' (problem/drama). There are many petrol stations
around town but they don't always have petrol! You know a station has
petrol when there is a line of about 20+ cars leading away from the
pumps. So you have to leave a few hours free if you're on a petrol
mission and usually Sunday mornings is the best time to go, with the
shortest lines. It's a pretty communal experience though, everyone
gets out of their cars and chats while they wait. The petrol here at
the moment in 97 niara a litre (75c NZ) but is more if you get it off
the Black-market, so it's pretty cheap, but for the hassle of not
having a constant supply available and the time it takes to get it
almost cancel out the benefit of how economical it is!
We went to Hillcrest
school the other night for night time Zip-lining. One of the teachers
at the international school (the one all the Missionary Kids go to)
sets up a Zip-line (flying fox for all you New Zealanders) from a
scaffold beside a huge gum tree each year for the Hillcrest Carnival.
The Carnival was last weekend but he kept the zip-line set up for us
to come and play on after hours. We got harnessed up and had the
choice of sitting or going on our fronts 'superman style'. It was
really fun, I think perhaps scarier in the daylight as you'd be able
to see more clearly how high off the ground you were, but a real
adrenaline rush all the same.
On our way home that
evening we got pulled over at a check point and a police man on a
total power trip asked to see Sterlings drivers license. He said he'd
lost it as he'd had his wallet stolen in Lagos. The police man then
demanded to see our 'papers' and Fiona politely handed him the
registration for the car. He them took the whole file and walked
away. He continued to come back to the window another 5 times
demanding Sterling's license, even taking someone else's Nigerian
license from another stopped car and shoving it in his face saying
'see, here, this license'. I was in the back seat alternating between
trying to contain my histarical laughter and almost wanting to scream
in this guys face “He's already told you he lost his license!!!!!”.
Fiona and Sterling were completely relaxed and never raised their
voices and just continued to explain over and over again the same
story. In the end we begged forgiveness and he made us give him money
before he would return the papers. I'm a little worried about how I'm
going to keep my cool if a similar situation ever happens to me when
I'm alone! Especially because the transport office responsible for
issuing Nigerian drivers licenses has been so back logged from broken
computer systems that they're not issuing foreigners licenses at the
moment (I know people who have been trying to renew for over a
year!). At least they don't make Buturi's (white people) frog jump
down the street as a penalty/humiliation like they do to Nigerians.
In my experience so far, the police have just tried to hit on me.
That I can deal with.
I had my first taste of
sugar cane the other day. We bought a huge stick that was 2m long for
200N ($1.50). It looked like thick bamboo and we had to wind down the
windows in the car and stick it out to get it home. The street
vendors usually sell it pre-cut and peeled, but sitting in water to
keep it fresh, so Westerners can't eat it because of the risk of
sickness from dirty water. We got the cane home and then cut and
peeled it and I must admit, it was nice. You bite it off, chew it,
suck the sugar out then spit out the bark or stringy husk stuff out.
Hard to explain, but it's basically like sugary water, no flavor,
just sweet and refreshing. Not in a hurry to buy it again but good to
have another thing ticked off my list!
Well there was another
bomb yesterday at a Catholic church in one of the districts out of
town and reports of unrest in town today. We've been told to avoid
these areas and everyone is a bit on edge. I still went and did a
clinic with the youngest boys at Gidan Bege this morning and had a
blast.....I love my job! So it's life as normal for now...will keep
you posted. Please continue praying for peace in Jos.
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