I am a Nigerian car owner!!!

Two things to apologize for….
1. Delay in posting anything here for such a long time
2. Sending spam from my old email account – changed it, so new one is andrea_thompson@live.com


So much has happened in the last few weeks since coming back to Nigeria, that I really have not even had a minute to think, let alone write! I have been back in Nigeria one month yesterday, but really I have been everywhere but Nigeria. Lots of traveling happening at this time of year, as next year is a new biennium for our budget, so we have to go around to lots of governments to kindly “beg/request” for money to fund our programs for the next two years!

Including fund raising, I have acted as crime scene investigator, grave digger, financial auditor and a few other things in the last few weeks….long story short, a staff member was recently murdered (still unproven, but we know it was his wife and her lover who killed him). I had to go find the body, take it to the morgue, beg the autopsy guy to actually do the autopsy (and pay him a lot of money), and then, once ready to bury the body, and because his brothers were too drunk to complete the grave digging process, my colleague and I had to take over, although this did not last too long as the brothers were so totally intoxicated on local palm wine (probably about 90% proof) and started shooting the guns they just so happened to have on them, that we felt it best to leave…of course, only about 2 hours later we received a call that the one brother shot himself in the foot! Not a staff member, so nothing I could do about it, nor did I want to! To prove how corrupt this country is, the staff member had clearly been murdered (as indicated by the stab wounds in his stomach, and oh yes, the toilet bowl that was still around his neck, which was used to strangle him…the pathologist and police have both listed the death as “natural causes”!!?? Interesting until we are told they have both bought new cars and a new house for their families…and they are related to both the wife and her lover! So, clearly money exchanged hands… Sadly, it seems that we have a lot of death in our offices, and we do, as there have been 5 people since August and is becoming a bit of a concern here, but hard to figure out any solution to it…

I am now an official car owner in Nigeria, although I have no interest in actually driving it. Again, this is a very long story, but trying to be nice, I lent money to my housegirl Mary’s husband so that he can start a taxi business, and well, he became a little lazy, and I think enjoyed having a car to just drive his friends around in all day. So, it sounds cruel, but as of today, the car is now in my possession, and I have hired a full time driver…not sure what the poor guy will do all day while I am at work, and I am away so often on work missions, but good to keep someone else employed here. There is a much longer version to this, but even my Nigerian colleagues told me I had to do it…as well as something like “…never trust an Ibo man, EVER…”, so too bad for him. It was a really funny experience, but some guy from the Driving and Highways agency comes to see me and asked if I wanted to change ownership of the vehicle, I said yes, and within 4 hours, I had paperwork sitting on my desk. The former owner, Chika (my housegirl’s husband) did not sign anything, did not agree to anything, nothing…I just now own the car that up until 8am this morning was his. Seems a little bizarre, but as they said, a “white woman would never steal”!! Paid my little monies to the guy and now I own a black Toyota, with who knows how much mileage, as the odometer only has 5 digit spaces, but it is in decent shape, and should last a while! I will attempt to drive it over the weekend, only because Abuja is so quiet, but during the week, I would never do it.

Good news, however, polio and our dream of eradicating it, is moving forward, somewhat. We still have hundreds of cases, but about 200 less than last year at this time! So, there is hope, yet again, in our dream of eradication!! We have this year to prove ourselves, or I am sure we will lose all funding. I look forward to the day I lose my job because we were actually able to eradicate and the international people here are no longer needed! Hope is renewed, and big meetings are happening all over the place, to move funds to our program, as it is looking so close! Even the Gates foundation is starting to have faith in us again! “In sh’allah”!!

Not sure how long I am back for, but really hoping I won’t be here much longer! I did get asked to move to another office, however, it is worse than Nigeria…the place…Papua New Guinea, most people would think this would be great, as it is in the middle of the ocean (off the coast of Australia – by Brisbane) , with beautiful white, sandy beaches, aqua marine water and year round warmth…however, there are also major problems there, and as one colleague of mine from Geneva said (who used to work in Vanauatu and PNG), “you think there are savages here in Africa, just wait until you get over there!” and finished with saying that “Abuja is like paradise compared to Port Moresby (capital of PNG)”!. So, I am still in the process of negotiating my way out of it, but time will tell….sad to think that it can actually get worse than Nigeria!!! I am still holding out for NYC, but that is looking more and more unlikely…so at this point I am hoping that something happens somewhere!

It is again Ramadan here, so most of our regular field activities have come to a standstill, as most people to sleep and relax all day, so nothing really gets done. I am hoping to be celebrating Sallah(the last day of Ramadan) outside of Nigeria, ideally with gorillas (plans are in the works to do a 3 day trek to see the mountain gorillas of Rwanda or Uganda in 2 weeks time)! Hopefully, it happens this time! Other than that, there is a lot of work to do by us that don’t get to use Ramadan as the reason behind our inability to work.

But all is good! Hope that everyone at home had great summers…it was great to get to spend 5 weeks at home. So nice to catch up and spend time with family and friends, and I look forward to doing it again soon..at this point, I should be home by Christmas!

See you all soon, take care,
ange