TRAVELS w/P: Tales of Adventure Here & There

Thanks to Internet service issues the following is a backward cut n paste of tales since take-off:

 

05-03-2013 (Tuesday March 5 back at the Palace)

Met with Christian (sp?) earlier today, my main contact with Concern Universal. She’s a project manager focused in the area of local government. Seems my role is to bring to life success stories and challenges across Concern Universal’s various project areas in four southern states. Some of the activities in which Concern is engaged:

* Female genital mutilation and advocacy for abolition. Contrary to what I believed, this practice is cultural rather than religious and is a continuing problem in the southern states.

* Water and sanitation education for change. This initiative reaches out to some 1,000 rural/remote communities where villagers defecate wherever and don’t wash afterward.

The work sounds mind-bending. I'm stoked! Where I’ll be living over the next 12 months, however, sounds equally mind-bending. I've heard conflicting descriptions with one for-sure commonality: I'm to be living in the same building where I work. WT?!

· I’ll be on my own and will have two trained guard dogs for companions: Lola (a shepherd) and Whiskey (shepherd and dobbie/rotti? mix)

· Facility includes bedroom, sitting room, fully equipped kitchen and bathroom – “It’s really nice. You'll like it. It's in a fantastic location accessible to everything. Easy to walk and get around. Safe at night. Plus Concern's drivers are available to take you wherever you like; all you need to cover is the cost of fuel."

· On the flip side: "Staff use your bathoom and kitchen" and "Oh no, if it’s the place I'm thinking it is, it simply is not acceptable. It’s an office converted into living space. You'd be on your own with all that office equipment? Using staff kitchen and bathroom facilities? Does anyone want to live in that kind of situation- in the office where they work? No. Of course not. That's not living."

(Sidebar: as I write this I can hear the call to prayer sounding across Mosque speakers some where nearby).

I'll know soon enough. We fly to Calabar on Friday mid-morning. VSO folk have advised me to check out the setup. If it is not suitable - a separate, self-contained apartment - I'll contact VSO folk back in Abuja immediately, stand firm (as counselled) and check into a hotel until more appropriate accommodations are made. Stay tuned.

 

04-03-2013 (Monday March 4 @ 5:13 in room at Crystal Palace Hotel - Area 11 Abuja)

This computer is misbehaving. The keyboard is jumping all over the screen, inserting the cursor in places or spaces it shouldn`t. My Kaspursky protection system is indicating I have a problem but I cannot access the server to make updates. I have also found I am unable to access sympatico email. Gmail is fine. This is all proving to be a challenge for a techno-illiterate like me. Add in that I can’t find my mouse – which is a serious handicap pour mois - and I'm at an utter loss. Forced to learn how to use a laptop the way it was intended. Touche. Now to figure out how to insert my new SIM card to activate my Nokia cheapo phone. The unit cost 3500 Naira; SIM card = 200N. Exchange rate is 150N for 1 dollar.

My room here includes a comfey queen bed, TV, air conditioning (woop woop!), and ensuite bath. Luxurious in comparison to my imaginings.

 

03-03-2013 (Sunday March 3 @ 9:22pm in Abuja)

First impressions:

Arid and dusty. Mounds of rock and dirt, small hills, rise from red soil like pimples on the face of mother earth. Well before descent I feel intense heat beating at the plane window. Funny that. In Canada small frozen water crystals cling to the plane's panes from the chill beyond. Stepping out onto the tarmac heat is oppressive and heavy tho thankfully not nearly as humid as the Amazon basin. Or atleast sweat doesn't start trickling within moments. Minutes yes but not moments. People walk and commune along the shoulders of major highways and often dart thru traffic. Woman with straight backs, heads high, balance goods. The smell of burning rubber wafts from tin-roofed bundles of shacks. And so, the story begins.

 

03-03-2013 (Sunday March 3 @9:45 am in Frankfurt)

Flaked out in Frankfurt

Excellent flight. Superb service. Caught a few winks. Will grab a few more over the next leg of the trip. PS: From TO to Frankfurt I sat with a tall, dark, handsome and immaculately groomed East Indian. As our conversation evolved I learned he was an actor en route from his Bampton home to play roles in two different Bollywood flicks and then over to LA for a film shoot there. You’re a celeb and I didn’t even know it?! My comment accepted with gracious modesty