TRAVELS w/P: Tales of Adventure Here & There

MONDAYJUNE 24, 2013
Early birthday greetings Dad~!
The neighbourhood is lively tonite. Voices rise in the falling darkness. Kids shout. Dogs bark. My favourite vendor ladies, sitting on the other side of the compound wall, banter and laugh; funny how a dry night cooks up palpable energy during the rainy season

 

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Nigerian ways are becoming mine. Happily there’s loads of laughter, lots of smiles  and heaps of warm greetings. Gasp! I even picked up a pair of new-to-me high heel shoes and purple nail polish to better blend with Calabarian fashionistas.

What I’m also finding (true confession), is a shorter fuse. Snippy tones are peppering my talk-oh, like a typical Nigerian.  To get things done you’ve got to be a benevolent autocrat, as Cdn High Commisson pal Peter so poetically puts it. Touché that.

It’s impossible if not downright wrong to be the ever polite, ever patient quintessential Canadian in this culture. The two just don’t jive. If you want something done and you’ve gotta have it now (not tomorrow or days or weeks or months from now) then may the force of voice and status be with you. Sarah’s assertive outburst at a poor service pizza joint opened doors to a lucrative full time job offer; her dining partner was wowed to learn she had that crusty edge. Lucky for her, he’s the son of a wealthy entrepreneur who just happens to be opening a private boarding school with links to UK universities.

White skin makes it all the more interesting. Racism in reverse, if you will: rather than being relegated to the back of the bus oyibos are seated at the front and charged a premium.   

There’s so much fodder for fact and fiction. I wouldn’t trade any of it for all the pounded yam in Africa. No siree bob.  A good sit every now and again keeps me grounded and let’s hope with conscientious practise, staves off short-fused snippiness from becoming an entrenched nasty habit.  Advanced apology-oh! if toes are danced on along the journey.