Day Fifteen: 2 Week Anniversary

The group of us that came out on that first Sunday have officially been in Nigeria for two weeks…and though at the time it seemed like the weeks have been long I can imagine how quickly this time is going to fly by...

Day Fourteen: Oh My, Nigeria or Beyond the Compound Walls

Today is the 8^th day of straight 12 hour work days, and I’m feeling it. I was so happy to leave work and have a night out on the town…my first in the 2 weeks I have been here.

A bunch of us, along with some coworkers from Del York went out to some of the popular Abuja night spots. We started at Blake’s, which is a restaurant/bar with a stage and live band that plays all night. A bunch of amazing, and I stress AMAZING dancers line the stage and bust a move, even going to the extent of grabbing some of us and teaching us dance moves in front of everyone.

Some of the highlights were watching Alex dance and the Blake and Omar stage hump competition…silly Americans.

Blake’s also serves some great roasted whole fish that you just eat right off the bone with your fingers…we devoured them very quickly. Also very spicy…like most of Nigerian food, and not just like wow that is spicy, but like the oh my god I might pass out cause my mouth has been burning for 20 min straight spicy.

From there a small portion of us went to a dance club where I was taught to dance like a Nigerian woman…sort of, cause I mean I will always have white girl moves. Basically the moves involve a lot of hip movement while your legs bend in and out and your butt goes up and down…I think I need some time to master this dancing…

It was a great night/morning and ended with a trip to breakfast before falling asleep as the sun came up. Much needed, much deserved.

I love Nigeria.

**I have some great video of this night, hopefully i will be able to upload it later...

Day Thirteen: The Dust Storm

Our school is directly off of the high way, which also happens to be under serious construction. What this means is that there is always lots of dust around us at school, it pours through the windows during rush hour and lays across all the tile floors of school. It is a very red/rusty color dust that stains my white socks by the end of the day.

However by the end of this particular day, a storm started coming in and the wind picked up creating a massive dust storm that fogged up the whole school, greatly decreasing the visibility. Finally the bandana serves its purpose….we all had to cover out faces as it was impossible to breath without getting a mouth full of dirt.

Day Twelve: Learning to Speak Nigerian

There are over 200 languages in Nigeria, the main one being English and broken English and then each region/state has its own dialect with Abuja speaking Housa. I have attempted to learn some basic phrases with help from Emmanuel, the building manager.

In broken English you say, “How fu?!” meaning how are you…the students love when you say this in the morning. Broken English really is a language of its own and very hard to follow…I constantly have to ask students to repeat themselves as I can never quite figure out what they are saying. I also love, “How be day?” meaning how’s your day.

I still need a lot of work with my Housa, but Emmanuel is keeping on me to practice with him everyday.

- Naquana = Good Morning

- Nowinee = Good evening

- Yakiki = How are you?

- Lafialo = I’m good

- Yaahki = How’s work

- Badamwa = No problem (which is my favorite to say)

The Nigerians definitely utilize the letter W.

Day Ten: Classes Begin

So due to some contractual disagreements I have had very little access to internet this past week…not to mention 12 hours of working in the heat every day leads to swimming pools and lack of energy to do anything more than throw myself into bed each night. So, yes I am well, alive and working hard.

School started on Monday technically, but really classes started on Tuesday with a lot of chaos and disorganization (not on our end mind you), but the students were clearly excited to be there and that’s what really matters.

We were able to set-up everything by the time classes started, but not without a lot of hard work on an extremely hot sunday....with the day ending in a giant rain storm almost flooding the school. Apparently it was the first rain in months and oddly when we went back to the hotel (only 20 mins away) everyone who was there said not a drop had rained.

***bah ok, so the internet here is so slow I can't upload any pictures, though I have so many to share...i'll start by posting these stories and hopefully I can upload some pictures later tonight...

Day Nine: Some Stories of the Nigerian Police

So I have talked about how the Nigerian Police or as we call them, our guards, are around us at school and on our drives to and from the hotel at all times. At first I was hesitant to have these men around thinking they would bring negative attention to us, but I have grown very fond of them.

They work so hard and are on duty at our school location 24 hrs a day, sleeping in chairs and having no food and water...but they are so excited to have us here.

The highest ranking officer in charge is Paul, he wears awesome glasses and has a great sense of humor, they all do..except for a few that seem to be the enforcers (meaning the guys with the gigantic arms) Anyway today Paul got his friend to come to school in the morning and take a picture of a few of us together with him (and it was a film camera mind you) and by the end of the day he had his friend bring copies of the pictures for everyone, such a nice guy.

Mike, Jaks, Jake, Ernie, guard, Joe, guard, me, Paul, Carolina, Travis, James, Nick

There are so many of these guards around us all the time...and at first I was a little intimidated by these military esque men with AK47s in their hands at all times, I have never seen any of them put down their gun ever....and the first few days as a barrel of a gun would swoop past my direction i found myself ducking and moving out of the way, but they are so casual with their guns...to the point where we HAD to ask that there were safeties on their guns. But now I seem to barely notice their guns...they are so accustomed to having them, and as the heat blazes on and they has gone hours with little to no water they line themselves up in chairs legs open AK47 between their legs and chin resting on the barrel of the gun...if they feel comfortable with their chin on the gun, I can get used to seeing guns guns guns.

Oh and I must say they have the most fashionable uniforms i have ever seen. One i love the green beret and two their pants are so beautifully made with intricate seams and basically yeah I want a pair of those pants. I'm hoping to convince Paul to give me a pair by the time I leave.

**and I had my first mango in Nigeria today, and it was delicious...thanks to Pablo for getting them for us!

Day Eight: Working Hard & Swimming Pools

Everyone is officially here from New York and LA...we got in our last shipment of teachers yesterday and start our first day of school tomorrow.

We did quite a lot of work over the last few days, carrying and unpacking 108 boxes full of equipment, setting up classrooms and troubleshooting (a lot). Turns out our facilities lose power quite often...not the best thing for a film school. We also had a smoking dvd player today and need to figure out how to trouble shoot that for class tomorrow...but yeah I can't go into too much detail tonight as I am tired of thinking of it now and need to hop in bed....

But the best thing I have ever experienced and will continue to do every day after work while I am here is jump in the pool after a long days work...sorry all you New Yorkers, but it is absolutely amazing!

our hotel pool*

I also just want to take a moment to talk about the 300 hundred Christian Nigerians that were slaughters this morning in a village about 3 hrs from here called Jos. This was a religious retaliation from some Muslims, who suffered a similar fate by the hands of some Christians a few months ago. You can read about it here. This conflict will not and has not put me in any type of immediate or future danger, so you don't need to worry about that, but this fighting and brutality is something that is such a reality here.

a man selling drinks on the high way*

*pictures taken by Eliana Alvarez