The usual weekend

I had a slow work week but a very inspiring Friday. I was invited to a climate change workshop and Earth day celebrations by a cool Nigerian girl that I had met in COP15 last December. Discussions on the roles of developed and developing countries in climate change mitigation and adaptation with these passionate and bright young people was great!

In Europe we’re constantly presented lots of information on how to cut down carbon emissions, save energy and conserve our planet, and I’d say that a lot of my friends are quite environmentally conscious. I understand that the average Nigerian might not be very aware, or able to worry over these issues, as there are more pressing matters like earning enough money to buy food. However, I’ve been quite suprised of the average expat attitude. While me and Anna are the ones switching off lights and using A/C only when needed, the personnel of the Embassy leaves A/C running during the night or in the empty sauna’s dressing room and our expat friends drive their city jeeps everywhere. Besides Nigeria really needing these young environmental activitists, I think there’s still a lot of work to do in the attitudes of us from the West.

Earth day climate meet up

On Friday night we went to see a play. Abuja doesn’t have any theatres, but there is a group from Jos that comes in once a month or so. The beautiful French cultural center acted as a venue, with a stage set on its courtyard. I really liked the atmospheric setting, with the dark palm tree figures around, and the moon and the stars above. Despite the play being fantastic, the audience consisted almost only of expats. The Nigerians seem to prefer their movies to live performances.

The Dutch hosted an annual orange ball on Saturday. The party was centered around a competition on four activites, and it brought me lots of fun memories from my freshman year at TKK. My favourite one was the throwing of the sponges across a pool to a container adjusted to four helmets, worn by some of our team members!

Etkot & preparing the team outfit for Orange ball

About equality

After saying goodbye to my sister and father in Cape Town, the young people working at my hotel invited me out. And so the last night of the trip, partying with the locals in two bars/clubs, revealed me another South Africa, hidden from the tourist eyes. In the early morning hours I listened to the bright young hotel manager sharing his dream of studying in a university, and heard the mixture of anger and disappointment in his voice for knowing that he would most likely never have enough money to realize his dream. Having spent the evening feeling like equals, and suddently realizing how different opportunities we were given and how immensely priviledged I am, made me feel awfully sorry. On the other side of the table, the pappa betalar style white guy dressed in brand clothes listened to the story, replied with a shrug and changed the subject for skateboarding.

One of the core values in my Finnish upbringing has been equality. It definitely conflicts with many of my experiences from this spring; from the British aristocrat demanding his seat at the front of the car from the black guy, to the submissive behaviour of the Nigerian servants towards the richer, and the snobbish behaviour of the Nigerian elite. I can’t deny the fact that a lot of the people think that it is perfectly natural that some people are a lot more worthy than others, and sometimes, I even have to play my part. But still, I am most proud of our Finnish mentality, and believe that it is a great contributor to the success of our country.

Quotes from my Nigerian life

“White color, where you go?”
- Taxi driver marketing his services

“[..] Finland, a small country of about 5 million people had a presence in Nigeria. They were the owners of Nokia, the Telecom giants, a big manufacturing company and another big company in the oil sector.”
- meeting notes by a Nigerian about the speech by our Ambassador

“We cannot give a flight ticket to Europe to the winner of the lottery, the winner might be Nigerian, and then who’s gonna give him a visa?”
- member of the European film festival organizing group arguing we should not accept the airline ticket given by Air France to be the prize of a lottery

“In an interview with journalists, the Finnish minister said it was widely believed in Finland that youths in Nigeria were only associated with violence.”
- from an article in the local Punch newspaper

“The minister of commerce and industry, Chief Achike Udenwa, has called on Finland to establish Nokia handsets manufacturing plant in Nigeria [..] He said that over 80 per cent of Nigerians use Nokia brand of mobile telephone, adding that establishing a plant in the country was the only logical thing to do to further strengthen both countries’ bilateral relations.”
- from an article in the local Guardian newspaper

“How dey go dey go?”
“How far?”
– Nigerian pidgin English for how are you

Easter adventures

I flew to the shopping mall airport of Johannesburg early Sunday morning and had to walk through the shops and restaurants a few times; my mind is so much Abuja nowadays that I felt astonished to see the multitude of things for sale. And when we arrived to Port Elizabeth, the streets looked too neat, the crowd too white, and the drivers too polite for my Nigerian eyes. I was just thinking how confused the African immigrants must be on their first arrival to the materialistic western world.

So I’m on the yearly father+daughters-trip, which I managed to lobby this year to Africa, for the first time for my sister and father. The trip is conveniently taking place at the middle of my stay in Nigeria, and it’s been great to catch up with family, and of course to receive some pantteri candies (äidille kiitos!) among other useful things from Finland.

We started the trip luxuriously: meeting with the South African giraffes, rhinos, elephants and lions in a game reserve Amakhala. The lodge where we stayed was fantastic, but especially I loved the shower that had the sky as a ceiling.

following the lion

the swede in the backseat got a bit nervous with the elephant staring at him

break for coffee!

my favourite animal

On Tue we drove to the small & cute town Knysna, and arrived just on time for late lunch of their famous oysters. But the dinner was even better, as the restaurant owner joined our table and shared his favourite wine with us!

The next day we visited a town with 300 ostrich farms and amazing caves, after which I misread the map and guided us on the right road but wrong direction. Noticing it at 30 kilometers east instead of south, we took some consultative drinks and decided to take an alternative route: “a bit smaller road”. Which was very ok until we got to the last 80 kilometers of the 150, the part to go over the mountains. We drove through a scenic pass where the road was wide enough for just one car, and so bumpy that we could proceed maybe 30km an hour. From the pass the tiny road rose to go over the mountains, with a steep fall and no railing, we drove from one cloud to another. We got back to Knysna after four hours of driving, but the beautiful views and the taste of an adventure were worth the detour!

guess who is drinking what

On Thu we enjoyed a bit of sun, sea and sand, before driving to the lovely wine town Stellenbosch. The wine tasting (which we naturally have done since the arrival) was great, of course.

wine tasting in Stellenbosch

And then: Cape Town. This city has such a friendly and welcoming atmosphere that the comparisons to San Francisco are well earned. The mountains are gorgeous, and so are the beaches and and and… Definitely goes to my list of cities I’d love to live in.

on the windy Table mountain

on our way to cape of good hope

the art hotel in Cape Town

at Cape Point

mika oli Kaisan lempiviini matkalla? pingviini