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| New Haven Market, Enugu |
I've been back from Nigeria for exactly two weeks so I figured it was time for a little bit of reflection on the whole experience...get ready for serious nostalgia!
Here, as I promised in a previous post, I’ve answered some of the most frequent questions I've received about my trip, hopefully they'll give you a better understanding of the type of things I encountered while I was in Nigeria!
Here, as I promised in a previous post, I’ve answered some of the most frequent questions I've received about my trip, hopefully they'll give you a better understanding of the type of things I encountered while I was in Nigeria!
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| Goat Heads -New Haven Market, Enugu |
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| Street Kids, Lagos |
What was the most unexpected thing you encountered in Nigeria?
My parents did an excellent job of telling me what to expect, so nothing was too overwhelming. But it was still a shock to see how the social class system worked. In Nigeria you’re either well-off or poor; the middle class population is almost nonexistent. Because there is no middle class to serve as bridge between the lives of the rich and poor there is a harsh class system, one in which the two groups don't associate at all unless business and money are involved or one is talking advantage of the other.
My parents did an excellent job of telling me what to expect, so nothing was too overwhelming. But it was still a shock to see how the social class system worked. In Nigeria you’re either well-off or poor; the middle class population is almost nonexistent. Because there is no middle class to serve as bridge between the lives of the rich and poor there is a harsh class system, one in which the two groups don't associate at all unless business and money are involved or one is talking advantage of the other.
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| #BringBackOurGirls Protest Signs, Lagos |
How safe were you considering the threats of Boko Haram?
I never felt the need to worry about Boko Haram because much of the violence was happening in Northern Nigeria while I was mostly in the South East and West. But towards the end of my visit many public places began doing car checks to prevent car bombs. The worst was finding out there had been a bombing in Abuja, a city I had just been in a couple weeks before the attack. You could tell that Boko Haram was always on people's minds. Every person I interviewed for my film spoke of their anger towards the terrorist group and newspaper headlines always tended to focus around the groups latest engagements.
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| View from the Intercontinental Hotel, Lagos |
How about electricity? Did you have internet?
Internet and electricity were a little more… scarce. It was not as if I could walk to Starbucks to enjoy free Wi-Fi! Instead I regularly bought and loaded cards onto my phone that gave me Internet access. As for light and electricity, supply lines for whole parts of the town would go off for hours at a time and this happened at least once a day while I was in there. Because electricity cuts so often individuals have gas run generators that they use power their homes (which is extremely expensive)!
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| the type of security wall that surround most homes |
Seams like you met a lot of people. Were people friendly?
The thing about Nigerian culture is that they are not polite. But I mean this in the best way! As in, they say what's on their minds, they are honest, and they are real. For this reason I was able to meet and relate with people at a deeper level because there was no pretending. People were nice because they genuinely liked you and you can tell because they made an effort to make you know it. For example, a text message saying "I like you, we should hang out tomorrow", forward, direct, yet meaningful. Be careful though because this can work against your favor, if someone calls you fat…try not to take it personally...
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| Ibadan |
More like separation anxiety! I miss Nigeria so much. I love having constant electricity and free Wi-Fi here in the U.S but I would give that up to spend a few more days in Nigeria. I plan on going back to realllll soon ;)
