good things come to those who wait. and wait. and wait...

I just got notification from the boss that there is a chance our car will be here by the end of next week!  I am so excited - really the worst part about being here has been how stranded we've felt without a car.  Sure we can call for a ride but it requires planning ahead and you just don't have the same freedom.  So excited.  Now we can go to the grocery store whenever we want and we can go out for dinner or to a movie and leave a party when we're tired and not when our ride is ready to go.  So. So. Excited.  (Not to mention the fact that we've been making payments on this car since November and haven't driven it since the test drive.)

Also word is our HHE may be coming around the same time!  This is also a lovely development; however, I'm not as excited because our HHE is coming in two shipments. The stuff that was in storage still hasn't shipped.  Which means our dishes, our towels, our artwork, most of our kitchen utensils and everything else we didn't take with us to DC (which was only as much as we could fit in and around two cars and our UAB) is still at the dock.  In Maryland.  So yes, all of our consumables, new sheets and Christmas decorations (still lamenting putting those in the UAB to DC but whatever), are going to be here in a short while, for which I am grateful, but its still going to be a few more months before we get this place feeling completely like home.

Breakfast of Champions: Greens, whey & beer.

Other arrivals include three huge boxes from Vitacost today.  I ordered 8 large cans of protein powder.  Vitacost sent 16.  They also sent double everything else that I ordered.  And only charged me for what I ordered.  Which is amazing.  So now thanks to the Catholic guilt my parents instilled I'm trying to decide what to do.  Sending it back isn't exactly easy since we don't have an APO/FPO here.  But I didn't order all that protein powder and don't really want to fork over the extra $250 for extra product I didn't order seeing as that cost hurt the first time they charged me.  I'm hoping I can convince Vitacost that.

Also received my new swimsuit.  I ordered several new bikinis from Victoria's Secret (which came last week - its like Christmas around here, just much hotter) but the swimsuit that came today is actually for swimming.  Which I ordered because I decided that when I leave Abuja I am going to do a triathlon.  I realize for those of you who watched me collect green (5th place - Echo Valley only had five lanes lest you think I actually beat someone), brown (6th place) and pink (7th place) ribbons year after year at Echo Valley swim meets that this probably comes as a surprise.  But I figure if I can run a marathon I can do a triathlon and I've got nothing but time and sun here, so its the perfect time to practice. Plus the Hilton allows US employees to swim in its pool for free (we have a really nice pool on our compound but it isn't suited for swimming laps).  Besides, my mom always said I had a beautiful stroke.

who's the boss?

Greetings seem to be a very important part of Nigerian culture.  A series of questions and answers must be exchanged with each person whom you interact.  For example:  Joey: "Good morning."

Nigerian: "Good morning.  How was your night?" (He is asking Joey how he slept.)

Joey: "Good, and yours?"

Nigerian: "Good.  How was your wife?" (He is not asking about my performance.  He is inquiring about my health).

Joey: "Good.  How was your sister?"  Seriously.  In which context, sister usually means wife and Auntie is usually mother because you call your female boss your "ma."  And so it goes. 

Anyway, this morning I went to the snack cart for my coffee.  Me: "Good morning."

Gambo: "Good morning.  How is de boss?"

Me (one eyebrow raised): "Jordan?"

Gambo: "No!  Your husband!"

I'm sure no one needs to psychoanalyze how I felt about that.  Gambo also likes to tell Joey when I get order coffee cake from the snack cart.  "The madam got the peach cake," he tells Joey.  Thanks, tattletale.

According to my coworker in the office, "In Nigerian culture the 'usband is the alpha and the omega.  His wife must do anything he asks."  Hmm.  I think I'll just let that one go...