27 and a day

I realize after visiting an orphanage where kids need shoes and band-aids and books that my complaints are exceptionally trivial and frivolous.  I am going to complain nonetheless.

Seriously, is it too much to ask to sit down on my toilet in my bathroom in my house and not have a lizard staring back at me?  Or how about turning on the faucet in the shower and not having brown water rush out.  Is that too much to ask?  Is it too much to ask to come home and not find a cockroach in your bedroom?  Or sit at the computer and be distracted by the gigantic ant that just fell on the mouse?

Is it too much to ask to have a romantic dinner on your birthday with your husband?  Because last night he attended a reception to which I was not invited.  Luckily the woman who I consider to be my closest friend here is also persona non grata (read: not FSO) and so at least I didn’t have to be alone, but I still really think it sucks that I didn’t get to see my husband until at 8:30 pm on my birthday.  Like the person for whom the reception was held a) knows Joey, b) cares to know Joey, or c) would have even noticed if Joey wasn’t there.  But who am I to ask?  I am just Joey’s wife.  And I have a birthday every year.  Not like it was my first birthday out of the US and my first birthday where my family couldn’t call me to wish me happy birthday.  It’s okay, I didn’t want Joey around anyway…

I’m just really feeling negative.  Hence my not blogging much lately because they’d all sound the same way and that’s no fun to read.  I realize that I need to change my attitude and that I’m not going to be happy until I do that and I realize I have so many things to be thankful for, including a husband who I know would have rather hung out with me on my birthday and running water and a generator and my dogs and my health and a supportive family, not to mention an amazing trip to Europe planned, etc., etc.  I did end up having a really enjoyable dinner with my friend at a nice restaurant (even though my risotto cost $30 and my martini $20).  I received many touching birthday emails and lots of Facebook well wishes too.  I have some great stories and pictures from our trip to Lagos for the wedding and the last month.  I just have to stop feeling sorry for myself first.  I'll get there...

Joey and I volun- teered at an orphan- age in Abuja yester- day.  I'm not sure if it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be because my standards have dropped considerably since moving here or because I've been so desensitized over the last three months or what; regardless, I definitely have to say it was my most rewarding experience since moving here.  Joey and I definitely plan on visiting on a more regular basis and my ultimate goal is to improve those kids' lives, if only a little.  It was the first time since moving here that I actually felt like I could contribute something; like there was a good reason for me to live here for the next two years. 

The playground

The first thing I noticed was an adorable little boy with a huge cut on his ankle.  Luckily, I carry a first-aid kit in the car, so we were able to get some Neosporin and a band-aid on it.  Simple first-aid supplies would make a world of difference for those kids.  Their playground, which consists of rusty and beat-up, if not completely broken, old equipment donated by the British School several years ago, also happens to be covered in feces from the goats and cows that are raised on the property, and I can't even imagine the infections that must ensue from open wounds mixed with fecal bacteria. 

Also on the playground

The kids' arms and legs were coated with mosquito bites, scabs from scratching those mosquito bites and scars from the repeated scabbing and reopening of said mosquito bites.  I got a quick peak into their bedroom, which looked like some cribs with mosquito nets, but considering how bad the mosquitoes can get in our air-conditioned, well-built house, I can only imagine what it gets like around dusk in their hot little building.  Pre-treated mosquito nets and even some fans, preferably battery-operated because the electricity is so unreliable, to help with some circulation would help tremendously. 

Once I got past the basic health concerns, I noticed the kids' shoes.  It's not like the kids don't have shoes; they do.  But none of their shoes seemed appropriate and certainly only few of them actually fit.  The same little boy with the cut on his ankle went to put on shoes (note I did not say "his shoes" - they don't have their own shoes, just a cabinet of shoes from which to choose), and couldn't find a matching pair.  He ended up with a blue flip-flop that was slightly too small on his left foot and a green flip-flop that was at least three sizes too big on his right foot.  He was happy as a clam as he waddled out to the playground, but I was more than disconcerted.  Especially because I'd been told that large donations of clothing had been made in the past, only to have disappeared by the next visit.  How do you even begin to address that problem? 
 

This little girl slept on the floor the whole time we were there. 

 So then, last in importance when you have health concerns and shoes that don't fit, but still incredibly sad when you consider these are just children, is the lack of toys and books.  All I saw was a small stack of dusty plastic tricycles in the back of the room.  No crayons, no books, no balls, no games.  So I am going to build them a library.  There's a space in the administrative building and even if the kids can't read right now, without access to books they certainly aren't going to learn.  And I believe that not only is there far less incentive to resell donations of books, but the power of reading and learning gives these kids the best chance to improve their lives.  I haven't figured out any of the logistics yet and I have no idea where to begin, but by the end of our time here in Abuja, I'm bound and determined those kids will have a library.

Click on the photo to see the rest of my pictures.  I didn't publish any recognizable pictures of the kids to my blog just in case of safety/legal concerns.

day trippin

A few weeks ago I tagged along with a friend of mine on a day trip to a little village in Kaduna State. She coordinated a donation to benefit this village's medical clinic.  Before the donation, the medical clinic consisted of a tiny hut with two beds; babies were born right next to where AIDS patients were treated.  Thanks to this donation, they were able to expand the medical clinic to its own building with three separate treatment rooms.  The improvement really was astonishing.  I felt very lucky to get to watch the ribbon-cutting, and I was also pretty proud of our government's donation because I could actually see how it will make a difference. 

The hut in the foreground is the original medical clinic.  The new clinic is in the background.  And yes, I accidentally walked into that ribbon.  (The side was still taped on after the front was cut!  And the attendees thought it was hilarious.)

 

I feel like I should also mention it was my first exper- ience without running water.  They had to teach me how to use the bucket to flush the toilet - which I'm still not sure if I did right.  Crazy the things you take for granted.

Here's the link to the rest of my pictures from that trip:
https://picasaweb.google.com/100586084762366858227/20110218?authkey=Gv1sRgCNKo1ZT5up_nVw&feat=directlink

more stuff

 

We've gotten lots more stuff lately.  Our first round of HHE came.  Hello grocery store in my pantry, gelato maker and tight pants.  The framer finished with our new paintings too.  Its really starting to feel more like home around here.  Even the dogs seem to be settling in.

Yum #1.

Delicious #2.

 

And Fat #3.

Acrylic scratching by Ada Godspeed

Not sure of the artist's name on this one.

Yes, Moe is laying entirely on top of George.  Who didn't seem to mind.

lemon meringue

I took a quiz about desserts.  It asked me to pick my favorite from a list.  Any of you who have ever been to a buffet with me can attest I do not pick favorites.  I taste them all.  My dad calls this "turkey-dom," when women get really excited about dessert but say they only want a little bite and then hold up their pinkie while they eat their one bite.  I would argue that I am not a turkey in that I generally eat more than just a bite of each dessert.  I finish at least two or three.  Good thing I run.

Regardless, it was really hard for me to pick this dessert, albeit hypothetical.  Finally, after much salivating and hard thought, I decided upon Lemon Meringue Pie.  Here's what that says about me:

"Smooth, sexy & articulate with your hands (um, ok, I guess I used to play the piano), you are an excellent caregiver and a good teacher.  But don't try to walk and chew gum at the same time.  A bit of a diva at times, you set your own style because you do your own thing.  You shine when it comes to helping others and have many friends."

Sunday evening, while clutching four bottles of wine at the grocery store, I dropped one on my toe.  Oh my God did it hurt.  Then while I was trying not to cry and/or pass-out, my brilliant husband told me that his little brother cut his toe off that way.  Wonderful.  Thank you for that fact.  I took a picture of my big, fat, black and blue toe but then decided I need a pedicure and am not posting the picture.

Recent example number two of my brilliance (for which I do not have a picture at all), would be the large blisters on my left pointer and middle fingers.  After it was on all evening, a light bulb in one of our lamps flickered.  I instinctively reached out to adjust the bulb.  Burn.  No pun intended.

So I sent my dessert psycho-analysis to Joey with the sentence about walking and chewing gum at the same time highlighted and exclaimed how accurate I found it to be.  He agreed but only with a change in the highlighting: ...A bit of a diva at times...

I don't know where he gets that impression.

pictures

https://picasaweb.google.com/100586084762366858227/20110206?authkey=Gv1sRgCNCVjNHTz-6A9wE&feat=directlink

when life gives you hot dogs... make pizza?

Our internet has been off and on, and it seems like whenever I want to blog its off.  Then it comes on and I have other things to do.  So this post is slightly disjointed and probably completely unnecessary.  Oh well.

It seems to have gotten a lot hotter in the last few weeks.  I mean its been hot since we got here, but Sunday was really the first day of super duper fry your ass on the concrete hot.  The Philippines held a Valentine's Day bazaar Sunday afternoon; we live within a reasonable walking distance and by the time we arrived Joey had soaked through his shirt and I had some really nice boob sweat going on.  But our unsightliness wasn't about to stop us from the smorgasbord of delicious Philippine cuisine.  That stuff is hard to come by around here so we ate a few months worth in about half an hour.  We also bought some raffle tickets - grand prize was a round trip ticket from Abuja to Manila, and since my friend Lauren just moved to Manila for the next several months for her job I figured it was meant to be that I'd win that ticket. Apparently not.

Anyway, I realize that I could have spent the last two months in the freezing cold of Des Moines or DC and that I'm probably not going to get much sympathy that its starting to get hot here, but its definitely gone from bearable to uncomfortable.  Nothing like sitting in the shade and dripping sweat.  Sexy.

This past Saturday we went to a Valentine's Day celebration at one of the local hotels.  They have a lovely rooftop patio and a Nepalese chef.  They served a huge buffet of Nigerian, Chinese, Indian and Thai dishes - no Pad Thai - but still pretty good. Its funny - its probably the ignorant American in me - but I thought Valentine's Day was just a commercialized American made-up holiday.  Not so.  Its a commercialized, international made-up holiday.  There were almost as many opportunities to waste money on Valentine's Day paraphernalia here as there are in the US. 

And speaking of Valentine's Day, it was a Happy Valentine's Day indeed.  We got the very best present you could ever ask for:

(Imagine it in your best "The Price is Right" announcer voice, because that is how excited we both were):

A new car!  Yeah baby, that's right, our car finally arrived!  The mere act of driving ourselves to dinner for Valentine's Day was romantic enough alone.  Which was a good thing, because when we got to the restaurant they were full (we didn't realize you actually had to make reservations in Abuja) and the host turned us away.  Luckily for us, some of our coworkers had originally planned to dine with another couple who cancelled, and so invited us to join their table.  Romantic, no.  Enjoyable, yes.  And I tried sweetbreads for the first time.  Not really by choice.  The restaurant serves a prix fixed menu and you eat what they put in front of you, which thankfully looked innocuous enough that I didn't need to ask what it was until the end the meal.   

Friday night we attended a play at the French Cultural Center.  The Jos Repertory Theatre performed "Madmen and Specialists," a play written by Wole Soyinka about the evils of war.  Cannibalism to be exact.  The play was a little heady and therefore hard to understand since much of the dialog was in Pidgen, but overall it was a very nice production and the outdoor venue was lovely.  Especially with the bottle of wine I stashed in my purse.  My only complaint is to the effectiveness of my bug spray. 


Two Saturdays ago we attended an Arts & Crafts fair.  We bought two paintings, one of which is apparently by a famous local artist, Ada Goodson.  We took both paintings to the framer and they're due next week; we're really looking forward to getting some color on our walls.

Anyway, that pretty much covers lately.  It actually rained once - which is a big deal here because its not supposed to rain at all between November and May.  We couldn't believe the downpour.   The best part was how clean and fresh everything seemed the next day.  Other than that, we've discovered some pretty decent restaurants and bars to keep us busy and learned that you have to check before you order pepperoni pizza.  Otherwise you may end up with cut-up hot dogs.