Went to sleep in Houston, woke up in Nigeria… What a dream!
…and a dream it was. My first trip truly overseas, I mean 6,200 miles from the most familiar place in the world to me, pinch me I’m dreaming. Pinched, I was. Everything about this trip was VERY much real from transportation to currency to resources to culture, in nine days I felt it all. Stay with me while I break it down piece by piece.
So, you think you can drive?
Tuh, think again! Imagine being in New York, Los Angeles or places like Houston or Atlanta on a Friday at 6:00pm with a Michael Jackson concert that starts at 7:00pm, the traffic you could not fathom. In Lagos on a regular day, no special occasion take that times five and sit with it. A location that should be 10 minutes away could take 60-90 minutes simply because there’s no organization to the transportation flow. My first thought, welcome to Lagos where silver Toyota Corollas are going no where (everyone drives a Toyota Corolla, I don’t know how Toyota has any Corollas left anywhere else in the world LOL). The unpaved roads, the pot holes, every moment I was certain we were going to hit another Corolla or a person! To add to the experience, we actually did get hit, from the back like Kim K in Ray J’s tape, lol ok that’s a bit much but it was a love tap and nobody reacted. I was literally the only person in the car that suggested we do something about it, we just kept driving. WILD! An auto insurance-less country consider it a slow NASCAR race. Ok, so let me revisit the hitting a person thing. Imaging being in all of this traffic and there’s a kid ranging from ages 5-18 walking between all of these cars on the highway asking you to give them whatever you have inside or to buy plantain chips, books, a mirror, really whatever you can buy in a store you can buy from your window sitting in traffic, LORD I’ll take the parking lot on 610 for $2,000 Alex! Look if you’re weak at heart have a Naira budget just for your car ride, we’ll talk about Naira later. Abeg, don’t go if you can’t say no.
One thing I will say is there is an intro to infrastructure improvement happening in Lagos. There are new stoplights that have been installed. While the rule to stop when the light is red has not been enforced yet the fact that there is even a light is a great start. You know what makes people stop like a stop sign though, POLICE at random points just riding down the street we were asked to pull over and searched, for what reason I am still unsure about besides just wanting to see what we had, essentially another reason to bring extra extra Naira. For some reason my biggest fear about going to Africa was getting taken for ransom, I don’t know who I think I am but I managed to leave without getting taken, thank the Lord! So, you think you can drive, don’t even try it, hire a driver. Which brings me to my next point…
Naira (₦) is your best friend.
While Naira sounds like the name of a homegirl, consider it true. Naira is your best friend; Naira can get you whatever you desire in Lagos. Naira comes in increments of 100 ₦, 200 ₦, 500 ₦, and 1000 ₦ but here’s the catch; Imagine 1000 ₦ = $1.17 so to have $100 you would need to carry around nearly 100,000 ₦ which is a thick wad of money to hold it’s quite comical. Talk about bank roll shawty you literally feel rich with $100/$200 LOL! It was so hard for me to wrap my mind around the concept of money. I got butt length medium box braids for $27, bruh. For instance, we went to the market where you buy locally produced goods and produce, the vendor would say oh this item is 4000₦ in my head I’m like its $3. The locals are like no that’s too high how about 2,500 ₦. In my head I’m thinking you’re really wanting me to ask this person to sell me their hard work for $2 instead of $3?! That’s wild. Give me the Yankee price (this is what they call Americans) and carry me through the market on your shoulders at this point because what??? I’m ballin’ over here… in the states don’t ask me for nathan, I ain’t got it lol!
Resources: Here one minute, gone the next!
We talked about transportation, we talked about money, let’s talk about resources like water, gas, energy etc. I experienced them all come and go on this trip, which was quite comical. Born and raised in the U.S we subconsciously enjoy power, running water, air conditioning etc. under the condition that you pay a monthly bill to avoid interruptions. While we know there are thousands of people in the U.S that cannot afford this so they endure different living conditions or we have situational outages like a weak Texas Governor that doesn’t prepare for weather changes or construction mishaps, most days majority of us live uninterrupted. In Nigeria paid for or not, resources are sometimes out of your control. “NEPA take light” was a consistent phrase in conversation meaning the Nigerian government essentially hits the switch to off for EVERYBODY. If you’re fortunate enough to afford a generator and the diesel to power it, your generator may kick in, in a couple of minutes if not, get comfortable sitting in darkness, hotness and quietness.
If I’m being honest, I knew about the power thing many places across the world do this to conserve energy and to be fair in America we’re a wasteful energy sucking country but that’s a story for a different day, but WATER I did not expect. So, I have a specific story for ya’ll about staying at Eminent Classio Hotel, which is a beautiful luxury hotel. So, the first night we came to Lagos… let me back up. If you read this far you deserve to know how I even ended up in Nigeria. My boyfriend is a second generation Nigerian. We came to Lagos to celebrate his grandmothers 84th (or 92nd) birthday, if you have my number text me, I’ll explain the age differences. The event venue was too far from the house so we got a hotel in an area called Okota where the birthday party would be the next morning. We check-in to our room in this luxury hotel, I use the bathroom, no water. I’m like ok maybe in a couple of minutes the water will come on. 10 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour go by, no water. Thank God I brought hand and body cleaning wipes but still. After sweating all day, I need to shower ok! We decide, let’s go to dinner and by the time we come back water should be on, 3 hours later STILL NO WATER. Now American me is kicking in, I’m at the front desk like what’s up with the water sis, when is it coming back on?! They’re basically laughing at me on arrival. She explains, they pump a certain amount of water to the hotel each day (from a well), before she can finish, I’m asking to help pump some water because I want to was my nash (behind) LOL. At this point they’re laughing hysterically. She then proceeds to tell me the pump broke and they need someone to come fix the pump. So, this is where all the challenges collide because they could have called someone that is 20 minutes away but it could take them hours to reach the hotel because of traffic --_-- some of it feels unreal. So, we requested buckets of water, I don’t know where they got the water from but they brought them to the room and we took “hoe baths” that night. By the time we woke up 6 hours later water was finally back on in time to party. All in all, if you go to Nigeria be resourceful because there will be many times you run out of resources.
LAST LAST, but not least, let’s talk about CULTURE!
Aside from being called African American our entire lives, our true connection to African culture is little to none unless you have truly taken the time to understand, appreciate and include the culture in your intimate circle. I thought I knew a thing or two from my first- or second-generation Nigerian friends primarily in Houston and Dallas but a thing or two is really all I knew. There are a million things I tried to wrap my mind around in 9 days immersed in the culture. The food consistent in offerings of jollof, stew, plantains, goat, oxtails you can expect to be well fed. The traditional clothing absolutely beautiful. The craftmanship of the women sewing tailored dresses and suits, the skill of head wrapping and the neatest braids I’ve ever had, just flawless in execution. The sense of family… I can write a whole other book on this but family is everything there. No matter if you’re blood family or chosen family once you’re picked, you’re locked in. Even through many struggles, disagreements, fallouts they truly stick together and appreciate the concept of a community that you look out for and take care of under any circumstance. I wondered why there was a lot of hollering and what I thought was aggression but the Nigerian culture is doused in passion and a relentless mindset to do better, whatever better looks like for them. What I see is a culture enduring the times while staying unapologetically true to who they are, something a lot of us could learn from. While I didn’t feel connected to the conditions in which they live I was still able to see a little bit of my grandmother and grandfather there. I was connected to the culture and crave even more now. I truly see a land of opportunity and growth that has far more potential than the states because it’s almost a clean slate to effect change and deposit knowledge that many of us have garnered from America. I highly encourage if you have a chance in life to go to Africa, any part, go. It’s such an unfamiliar, familiar place with so many intricacies. What I like to say is it’s beautifully chaotic. There’s so much more I could break down but you have a short attention span so I’ll stop here.
Here are a couple of traveling tips if you’re going to Lagos:
1. Bring shoes you don’t mind getting dirty
2. Weather resistant hairstyles are a must
3. Book comfortable seats if your flight is over 7 hours, it’s worth the extra money
4. Arrange a driver for your entire trip. Don’t go with the mindset of UBER everywhere it’s too hard. Set aside $100 or 100,000-200,000 ₦ and pay someone to drive you everywhere it’s much more convenient
5. Traveling back make sure ALL of your devices can power on! If they will not power on you cannot board the flight. Laptops, ipads, phones everything must power on (at least this is a DELTA rule)
6. Be adaptable. Conditions will not always suit you; people will have little respect of your time, no one is in a rush so be able to go with the flow and you’ll be fine.
If you enjoyed my blog, leave me a comment below and I look forward to sharing more experiences with you.
