Accident-prone...

On my way to teach piano this morning in Garki, I saw three car accidents at major intersections.  I don't know if it's just a wonky Saturday... or maybe Nigerians started early on St. Patrick's Day celebrations?  I saw another one today coming home from the gym... it was like a 5 car wreck, and of course, a million people were milling around and causing a ruckus. 

Ehh... not much to report on here.  It was a quiet week at work, mainly because everyone is back in Atlanta for the GAP conference, and also because I didn't roll into work until Thursday, having spent the first three days at home trying to sleep off whatever weirdo bug that I had.  Wasn't malaria, wasn't the stomach flu... maybe mild gastroenteritis?  I dunno.  Mainly just felt off somehow.  Another upcoming week of nothingness as GAP conference continues... and then I'm off to Ethiopia and Uganda for a week of conferencing and networking.  Not sure how I feel about it... at least I'll get to leave Abuja, but honestly, I'm not really an Africa person.  :T 

I think I'm just looking forward to coming back to the States, settling down somewhere in the Midwest and staying put for more than one year... I'm tired of moving every year, it's such a big hassle and it never gets any easier.  Bah.  Here's to finding a nice little apartment for myself and making it a home for four years, not just a temporary living situation. 

Michael Buble's "Home" is playing... well, the Glee version.  It makes me homesick... obvi.  Can I start counting down yet?

sloth. ugh.

...more like pig.  And sweating like one too.  Insanity alone in my room today, and boy, I am fresh out of shape.  Maybe not so fresh.  Plus side to doing it by myself is that I can do it in my underwear.  No sense in getting a pair of shorts and a t-shirt all gross and sweaty (makes double the sense since I have to wash all my clothes by hand).  Time to get up into gear, and stop bemoaning the fact that I'm out of shape.  I'm not too fond of Shaun T screaming at me on a daily basis, so I will try to intersperse with gymming at the Hilton.  I honestly should reward myself with brunch afterward and make it a whole morning affair on the weekends.  Need to make sure my body is in tip top shape so that I can abuse it again once med school starts.  Groan.

Uganda in a week.  Time to for some solo exploring.  :D

Pre-Home Musings

Taking a second sick day... Just woke up. Nice to try and spend some time catching up on sleep and trying to beat whatever weirdo bug that I have. Just some thoughts on what I would like to do when I get back home (mainly just a mental note for me so I dont forget...)

• Go to Disneyland 
• Go to Vegas 
• Take broho to Father's Office 
• Family Vacay to Napa? This might be a bit more involved (read: lots more moola) 
• Explore a new farmer's market each week 
• Train for a half marathon? Or at least just take the dog out for a run everyday (man, I'm copping out already?!) 

I probably will be adding more to the bucket list... Gotta grt in as much fun and relaxation time as I can before I start the next ten years of my life cooped up in a library carrel and/or hospital. Back to sleep now...

Pre-Rainy Season Rain!

Wonderful.  Power went out... must be the thunderstorm outside... just as I was getting ready to take a picture of my McGyver-esque rigging of my brand new mosquito net!  I actually have had it up since last week, but I've been so out of it lately that I haven't had a chance to blog about anything that's happened. 
And.. it's back!  Actually power has been really wonky since I returned from Atlanta... seems like they're having trouble getting the generators to come on after the power goes out. 
Here is my mosquito net, in all its infinite glory:

I feel like I'm a princess of sorts... except not really.

So... my friend put the hooks up too high, but it turned out ok, since this leaves me a walkway to get to my toiletries.  I think I did pretty well for the limited resources that I had... yes, I do say so myself. :)

Anyhoo... with rainy season approaching and just the general bugginess of Africa, I have been eaten alive by mosquitoes and other nasty crawly flying things... lighting isn't so good from this photo, but you can tell the number of bites just on my feet... those red bumpy things.  It doesn't help that I have absolutely zero willpower... so I just scratch them raw.  Hydrocortisone has helped, but when you have to wear shoes to work... yeah.  Even my rainbow's straps are placed so strategically that they pretty much hit every single bite and irritate them even more. 

I think I can count at least SEVEN bites on my feet. :( 

 How did I get this, might you ask?  Well, I decided to venture out, literally, and went to a beer garden with Jess and the Marines... thankfully I wore a long-sleeved cardigan and long pants... but I wore flipflops, so yes- feet were fair game for the mozzies. 

This week has been all sorts of ups and downs:

• I have officially realized that my mefloquine causes MAJOR insomnia, so I was getting absolutely little to no sleep the first few days after I took my dose last Saturday.  Got some good chat time in with family while I was up in the middle of the night, and internet traffic was light, so skype calls weren't dropping as often as they usually do during peak hours.  Actually had to take a sick day at work, since I was feeling so nauseous from lack of sleep...
• I have since started taking Unisom nightly to get some shuteye, but I don't know how long full effectiveness will hold until I start getting used to it... in any case... not much sleep for me. -_-
• CDC Director Dr. Tom Friedan came to visit our office and we had an "All-Hands" staff meeting to hear what he said... unfortunately it was ALL on polio-- so all the work and boatloads of money going into PEPFAR (HIVAIDS) was not mentioned at all.  O_o  Not that his visit really had anything to do with me, but I at least I can say I met him.  And can I just add that he is so much... erm... "smaller" than I imagined him to be.  For whatever reason, I thought he would be taller...?
• Finally, after much cajoling and email pestering, I was able to get one of my projects--shelved due to funding issues--back on track, and now I will be attending a conference related to this project in Uganda at the end of the month!  Yay for sponsored travel!  At least I will get to see East Africa before the fellowship is over.  Stopping in Addis too to see the Ethiopia fellows!  
• On a more depressing note, there was a botched rescue attempt in Northern Nigeria and two foreigners died in the crossfire... an Italian and British national.  I think they were kidnapped by Boko Haram.  Security is always an issue here... we'll see how long the relative peace lasts until something giant blows up here.  Maybe literally... ?

Pics Pics Pics...

I'm too lazy to incorporate my pictures into previous posts, so I'll just post them here... :)  I will attempt to put them in chronological order though...

Jess at the Abuja Airport, before leaving for the States (2/9/12)

Me at the Abuja Airport, sitting across from Jess... what is that in my hand? (2/9/12)

Annoyed/exhausted/impatient me... waiting during our 5 hour layover in Frankfurt (2/10/12)

Jess staring out the window... what's so interesting? (2/10/12)

I totally passed out from 2 glasses of red wine at meal (I never know if what meal it is on airplanes), Jess took a candid photo... and yes, I have slight Asian glow (2/10/12)

                                                    

Ok, these might be slightly out of order, only because I can't get stupid blogger to post them correctly... drag function isn't working.  Tess and Jess: Leaving Atlanta! (2/26/12)

Nadya, this is for you: Berliner and latte at the Frankfurt airport during our layover from ATL to ABV (2/27/12)

Uh, this looks like Frankfurt?... not sure. But on our way back to Abuja... (2/27/12)

Obvi, who is the one not too happy to go back to Africa... (2/27/12)

Jess demonstrating one example of why small Asians have an advantage on the plane (2/27/12)

                                             

This is us back in our apartment... trying to overcome jet lag.  Why is it always harder when you come back to Africa?

                                       
Just a bit of background on the next few pictures:
The USMG took us to the Mogadishu army barracks for Nigerian grilled fish on Friday evening.  It's supposed to be a very Nigerian thing, to sit there in the charcoal smokiness, drinking beer, eating grilled fish with your fingers (no utensils allowed!)... and getting harangued by vendors walking around selling the most random shiz.  I wanted Jess to buy me a blow up globe that we could add to our eclectic collection of a living room, but to no avail.
This place actually got bombed a year or so ago by Boko Haram, so not too many people were frequenting it, although I guess it's up and coming again... why would BH want to bomb the same place twice?  O_o

Miss Fish Lady prepping the fish for grill... those fish don't actually have red scales... the Nigerian way to prep it is to slather the entire fish in peppe, their spice of choice (and it is spicy!)

Jess and I shared a fish.  They topped it with yam chips.  Decent, with Star beer (although really, Star tastes like water).  Notice the basin of water to the side... that was for you to wash your hands in... but where did the water come from?  Probably giardia-infested... jk.  Or not...

 

Jess starting on the tail of the fish...

Me... just.. waiting to eat. rawr.  Cat?

Paste-its...?

Wow, I've been pretty remiss about blogging these last few weeks.  A lot has happened since February 5th... mainly spending the latter half of the month in the States for SAS training at the CDC HQ in Atlanta.  I don't know how people who travel for a living do it... my flight back to the US was over 40 hours, including transit time, layover, zone change, blahblah.  Abuja to Frankfurt, 5 hour layover in Frankfurt, then Frankfurt to Atlanta, 4 hour layover in Atlanta, then Atlanta to LA.  Rested for one day, then flew out again to the Midwest for a couple of days, before flying back out to Atlanta for 3 days of training.  Then, to take advantage of the long weekend, I flew back out to LA to visit family/relatives, before returning to Atlanta for the last 3 days of training.  Had 1.5 days of actual weekend, before flying back to Nigeria.  Erf.  Typing it out just makes me slightly ill... although I guess it could be coupled with the fact that I'm majorly jetlagged (even though I slept the entire day yesterday). 
Atlanta was fun.  Got to meet up with the Atlanta-based fellows, had gloriously-bad-for-you-American grub (pizza, burgers, beer, MickeyD's, awesome frozen deliciousness from Trader Joe's, chicken and waffles!!), slept on a REAL SPRING MATTRESS!, got to drive around Sprawl-anta (I just made that up... but does it actually exist?) in my own dinky rental car, had free internet, watched terrible TV on an actual TV set, felt cold (yay real winter!)... all amazing things not experience-able in Nigeria.  I also had the chance to visit the High Museum of Art in downtown Atlanta... get a dose of culture before heading back to Africa.  They had an awesome KAWS exhibit... some Atlanta-based graphic artist who likes to incorporate pop culture references into his artwork.  Will post pics later. 
Now that I'm back in Nigeria, I don't really know what to do with myself.  Guess I'm just biding my time before... yeah.  Things aren't any better or worse (how can it honestly get any worse)-- power was out for quite a while yesterday while I was trying to recoup from jetlag at home... turns out our generator ran out of fuel, so they took a while trying to get that up and running.  In the meantime, I just laid there in bed, fanning myself to sleep, sweating balls.  Our apartment has become a no-pants-zone, mainly because it's so flipping hot here.  Got into work today, and realized the AC was broken.  Feels just like the first few days we arrived here last September.  Our maintenance guy came up to take a look, called in a contractor to try and fix the AC unit, but to no avail (why would I expect anything more?)... so he asked for a "Paste-It" and I just looked at him blankly... turns out he wanted a Post-It.  :T
You are welcome back to Nigeria! :(

Happy World Nutella Day!

Thanks, Amazon page on Facebook, for informing me that today is World Nutella Day.  How fitting and coincidental, since I didn't know this morning before making breakfast... but I still was able to celebrate it with nutella and peanut butter toast and a cafe au lait, made right in my tiny, dysfunctional kitchen.  Not much going on here, as per usual... we have a three day weekend because of Eid (again), so I'll be bumming around the apartment.  Tried to sit in the dining room and journal today, but only got as far as last summer (I'm playing catch up since 2010, haha... my journaling skills suck)...

Leaving for the States on Thursday, at least I can escape some of the oppressive heat here... looking forward to spending the majority of February in civilization.  Not looking forward to coming back afterward... just gotta stick out a few more months...

Started rewatching ALL seasons of Mad Men and the first season of Game of Thrones to prepare for upcoming season premieres in March and April.  Yay TV!