My Assignment

It’s the first workday in my new space at Intellichild school/Sesame Workshop.  Each Monday the staff meets to set the energy of the week with prayer.  I’m a little intimidated, as my way of praying is non-existent in the traditional sense.  This is also my first day…like your first day at a new school getting introduced to the class.  Although everything is different, everyone is very kind to me, and treats me with extreme respect.  (Some too much though…as there are a few teachers who will not even look at me.)

We stand in a circle and the prayers begin.  The prayers are unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before.  A staff member begins by singing a hymn, and the rest of us join in.  The melody of voices is unlike anything I have ever heard before and moves me to tears  (but I try to hold them in because this is my first day, and I don’t want people to see me cry).  The prayers last for 30 minutes, with pauses in the singing (and dancing) in between to allow each of us our own personal space with God in order to voice our own individual prayers/gratitudes/concerns, etc.  Usually, in churches I’ve attended and the faith I grew up in, we do this silently with eyes closed.  Here, people still have their eyes closed, but there is no silence.  Rather, there is a continuous hum of murmurs until a staff member redirects us again into song, and then the benediction.  Maybe this is like being in to churches in the states with gospel choirs, yet I don’t know, as I’ve never attended.  What I do know is that I love the spontaneous, continuous flow of song and dance, all for gratitude and praise to whatever higher power one believes in.  

Fast forward two weeks and I receive an African name.  It is Chinyere…it’s Igbo and means “gift of God.”  If you’re Nigerian, you can call me ChiChi for short…but if I know you and you have a similar culture to my own, you can forget it because you know as well as I that ChiChis is latin slang for boobs. I live and work at Intellichild School in Abuja Model Estate in Gwarinpa.  My room is similar to my studio in San Francisco; maybe not as quaint…but close in size, clean, and functional.  By day I work with the Sesame Workshop team on education, research, and outreach.  AND I visit classes and teach dance…well…salsa for now.  I work from 7 am to 7 pm…so by night I do nothing except read, watch TV, and or personal projects if I’m not too tired.   Each day, someone cleans my room, and each day, I have my meals prepared for me if I choose.  Or, I can request certain foods, but usually feel guilty about it. I don’t want to come off as a white princess, even though my body’s acting like one  (as her digestion’s not as hearty as I thought).  Weekends are spent catching up on projects or giving to myself with reading, writing, meditation, and shopping.  For now, it’s a little lonely.  I miss my friends.  I miss the routines of my day-to-day life.  And I really miss dancing.  It’s funny; I did everything (move to the other side of the world, leave my job, etc.) to get out of my routines, and now I miss them.  BUT I’m still in adjustment mode.  And even though I’m on the pity pot right now, I am extremely grateful for the opportunity I have.

Abuja is a sprawling city home to much of Nigeria’s government agencies and mission organizations  (CBOs and NGOs).  There is a large expat community here, yet I am surrounded by the local people.  This is thanks to my environment and host.  In fact, we went to a popular restaurant last week and I was amazed at the number of foreigners in the restaurant.  The number of foreigners well out-numbered the locals, and I found myself gaping, thinking in the back of my mind, “What are they all doing here?”  It was a bit surreal.  Before coming here, people would say, “You’re lucky.  You can get almost anything in Abuja,” which is true.  However, I do not frequent hot spots within the expat community, and I’m not sure if I want to, given the political climate.  (To ensure safety, the embassy has warned to not frequent “hot” expat spots and to avoid crowds.) I feel a bit “holed up”  at times given embassy warnings and with conflicts happening in the north.   The fighting, in case you’re unaware, has to do with extremist Muslims in the north exercising their beliefs that everything western  (which is everything not based on the Koran and fundamentalist Islamic ways of life) is evil.  However, what I’ve been told is that that is just an excuse.  When there has been conflict in the past between Muslims and Christians, Muslims would kill not only Christians, but also Muslims from different tribes.  This is not to say Christians are innocent.  They have retaliated and instigated in their own way…but they have not  (as far as I know) killed Christians from other tribes.  Again, I do not have hard facts about the chronic, long standing religious and ethnic divides that plague Nigeria.  I only have hearsay from the locals, who I find know a whole lot more than anyone/anything else I’ve spoken to/read about. 

There are three main tribes in Nigeria: Hausa, Yoruba, and Igbo.  Hausa people are from the north, Yoruba are from the west, and Igbo are from the southeast.  Those in the north are very poor, with the rich (who are really, REALLY rich) being few and far between.  Those in the south, by contrast, are very wealthy thanks to the oil boom and refineries  (yet there are still poor and those who have been disenfranchised due to western conglomerates).  Central Nigeria has a mix of both of worlds.  And it is in the center that the goals of these many mission organizations, including mine, seek to provide villages and schools, particularly those in remote areas and in the north access to education.  Through access to quality education and initiatives, it is believed that many limiting mindsets that contribute to Nigeria’s class inequalities might be eliminated.  As development work goes, this is an ongoing, slow, and many times challenging process.  I often find myself struggling to keep busy…or look busy…but maybe that’s because I’m still in the beginning of things.  Yet I was warned many a time that development work is slow. 

The people I work with are mainly Yoruba and Igbo.  I’m still learning how to curse.  The only curse I “Waka” which is Hausa, and akin to flipping someone off.  If you do that while you’re driving you are asking for a throw down.  I can’t wait to learn other phrases and spontaneously curse at people, if only to see the surprise on their faces followed by laughter  (well, the latter is a big assumption.  I’ll try it on the office folk first).