Party Crashers? Who're they?

There's no such thing as a party crasher in Nigeria.

If you go to any wedding, funeral, party, anything, no matter if the person knows you or if you heard about the party from a friend's cousin's friend's uncle, YOU CANNOT BE TURNED DOWN! You can come and walk right in without an invitation or anything, and not only will you get a seat, but you'll get a whole meal and drinks just like the rest! In Nigeria, you can't turn people down at parties, it's just a very impolite thing to do. Why is this? Well, I don't exactly know, but I think it's because Nigerians have a very strong sense of community, and at some points it feels like everybody knows each other. Like for example, a Nigerian might come up to you with this Nigerian woman and say, "have you met my sister?" You're friendly and everything, say hello and all that stuff, and then, a few days later, you find out that the woman that you just met wasn't even the guy's sister! It was   an acquaintance of his, and they had no blood relations whatsoever. A Nigerian will call anyone that he knows his "brother" or "sister,"; sometimes if it is someone of higher status, "uncle" or "auntie." And they are nowhere near to being your siblings or relatives! You see, the names are a way of showing respect I think, so that's why they're used; but it can get pretty confusing when you can't tell whether Mr. Nigerian is really brothers with this new guy or not!

Signing off,
The Traveler

Brownie is Lost!

She's been gone for more than two days,

And we have no idea where she is. We noticed that she had disappeared when one day she didn't come home from feeding in the field with the other goats. At first we thought that she would just come home a little later than usual, but she didn't. We started getting worried after a full night had passed and she didn't appear. We had a few people search the surrounding area around us for her, but nothing. No sign of her! What could have happened to her? I have no idea, but we don't even know if she's living now. She could've gotten lost in the bush, or eaten by some wild animals, or she might've gotten lost in the village, and is know confused as she lives with some other goats in somebody else's compound. It's been more than a week, I think, and she hasn't turned up. We don't think she's coming back.

Signing off,
The Traveler

Made Cheaply in China

Have you ever wanted an Oreo, but all you could buy were some Moreos?

How about wanting to get some scissors for a project, but the only thing available were some Chinese scissors that broke in the first five minutes of use?

Well, these are some of the problems we have here in Nigeria: instead of Oreos, there are Moreos, which taste nothing like Oreos; instead of a XBox 360, you got the "official" SEGA 101 video games in 1 game console, which was definitely NOT made by SEGA. What do I mean? Well, since a lot of the American companies haven't really started selling to Nigeria, a lot of Chinese and Nigerian companies copy different brands, and sell them. Usually, they are nowhere close to the original, but what else do you have? Also, you might be thinking, "yeah, I have a few problems with Chinese stuff, but it's not that bad; what's this kid complaining about?" Well, America has very strict regulations on products that come into the country, so China has to go by the rules, which means that the product can't be made out of cheap materials, defective parts, and toxic metals; basically the stuff's gotta work, and it's gotta work right. But here in Nigeria, it's a different matter; either Nigeria doesn't have such strict regulations or China doesn't care, because there are a lot of strange things coming here. A lot of the instruction manuals made by the Chinese companies are pretty funny though! We got this one toy for my baby sister, and the instruction manual had so many grammatical errors and so many words used incorrectly, that the instructions looked like they were written in anything but English! That's why we get a lot of packages sent by our Aunt who lives in America. That way we can get exactly what we want.

Signing off,
The Traveler

STUDENTS, REBELLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!

Revolution!!!

What am I talking about? There are barely any students on the OAU (Obafemi Awolowo University) campus in the middle of the semester! Why? Well, all of a sudden, the people who run the university decide to make the fee to enter from 2,000 Naira (13 USD), to 20,000 Naira (130 USD)! Huge jump, right? The students got pretty angry about that, so they went on strike, which turned into full on rebellion against the campus. Rebellion = knocking down poles, burning tires at the entrances so no one can come in (or out), fighting with the security guards, and when it gets really bad, battling the army. Luckily, it didn't reach that extent, but from what I heard it got pretty bad. These security guards were threatening the students that they would beat them if they didn't stop wreaking havoc, and they didn't listen. So some of the guards beat a group of students, and then, they got ANGRY. The students started beating the security guards; they hurt one so bad, that I think they had to take him to the hospital or something (I don't really remember the whole story). That was when OAU said if they didn't get off the campus in 3 days, the army was gonna come in, with guns. As you would expect, they got out. I remember seeing lines and lines of them on the sides of the streets with their backpacks, standing there. Things have calmed down now, and the army didn't have to come. I think the rioting might still be happening but I'm not sure. I don't live on the campus. I just hope the community around us doesn't get any ideas from the people on the university!

Signing Off,

The Traveler