Long Day Yesterday

I didn't sleep that much the other night. I was pretty much tossing and turning and everything. It's one of those night's when it seems like there isn't one comfortable spot on your mattress to rest on. It's very irritating. Unfortunately, I really needed that sleep for the day that was in store for me.

I woke up to the sound of my mother telling me that there was something wrong with the laptop. I checked it out, and Microsoft was claiming that our Windows 7 Ultimate operating system wasn't genuine. There was a black screen, and the words, "Windows is not Genuine" at the bottom right corner of the laptop screen. Now, it is; we put in the corret product key and everything when installing it. It was genuine! I looked up on the internet what to do, and found out that it was a common problem among Windows 7 users. Anyway, long story short (so I don't bore to death the non-techies) I fixed the genuine problem today. But we're talking about yesterday, right? So, we were freaking over that then, and my Dad said that we need to run some errands. I got dressed into my day clothes, and we went. We drove really close to the street that Glory 2 Glory's on, and....wait, my Mother is prying my fingers off the keyboard; she says I gotta get off. It's too late in the night to write a long blog. I'll continue tommorow, I guess.

Signing off,
The Traveler

Our Car Broke Down. Again.

Yes, it did. We were driving to Osogbo, the capital of Osun state (our own) to visit some friends. My friend's father owns a car wash, and we visited it and everything to say high and to ask if his children and spouse were at the home. The car wash is only a few streets away, mind. He said yes, and made sure he would call them to open the gate for us to their house. Most houses here have gates, like this:

As you can see, the wall surrounds the house, protecting it. Talk about a picket fence! So we asked him to make sure his children would open the gate, and we went on our way. We drove about two streets away from the house, when everyone noticed the car's hood was smoking blue, foul smoke. Then, it stopped moving. Luckily, we were so close. It would have been pretty messed up if we were on the main road! We went to go check it out. My Dad phrased as, "a pipe popped," or something. A pipe fell out of it's hole, and oil was running through it. I think. I really don't know. My Mom had to steer while my Dad had to push from behind most of the way to the house. We had two great advantages, though: 1- the road was downhill. It made for a pretty fun ride. And 2- We were so close to the house, we didn't have to push for long. Oh yeah, and I almost forgot 3- The fix was supposed to be pretty easy, so we weren't grounded there. Good thing my parents owned an AAMCO! My Dad really knows how to fix cars. He asked my friend's Dad if he could bring transmission fluid (or something like that) over the phone, and I went to go sit down and talk with the kids we came to meet with in the first place. My younger sister had a playmate who was around her age, and they played (can you guess?) The PowerBluff Girls. Oops, did I write that incorrectly? ;) Good thing is that we got the car fixed and we rode home, but I don't think the fix is permanent. There's still some blue smoke coming out of it. I think it'll get fixed tomorrow.

Signing off,

The Blossom-Bubble-Buttercup-hater Traveler

P.S.  NEPA has been gone for a month now. We've been running off of the inverter and the generator. The NEPA HQ for Ife said it would definitely be fixed in the night or today. By yesterday, I mean two days ago.

Seriously signing off this time,

The Traveler

Some Pictures of Old Buka

There's this place on campus (Obafemi Awolowo University) called old buka. It's like an all-in-one strip mall. It has everything, from lights, to roasting fish, to fish pepper soup. Fish pepper soup is (for Americans like me and others) the spiciest thing in the whole universe. It consists of a fish, like Tilapia, and a peppery broth. It's delicious and horrifying at the same time. Here are a few pictures if old buka and fish pepper soup. Note: Old Buka is named Old Buka because it's old. Don't assume that the buildings in the place are the common thing everywhere in Nigeria.

My mom and I eating fish pepper soup.

A back alley in old buka.

A strange metal box hanging over everything in old buka.

 The hill the old buka is on. One of the many hills on campus. Campus is HUGE! Actually, my dad says that it has the largest campus size in the whole world. Go ahead, look it up, because I haven't!

Outside of the fish pepper soup joint. My dad was sitting out here, eating.

 Artistic view of a Sprite bottle that I was drinking (random, but cool).

 Myself, laid back in the shop

My mom's half-eaten soup. Don't try to eat the screen. 

My mom and I eating. My sister's are on the other bench.

I asked this Okada man to pose with his bike. Okada is one of the most common transport in Nigeria. They swarm like bees in the streets. I'll write more about them in another post.

A picture of the Department of Dramatic Arts on campus.

Inside the theater of the Department of Dramatic Arts.

A picture of the parking lot outside of the department. See the Okadas riding around?

I don't really know what this part of the department's for.

The statues that have been here since my father lived here.

A statue of Ola Rotimi.

Murals on the outside walls of the theater.

Those are enough pictures for all of you to look at at the moment. More pictures later,

Signing off,

The Traveler

Flooding

Oh, I almost forgot: It rained all over the house! It poured last night so hard, and some of the windows were open in my parent's bedroom. And they were open! Water was flooding in, completely drenching my baby sister's bed and making the floor look like a giant puddle. We had to put newspaper all over the ground to soak up the water before it made an even bigger mess. It looked really cool; the water droplets on the ground made interesting designs. We took some towels and put it right under the windows so the water would fall on them instead of the floor. Fortunately, we got the place dry. Unfortunately, we missed a daily issue of The Gaurdian.

Signing off,
The Traveler

Tired

I'm a little tired right now. I don't know why. I slept for a while, I ate breakfast and everything, so I guess I'm just tired for tired's sake. It's early morning, so there's nothing to post at the moment. It's overcast and temperature is warm. That's it.

Signing off,
The Traveler

The Perfect Mud

I couldn't write yesterday cause stupid internet wasn't working. Well, now I'm back on; hurray for multilinks! Yesterday, I found this mud; it was the perfect kind. I know, sounds weird, but it was. I mean, it was extreeemely smooth, and felt almost like clay. So anyway, I was digging a hole, and that was where I found the mud. I kept digging, feeling bad that I had to destroy the perfect smooth mud, when I made even better mud! It was mixed with the clay enriched dirt to make the best, most smooth mud in the world! I showed my sisters, and they were like, "whoa" and "cool." Then, I went back inside. Later in the day, the mud stiffened until it was soft enough to be molded into balls. I threw it at our cement wall, just to see what would happen....and it just stuck there. I peeled it off, and balled it back into a ball; eco-friendly reusable mud! It was really fun to play with. Then, I put some tap water over the stiffened mud in the hole and...bam, back to the watery mud! It's the coolest mud recipe ever; I better patent the concoction!

Chicken's Stretch

I know, sounds weird, but they do. If they're really tired or something, you'll see them fan out their wings. Their wingspan is surprisingly wide. Not that impressive sounding yet? Well listen to this: Nigerian chickens fly! The ones in our yard actually fly up into the trees and sleep there like regular birds! They even fly over our cement wall! Their really loud flyers, though: whenever they flap their wings as they fly, you can hear loud whoosh, whoosh, swoosh in succession. And usually, the cockerels will fly up someplace high, and then, when they get up there, they'll start cock-a-doodle-dooing. What I think is pretty stupid on human's part, is the name cock-a-doodle-doo for the sound the roosters make. They don't even sound like that! It's hard to explain what they really sound like. Or maybe just chickens outside of America sound different? Well, I didn't hang out with many chickens back in the states, so I don't know. Anyone on a farm with chickens, do they really sound like that?

Signing off,
The Traveler