Black Sky

Have you ever heard of a black sky?


I don't mean thunder cloud black.

I don't mean night black.

I mean black. Black.
If you go to Obafemi Awolowo University around when the sun starts setting, or even at our house, the sky will become black for about an hour. Don't believe me? Well, I won't tell you what it is. You'll have to comment in your guesses. I'll give you the answer. No earlier.
P.S. We've passed the 200th chicken in chicken counting. Read Chicken Counting.
Signing off,
The Traveler with his lips sealed

Chicken Counting

It's been a few hours since we went chicken counting. You heard that right. I said chicken counting. My Dad told me earlier in the day to come with me to help him with the chicken farm in back. I was all ready to jump out of my seat and go there when he also informed me that it would be in the evening, so no need to rush. At the near end of the day, a brought a little table with a pen to write down. My father would go inside the chicken house, take one of the chickens, and put it on a little blue-green weigher. Most of them were 4 pounds, 4 pounds and 18 ounces, and 4 pounds and ten ounces. "2." "2.2" "2.1." (we were writing in kilograms, since every other country in the world except the US write down weights in that format) I wrote down all the weights. The farm is separated into three houses. The 1st house is only gonna be for the biggest; only 4 lbs and higher. Once we had a real big one; 5 pounds 12 ounces! That's pretty big for the chicken's that we're growing to sell for Christmas. Nigerians like to buy live or dead chickens for Christmas to eat. We'll be one of the sellers. It wasn't that boring. It only took half a lifetime. After I had written down the stats of 151 chickens we called it a night and went back home.

Signing off,
The Traveler

P.S.: Inconsistent writing cause the internet is so bad in our location.

Jammed

I haven't posted for six days.

Because of Multilinks.

You thought I was trying to hold back on you guys? No way! The internet connection is way too slow. It hasn't been acting right for a few days now. So, now that I've explained my absence, let me tell you about the longest trip to Osogbo we have ever been on.

My parents needed to get a tool from my friend's father, so we were on our way to Osogbo. I was really sleepy for some reason (the car does that to me) and I had a nap, though I was a little frustrated because Ife to Osogbo isn't that long a ride. I'd have to cut my nap short. I really wished that the ride would just be a little longer. Unfortunately, I got my wish. When I woke up, I was still pretty tired, and I really just wanted to fall back asleep, but I heard a lot of commotion going on, and there were people moving back and forth past the car. We must be in Osogbo already, I thought, waking myself up as I looked outside the car. We weren't in Osogbo. We were on the highway. And there were people walking on the highway. And the cars weren't moving. It was the slowest moving highway in history; people parked their cars and started walking outside and talking to people in buses out the window, running around...it was strange. "How long have we been driving?" I asked. "You mean how long have we been parked here," my mother corrected sarcastically. Well, I found out that we left Osogbo at about four o' clock. And it was five o' eight. Osogbo is a thirty minute drive. At least I got a good nap! It was really interesting to watch the people walk by, though. When the cars started moving, though, everyone would dash to the cars and rev them up. Finally, we did get to Osogbo, and we did come back (at like six or seven in the night!). But I'm not done. The night was as bright as day. The moon was almost completely full, and it was like a spotlight. It was daytime without all the colors. It was amazing! I wish I could have taken a picture of it, but my DSi didn't register the light. Which was annoying. I'll try next time.

Signing off,
The Traveler

Xplore My Blog!

Instead of me telling you guys about all of my Xploring, Xplore my blog yourself. Go ahead and look at where I've been, where I'm going, search my blog for interesting posts you might like, and vote on the random poll! Nothing has really happened today, so why don't you find a post that might be a bit more interesting?

Signing off,
The Traveler

The Rest of the Story

Let me finish this thing once and for all. So we drove down a side-road next to Glory 2 Glory. It was an uneven one, with houses on either side and people walking around. Finally, we drove into the parking lot of this automotive place. It was about two stories. Most automotive mechanic places in Nigeria don't have the right equipment. Actually, the mechanics do a trial and error thing to find out what's wrong with the car. Most of the time, they break it further! So we went inside, my dad saying he had to do something with someone about some car. Don't ask me what. I was just following along for the ride. We went to the lifts (these people had the right equipment) and looked at this '09 Infiniti. I don't know the exact build. A whole bunch of mechanics were swarming around it, trying to figure out what was wrong. Even though they had good tools, they did not get good training. They were as good as the regular mechanics, which is bad. They looked pretty confused, and they didn't seem very organized. I just stood and watched. My Dad jumped in and started looking at everything for about...mmm...I don't know....fifteen minutes?! It doesn't sound that long, but think about it; I'm not into fixing cars, there was nothing to do, and there was nothing to look at. It felt like a lifetime. So I went back inside for a minute, messing around with this HP tablet PC. It was interesting, but definitely not for me. Just by looking at it, I knew it graphics and CPU wasn't high enough for me to do some real gaming. It would probably be extremely choppy. Finally, my Dad came back with a few of the mechanics, and they took the laptop up the stairs. I followed. We went up to the second level, which could only be accessed by some really freaky stairs. They were outside, and since the building wasn't completely finished yet, there were no rails! I really didn't want to fall from that height. It would hurt. But, we went up to the top, and they were on the computer, pointing at the "miscombotulator" and "finisher clamp," or something strange like that. And they stayed there for what felt like two lifetimes. I just looked out the windows, waiting. And waiting. And waiting. And waiting. And waiting. And finally getting up, and going back downstairs. Then, they went back to the car, and worked on it some more! Which took three lifetimes! And they took it off the lift, and started using a device called the scanner. Which took four lifetimes! I thought I'd stay there till I turned 80, but finally, we said good-bye, and went. Happily. But I'm not done yet! Far from it! I suggested that we should get some more Rice Krispies from Glory 2 Glory; we were running out. So we got that since it was only just next door, and got back in the car. We drove over to "town" (main part of Ife), and got some bulbs. Our house's old bulbs had started to die out. Then we were about to drive home (happily) when my Dad remembered inconveniently that we had to go all the way back to town and get some shovels. So we did that, which took five lifetimes, and finally came back home. Thank goodness!

Signing off,
The Traveler

I Opened a Coconut!

I opened a coconut! Okay, doesn't sound that amazing, but it is. You see stereotypical coconuts on TV; you know: a brown roundish thing with three dark spots on the top. The TV character will usually take a straw and poke it right through one of the dark spots, and start drinking a white liquid called "coconut milk." It ain't true. Listen: coconuts do not look like brown roundish things. With the husk on, they are green or yellow, smooth, and oval shaped. Not small and brown. After you take this off of the tree, you take a machete (or any kind of really sharp knife) and rip the husk off. The inside is dry, and very course and fabricie (not a real word), like a rough carpet. It's tan in color. In the middle of this thick husk is the iconic coconut that most people who live in non-tropical climates are familiar with. No need to describe that. But you can't just put a straw through the dark circles! If you try that, you'll have a crumpled piece of plastic. The little sphere is crazy hard. It's so hard to get through, you have to use a hammer to crack the shell and pry it open. But you've got another problem when you crack it open. What about the juice? You have to get a cup and let it all drain out. And the juice itself tastes nothing and looks nothing like milk. It's clear, like water, and tastes slightly sweet. It is extremely refreshing. The white hard inside is another obstacle in eating your snack. I tried to use a knife to cut off the hard shell, but got cut and stabbed a couple of times. Don't try that technique. But the drink and the white insides is a great reward for all of the trouble. If you haven't tried real coconut (not the one in Whole Foods) then you haven't lived. SO GOOD!

Signing off,
The Traveler

P.S. I'll have to continue my story tomorrow. My Mom is kicking me off again.

Wait a Little Longer

 

I couldn’t write today because I was super busy downloading updates for the computer so it won’t crash like two days ago. It’s really late here, and I just finished the dishes. I started late. So, I can’t really write a lot or I’ll get in trouble.

Signing off,

The Traveler