Seasons are Confused

Yeah. The Earth's finally lost it, after all these decades of trying.

It can't decide if it wants it to be Rainy season or Dry season. Every few days it'll rain. But then, between those times, it's super dry and hot. So what is it? When it rains, it rains like a hurricane. A roof that we had built which was pinned down by NAILS splintered off of the wooden columns and flew into the yard like nothing! That's how strong these rains can get. Almost immediately I thought that it was Rainy Season after this. My Dad said no, though; "There's always a mid-Dry Season rain." But then, only two days ago, it was raining again!!! It doesn't make any sense. I don't know what to think. Maybe it's global warming? True. But perhaps it's just that Rainy Season's come early. But wouldn't that be global warming as well? I say that the seasons are getting all messed up. Because I know it's not just here that it's like this. In America, the winter wasn't so cold. If it's like this now, what'll happen a few years from now? What sort of conditions, what sort of world would we be residing in? Those are the questions that I'm beginning to ask. That, and how Terraria is so addicting. :P

Signing off,
The Traveler

Lagos in a Day Again

Yeah it's sooo late right now,

But we came back from going to Lagos at six in the afternoon. We left at six in the morning. We did it take so long? Why were we even going in the FIRST DARN PLACE? Well...we need car parts. One thing about Nigeria is that it isn't a very modern-car friendly type of place. So even though all these rich people are buying Lambourghinis and McLarens and Porsches, the problem is is that nobody knows how to fix those type of cars here. Why you would bring one of them over in the first place boggles me; you should see the conditions of the roads. A sports car's worst nightmare. So we had a Porsche come over to get fixed so we had to go all the way to Lagos and back in one DAY. And even with all of that work, guess what? The parts that we got were the wrong ones!!! See, that's the other problem; nothing is standardized here so you never know what you're gonna get. It's a pretty big problem. So we're always dealing with "OH-NO THIS IS THE WRONG FRIGGIN' PART WHAT THE HECK ARE WE GONNA DO" type of situations. Seriously, it's not the funny. At all. We lose money and we really are powerless to stop losing money. :( Well, no use in complaining, right? Even with all of that I still had a fun time in Lagos. We went and ate at an Indian restaurant! Might not sound like much but that's probably the only Indian restaurant in the whole country. :D So, longer post tomorrow,

Signing off,
The Traveler

Strike Ended

The strike ended like a week ago,

I've been super busy trying to code my new video game and making some new comic strips and STOPPING A THIEF (more on this later), but here's the thing: the strike came and went. And NOTHING changed. At all. The fuel subsidy wasn't brought back, and people didn't really get what they wanted. Everyone thought that this was it: the end of corruption in Nigeria as the rebels overthrew the Government. But then like only a few days after the whole thing started suddenly, the strikers, the noble rebels, say "okay. That's it. We're done. Everyone, we're gonna give in so go and work for the Government that we were so against a few days ago." I know, makes no sense, right? Well, my Dad believes that the rebels who were so against the corruption, the gas, everything actually got paid off by the Government to shut up and be subservient. It was pretty sad, and honestly I really can't take the public Nigerian force very seriously anymore. When I tell this to other Nigerians who were so charged up a couple of seconds ago they just laugh and shrug and say, "oh well! We'll survive!" No, I think it's a more serious issue than just shrugging the whole thing off. I'm really beginning to think that now there will be even more corruption and stealing from the public because now the Government knows that Nigerians aren't going to do anything to stop them! So in other words, Nigerians might have lost the little power that they had once had just because they decided to give in. Or maybe I'm wrong, maybe there's going to come a day when Nigeria is once again for the hundredth time forced under new government (this has happened a lot in the past 50 years of the country). My Dad said things didn't used to be like this, that the people had a lot more power, that the places were cleaner, that even Naira had twice more value than United States Dollars. I think that these "golden years" was actually the country coasting off of the wealth and scraps that the British nation left behind when Nigeria became an independent country. I really don't wanna think that, I kinda want to believe that old Nigeria would be like how my Dad describes it even if Britain hadn't colonized it. I don't know. I really don't. But, there's still (hopefully) a long, loong way to go for this country. It's only been around for 50 years! A lot of empires started badly, and then steadied out. Worse case scenario, there's going to come a time when this country is so absolutely horrible that the people will not take it anymore, and they will revolt angrily. They're already angry, but not angry enough, even though their politicians steal money from their pockets, become multibillionaires (in Naira), go overseas to the US and stay there while their homeland is crumbling. It's gotten to a point when if you're talking about a governor, you don't say, "so what have they done for the country?" You say, "so how much have they stolen?" Here's the really sad part: most Nigerians complain complain complain about this, but I'll tell you something; if they were in the same position as the stealing politicians they would do the EXACT. SAME. THING. Because everyone wants to be like that, everyone wants to have power and money like this crazy billionaires have. To tell you how bad it gets, some politicians get so rich they honestly don't know what to do with the money. I've heard of one who sent their kids or something in the USA and let them take private jet rides. And then they'll be taking pictures of themselves waving bundles full of hundred dollar bills in the camera. They even do their weekend shopping in Dubai, more than 3 countries away! And they barely invest it in research organizations or anything like that. They don't do anything worthwhile with it! I mean, you can only buy so many Lamborghinis. It's absolutely ridiculous, and the most maddening part is that nobody does anything to stop it.

Signing off,
The Traveler

The Strike

The whole nation's on strike,

And we are completely fine. Thanks for asking. The whole of Nigeria is completely shut down! Every shop, restaurant, everything is closed indefinitely until the strike is over. The problem is that the President decided to take away fuel subsidies. Lemme explain. For a while Nigeria's gas prices have stayed around a steady-ish 65 Naira. The original price of the gas is much higher, so the government pays for most of it so that the people can afford it. But the problem now is that Nigeria's broke like every other country in the world so they can't afford to pay for part of the gas. So now, the gas price has risen to 156 Naira. Riots and everything are running crazy in the streets of Lagos and Ibadan, but not in Ife! We're safe. But it's getting really bad. People are beginning to get violent, and mobs and thieves are coming out and taking advantage of the few people on the street. Shops are getting robbed all over the place, and the police are trying to handle the situation but are pretty much failing. It's getting so bad, that a senator's wife was driving to Abuja with an armed entourage and everything and the rioters and thugs completely ripped apart the car and stopped her from going anywhere. The reason why people are fighting used to be because of the fuel subsidy removal, but now it's become more of a "we're tired of the corruption in the government" sorta thing. The President can't back down with his decision anymore either. The reason is because if he does then nobody will listen to him anymore. Everybody will just say if he tries to pass anything else, "you're too weak! If we just riot again, you'll fold and we'll do whatever we want." So the situations is just bad. We have to stay in the house in the daytime and then go about after 5:00 because the riots and stuff happen between 8:00 and 5:00. They're getting really violent in Lagos and Ibadan. Don't worry, we're fine.

Signing off,
The Traveler

Monkeys!

You heard right,

We saw tons of them at this sacred forest in Osogbo. You don't see monkeys anywhere else in Nigeria. I've been here for two years now and this is the first time that I've ever seen any in Nigeria. They were all eating and relaxing everywhere, and the people that worked there were just walking by them like nothing. Unlike in zoos, these monkeys are allowed to go wherever they want! Crazy, right? Some are just lounging around, eating fruits from a bag and nobody blinks an eye. Except us. Of course. The reason why there were so many of them everywhere is because they're considered sacred in that forest so you better not kill them, or you might find yourself in your own funeral too soon. And there were so many shrines there. We went on a trail, and on it were all of these beautiful clay statues, and they twisted and turned and melded with each other. There are a few cottages, too that were like the statues except house version. And there was this super creepy suspension bridge that looked like it was about to fall at any second. We went over it, cuz it was the only way to cross a river. The river is actually the centerpiece of the whole place, as it's the sacred river that one of the Yoruba Goddesses is the spirit of. So there were a lot of offerings of food in front of the statues near the river, to the goddess. I can't remember her name right now, but I'll edit this post when I figure it out. Like I was saying, we went on a small forest trail, but it was a pretty short one. The reason is because even though there's a lot of space dedicated to the forest, it's around the river, not in the forests themselves. And we took a trail that went a little into the forest and ended there. We almost walked into somebody's farmland before we realized!

Signing off,
The Traveler

No Snow

Sorry about the break in posts, we haven't had internet connection for days,

But like the title says, there's no snow in Nigeria. Which is expected, of course. It is a tropical climate after all. But you know, whenever it becomes that Christmas time of year in America everyone thinks of snow and snow and snowpeople and all that snow stuff. And then they think of the Santa in the red suit (fun fact: the red suit Santa started when Coca-Cola put Santa in the iconic red suit and hat ensemble; before that, there was no red-wearing Santa! Commercialization man, commercialization.) But here, it's a little different. Even though on all the advertisements and everything with the Santa drinking a Coke bottle and all the snowfIlakes on the edges and all that, there's one small thing. There's no snow here even though snow fills the ads! Quirky, right? It kinda takes some getting used to when you see Christmas decorations up and there's dust from the Sahara blowing across the lawn and the sun is beating down like nobody's business. Maybe it's just me, I don't know. I'm not saying that it snowed every year in Durham, or anything like that. It's just...I can't really explain it...strange. That's the only word I can use for it. Yes, I'm strange.

Signing off,
The Traveler

Pidgin English Words

Okay, yesterday I had promised you guys something,

I would post on my blog a bunch of words from the language Pidgin English, so that you can learn a bit of a new language. So I'll show you interjections, full sentences, everything! Now, I can't take all the credit for this, I had a lot of help getting all this stuff together, so here it is.

A = A was derived from the English "I," and can is used in the same way. For example: A know no say. (I don't know that.) "Ai" is another version of A.

A-AH = A-Ah is derived from Yoruba, and it's a lot like "what in the world?!" It can be used in anger, shock, almost any sort of surprising situation, e.g. A-ah, (laughter), wetin be dis? (A-ah, what on Earth is this?)

BONES = Bones has nothing to do with the bones in your body. It's a derivative of English, and it means a pair of sunglasses. Hey, don't ask me how that came about. That's a weird one.

CROOMA = Crooma is derived from English, and it means a gullible, easily cheated person.

DABARU = A derivative of Yoruba, Dabaru means confusion, and disorganization. For example: Hey - make una no bring dat matter come dabaru dis meeting, o, ehen! (Listen, you guys don't introduce that matter at this meeting, got it?)

GAAN = Gaan is derived from Yoruba. It means precisely, without a doubt. For example, E vex am gaan. (It angered him/her a whole lot.)

IJEBU = Derived from Yoruba, Ijebu means non-authentic, a counterfeit. e.g. Dis na ijebu. (This is not authentic.)

That's all for now.

Signing off,
The Traveller