Changes Time!

No, I'm not talking about my life,

I'm talking about the city of Lagos. We're actually there right now; I'm writing this from our hotel room. But I'm not here to talk about hotels. I'm here to talk about restaurants. I'll explain, but first, let me tell you this story. We went to Dominoes yesterday. While we were eating we also got some Coldstone ice cream as well. Today, we ate at Johnny Rockets. Of course, this might sound normal to most Americans. But only a year ago these restaurants did not exist in Nigeria. And that's the interesting part. All of these American franchises are moving in as fast as they can. I bet that give it a few years, Dominoes will be seen nationwide. To put it simply, foreign businesses are interested in the Nigerian market. What does that mean? Well, Lagos, and Nigeria in general might be going through major changes in the near future. We might be seeing Radioshacks, Wal-Marts, all of the shops and stores you see in America here. The question now is whether if that is a good thing or not. Well, I'll like it. But of course, I'm biased. I'm homesick, I like the familiar brand names and such. But what if these bigger companies come in and sweep all of the local businesses to the side? One good thing is that these Nigerian branches are actually owned and run by Nigerians. So, that means that foreigners won't be able to completely take over. Overall though, this is a huge sign of progress. It brings a lot of hope to this country, and with a rising middle-class worldwide, Nigeria doesn't have any choice but to upgrade. I mean, look up Eko Atlantic!

Signing off,
The Hopeful Traveller

Hello World

Yes, I’ve been learning C++.

But anyway, there is some big news that I have for everybody. Coming March (or April), we’ll be heading back to the States for a month. Then in August (or something like that) we’ll be going back for real. About 6 months. Then we’ll be going back in forth—six months here, six months in USA. So I’ve been wondering, should I continue this blog while in America? I mean, The Traveler is just about my travels in other places. If I’m gonna be home, what’ll my posts be like? Like this, maybe:

Sitting Down

Hey, I’m sitting down! I’ve been experiencing real crazy stuff like, yesterday, my Cheerios were not actually Cheerios! I thought they were Cheerios until I tasted them, and then I saw…they were actually Fruit Loops! I should’ve gotten a clue from the box but I was sorta out of it that day. Anyway, my dog chased this squirrel all around the yard and that was totally

Yeah, something like that.  I might as well become a Twitter addict if my posts become like that. But I thought of something. Maybe continuing the blog in America isn’t such a bad idea. I mean, I’ve been looking at the people who have been visiting my site, and a lot are from England, China, all kinds of places. I guess it would be cool for them to read about an American kid’s view on American life. I don’t know, I think it could work. Write about America in America for the world, write about Nigeria in Nigeria for Americans. It’s not the most unique thing in the world but for teens like me who are interested in different places it would be a useful guide. Even people in California might want to hear about my experience in North Carolina. So you get my drift. I think it could work.

Signing off,

The Traveler

A Little Philosophical Stuff

So I’ve been sick for a while,

A week or so to be exact. Obviously, it’s not been fun. The sickness is like a combination between a really, REALLY bad cold and malaria. The first day I had a sore throat. Second day, my sinuses were so messed up that if I bent down I felt as if my head would split open. Third to seventh day: migraines, and my chest was so constricted that if I walked from the living room to our gate, I’d have to stop and take a break for a couple of minutes before going back inside. And here’s where things get a little interesting; I learned something from this. Actually, I’m happy that my chest was so constricted I could barely breathe. Why? I learned a valuable lesson which takes most people years to learn. You have to take things slowly. I know you’re probably saying, “well duh. Of course.” But really, it was a big lesson for me. Your goal will still be there even if you take a while to get there. That doesn’t mean that you should procrastinate! I’m completely against that. But don’t kill yourself in the process of getting to wherever you’re trying to get to. Oh yeah, speaking of killing yourself, I was watching Inception with some friends a few days ago, and we paused it to go get something, don’t remember what. We were at that part with the crazy wife lady inside DiCaprio’s head. And she was talking about how she should kill herself so she can wake up, back to reality. Even though she already was in reality. And my friend said, “You know, I sometimes feel like that. I mean, reality could be one big dream that someone’s having.” So that’s the big problem that people have been battling with for centuries. Is reality real. Are we figments of someone’s imagination. Is there an afterlife. Blah blah blah. Well, if you’d ask me, “Hey Traveller, what do you think of this whole reality thing?” I’d say, “I dunno.” Because I don’t. And here’s the best part: to me, it doesn’t matter that much. If we’re in a dream or even a simulation like the Matrix, our fantasy world isn’t any less real than whatever lies beyond. This has been said over and over again, even scientifically. Look at it from a scientific point of view: whatever your senses report to your brain is pretty much your reality. I mean, you’re reading this using some sort of electronic device. Your eyes are reading these words, and because your eyes can see them you instantly believe that they’re a part of your reality. And your skin can feel your clothes. You believe that your clothes a part of your reality. If you perceive your world through your senses then that is your reality. Even your dreams are realities. I can feel and see things in dreams. Why should they be any less real than right here, right now? You could say that dreams don’t usually incorporate all five senses. So if I blindfold you, you can’t see. Does that mean that the world around you isn’t real anymore? The dream realities are weird, I have to admit. I mean, sometimes even the laws of physics don’t even apply. But all I’m trying to say is anything that sends information through your senses to your brain is a part of your reality. I guess what I’m trying to say is that even if this universe is a dream or a super advanced version of the Sims, that’s fine. It’s not going to make a difference to you or me. But that also means something else. If you believe in an afterlife or reincarnation, I don’t believe you should sitting around to die so you can move on to the next phase. Because if you think the way I was saying, you know about every reality is a reality, then this phase is just as important as the other. The grass is not greener on the other side. Even if it is, like I said earlier, take your time. If you don’t how will you be able to enjoy anything?

Signing off,

The Traveller

The Net Is DEAD

That's right. D-E-A to the D.

I have no idea what happened. Months ago, our Multilinks modem just went boop. Gone, kaput. 0.00 kbps. And ever since then we've scoured Nigeria, looking for a good internet connection. I'm not writing this in my house right now. I'm sitting in a parent's friend's office, using his connection to write this post. I'm sorry, I'm going to have to make this pretty short, so please it's not me. It's the crappy internet services. I've been doing fine, enjoying the dryness of Dry Season. And a lot of people are cheery right now, cuz of the Christmas season and stuff. But this is Dry Season though. Like hardcore people. It's super hot in the day, super cold in the night like a desert. Like a desert with a lot of people in it.

G2G,
The Traveller

P.S. I'm going to do whatever I can to post more. Don't worry, I'm back. :)

No Country for Young Kids

Yep, you heard right.

Nigeria isn’t exactly the most child-friendly place in the world. We drove past a preschool once. Most buildings have walls around their perimeters, this one wasn’t any different. But to make them look more festive, the preschool walls are painted with children things like the alphabet. So we drove past the wall, and I was looking at their rendition of the alphabet. A for apple, C for cow…G for gun. Yeah. Gun. They even had a picture of a handgun under G. If you can believe it this happens a lot. I’ve seen so many G for guns here it’s crazy. I’ve even heard sample sentences in 2^nd grade English books like, “the man stole from the woman and pointed his gun at her.” You might be saying, “but Nigeria even has it’s own version of Sesame Street! Doesn’t that count?” Sorta…nah. Not really. For one, Sesame Street Nigeria is on a channel hiding in a desolate corner of the satellite TV services. It only comes on at awkward times on awkward days. My Mother finally got the time right and my little sister was able to watch an episode. That was the first and last time she’s ever watched Sesame Street Nigeria. Sesame Street Nigeria is just a bunch of clips with Sesame Street America with Nigerian voice overs. It's super, super weird looking. Imagine Ernie speaking pidgin English! On the other hand Nigeria can be extremely children friendly. Here, Children's Day is a national holiday with parties and games at public venues, and every family can join! So Nigeria can be friendly and unfriendly to children.

Signing off,

The Traveller

DEAD ZONE

Error e233: THE REMOTE COMPUTER DID NOT RESPOND

Error e344: SERVER CONNECTION WAS RESET

These are some of the excuses we've been getting for the past month. I'm sorry. I truly am. But hear me out first; I haven't been trying to avoid posting here. Our internet access has been nonexistent for the longest now. Something happened to our network! We haven't been able to load Google, let alone Blogger, for weeks. I've finally got through but I don't know how long it'll last. Someone came over today to help us out. He thought that maybe it was our modem that was malfunctioning. Turns out it's our area. :( There's really nothing we can do about that. You'd think we live in some remote forest in the middle of nowhere! If you can believe it, we don't. We live right next to a big community. But for some reason nothing works here. The worst part is that it doesn't make any sense. Here's why: in Nigeria almost every modem is a mobile one. It's plug and play. And there are different networks that make different modems. We use Multilinks. To put it simply, Multilinks is dead. At least here, anyway. So today we tried another called Glo. Now, Glo is also a phone network. We actually have a Glo phone and we get five bars in certain areas in the house. It's pretty reliable. The same SIM that's in our Glo phone is in a Glo modem. Theoretically you should be accessing the same network. Therefore, if the phone works then we should get decent internet access through Glo. It doesn't work that way. I don't know why. We took our Glo phone. We took our Glo modem. Glo phone: five bars. Glo modem: ... I'm at my wits end here. I don't know what we're supposed to do. The only other option we have is this internet thingy on the university campus up the street. It's called VSAT and the minimum download speeds are like 250 kbps or something like that. Around here that's like legendary speeds. All we have to do is get a dish so we can send the internet data stuff to the house. I really hope we get this worked out!

Signing off,
The Traveler

Babysitting

We're babysitting a friend's dog.

Her name is Bones and they got her really recently. Because she isn't used to them yet she's pretty skittish. But she warmed up to Shep really quick! She gets really happy when she comes over to our house and sees him here. We've been watching her for about a week now since our friends had to go to Lagos. They're back now and they'll be taking Bones back to their house today. I think she's ready to go back to her home. So am I! I have to walk both of the dogs with my Dad and that's some super hard work. They are always pulling us around trying to chase each other and run around. And I thought walking Shep was hard! Speaking of Shep, we've been wondering how we will take him with us back to America. We don't know how hard it'll be. What if the airport security don't let us take him or something like that? We don't know for sure. I've done some research but I'm still a little bit unsure. It's alright though, we'll figure something out! I just wish that we could meet somebody who brought a dog from Nigeria to America. Then they could explain to us what they went through.

Signing off,
The Traveler