Observations

Saw my first Nigerian train. It was PACKED. I mean, there were people hanging off the doors, sitting on top of the cars. Scary. Kind of like the traffic here. It’s crazy packed with lots of people and cars on the road. Making 2 lanes into 4. Not paying attention to any of the rules. Making right turns from the left lane.

They don’t say numbers like “one thousand and five hundred.” It’s just “one five zero zero”

When they call you on the phone, they always say “Good Afternoon Patricia. My name is XYZ.” I might be the only person who says “Hi” when I meet someone. And I never say “my name is patricia” if I’ve already met someone.

There’s a big separation of classes here. It sounds like a pretty cush life here – always in a/c, with a driver, will have a cook. For any expat, these are somewhat of necessities – the heat is unbearable without a/c, the traffic is terrifying and undriveable without a driver, and we’ll need a cook to go to the market for us to buy food since I’m limited to going only to the 1 or 2 grocery stores that I know about.

Today’s Yoruba Lesson
Ekouche (eh coo shay) – well done
Ekaro – good morning
Ekasson – good afternoon

Oda aro – good night

The Wedding

Wedding was great. About 25 of our friends from the US arrived the day before, and it ended up being not only great to have them there not just for my wedding, but as kind of a welcome to my new home. First was church – it’s a very religious country in general. Phrases like “Thank God” and “By the grace of god” are a regular part of conversations here. Wonder if I will start going to church here – not sure if I will like it. I’m sure I would agree with the moral of the story, but I’m not so much into story telling. Just get to the point. Anyway, the reception was lovely. It was more than I could have ever wanted. Firstly, our wedding train enters before us– dancing to Timbaland’s “The Way I Are” and a popular Nigerian song “Gongo Aso.” The tent is decorated very nicely, with a hint of Asian parasols, Asian paper lanterns, a beautiful cake with cherry blossoms, and big jumbotrons so that our 500ish guests could see what was going on. The ceremony portion was efficient which was great for us – we didn’t want a long drawn out thing. There was the first dance (to Chris Brown’s “With You”), the cutting of the cake (where they spelled JESUS first), and then that tradition where I had to feed Yomi the cake from my knees. A bit submissive, and everyone could see what I thought of that as my the close up of my expression was plastered on the jumbotron. Yomi’s speech was very touching – addressing my mom very openly, so hopefully she feels a little better about what kind of man I chose, and addressing his family. And Tasha and Jen’s speeches. Glad I have such good friends. And Kolade and Leye’s speech. Rest of night was pretty much spent dancing. Even with all that heat. Boy was it hot. But somehow I managed to still want to dance through it. And I also managed to not have to go to the bathroom at the reception – which is very fortunate. I did not want to hit the porto potty with my big white pouffy dress. They also have a tradition here called “spraying.” They throw lots of dollar bills (or 100 Naira notes) at you on the dance floor. Even though it was banned (defamation of the Naira), they still found a way to spray us, which is actually kinda fun. Well, the whole night was fun. Then, we went to Ghana with some of our guests that came from the US. It was really nice to get to spend time with everyone since we didn’t get to much at the wedding, and since I won’t get to see everyone for quite some time.

Today’s Pidgin English Lesson:
Wahallah – Trouble
Hi ya Dey – How are you
We go wash am – Let’s celebrate