Shoes

My cousin Justin is in Thailand right now and her blog goes into what life is like for a foreigner there. Of coarse, she kind of looks Thai, whereas I don’t really look Nigerian. Anyway, she has this story about shoes – link on the right – how they even take off their shoes in the workplace. I find the shoe thing very entertaining. Now, growing up as a Taiwanese, I always take my shoes off when entering the house. In fact, it’s one of those things that Yomi and I had to get used to when we got married – he has to take off his shoes when he is home, and I have to make the bed every morning. Well, not me specifically, but we’re both responsible for making sure the bed is made. Anyway, here in Nigeria, it is the exact opposite, shoes all the time, everywhere.

I was going through the airport, and it surprised me when I had to remove my shoes. I think the lady in front of me pitched a fit because she was wearing boots, so she just made a fuss and walked through with her shoes on. But silly me, I went ahead and did what the security officers told me to do. Because I am used to obeying the law. But you don’t really do that here – like if a policeman tries to stop you, you should probably just keep going. Or if someone who looks like they have authority tells you to do something, only do it if it actually makes sense. Anyway, I took my shoes off, and its like they haven’t cleaned the floors in years. My white socks turned grey after taking the 5 steps through the security machine.

Oh! And we got a cook/steward finally. Thanks Titi for the hookup. So my food worries are over -- its quite wonderful. I come home, and there's food. We have dirty clothes, and they are folded and ironed by the time we get home. We joke that it is like a magic trick - throw clothes in the hamper and they magically reappear clean, ironed, and folded!