Abuja

Well, let me start by regaling you all with the story of my time in Abuja, which is the capital of Nigeria. Abuja actually has a fairly interesting history in that it is a planned city. Nigeria only moved their capital to Abuja from Lagos (which is in the south and is also Nigeria’s largest city) about 20 or so years ago. It’s in basically the middle of the country, which was an intentional move to appease northern ethnic groups who felt left out of the government (and they still do).

Enough about history. I landed in Abuja on Friday, May 8th at 4:30am. They only managed to lose one of my bags, which I actually think is rather impressive, and, fortunately, it was the less essential of the two. British Airways eventually found it, after much nagging from my end, and it should arrive here at school tonight or tomorrow. Which will be nice, because I currently have no pants.

Anyway, after a short nap that morning, Kelly Jo, the study abroad coordinator and community service guru of AUN, took me out into the city. She did her best to show me a variety of lifestyles and living conditions while we were there. We started at a pretty nice café called Salamander, where we had breakfast, and then we went on to Wuse market, which is (I think) the biggest market in Abuja. Apparently locals don’t like it that much, but I had a ball. There were tons of little stall selling brightly colored fabrics, shoes, hats, jewelry, pots, food, drinks, fruit, and more. The market is fairly intense, and being foreign makes you a major target. Almost every person working in the market chased after us trying to get us to buy everything from cell-phone re-charge minutes to fruit. If you’re not an assertive person, you will either become one before you leave, or you will have no money left. Saying “No” is an important skill. While there, I bought some fabric that’s bright green with blue and red, and I am going to have it made into a skirt and top here in Yola.

After Wuse market, we went to the house of some American ex-pats that Kelly Jo knows. They work for the US Embassy and USAID, so they had a very large house with guards and gates and everything. While there, they let me take a nap (again) and then we had dinner and watched some American TV and chatted with their kids. It must be very interesting to grow up in Nigeria as American children. That night we just crashed early, which was good since I was still exhausted.

Then on Saturday, most of our plans were put on hold because it was pouring rain. This is the beginning of the wet season, so that can and does happen. Instead of going to a different market, we drove around Abuja and looked at the National Mosque, which is a large gold-domed building, and the National Cathedral behind it. We were planning to go into the Cathedral, but there was a wedding going on, so we couldn’t. Instead, we went to the largest mall in Abuja, called Ceddi Plaza, which has some very expensive stores and very upper-class clientele. Since it was still raining, and there was not really any sign of the rain abating, we decided to see a movie while we were there. We saw Wolverine, which turned out to be a very interesting choice. The movie itself was fine, but the great part was that the first 15 minutes of the movie take place in Lagos, Nigeria, and then out in the bush. There is a scene where a (presumably Yoruba) tribal chief is being questioned by Wolverine’s group and he’s speaking in (we think) Yoruba. It wasn’t subtitled, but the Nigerian men sitting in front of us found whatever he said to be hilarious. I wonder if it was because the actual words were funny or out of context or something, or if it was because his Yoruba was so bad that they could hardly understand it.

After that we went to a small crafts fair called Art Village, which was pretty much deserted because the rain had only just stopped. It was much quieter than Wuse, and all of the stalls were inside thatched-roof huts. I didn’t buy anything, but it was very interesting to see the different type of markets there are.

Afterwards, we went to the Sheraton across the street to eat, and while there we met up with one of Kelly Jo’s colleagues who exchanged my money for me. He got us a much better rate that an above-board exchange would have. It was about 175 Naira per US dollar. They don’t really use change here. I think it exists in theory, but I’ve never seen it, and KJ couldn’t even remember the name at first, and she’s been here for 9 months.

We went to an embassy party that night with KJ’s friends from the night before, and it was actually very interesting. I met a journalist who’s planning to go down to the Delta soon and maybe go along the creeks and find MEND people to interview. Also there was the former president of the Nigerian Senate. He had some very interesting ideas about Nigeria, and was also, as far as I am concerned, a shining example of Nigerian corruption.

On Sunday, Kelly Jo and I hired our cab driver from the previous evening, Bayo, to drive us out to the Bwari Pottery Village, which is about 45mins-1 hour from out hotel. The drive out there was amazing. We got to see the city melt into green, rocky, mountainous landscape and see the very affluent citizens of Abuja fade away and be replaced by the poorer people of the unofficial settlements in Bwari. There were goats roaming about everywhere, and little kids playing soccer with an extra flip-flop, as well as heaps on garbage and little streams of very unclean water. There were also yam farms, with the distinctive mound-style of planting, and men making cinderblocks and laying them out to dry.

The Bwari Potter Village is a collection of thatched roof huts in which the main potter, Stephen, and his students make traditional Nigerian pottery and then let it dry outside before baking it in their hand-made kiln. They then glaze their pottery with dyes and glazes made from local materials. Stephen showed us around the place, and we could see the potters in action, and then we went into the shop, and we all found some pottery we liked. The colors are just unreal, and each piece is hand-crafted, which I like. It was also quite cheap. A mug cost the equivalent of $3.50. It was an amazing place, and if you ever find yourself in Abuja you should definitely make the effort to get there.


This is a student making decorative pots at the Pottery Village


Here, Stephen is showing off one of his vases inside of his showroom

After that, we went back to the hotel to check out, eat, and then meet up with an American exchange student who was on his way back home from AUN. It was nice to hear a student perspective, and also to see how much he had liked it at AUN. It was then time for us to go to the airport, where we got on out flight to Yola, which I will tell you all about a bit later.

I hope you all are well and enjoying your summers!


This was my hotel room in Abuja. Quite comfortable, and the largest bed I have ever seen