First days of Yola

I left Abuja on Sunday night, and Kelly Jo and I flew to Yola. The flight is only about 1 hour, but the drive is 12 hours. I think that says a lot about the state of Nigeria’s infrastructure. Particularly in the poorer, rural, northern regions. Anyway, I was very thankful that we flew instead of driving, as I don’t think I could take that much bouncing, sweating, and being covered in dust for 12 hours.

Anyway, we arrived in Yola around 8pm on Sunday, and we were picked up by an AUN driver at the airport. He was accompanied by Rachel, who is an RA in a different building than mine, but she is also the assistant study-abroad coordinator, so she’s also in charge of keeping an eye on me. She’s thus far proved to be one of the most incredible people I have ever met, in Nigeria or elsewhere. She’s very outgoing, fun, can connect with anyone, and has helped me so much. I have no idea what I would have done without her thus far. RA’s here are different than at AU and other US schools. They aren’t students, but instead they are full time employees. They still live on the floors they manage, but they are much more available to students because they don’t have classes, clubs, etc. to attend also. I actually like this system much better than the US one because it means that the RA’s are more accessible to students here than in the US. Anyway, long story short, Rachel is fabulous, and I hope you all have someone like her to help you out in your own lives.

So I pretty much just crashed on Sunday night, and on Monday morning, KJ and I ran around trying to get me registered for African Lit, which was full and thus required a number of signature from a number of different (unavailable) administrators. I also met a lot of different deans, professors, and other administrators. After much running around, Dean Bayo, who is in charge of academic affairs (and also lived in Minnesota for 15 years!!), told me to just go to the class on Tuesday morning and as long as the instructor was okay with me joining the class, Dean Bayo would sign the form and let me register for it.

Also on Monday we went to the Mission for Vision eye clinic in Jimeta. Yola and Jimeta are sister cities, and I still haven’t figured out when one starts and the other ends. Apparently, Yola has more Muslims and Jimeta has more Christians. Religion is a big deal around here. And by around here, I mean Nigeria (and, as I understand it, Africa in general). You may or may not have read news reports about religious violence in what’s called “The Middle Belt,” which is, as you can guess, the middle area of Nigeria. This is basically where Islam moving south and Christianity moving north met. The towns in this area are usually pretty close to 50/50 split, and there has been some tension and violence as a result, particularly in the cities of Kaduna, Kano, and Jos. However, this tension hasn’t been my experience here, and perhaps it is because I am foreign, but the people in Yola and Jimeta, and at the university, all seem to get along just fine. It’s actually fairly hard to tell the men apart. The long (often white) robes and hat that often indicate Islam are just traditional dress here, and you are as likely to find Christian wearing them as a Muslim. The women, due to the head covering, are a bit easier to tell apart, but still, not every Muslim woman covers her head, and a fair number of Christian women do for a variety of reasons. The best way to tell is by name. If a man is named Christopher, Joseph, or other “Christian” (English) names, you can safely bet that they are Christians, and Muslims tend to have more Arabic-sounding names, like Ali or Ahmed. Again, not an exact science, but, as far as I can tell, it’s the best way.

Before I got distracted on my religious musings, I was saying that we went to the eye clinic to tour. The main reason I am here is to do an internship at a local organization, and because of my interest in public health, their ability to provide transportation for me, and the amount of patient contact (which I want to maximize), I am being placed at eye clinic in Jimeta. It pretty much run by an Indian doctor named Tuleeka Carr (I don’t know if that’s right; I have never seen it spelled, but that’s how you say it phonetically). In the brief amount of time I interacted with her, it was clear that she’s an amazing woman. She’s an ophthamalogist, and this eye clinic is the only one in the entire Adamawa state (which is where Yola is located) and the surrounding areas. Cataracts are a huge problem here. Though I always associate them with people who are getting older, apparently they are hereditary and can present as early as at birth. The main ethnic groups in the area are the Hausa and the Fulani, and marrying cousins is customary, so these genetic issues are just exacerbated. We watched Dr. Carr examine a woman (post-op) who was able to (kind of) see her 5 children for the very first time after her cataract surgery. You can’t get back perfect vision, especially if you have never been able to see, but you can get back a little distinction and light detection. All of her children are blind, and Dr. Carr was examining them and will try to bring them to Abuja with her in June when she has her Children’s Eye Camp there. Because of the rural setting, and all of the issues that presents, she cannot provide anesthesia for her operations, which makes operating on children impossible (the adults get a little local anesthesia, and then they tough it out). So she does a camp, yearly, I think, in which she brings the kids to Abuja, where there are better facilities and supplies available. Fortunately for me, the camp in June 18-25 (or something like that) which coincides with the end of my time here and my trip back to Abuja, so I am really hoping I will be able to go. I start working there tomorrow, so I will be sure to update you all on how it goes, but for now my hopes are very high. It will be hard work, but I think it will be really rewarding.

After visiting the clinic, Rachel took me on a tour of campus, which was really helpful, as I was just relying on people helping me out until then. It’s a very small campus, especially during the summer. There are about 1,000 students during the normal year, and I would guess around 300 or 400 are here now. There are so many students enrolling now, that housing has become a real problem at AUN. Across the road from main campus (where I live) is the Temp Campus, which is home to more student housing, the bookstore, and some offices. It’s closed (except for the bookstore) for summer because they don’t need it now. The main campus is very small. There are 2 girls dorms (the 3rd is still under construction) and 3 boys dorms. Each of these has 2 floors of rooms, and the basement is for classrooms. Then there is the cafeteria, and two other buildings that house the library (temporarily—the library building is also under construction) professor’s offices, administrators, and classrooms. That’s it. That’s the whole campus. And it’s all surrounded by an orange-y dirt and small, scattered moments of green.


This is a main campus. My dorm is the one in the far left of the photo.

A note about AUN and Yola’s weather. I am hotter than I have ever been in my entire life here. The best way I can describe it is that the sun just feels so much closer to the ground here than it does in the US or even Abuja. Even the Nigerian students and staff think its too hot here, which I think is saying something. My class meets every day at 8am, and its already at least 90 and kind of humid by then, and it just gets hotter. I drink the equivalent of 6-8 nalgenes of water a day, and then I proceed to sweat most of it off. The best part of all of this is that it is currently the beginning of the wet season, so its actually cooler here than it has been for the last 6-9 months. Which I find completely incredible. It hasn’t rained since I got here, but I imagine it will soon. For now, I am just praying that I eventually adjust to it, and I also am thanking every Deity there is for air conditioning. My dorm room and most classrooms have AC. The cafeteria does not, which I have found to be a major appetite suppressant and a deterrent from walking over there. But fear not, I am eating anyway.

So after the tour, I went back to my room and took a short nap, before meeting up with some people who KJ introduced me to. I accidentally started a fight when I mentioned that I enjoyed Abuja, because then all the people from Lagos tell me that Lagos is better, and then the Abuja people and Lagos people were fighting with each other about which is better. They were all very passionate, and I found it to all be very entertaining. If you ever meet someone from Lagos, they will all tell you that it’s a crazy city, but that you should visit it and you will love it, and, most importantly, it is better than Abuja.

On Tuesday, I went to my first class, which is African Literature, and it meets Monday-Friday 8am-9:20am. I am normally not a morning person, as I think you all know, but I am actually very pleased with this arrangement, as this time of day is “cooler” than later hours. It also means I can spend a lot of time at the eye clinic on the days that I go there because I have all day post-9:20 free.

My jet lag really hit me on Tuesday, so I spent the rest of the day resting and reading in my room. I didn’t do too much else except run around figuring out how to get a student ID, which I did, but due to errors in communication, says that I am a software engineering major, which I can live with. Also, they let me submit an electronic picture of my own choosing rather than having to get it taken there, which is amazing, because here I am generally a sweaty, sunblock-greasy mess during the daylight hours.

Today was another pretty full day. I went to class, then I came back here and did some research on the eye clinic and terminology, etc. After that, I went to my new friend Vivian’s room, and we just chatted and watched a movie on her computer. Then I met up with KJ at 3pm, and she and Rachel and I went to the Fulani market, about 45 minutes away from campus. It was incredible. There were so many people there, and it’s the main cow market, so there was a lot of livestock roving about and being sold. In fact, the first question we were asked upon exiting the vehicle was “Do you want to buy a cow?” I had a great time walking around, seeing the hand-made daggers and leather, and, behind the stalls, you can watch them actually forging the knives, dagger, and swords, as well as hand-held plows, shovels, etc. It was incredible. Some of the merchants let us take their pictures, but you have to ask first, because a lot of them (and almost all of the women) don’t want their photos taken. Those that do, though, really like to pose, and you have to show them the picture afterwards.

While we were at the market, we attracted quite a crowd. KJ and I, being white and therefore clearly foreign, are not an everyday occurrence at this market. We were proceeded and followed by shouts of “Madame,” which means exactly what you think it does, and “Bature,” which means roughly “white person, foreigner.” They don’t call you that to be mean or rude, they are just trying to get your attention, and, to be honest, they’re all seemed kind of intrigued and curious about our presence. The small children followed us around, and at one point, our unofficial entourage was so large that it completely blocked the roadway at the stall we were at. There were easily 20-30 people staring at us as we shopped. Somewhat unsettling, but also kind of entertaining, and they were all very nice. No one was pushy, or tried to take our money. Honestly, they just seemed sort of fascinated by us. I will try to post pictures whenever the internet is better, but otherwise, make sure I show them to you when I get back. It’s not an easy place to get to, and students don’t generally go there, but I am really hoping to be able to go back before I have to leave.


These are traditional medicines and supplies for juju. Note the dead bird on the right.


This guy sells Fulani daggers that are forged right there in the market.


This man makes and sells calabashes (which are basically hollowed out gourds), and colorful straw mats that cover them and keep your food warm.


The girls on either side of Rachel are about 12, and they are dressed this way so advertise that they are ready to be married. They'll probably be married in two years.

A brief description of where I live and life here. I live in a dorm that just finished construction. It’s called dorm CC, and I live in a quad. So far I have only 2 roommates, but it is possible that a third could arrive, because people don’t think twice about showing up to classes a week late. The students here are all very wealthy, actually, and they dress and often act very American. My roommates’ names are Ibi and Theresa, and we haven’t talked much, but they seem nice enough. They both watch a lot of American TV and movies on their computers, and they listen to a lot of American music, which is the norm here. In fact, I heard the weekend “Top 40” playing on the radio here, and Rihanna was playing at the hotel in Abuja when I first arrived. They are either incredibly friendly and very nice to me, or they seem unsure of what to do with me and kind of don’t say anything. If I talk to them first, they are pretty receptive. It’s forcing me to be more outgoing, but on the whole, everyone has been very nice to me, very interested in who I am and why I am in Nigeria, and generally curious. Which works out well, because I am equally interested in them.


This in the inside of my room, my bed is the one on the left with the blanket on it

AUN is an interesting contrast with Yola and Jimeta. The students are generally quite wealthy, and the town is generally quite poor. The university was established and is still funded and sponsored by Atiku Abubakar, who is the former vice president of Nigeria, and who ran for president in 2007 as a member of the opposition party (instead of his own and the president’s People’s Democratic Party) and lost. Everyone here calls him Atiku, and he has a palatial house here, but everyone else’s is pretty tiny and they don’t have a lot of money. The school is also quite Western in their style of dress and speaking, while Yola and Jimeta are much more conservative and many people don’t speak much English. Also, AUN students are from all over Nigeria and many different ethnic groups, while Yola and Jimeta are home to primarily Hausa and Fulani peoples. I’m off for now, but I will keep you posted on the goings on and my first day at the clinic. Also, you may be interested to know that a fair number of people here call me “Lizzie.”

Lessons of the Day:
1. “Sanu” is “hello” in Hausa. If people stare at you too long, just greet them (which happened a lot at the market). They’re generally amazed and appreciative that you know any of their language.
2. The respectful title you put in front of a Muslim man’s first name is “Malam.”