The Vac Continues

I haven't had internet access since last Thursday, but it has felt like forever. Our hotel in Las Vegas did not offer wireless connection. But then I did not have my laptop with me anyway, so same difference I guess. I just stumbled on an internet cafe here in Miami though, which is where I am blogging from now.

My vacation has been a lot of fun. I haven't done much lazing around and instead, I have spent a fair amount of time in airports and on planes. While I used to get really excited by flying when I was younger, now I often wish there were some way to step through a door and be transported to my destination instantaneously. Any journey is usually half the fun and so I try to take that approach and use the time to catch up on my reading. However, I am one of those people who cannot stay awake in a moving vehicle of any sort. On most flights I have taken in my life, I am usually dead to the world before we even take off. So, unfortunately I have not made as much progress with Half of a Yellow Sun as I would have liked.

Las Vegas, for those who haven't visited, is just like it appears on TV - loud, colourful and decadent (though, of course I didn't really experience that side of it). The main draws are the hotels and casinos, and each hotel tries to outshine the others in terms of eye-catching design. The Bellagio is a pretty simple design, but features water fountain shows every half-hour. The lobby is simply breath-taking with glass-cut flowers on the ceiling. The Bellagio also has a conservatory with flower arrangements that change each season. When we were there, staff were working on the winter arrangement. The Bellagio was my favourite and I want to stay there when next I visit.

The Wynn Hotel had a wonderful light display on its grounds - of course you only see this at night. Mandalay Bay and the MGM Grand just look so opulent. The Luxor is a pyramid, I think. We didn't get the chance to visit. The Venetian was where my friends and I saw The Phantom of the Opera and that was incredibly plush. What really took my breath away was the theatre, where we watched the show. I wonder if it was built specially for Phantom, because there is a part of the show when the chandalier comes crashing down almost onto the audience's heads.

Las Vegas was cold though. I was not expecting it to be quite so cold. However, I was just happy to be in the setting of another of my favourite shows, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. I know they shoot most of their scenes in Hollywood, but I was still half-hoping to run into members of the cast. Ah well!

I did see Hulk Hogan at the airport yesterday, while waiting for the shuttle. The lady manning the booth asked me if I saw who just walked past. What? Who? Where?, I thought. Then I saw him walking away and, well, Hulk Hogan is as distinctive from behind as he is from the front.

I'll write more about Miami tomorrow. I'm tired and it's a bit of a walk back to my hotel.

Ed Burns on NPR

Oooh, look what I stumbled upon. Ed Burns talks about creating The Wire on the National Public Radio show Fresh Air. Anyone who knows anthing about me will know that this is one of my favourite shows. Now that I am in the land of real DSL, I will enjoy listening to this without any breaks.

Monday's show's guests were mother and daughter writers, Anita and Kiran Desai.

So The Wire is now in its fifth and final (sniff, sniff) season. Well, every good thing must come to an end - unless they want to drag a good tale out a bit too long, lose audience interest and be unceremoniously kicked off the air. Even though The Wire has been lauded by critics since its first season, it's never been a ratings puller but we Wire fans love it to death (and maybe even prefer it that way - we were the astute few who were able to catch onto a good thing).

Back in Boston

It's almost like I never left. Well, sort of and sort of not. I've fallen very easily into going to the places I used to. I've already been all over downtown. Today, I think I will take it easy with the shops and go and see a movie or two (oh, I'm saying "movie" already instead of "film").

The weather is quite cold, though on par for this time of the year. I've been told that the weather was really quite warm until I arrived. So I guess I brought the cold with me from Nigeria?

It's a little bit wierd taking the T instead of driving. There are several places I wanted to go, but which I need to drive to. Boston prides itself on having the first public transport system in the US, but it's really not that extensive. Boston the city is fairly well-served by the T, but if you live in the surrounding cities e.g. Cambridge, Sommerville, Malden, Newton, Watertown, etc you have to use the buses more. It's alright I suppose, though it's a killer waiting for the bus in the cold. Five minutes easily feels like fifteen. And that's when the bus comes when it's supposed to. okay, let's not go there. Happy thoughts only!

I have no idea what is showing in the cinemas here, so I'll check online and pick something to watch.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I'm looking forward to spending the day with friends. The airports will be crazy as people travel for the Thanksgiving holidays. As usual, there's the threat of a storm. My friend said that it's snowed every Thanksgiving that she can remember. I really have no recollection of this. Maybe I kept only the happy memories when I left.

A Writer's Image

I attended a book reading yesterday by Abidemi Sanusi, author of Kemi's Journal. It was funny how people kept referring to her (accidentally, of course) as Kemi.

Anyway, an interesting question and answer session followed the reading. If I didn't know before just how difficult a writing profession is, I certainly am aware of it now. No, writing is not just about writing. Who would have thunk? No, you have to identify your target audience and in many cases produce the book your publisher thinks would appeal to them. It sounds like such incredibly hard work, not to mention potentially joy-killing. I suppose that is why it is so important to find a publisher whose vision is very closely aligned with yours, and such a publisher once found becomes tighter than family.

One issue that was much discussed was the role a writer's image plays in the success of their book. Bibi of Cassava Republic talked about how many publishers regard the writer's image as integral to the success of the book. I suppose this is very much a sign of the times. Writers go on book tours to promote their work now. I'm not sure what they did fifty years ago. I do know that growing up I frequently knew nothing about the writers of my favourite books. And it really didn't matter that much to me. Now, I obsessively Google the authors I like to find out every tiny detail about them. I admit that I am very curious about people and their stories, and having the tools with which to feed my curiousity only serves to feed this addiction.

But, if the Internet didn't exist and there was no Google and no celebrity-obsessed media culture such as we have now, I wonder if I would still care about a writer's image? In the long run, probably not that much. I would probably still want to know something about them, but it really wouldn't affect whether I read their books or not.

Years ago, some writers (particularly women) wrote under a pen-name. I suppose they had constructed images to feed to the public and I assume that even their publishers were unaware of their true identities. I know that this could not happen in today's world, where we have to know absolutely everything about the people we choose to invite into our lives. Writing used to be a profession where image didn't matter so much; the proof was in the manuscript, so to speak. Or at least that's what it's always seemed like to me.

Registered at Last

Phew, I finally registered to vote. No one I know has, but I really needed to do it this week. Registration closes on November 30 according to all the public service announcements I’ve heard. It’s funny how all the PSAs tell you when the registration is taking place, but not where you can actually register. The INEC website is really no better. I found out the nearest location to my place of residence by asking around. Eventually my parents’ driver told me that he thought he saw some people registering by the Catholic church on Admiralty Way.

The process itself was very simple and straightforward (I was there all of 5 minutes). There was just one lady being registered when I got there. Maybe voting is really not a big deal to a lot of people (with our democratic track record, I could see why). Or, more likely, no one knows where the hell they are supposed to be registering. Okay, Lekki is a residential area, so maybe everyone is planning to do it over the weekend. BTW, you can register on Saturday and Sunday.

Anyway, one of the officials asks for your name, date of birth and occupation. She hands it to her colleague, who keys it into his handheld device. They take your photo. Your info and picture is printed out on a slip of paper. They fold this in two and are supposed to
laminate it for you (this will serve as your voter registration card), but I was told that I had to go and do it myself (Sigh! So nothing’s perfect).

Twist-Out

I cannot wait to play around with my hair. This is one of the biggest reasons that I'm looking forward to some time-off work. I am going to try styles I don't know would fly at work. Well, if they look good, I will think about wearing them to the office.

Writer Tayari Jones has some nice photos of her many hairstyles. I really like her twist-outs.

Thank God! It's that Time of the Year!!

Nigerians work VERY hard and take very few vacations, or so it seems to me. You could be entitled to 6 weeks holiday in a year, but only take half of that. Or you could take the entire 6 weeks at one go because it’s easier to get approval once rather than spread your vacation time around (which I think ends up being such a waste because chances are high that you will get bored after the first 10 days). Or you could be that unlucky not to get any time off at all.

Last week we held the last of our youth workshops for the year. The last few months have been particularly tasking, because we have not only had two workshops to organise in as many months, but we still had our regular work to attend to. Right now, I am so tired. I wonder how people keep going for years without taking a break. I know that I couldn’t do it. Nor do I want to find out what it would be like.

I am leaving for a 3-week vacation next week and this week I’m pretty much marking time. Yes, I’m 'working', but it’s not at my usual high-octane level. I’m being very sedate this week and taking things very easy. I feel guilty for not putting in 110%, but guess I should be less selfish and let someone else be this week’s Energiser Bunny. In the meantime, I’ve reverted to my old style of 'working' from Boston. I work for 15 minutes and then surf for 20. It worked quite well then and ensured that my productivity was not adversely affected by the law of diminishing returns. Luckily for me, our internet service at work is working better than it has in a while and I discovered that there are recaps of Project Runway on Television Without Pity. Back to work!

Registering to Vote

I'd like to register as soon as I can and am wondering if anyone in the Lekki-Ajah axis has done this already. I checked the INEC website for a list of places to do this, but this information is not here yet (even though registration has started).

So who has registered?

Weekend Traffic

Work has been busy, busy, busy. We just held our last career workshop for this year, so we can breathe a little easy. Work goes on though and there's all the taking stock, writing of thank you letters that we do after each program.

Our program was held in Abuja and we had a blast! Can I say again just how peaceful Abuja is? The driving often leaves a lot to be desired, but it's nothing a Lagosian can't handle. It is actually possible to correctly estimate your travel times. The contrast was so obvious when I returned to Lagos. Yesterday, parts of two major roads in Victoria Island were blocked off. For people trying to get from VI to the Lekki-Ajah axis, it was a total nightmare because the two roads with closures (Ozumba Mbadiwe and Adetokunbo Ademola) were the most popular routes to get to Lekki Expressway. What bad planning. You would hope (though we know that this will never happen) that there would be some checking in on proposed closures to make sure that traffic choas does not ensue. But, what am I saying? Chaos is the norm here, so who cares, right?

I anticipated that there might be some bad traffic, but I just had to go out and get some yogurt. After getting stuck in total gridlock, I wasn't so sure that they were worth it. Anyway, I got home after spending just an hour and a half in the traffic. And I'm probably one of the luckier ones.

A Trip to the Papers

We went on a courtesy call to another newspaper today. This was a paper with a slightly smaller circulation, but with its own niche audience. While we waited for the editors to get ready, we were taken on a mini-tour of the paper. We visited the press where the newspaper is printed. Call me a child, but I was giddy with excitement at seeing the papers roll off the press. The smoke and smell would take some getting used to - well, no actually I don't want to have to breathe in those noxious fumes everyday.

Next, we went to the newsroom. It was still early - about 11am (yes, many reporters work into the wee hours of the morning and so roll into work late the next day). Now, THAT sounds like my kind of job (though I suppose a deep interest and knowledge of current affairs would sort of be a pre-requisiste). Most of the staff in the newsroom appeared to be part of the production team. Some were typing in stories, while others worked on the layout and photos. Even though the room was near empty, I could easily picture the room filled with reporters talking, working on their articles and following unfolding news stories simultaneously. So exciting!!!!

ADC Plane Crashes

Another plane crash and the fourth fatal one within the last year.

A Sokoto-bound ADC plane crashed shortly after take-off from the Abuja airport, killing about 104 people. There are believed to be 6 survivors. The flight manifest has not been released yet, but the Sultan of Sokoto and his son were among the victims.

On October 23, 2005, a Bellview Airlines plane crashed near Lagos killing all 117 passengers.

On December 10, 2005, a Sosoliso Airlines plane going from Abuja to Port Harcourt crashed, killing all 108 people on board. Many of the passengers were schoolchildren going home for the Christmas holidays.

In September 2006, 10 senior army commanders were killed when their military plane crashed.

In November 1996, an ADC plane crashed and killed all 146 people aboard the Boeing 727 as the pilot tried to avoid a head-on collision with another airplane.

The poor air safety record is something that Nigerians have had to live with for a long while, though this last year's crashes have created a growing sense of unease. Last night I read a BBC journalist's experience with engine problems on a local flight. The story was meant to highlight Nigerian's ability to laugh in the face of adversity. It was funny and sad at the same time. Nigerians may have been deemed the "happiest people in the world", but perhaps it's time we started facing our issues with a greater degree of seriousness and less laughter.

The Cost of Doing Good

One of the projects I oversee at work is a youth career initiative and this is easily my favourite part of my job. However, raising money to fund the program's activities has been tough. Since we are currently planning the last event for this year, money is most definitely on our mind and I have been thinking all week about how we can raise more money for the project. Reading Jeremy's blog, I realise that our predicament is far from uncommon. We have a program that we believe whole-heartedly to be worthwhile and cannot understand why it is not attracting more support.

During a courtesy visit to a national paper this week, we received a lot of encouragement for our work but the journalists easily identified why we appear to be having a hard time. Nigeria is so much about who you know and who knows you. They advised us to lean on personal contacts a lot more than we have been doing. This will enable us to reach the people who need to hear about our work and who have the resources to support us. They also advised partnering with the government to establish a more stable source of funding and effect wider-readching changes.

Ah, the government! I see the wisdom in their advice, but previous experiences reaching out to various government institutions has been tedious and fraught with multiple levels of bureaucracy. If anything, it has taught me patience, which I freely admit that I am lacking in.

How do non-profits and NGOs manage to sustain their work over a long period of time, aside from relying on the grants that come in every now and again? Work doesn't stop just because your grant has! So, how do they manage to raise enough money to keep going from day to day?

An Evening of Contemporary Nigerian Music

The annual MUSON (Musical Society of Nigeria) music and arts festival started this week. I remember attending some of the events in the festival last year and was so tripped by how quickly 2006 has zipped by. It'll be December before you know it (another birthday and another year older) and 2007 will come knocking. For some wierd reason, I prefer even numbered years to odd (what can I say? I guess we all have our little quirks).

Back to MUSON, the concert I attended on Friday night was a celebration of contemporary Nigerian music and featured Beautiful Nubia, Dafe Oghoghome and the African Liberation Band, Wura and Glorious Golden Voices. No, I hadn't heard of any of the performers before that night, but I still had a good time. The headline act was Beautiful Nubia and he apparently has a huge following (more so in Canada, where he was based until recently it appears). Although I enjoyed his music, I resisted buying a CD afterwards because it is never quite the same experience. There's so much to be said for live performances.

I was surprised that there were so many young people in the audience. MUSON events tend to be dominated by old fogies (apologies to the old fogies reading this).

Phew!!!!!

I have been following the 3rd season of Project Runway, via iTunes and hadn't yet watched the final two episodes. I found out who the previous season's winner was before-hand and I didn't want that to happen this time around, so I have been desperately avoiding all entertainment websites and blogs (yes, Angela, Seke told me that I had better add yours to my list of Blogs Not to Visit).

Anyway, I just watched it and can breathe a sigh of relief. No, my favourite contestants (Ulli and Micheal) did not win! But now I can surf without restraints.

I didn't really like Jeffery's collection, though I liked a lot of his work during the season. I cannot profess to be a real fashion expert (I know what I like, to be sure), but I agree with the judges' assessment that he is very innovative and takes risks. I felt bad for him when he was accused of not making his clothes by himself. I thought that the fact that he looked genuinely stunned by the accusation and did not spew out a stream of invectives (which would have been a more typical Jeffery reaction) was an indication that he was innocent. It was clear that the other designers felt intimidated by his collection - especially Laura.

BTW, his girlfriend's mohawk was very cute. Hmmmm, I wonder how I would look with one .....

Eating Out

I love to eat. I especially love to eat out - a passion acquired, I suppose, in my years away from home. I just discovered the blog, Boston Chomps, devoted to eating out in Boston (courtesy of The Boomer Chronicles). I visited a lot of restaurants while I lived in Boston, but there were still so many left undiscovered (maybe that was one of the sadder aspects of my leaving the city).

I can tell I'm going to have fun reading both blogs.

I Love My Job

I saw this on Nurse Ratched's Place and thought it was so cute. I am sure it totally describes the way most people feel about their jobs - NOT!

I Love My Job
By Dr. Seuss

I love my job, I love the pay!
I love it more and more each day.
I love my boss, he's the best!
I love his boss and all the rest!

I love my office and its location,I hate to have to go on vacation.
I love my furniture, drab and grey, and piles of paper that grow each day.
I think my job is really swell,there's nothing else I love so well!
I love to work among my peers, I love their leers, and jeers and sneers.
I love my computer and its software.
I hug it often though it won't care. I love each program and every file.
I'd love them more if they worked a while.

I'm happy to be here. I am. I am.
I'm the happiest slave of the Firm I am.
I love this work, I love these chores.
I love the meetings with deadly bores.
I love my job - I'll say it again - I even love those friendly men.
Those friendly men who've come today,
In clean white coats to take me away!!!

Book Meme

Tagged by tuckergurl. I got this from Angela ages ago, but some memes are harder to do than others and even though I love reading, this is one of those that I had to think very hard about. Oh, my poor brain!

1. One book that changed your life?
Dont' you just hate it how you can think of answers to questions like this when no one is actually asking for your opinion, but when they do, you can't even recall the last thing you read?

Okay, contenders for this might be Martha Quest by Doris Lessing and So Long a Letter by Mariama Ba. Well, I'm not sure that I can say that they changed my life, but they both had a big impact on me. Also, Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself by Judy Blume.
Well, I'll probably think of something to add to the list later.

2. One Book That You've Read More Than Once.
I haven't re-read a book in the last 10 years or so (no time), so this will have to be one of the books I read as a girl. Where do I start? All of the Mallory Towers and St. Clares' series by Enid Blyton. Infact, anything by Enid Blyton. Or Judy Blume or Paula Danziger. I loved the African Writers' Series and read and re-read many of the books, especially Welcome Home, Chijioke.

3. One Book That You'd Want On A Desert Island.
This would have to be something light-hearted and funny so that I could re-read it as many times as I wanted. Maybe one of the books in the William series by Richmal Crompton.

4. One Book That Made You Laugh.
See # 3. Ake by Wole Soyinka was also really funny.

5. One Book That Made You Cry.
Again, where do I start from? Recently I read Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro and that was very sad, but I don’t think it made me cry exactly.

Possibly A Fine Balance or So Long a Journey by Rohinton Mistry. His characters tend to get clobbered by an avalanche of misery like I have never seen before. Again, I can’t remember whether these actually made me cry or not.

6. One Book That You Wish You Had Written.
I remember really loving In the Clear Light of Day by Anita Desai and thinking that the writing was just so beautiful.

I really love dry, sarcastic wit a la Margaret Atwood (probably her essays more so than her books) and wish I could write that way. I would also love to write something like one of the William books (by Richmal Crompton).

Edited to Add: A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipul.

7. One Book You Wish Had Never Been Written.
It’s hard to say something like this about a writer’s work. Writing a book is hard work and sometimes books don’t turn out the way you had hoped they would. Also, writing is a skill that you are continually honing so what one might call a crappy book may really be helping the writer get to the next level of skill and experience.

Okay, I’m sure that by the time I post this, I would have thought of a really God-awful book.

8. One Book That You Are Reading Right Now.
Boaz Brown by Michelle Stimpson. It is a Christian romance. I have never read one before and it is one of the last things I ordered from Black Expressions (an African-American targeted book club). I was very curious to know what a Christian romance novel would be like. It has been interesting so far.

Before I started Boaz Brown, I started Persuasion by Jane Austen. The story caught my interest and I have never read a Jane Austen book. I thought that it was about time.

9. One Book That You Have Been Meaning To Read.
Hmmm, how much time do we have? I bought Vanity Fair by William Thackeray in March and have been waiting for my next vac to read it.

I haven’t read a Charles Dickens book as an adult and started Hard Times about four years ago. I picked it up because it was the slimmest of his books that I found. I still haven’t finished it, but the bit I read was very funny. After that, I want to move on to Great Expectations, a present from my brother who felt that I would enjoy it.

10. Tag five others that you would like to do this meme.
I don’t like to tag people. I feel that it is like passing on the pain, but I have to say that I really enjoyed doing this. I tag Everchange/Two, Ayoola, Pilgrimage, Adefunke, Black Looks and anyone else who wants to do it.

Kiran Desai Wins Man Booker Prize

On Tuesday night, Kiran Desai was announced as the winner of this year's Man Booker Prize for her novel The Inheritance of Loss.

Kiran Desai also happens to be the daughter of one of my favourite writers, Anita Desai, so I'm happy for Kiran's win. I haven't read The Inheritance of Loss or her first novel Hullabaloo in the Guava Garden.

Multi-culti

Sitting in Eko Hotel this afternoon, I felt like I could have been almost anywhere in the world, with the ethnic diversity represented in the people who sat round the pool. I was curious and wanted to go round talking to people there to find out what their stories were and what brought them to Nigeria.

There was a group of mostly Americans (going by their accents) sitting close to us. They were such a disparate group and I wondered whether they were exchange students, expatriates, tourists or part of the entourage of any of the artistes perfoming in the This Day concert. Nigeria is still not somewhere where I imagine people visit for fun. I think that it is still largely one of those countries that you visit for a specific reason - usually work-related - and not purely for pleasure. This is a belief borne from interactions with many foreigners living in Nigeria.

Two of the ladies in the group had natural hair. One wore hers in an afro and the other in a twist-out. I realised how much I miss wearing my own hair out. I have definitely been wearing my hair in more conservative styles over the last 9 months. If I don't step out of the box in which I am placing myself, I will find myself in a braids-only rut. Wait, didn't I blog about this dilemma already? Okay, time to do something about it.

Almost Star Sightings

I hung out at the Eko Hotel for a bit today. When we got there, we found the lobby filled with a lot of young people. My friend and I wondered what was going on. Anyway, we kept on moving to the poolside, where we sat for close to an hour with me in delicious-hot-chocolate nirvana (it is very hard to find hot chocolate in Lagos made the way I like it i.e. creamy, sweet and frothy).

Sometime after we sat down, it occured to me that the stars performing in This Day's Independence concert were probably staying at the Eko Hotel after all it is probably the best and well-known hotel in Lagos. When we were getting ready to pay and leave, we heard a lot of screaming coming from the lobby. My friend and I joked that Beyonce and Jay-Z were probably passing through the lobby. We were silent for a while as we realised that it could possibly be true. In that instant we both hurriedly packed up our stuff and walked as fast as we could towards the lobby (you know, in that walk-fast-while-trying-not-to-run way). Of course, by the time we got to the lobby there was no one to be seen, just excited teenagers peering into their camera phones. I heard someone say something about Missy.

As we walked to my car, my friend wondered why we should care if a celebrity was in the vicinity or not.

"Well, I guess because they are on TV" she offered. "And they appear so glamorous" I added. I felt quite ashamed that I should care at all. I mean what has Beyonce done for me lately?