Binu Anand is one of our Co-VSO Indian Volunteer in Nigeria, who is really an interesting and lively guy. He has a few experience on his own... lets see and enjoy............................................
Life in Kano………………..
Life in Kano is interesting, the people are busy with their on ways of keeping themselves engaged, roads are busy with cars, huge trucks and achabas (our friendly motorcycles!) which keep ferrying up and down keeping the roads busy, streets are busy with children and way-side sellers with their goods all over the pavements and with almost every other person stopping over, keeping the streets busy…….with a majority of muslim population and the strict five times prayers regime, keeps the whole of Kano busy……………….. its a busy life in Kano!
Kano is very much like an Indian township, minus Sharia law!, with unclean roads, garbage all around, busy roads, honking vehicles and lots of smoke pollution (emission from vehicles) and of course the very friendly domestic animals on road!!!. You find lots of young lads running around any vehicle that stops, asking for a couple nairas; Kano gives you a closer resemblance to India with the presence of the occasional Bajaj auto-rickshaws, but the only difference is that the auto-rickshaws are accessible only by women and men are not allowed! Men folks never try to stop one, they just won’t!!! Well the most easiest, hassle-free but adventurous way of moving around is on your friendly achabas (ironically for your safety you are recommended to wear helmets, but if you intend to wear one be careful of getting robbed – coz the common notion is that only the rich uses a helmet!!! Save yourself from a crash or save yourself from being robbed!!!)
Interestingly the food stuff available especially in Kano (generally in Nigeria) resembles more with that of Kerala (the small southern most state of India which inhabits the world famous “mallus”). The staple food is Rice……rice and rice alongwith Yam, Cassava and Plantain – the big banana (ethakya / ethapazham). The other availabilities are potatoes (often called as Irish potatoes), ‘huge’ onions, ‘small’ tomatoes, occasional cabbages and rare brinjals. Surprisingly there are huge markets where you get a lot of Indian spices including fennel seeds, cumin seeds, cinnamon, cardamom, pepper, dry ginger……….and some more, of which I don’t know the names of! Well every hotel serves you rice in a couple of different names …….like the jollof rice, fried rice (not the chinese one but certainly Nigerian!) and plain rice; you get only meat to eat with, even if ask for vegetables soup – you should expect for something surprising and shocking! Their vegetable soup often has bits of dried fish and small pieces of meat, its vegetarian for them!!! Its very, very, very hard to find something called as vegetarian here in Nigeria!!!
Nigeria is interestingly one of the largest oil producing nation, as quite a few of you out there know, but interestingly is one country with the largest scarcity of the basic infrastructure. There is no public transport system, its only the small badly maintained bush taxis, the ‘costly’ but ‘better off’ taxis and the ‘adventurous’ achabas; when it comes to electricity, the sole source is your dearest friend in Nigeria- “Generator”; you find them everywhere shops, offices, homes…..any where and everywhere. The one that is preferred here is a petrol generator as petrol is half the price of diesel (petrol is N 70 i.e. INR.23.33/ltr and diesel is N 180 i.e. INR.60/ltr). Well there is a government establishment called ‘NEPA’ which is supposed to supply electricity to the whole of Nigeria but I guess hardly anyone knows of its existence!!! One of the other major scarce commodity in the whole of Nigeria and especially northern Nigeria is ‘potable water’, although there is a government establishment to take care, but like in many Indian cities and villages, its ‘air’ that comes out of it instead of water!
But even with all this you somehow start liking and appreciating the hospitality and the good nature of Nigerian folks!!! After all Nigerian are considered to be the most ‘happiest’ people on the earth, so its better that you mould like them, as the saying goes “be a Roman when in Rome” !!!
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