Randomness

Just a few things to think about if you're trying to get a visual of what it's like here: Gone are the days of pop cans or plastic pop bottles; here it's all glass. Not only that, but all the bottles are recycled and reused again and again and again. Don't be fooled, when I say 'recycled' I mean they'll take the bottle and fill it up again (I pray there's a super sterile cleaning procedure). Yams are a staple. Here again, they're not the kind of yams you're probably thinking of. These yams are white and look like massive tree roots. They make yam everything: pounded yam, roasted yam, fried yam, yam porridge, yam stew (actually, I made that one up), yam, yam, yam. English is the official language, however I have to tell you I'm in the process of learning pigeon English-what a lot of people use. It's so strange hearing fragments of English run together. "How now?" that's "How are you?". I've also been picking up a little bit of Hausa, the other predominate language spoken here. Here's something that's totally crazy: they don't have street lights or stop lights. Think about down town Denver without any lights in the evening, or better yet, NYC pitch black. Of course they're used to it, but me, not so much. I found out last night the motorbikes have a curfew; they all have to be off the road by 8:00 pm or they're fined. It's like driving in a ghost town when they're not around. It takes me about an hour to wash what would be considered a small size load in a washing machine. I've concluded recently that they have hard water here-that make it all the more interesting getting all the soap out. Tea is the drink of choice in the mornings, the closest I've gotten to a cup off coffee has been from a can of instant-just add hot water! Plateau State (where I am) is the most evangelized state in all of Nigeria. I'm not even exaggerating when I say there's a church on every corner, sometimes more. Something else I found interesting: by and large you're either a Christian or a Muslim. The only exception I've been told would be for people who live in tribal regions, and then there they would practice what ever is specific to that tribe. It's not uncommon (I'm finding out) to see a grown man relieving him self on a nearby wall, or ditch or whatever really. I'll just be walking along, and whoa, sorry sir, didn't mean to interrupt...