More Crazies

OK, just one story today --

I'm working on getting a copy of a key for each residence stored in a secure key box in a secure office in case of emergencies. The contractors in charge of the camp have lost sooooooooo many keys and the keys make it into the wrong hands and things disappear and I'm so sick of locks having to be changed and all ... I decided we just can't let the contractors keep any keys any longer.

So, I've been collecting keys from the residents. Yesterday I gave the contractors 10 keys that needed to be duplicated -- some just one copy, others needed more copies -- as many as 6 copies were needed for some. I decided to do this in small groupings of keys so as not to overwhelm them. I had carefully numbered each key -- writing it on tape and verifying that the ink would not come off. That number corresponded with numbers on a list of house addresses. I didn't want the key maker to know what house he was making a key for ... you have to assume that they'll all cheat if they can!

I was beginning to panic because the worker was 3 hours late with the keys last evening. I had one house that I had to move guys into last night and, of course, we needed the keys. Sam, the generally hard working guy who is the only one out of 30 that I could trust with this job, did finally arrive. He was so proud of his work. Keys were randomly grouped onto key rings with new unmarked wooden tags that he had made (something I had NOT wanted done -- more work to take them off the rings) and ... none of the keys were marked. Yep. None of the originals and none of the copies.

Good news -- I found the keys for the vacant house just as the guys arrived to move into it.

Bad news -- I still have 2 rings filled with keys to sort through and try on doors. I just haven't had the energy to face the pile!

Good news -- Sam is feeling very sorry.

Bad news -- Sam has been strangely absent today.

Good news -- I'm going to try a new plan.

Bad news -- I'm not expecting my new plan to work!

More bad news -- I still have at least 80 more keys to duplicate.

This Place Can Make You Crazy!

It's been awhile since I've written anything about Nigeria -- for good reason. It seems to be healthier to live in denial and not analyze the wackiness of our existence here! However, there are times when one cannot continue lying to oneself and then ...
I must admit that I find myself thinking "I am soooooo frustrated with Nigeria!" more frequently and with greater vehemence than ever before.

Most of our emotional energy goes into coping. Jim stays tremendously busy with work and, therefore, has little time to notice that we're locked into the camp, have lousy food options, most of our friends have left, ... Most of his work is alone, in his office, just fighting a computer and not having to deal with all of the crazy people! However, because my job is with personnel ... well, it would require people contact. And that is why, if one of us ends up insane -- it's sure to be me!

The last of the wives have taken off for safer locations. The only folks remaining in our location are "business essential" expats and all of the locals. So, no non-working expat is here. That means that out of the 150ish expats here, now, with the company, only 4 are women. Mighty strange for all of us.

I don't miss all the wives sitting around complaining all of the time. But I do miss the fact that at least I could meet SOMEONE at the pool for a cup of tea or something!

However, the good news is that my job stress has diminished by about 80% and the work load by about 40% ... 'can't complain 'bout that!

How do I begin to explain our lives and the amount of energy it takes to just laugh through the day? It's like being stoned by marbles. You pick up one of those little guys and think "now, why did that wipe me out?" It's the little things that get us in the end -- because there are so many of them:
-- the furniture delivery guys who brought (to a house I had requested needed refurbishing 6 months ago) a six-seater table but without any chairs. It'll be another 6 months before those guys can sit to eat, probably!
-- my maid who forgot to ask the veggie gal to bring me fresh basil and now she can't find any anywhere in town, supposedly, when I've got a house full of company for dinner tomorrow
-- but, the menu's already been altered 4 times due to lack of ingredients, so what's one more change!
-- the simple question of "who authorized this request?" that can't seem to get answered no matter how many ways I ask it so I can't complete the report
-- having sun glasses disappear from poolside less than one hour after leaving the area and the only people who could have seen them are "friendly" workers
-- the air conditioner technician who cheerfully suggests that I buy air freshner because I don't like the moldy smell coming out of the AC that he just "cleaned"
-- soup everyday for lunch at the Clubhouse and it looks different in color each day but it always just tastes like ... salt! minestrone soup, cream of mushroom, carrot soup -- all taste like ... salt!
-- the maid who's been cleaning a house for her master for two weeks ... without any cleaning products -- just a mop! And she finally asked me what she should do to get some things for cleaning!
-- the maid who accused a security guard of wanting to date her and therefore asking her to do his laundry and she tried to get her madame to ask me to fire the guy when, actually, after careful investigation, she's just mad at him because he told her to wear her ID badge all day everyday and she thinks she's too special to do that!
-- the guest house receptionist who can never be found when there is someone to receive -- I'm learning to always check the Clubhouse first because she's usually cooking food for herself there!
-- the names on the flight manifest who are supposed to arrive into town never are the names of the ones who weren't on the list but somehow got on the flight
-- my important tax papers for my job that got delivered to a nice lady named Beatrice who's Nigerian, works for a division I didn't even know existed, in an office area I'd never been but somehow the one making the delivery thought "Sharon Kohring, OFS" meant "Beatrice Oramisumuu, WTS" and Beatrice was pro-active and honest (two rare qualities around here) and emailed me that she had a letter for me! I gained a new friend, at least!
-- the vendor on the street who was going to sell my driver two volleyballs for N7,500 each and then she heard my voice on my driver's speaker phone and, realizing I was an Oyibo (white skinned), immediately demanded N14,000 each. (Prince, the driver, is so sharp that he refused to buy anything from her because of her lack of integrity -- a concept I've been trying to teach him; he drove around for another 3 hours to find another source of volleyballs; he told the second vendor that he had found someone who would sell them for N7,500 each; the second vendor agreed to the price; then Prince stomped back into the "shop" of the first vendor, waved the 2 volleyballs in her face, showed her the receipt, and told her she was the loser!
-- I could go on and on -- that's just highlights from the past 24 hours (other than the volleyball story that happened 5 days ago!)

We've got painters that made a big "oops" months ago and painted a sign on the road that said "SPOT" They painted the whole area white, making a box that was white, and next to it they painted a new sign that said "STOP" But, wouldn't you know, the STOP needed repainting due to the sun and the rain ... so ... you betcha ... they repainted the white box that was hiding where they'd painted the SPOT sign!!

You should have seen Lucy (our maid) supervising the painters who did some work in our house just recently. She's learning a lot! She used an old curtain for a drop cloth and moved it wherever they were working (a new concept for them!), she'd tell them to stop whenever they spilled and she'd wipe it up, explaining that it's easier to clean if it's still damp. (Of course, they hadn't ever thought they should or would clean it up.) She pointed out entire areas on the wall that they'd missed -- around each light fixture, above the AC, etc. I told her that she now qualified as a painting supervisor -- she has more skills than all of them together, that's for sure!

You know the old "how many _________ does it take to change a light bulb" jokes? Well, I think of that whenever we have to make requests -- light bulb changing usually takes at least one week, two written requests, and then three visits from the "electrician." Visit #1 is to confirm that we do, indeed, need a new light bulb. Visit #2 is to bring the light bulb. Visit #3 is to bring one or two other workers and a ladder. Then, I just have to go back to their office later to tell them we had listed 3 bulbs that needed changing and we only got 2 changed. Sometimes, I just don't have the energy and we use candles!

Ahhhhh ... the sun just broke through the clouds and is streaming in my patio window. It should be the rainy season by now but the rains have been just enough to green things up without flooding us out!

So, I'm feeling better after this venting!
We spend a lot of time just learning how to laugh! I can't remember what sent me over the edge last week but Jim was entertained as I laughed so hysterically that my tummy ached. Laughter is the best medicine.

Everyone says that I arrived here as the ultimate optimist and they're amazed that I still am at all an optimist. I tell them that I'm now an optimistic cynic -- I'm very upbeat about my negativity!

a little more on Tunisia

Finally, a moment to blog. This one's for you, Cousin Johnny!
I'm so glad that you suggested that we visit the American cemetary. Very profound.






Jim, in an amphitheatre. Pretty amazing -- sitting on marble steps that someone sat on 2,000 years before you!

and more photos ...!

If you're really quiet, when you stare at this one you might hear the crowds cheering and the lions roaring. There's a little chapel down in the center that's a place of remembrance for the martyred Christians.

More Tunisian photos

Tunisian photos

We're back home. Finally I have some time to load some photos. It'll be a process -- little-by-little you'll see a few shots of Tunis, Carthage, Sidi Bou Said, ...
Brace yourself -- it's an incredible place!

From Tunisia with love!

I'm falling in love with Tunis! It's clean, the buildings are white, the ocean is ... of course, gorgeous! The people are very friendly and gracious.

Our bargaining skills that we've acquired in the past year in Nigeria have come in handy as we walked away from the markets feeling very smug about our purchases. Of course, the vendors still made money so they're feeling smug, too! Ahhhhhhhh, the wonders of free trade!

A word on Nigeria. Yes, Nigeria's been in the news of late. No, all news reports are not accurate. (Maybe I should say "Yes, all news reports are not accurate! That would be more accurate!) These were inaccurate, too! Most of the recent attacks were just typical criminal activity and not politically/oil related. The CNN reports -- I would characterize them as sensationalistic tabloid-style journalism. However, it does effect life for all of us so things have gotten more strict for our friends back there. Sometimes news providers become the news makers...

Well, we'll be enjoying this region for the week -- mosaics from A.D. 200s, Carthage ruins -- beauty and history wrapped together in a charming package!

Cricket and other Aussie shots

more photos -- family fun in Aussieland

more later ... tech troubles! 'can't get anymore loaded right now!

Photos from Singapore, part 2

More views from our hotel window.









Orchard Road shopping district, dressed for Christmas!









In Little India.







In the city.

Singapore photos

I'm taking some time to get some blog entries in today. Notice that I've done two others.

Here are a few photos from our trip.
View from window of Singapore Hotel. Yummy!

Technical difficults are not allowing me to add more. I'll post this and add more later.

Random bits of info

In the offices, there have been some construction workers doing renovation work. The first few times I walked in to my office, I was surprised at their surprise to see me. Now, they're used to me. But this morning I finally realized why they were surprised. I must be a bit dense but I realized that I am now the only non-Nigerian woman working in these office buildings. Jim's company has other offices in other locations in the area and there's, well, let's see -- an Indian woman working in one of the buildings. That's it, there. At another location there are a few white gals -- I can count four out of a few hundred employees.

Because there are a few wives still on the camp, I don't feel alone. But in the offices, well, it is a bit weird!!! There never were many of us -- three in all, I guess, now that I think of it ...

We're onto the 9th week without rain. But for the past three days I can feel a bit of humidity returning in air. Lucy says that soon the rains will come. We need it VERY badly but, quite selfishly, I would love it if the rain came in small doses ...

There's a fuel (pronounced "fool") shortage here at the moment. Evidently the government creates this situation every December and January -- driving prices up as the demand is higher during the holidays when people travel back to their villages. So, empty cars line the streets and as you follow the line for a few minutes you'll find that it usually leads to a Fuel Station. Folks can spend the entire day in line and still not get any fuel. Supposedly, it will get better soon ...

That causes other prices to increase. Our "fish lady" brought us a fish that I expected to pay N3000 for and her price was N4500. That's around $40 for a fish the size of a typcial silver salmon. I can get a fillet of beef from out of the country for a better price than that. She said that the fish prices are up and the transportation for public transit is up.

Public transit, by the way, means packing about 25 people into a minivan designed to hold 8. Their belongings are on the roof, strapped on in piles that sometimes double the height of the "bus." Hanging out the back are the smaller things -- baskets of chickens (live), luggage, products they are taking to the market, construction materials like rebar or other metal posts, ... For a short drive it costs them N200 plus extra for their belongings.

Poverty in Wealth

This is an excerpt from an article that's in the Feb. 2007 Vanity Fair issue called Blood Oil. I just read the full article on line. Very interesting! From what I know, most of it is accurate. He has a couple of details a bit off, but not much. The guy he refers to as being shot while in traffic - yes, that happened but it wasn't political. It was because he had made some poor personal choices relating to someone else's wife. No expat has been shot due to the political situation.

Excerpt:

As is often the case in Africa, many of Nigeria's problems come as much from wealth as from poverty. African countries that happen to have valuable resources—oil in Angola and Nigeria, diamonds in Congo and Sierra Leone—are among the poorest and most violent on the continent. Economists refer to this phenomenon as the "resource curse." The resource curse holds that underdeveloped countries with great natural wealth fail to diversify their industry or to invest in education, which leads to long-term economic decline. The per capita gross national product of OPEC countries, for example, has been in steady decline for the past 30 years, whereas the per capita G.N.P. of non-oil-producing countries in the developing world has steadily risen.

According to the World Bank, most of Nigeria's oil wealth gets siphoned off by 1 percent of the population, condemning more than half of the country to subsist on less than a dollar a day. By that standard, it is one of the poorest countries in the world. Since independence in 1960, it is estimated that between $300 and $400 billion of oil revenue has been stolen or misspent by corrupt government officials—an amount of money approaching all the Western aid received by Africa in those years. Former president Sani Abacha and his inner circle stole at least $2 billion. In a recent crackdown on corruption, the president of the Nigerian senate had to resign after accusations that he had solicited a bribe in exchange for pushing through an inflated education budget (which presumably would then have been plundered by others). A former inspector general of the national police, after being accused of stealing between $52 and $140 million, was recently sentenced to six months in prison for a lesser charge. And two Nigerian admirals were put on trial for trying to sell stolen oil to an international crime syndicate.

The list of wrongdoing continues almost without end. With top government officials so brazenly violating the social contract, everyone downstream inevitably follows suit. The Nigerian constitution stipulates that just under 50 percent of national oil revenue must be distributed to state and local governments, and that an additional 13 percent must go to the nine oil-producing states of the Niger delta. Last year that amounted to almost $6 billion for the nine delta states—plenty, it would seem, to take care of basic social services. The problem, however, is that the money goes to the governors' offices and then simply disappears. A financial-crimes commission was recently formed to investigate all of the country's 36 governors, and it wound up accusing all but 5 of corruption. The most apparently egregious case was that of Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, who was accused of embezzling hundreds of millions of dollars while he was governor of Bayelsa State. He fled to England, was arrested for money-laundering, jumped bail, and slipped back into Nigeria dressed as a woman. (The English authorities had taken his passport.) When asked how he managed to make the trip, he said he had no idea. "All the glory goes to God," he explained. He is now in custody awaiting trial.

"It's going to be tough," human-rights activist Oronto Douglas said when I asked him about reforming Nigerian politics. "Nobody who has privilege surrenders it easily. The struggle is to get people to give up power who got it illegally."

Back in Nigeria, Again

Well, we're back and it's feeling a bit weird.

Firstly, due to an incident involving a bomb that was rather near our compound, our company decided to move all children out of this location. Wives without children had an option to stay with their hubbies. Therefore, many great people have returned to their home countries and the dads will just be visiting them once every two months. The cool thing is that the wives who are here really want to be here so the attitude on the camp is pretty terrific. Everyone has a "can do" kind of approach and is chipping in to make this experience a great one. We do have limited mobility so I'm coming up with ideas for entertainment on the camp. Some who had been miserable will not be back -- so, now no one here is made miserable by their misery!!! Hallelujah!!

We feel quite safe, still. Our company is very cautious and makes decisions based on the future projections. Things will be a bit shakey up to the elections in April and then beyond. We plan on being out of country during that time. If these elections succeed and a new president takes office it will be the first time in the history of this rather wackie nation that there has been a transfer of power from one civilian government to another without a military coup or a few coups. Most people expect the election to happen. There will, more than likely, be a president elected from the North. The main candidate appears to be a fairly honest dude -- quite an accomplishment in itself seeing the rampant nature of the corruption in this land.

Jim's swamped with work! But other than the occasional panick that accompanies too many demands at a time, he's thriving quite well. My work load has become reasonable due to the decrease in numbers of folks on our camps, the lack of children, etc.

I never had the access to internet that I had hoped so I'll be adding photos from our trip on this entry and for the next few.












I'll work our way backward, so I'll start with Sydney and back up to Singapore in later entries.

Happy New Year

Here's a shot of our late Christmas Eve dinner -- out on Joey's back porch!







Greetings from Sydney Harbour!
Here are a few snaps of the fireworks -- I needed a tripod, etc. -- so they're not too super-dooper but the show certainly was!!

Mail Server Down on Boxing Day

Curiously, we now have adequate internet connections but our mail server is down. So, both options for emailing are not working at the moment. This is the second day I've tried to email -- from either of my email addresses. Seeing that they are both linked to the company, they happen to both be down at the moment. So, bear with me as I'll try to continue emailing. Jim's continuing to try as well.

You could always call us :-)
Jim's mobile is working with roaming -- 234 803 979 9132.
Joey's mobile is -- 614 0187 5972

It's Boxing Day, here in the land of Oz. For those of you who think Boxing Day is a day to honor a professional sport, check out this website, below. Warning: afterward, you'll still be pretty clueless but at least you won't feel alone!

www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/boxing.asp

Celebrating our Savior's Birth!

A very Merry Christmas to each of you!

We are enjoying an Australian Christmas, though it's evidently atypical -- it's quite cool, even for us! So, we didn't go to the beach today as we'd planned. Maybe tomorrow -- Boxing Day.

'have had a difficult time getting internet access. 'trying a bit more tonight.

Let's see, more about the contrasts -- ah, the culture of Singapore -- incredibly friendly and polite. From initial impressions, we were very!!! (impressed, that is!) The people are hard working, kind, respectful. Until the moment we left we couldn't stop talking about the cleanliness! We'd love to go back sometime!

And now, Australia, where the contrasts to Nigeria abound yet again! We were immediately struck by the cleanliness. That was something we noticed on our first trip to Oz which was pre-Nigeria. But it's even more impressive after being in Nigeria! In Joey's neighborhood the streets are perfectly clean. The yards are beautiful. The brick sidewalks are spotless. Flowers abound. Fragrances flourish. Peaceful. Calming. Quite the contrast from the headache creating streets of Nigerian cities.

What fun it was to celebrate Christmas at Hillsong Church. Let's see -- 4 different Christmas services in one week! Awesome! At one point I couldn't stop the tears from peaking out. It was so refreshing to sing so many amazing praises and Christmas carols with such a huge and diverse crowd of folks!

God is good. Very good. And we are blessed. Very blessed!

I'll write more soon and try to post photos, too, very soon!

Contrasts!!

We are still stunned by the contrasts, having left Nigeria and traveled to a variety of locations in the past week:

Paris, cold/NGA, hot!

Singapore -- clean, clean, so very clean!! Nigeria -- not!
Jim and I had a contest going on who would find the first piece of trash. I won ... on our second day! And it was a microscopic piece of a candy wrapper.
In NGA we could have contests on who spots the first piece of clean dirt ... and no one would have won, yet!
Green and beautiful -- gardens everywhere. The sides of the road -- all gardens! We were speechless (and we haven't stopped talking about it!)
Clean water -- amazing! Blue ocean water. Clean rivers, even!

And now we're in the land of Oz.

OK, the internet cafe is closing so I'll continue with the contrasts another day!

Life updates as we are heading out for one month!

See Jim.

See Sharon.

See Jim and Sharon pack.

See Jim and Sharon smile!

We leave tomorrow, God-willing, to Drs in Paris for Jim, three days in Singapore for our honeymoon (married 26 years ago Dec. 6!) , and then on to Australia -- spending great time with Joey and then we'll be joined by -- in this order: Jeri; my sis, Kath, and her hubby, Dave; Brad and Karissa. We'll have a late Christmas as those-guys will all arrive on the 28th and beyond. I can hardly stand the wait!!!

We've got our laptops loaded with everything we need for working from anywhere -- that's the problem with our high-tech world -- you never really get away, anymore!

Jim's got huge projects coming in -- things he's been working on for the whole year.
I've got new arrivals coming in -- there's never really a break in the steady stream of new hires and transfers!

But, even with the work load it will be great to be away from the intensity.

Lucy cried when we said goodbye -- hugged me and had a tough time letting go. We gave her a little Christmas gift, a Christmas bonus, and a raise -- you'd think we'd found her a job in the U.S. or something. She's so grateful for every little thing we do for her.

I hired a guy named "Jumbo!" who cooks for the camp doctor to train Lucy and she's been doing a great job. So, I think she's most disappointed to not have any oyibos to cook for in the next month! She's precious!

Prince's wife, Glory, is pregnant. He's rather ticked ("disturbed" is his word) that she's not cooking food he likes anymore. He seems to think it's fine if she vomits while she's cooking as long as he gets his food. A bit of an ego, there! So, she's sick day and night and still operating two sewing shops in a town 2 hours north of us and she's opened a new shop here in our city. She does a great job as a seamstress. Her business is growing here, already. We made them a loan so that they could rent the shop space. Prince is diligently paying it back each month -- little-by-little.

Camp life continues to be a bit tense as we still have very limited options for getting out, still need escorts, etc. So the nasty people stay nasty but ... the good news is --- the nice people just get nicer!! So, some of us had a progressive dinner last night. Jim and I quit after the dessert house. Many stayed until 4 a.m. That's 5 hours past our bedtime! The "entree" house or "hors d'oevres" house as we would say -- was our's. I didn't have Christmas decorations so I lit gobs and gobs of candles and had paper snowflakes that I'd cut out in the windows. What fun! I brought no Christmas music and most of our music is Christian, so, it was weird but we played Sting on the CD player. He seems to have universal appeal. 'just not quite like Christmas parties we're accustomed to!

I'll have more time for reflecting during our travels so I'm sure I'll blog more soon.

Air France -- here we come! Business class, even!

Corruption Abounds

Here's just one all-too-common scenario:

The chief, the leader of the "community" in this area of our city, demands that "his" people work on our camp. So, we pay the chief and his people to work. Actually, we pay them not to work. Here's how it works:

They show up and are given odd jobs that can't be too destructive -- painting the curbs black and white alternately, painting a stop sign on the pavement (ok, it was spelled "sotp" and was facing the wrong direction!) -- his guys are paid to do these things -- regularly. But that's not enough -- he wants them to be the plumbers, the electricians, etc. Training? Of course not. How hard can it be, after all?

So, they took 3 months to "renovate" a place that now needs more renovation than it did before! To get a real plumber on the camp requires that the plumber pay the chief and that our company pay the chief. And then the chief might still say "no!"

So, he's paid to work and he's paid NOT to work and ...

two guys are now in jail because

well, ... it went like this:

the trash truck was heading out of camp driving way too fast as I was walking down the main street in camp. I motioned him to slow it down!! He altered his speed. But first, he surged as he down shifted. This caused the stuff in the back of the truck to shift. A can of paint -- bright yellow -- came flying out of the back of the truck, hit the street, burst open and ... well ... painted the road!!! A full can of paint. Yellow. Good paint.

Long story, short version -- the reason the guys are in jail is that the paint was stolen from the camp. A search of the "trash" truck found DVD players, light fixtures, chairs, DSTV decoders, remote controls, more chairs, ...

And get this ... the source of the "trash" -- the chief's "workers" of course -- as they "work" in a vacant house.

So, he's paid to work
and creates a disaster!
He's paid to NOT work
and demands more pay!
So he robs us while his workers do the work they're there to really do --
spy on the qualified workers and report back to the chief so he can demand more pay and
rob houses they are trying to "work" in!!

What do we do about it?
We give the chief and his "workers" more work.

So, today --
in one house we told the chief's guys that we were noting all things that were in the house -- TV, decoder, DVD player, etc. If anything was missing -- he was responsible.

Then, we went to another house where contractors (trained workers, well ... we wouldn't hire them in the U.S. but they're more trained than the chief's guys) were ready to start a new project. Here's the pep talk they were given -- "If any of your workers sleep on the furniture, on the floor, anywhere in the house ... or if any of your workers eat anywhere in this house --- they will be thrown off of the camp. You can sleep in the car but not the house."
Sheesh -- and I thought the workers were there to ...

well ...

work!!!