Arrival and house

I am finally here!! Arrived in Abuja Monday morning, had a days briefing with VSO before heading off to my new home! I have to return to Abuja for more training in November when the other volunteers arrive - there were visa delays, mine was luckily one of the first to come through! So ladden with a water filter, motorbike helmet and two suitcases I left the VSO office for my placement. It was a little scary as I had been given little information about Nigeria and culture/customs, would have liked to have a little more support and information from the VSO team. But thankfully GPI have been so supportive and helpful!

I arrived on Tuesday and had the luxury of an internal flight rather than a 9 hour bus journey!! I was escorted here by a lovely lady called Comfort who works with Girls Power Initiative.  I am living in a small compound which has several houses; mine is a very spacious three bedroom house with a huge living room. My own bedroom is great I have a very comfy double bed and a huge wardrobe which I plan to continue to fill with lots of locally made dresses, the material is amazing here! I also have a lovely South African housemate who has helped me settle in and has taken me around town to try and to the markets to buy food! The house is pretty much the same as you get in the UK apart from the lack of electricity! I’ve had about 2 hours of electricity at home since I arrived! So I’m learning to shower and cook in the dark with candles! I’ve very glad I brought a headtorch with me! Because of the lack of electricity the fridge becomes more of a storage cupboard so it is tricky to buy food and keep it fresh. There are many small stalls and shops here so I will be buying food daily rather than stocking up! Western food is very difficult to get here, chicken and rice is probably the closest and easily available food. Although there is limited imported food in supermarkets but it is relatively expensive – I treated myself to cereal, chocolate and biscuits to keep me going! I expected my nut allergy to be restrictive but actually its shellfish that is going to be a problem – they put shrimp/crayfish in so much of their food that so many dishes are ruled out for me. So I will be doing more cooking than eating out! I have seen a pizza restaurant which I will definitely be treating myself to now and then and ice cream is widely available too. Ate Heinz tomato soup for dinner last night with fried yam! I’m just about used to the milk here now – it is powdered so you add water to it – it wasn’t bad on my cereal this morning!