3 months in and an update on my Calabar life!

I can hardly believe that I’ve been here 3 months already! Time is going so quickly! I have truly settled into Calabar and life here now. I’m finding that I have adapted to life here now, I know the shops and where I can buy certain things, and can pretty much find everything I need or variances of! Have got used to eating from cans – meat and vegetables! But I can still get luxuries here – chocolate chip cookies and ginger nut biscuits, oh and Pringles! So you can see why I needed to join a gym! The weather was incredibly hot, making sleep tricky, but we’ve had some spectacular thunderstorms the last few evenings which have cooled down the temperature a bit! Rain even in the dry season! But the kindness of people here still shows – in the thunderstorms a lovely man offered us a lift home so we wouldn’t get too wet!

Work is busy, I’m now in the full swing of completing my Organisational Development Assessment – am interviewing staff and conducting research on how NGOs run. My own expectations and the business model I am used to working within just doesn’t fit into African culture and that of a non-profit organisation. So I need to adjust my own though processes and standards at the same time! GPI are avidly awaiting the report so I’m feeling pressure to perform well! I just hope I can meet their expectations and don’t let them or myself down. I’m hoping to visit a couple of other GPI centres as well, so hope to see more of this lovely country.

My social life is always busy – have a lovely group of friends and always have plenty of company! Gym, pool, cinema, dinners out, karaoke bars, nightclubs…… Life certainly is good! I miss a good cocktail and chilled glass of rose though! And I have a craving for Mexican food and a quarter pounder with fries!

Lovely Leanne has moved out of my house and will soon be heading to Cameroon, I already miss her loads! It really is a joy to live with someone you get on so well with, and I know we’ll stay friends wherever in the world we are! Two VSO staff have moved into my house, Elsie and Folusho – they are managing an ICS project where 10 UK and 10 Nigerian volunteers work on a community development project for 3 months. The project is running in partnership with GPI so we are looking forward to seeing how things go! Will be nice to have a few UK people around as well!

Plans for the next 2 months are to work really hard and then reward myself with a trip to Cameroon to see Leanne and the volcanic beaches at Limbe!

New year's resolution and girly time!

Despite the hot weather and sunshine I began to feel the January blues - all of my visitors were gone and I have nothing particularly planned for the next 9 months until my contract ends. Its a weird feeling to describe, felt lonely despite having company all the time, and wished I could pop home for one of my mum's amazing roast dinners and a cuddle with Jack! But no part of me wanted to leave Niigeria for any length of time. So given I don't want to leave and there has not yet been a way to teleport me home for a few hours on a Sunday afternoon, really there was nothing I could do and I just needed to get over it!

So I decided to take the approach I've used in England and I signed up for some spa treatments with my lovely friend Nicki! I had THE weirdest massage EVER!!!! (I miss you Sally Ward and your lovely massages!). It started fairly normally, though with quite a lot of pressure, but that was good as my thighs still ached from the hiking in Obudu! Then when I was thoroughly covered in oil, combine that with my sweat as it was 30 degrees, I almost slipped off the massage table! But I saved myself from embarassment, only to be covered in even more oil, and then I heard a strange vibrating noise...... I apparently had the laziest masseuse who had whipped out a massaging machine and proceded to rub it pretty much everywhere over my body!! Then at the end I rolled over, he bent my legs up and told me to drop open my knees and to relax - at this point I got very nervous as my mind began to go into overdrive about what was going to happen - only for him to grab my hands and make me do 10 sit-ups!! I mean, who ends a nice relaxing, well a massage with sit-ups!!!! Bizarre. Thankfully the pedicure was much more normal and relaxing and my feet were made to look lovely again after all the hiking!

I think I may follow Nicki's example and have my fingers and toes done next time:

And if that wasn't enough girly time, Nicki, Leanne and I went to Tinapa to shop! First impressions were the huge buildings and I got excited, then I realised that over half of the shops were empty and those that were there carried so little stock. How this place ever makes any money is beyond me. But we were girls on a mission and we shopped, first trying the things we liked, then dropping our expectations and tried a second batch of things on! We ended up purchasing the same skirt in different colours (which we since accidentally all wore on the same evening!) and Leanne and I brought the same sandales. But morale was restored and a few new items added to our wardrobes!  

2013 and Affi Mountain

2013 started off with cornflakes and real cold milk!!! A miracle :-) 

Then came a bit of a disaster, apparently 1st January is the worst day possible to travel anywhere and we had to make the journey from Obudu to Affi Mountain. After much searching and great negotiations, most notably from Alan, and more Naira than we'd planned, we finally set off to Affi in the afternoon. We drove down the mountain road - a great experience and some fantastic hairpin bends! Then had another negotiation session with Okada drivers who drove us from the road into Affi! But as soon as we arrived in Affi and saw the scenery we soon forgot any niggles and were astounded by the view - the place and the scenery were truly stunning, as were the cute little cabins we were staying in.

The view of the mountains

The communal area

My lovely cabin!

 

My bed!

View of the monkey from my balcony!

But of course the drill monkeys were the highlight - they are an endangered species only found in the Nigerian/Cameroon border area. Affi has 5 groups of drills with a 6th group being based in Calabar. They are having great success with keeping the monkeys and are hoping to release some back into the wild this year, which would be a great achievement. Feeding time in particular was great fun to observe! 

A baby drill, just a few days old!

The coloured bottoms are a sign of male maturity!

Fast food monkey style!

The 'female of the day' - ready for breeding!

Then we met the rescued chimpanzees - they were so human like, but also dangerous, one tried to throw a rock at us! They have all been rescued from homes where they were being kept as pets, so sad. But at least they have a happier life at Affi now.

Me next for food please!

A chimp from Cameroon

Then we had hoped to go on the canopy tree walk and swim in the waterfall, but a huge landslide just after the rainy season  in 2012 meant this was no longer possible as huge layers of earth and sand had moved and changed the layout of the area. So Chris the Affi volunteer took us on a hike up the river instead so we can see the damage and changed scenery for ourselves.

That evening several of the group (not me) went on a night hike and got attacked by biting ants! They form great long trails across paths, and if you don't look at where you are going then you become part of that trail! Apparently the ants bite too - thankfully I wasn't a victim of the ant attack! 

 

All too soon our stay was over and I would have loved to have stayed another day or two, but Calabar and work was calling. We of course had time for a group snap:

Our Affi family

Before heading back on the Okadas to the road and then back to Calabar!

Gilbert my okada driver