Thursday, February 01, 2007

Is time to talk

This is my first attempt to write in English in my blog,
so I apologize in advance for any mistakes.

After all these months without making any comments, I think it is time to talk about my new country, in fact my new life. From my first day in Nigeria, I was thinking of writing about this country, its wonderful people and all the experiences I'm having here. It's not easy for me to find a starting point, it's not easy to summarize in just a few words all the experiences I'm having here every day., But I can say that every day I learn something new about Nigeria, Nigerians and life in general. Let’s start with my new hobby, surfing. A couple of weeks ago, I discovered Tarkwa Bay, a little bay near Lagos, a 15 minutes ride by boat from Ikoyi. There, I met Soji my surfing teacher and also a friend, who let me borrow his surfing board and showed me how to ride my first waves., Well actually I did not ride it but at least I learned how to paddle and take the waves in body surfing style :D. Anyway, surfing is a lot of fun, however, what I really wanted to tell you about was how Nigerians are . Here is my real story, I was trying to keep a wave when I started to feel sick , my stomach hurt and I needed to go to the bathroom urgently! Hey, it is true, don’t laugh, it was terrible! I asked Soji for a place to go and he said: “follow me, let’s go to my house, it is just five minutes away”. I didn’t have my shoes there, so he took his own shoes and told me: “Take this Raff, the sand is too hot!”, then he saw the pain in my face, and he understood I didn’t have time to go to his home,Thus he asked one of the neighbors for help. Of course they helped me , and the “Mama” told me to feel free to take a shower and relax. What can I say? I’m talking about real humble people who gave me all their hospitality. Let’s clarify this, I paid for my surfing lesson, and I gave some money to the Mama who helped me, but I didn't pay for their gentility and the Mama's warm smile.

That’s it, simple stories, simple things, simple lessons that I learn every day in my new Country and that I wanted to share with all of you.

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