no more a volunteer...

I came to Nigeria as a volunteer to work for charity and to make an attempt at helping a few people. Some 18 months later I didn’t exactly succeed in saving the world or changing the lives or millions (the secret hope of all charity workers?) but I did fall in love with this fascinating country and decided to stay in a “proper” job context.

Life has changed a lot since my volunteer days. Some ways in which I can tell my life has changed:
* My wallet contains more notes of 500 than 5 naira;
* My feet are clean now that I have a car and don’t have to wade through the mud to work;
* I can be really annoyed when there is no NEPA whereas I used to celebrate every second of light as a miracle;
* To some, I have turned into a walking ATM machine;
* I can sleep during the entire night without shouting churches or loud neighbours waking me up;
* Cheese is affordable, as is going to the gym (those two are somehow inter-related);
* I can speak my own language without stuttering now that I practice it every day again;
* I haven’t had malaria and/or typhoid for months now, and
* I can walk more than 3 steps in my own house without bumping into a wall.

I fell in love with Nigeria because of the people, the warm-hearted, resilient, intelligent, loud and funny Nigerians. I also fell in love with “wahala”, the –let me say- challenges of every day life here. Living in Nigeria effectively means an end to boredom ;-)

Wahala dey!

The first time I heard "wahala" was in the context of something going horribly wrong and I was surprised. Surely such a problem couldn't be heaven-like? Coming from Europe and raised with old mythical stories about the walhala, I was not prepared to understand the meaning of wahala in Nigeria. I'm not even sure if you can translate it, but it would be something like "problem" or "trouble".

After living in Nigeria for a while you cannot help but think: "wahala dey for Naija o!"

Funnily enough, i don't mean this negatively. There is always some wahala here (no electricity, too much rain or too much sun, maniac drivers, poverty, too many people, corruption, malaria etc etc) but having daily challenges makes life fun at the same time.

I named this blog "wahala dey!" as i just love saying it :-)