I was in Lagos all of last week and I thought having unlimited internet access will mean I'll update everything but I was so busy.

Lagos was fun, my friend, Toyosi was home for a couple of weeks and we went out for her birthday.

On the downside, there was a plane crash from Abuja to Lagos and all 153 passengers died. I pray their family receive comfort and I also hope that our government does a proper investigation. My friend just told me that she read that the senior managers of Dana airlines have fled the country though. 

So I found a place, it's really small and it's not completely done but I have photographs below. At least I have my bathroom and toilet unlike the conditions I'll have been stuck with in Otanile. The students were very excited I was back which was surprising, they're always talking. I found out that they were having their continuous assessment tests this week and it's 30% of their final grade. I've barely taught my students anything, it's like setting them up to fail. Anyway, I revised with them, hopefully, they'll do well. I did write my test in Lagos, apparently, it was too much for these kids. Anyway, their final exam is 70% of their grade. It's really easy to really pass or really fail.

So I followed Sope to her local government today and I had a pretty interesting conversation with one of her people:

LG man: I cherish your this thing o
Me: You cherish my?
LG man: This your phone. But it looks like it cost.

What kind of conversation is that? Cherish my phone? Honey, wrong choice of words.

Anyway, we decided within our community that we want to start our own community development group and impact our villagers directly. Our LGI termed us as “travellers” that like to take off when it suits us so she teamed us with the CDS group that she is usually present at for basically all their meetings. Granted, it is a 5min drive from our village and it is even more convenient for me because I have to pass this town before I get to our village. But for the other corpers, I understand sitting at the garage and waiting for 6 people (excluding the driver) to fit into a hatch back golf car. Yes, they are usually small. Anyway, we came up with 3 proposals for our LGI. An educational programme working directly with the students. Now this was my idea so of course I’m going to amp it. I thought that we could work on non-academic programmes that will teach our students life lessons and give them a glimpse of life outside their village. Someone else suggested drug abuse and the last suggestion was road safety. Anyway, majority wins the vote and road safety became the topic. If you ask me, road safety? In Otanile? Are you kidding? The entire village is like 800m from one end to another, people hardly drive, most people walk. If there wasn’t an expressway passing through the village, I’m sure one wouldn’t even know it exists. I even joked that we can put a traffic light at the only intersection that this village has (the other intersections do not count) and they took me seriously. Honey, I will be the first person to run that light. There is no way I am stopping if it is red. The place is never EVER busy! They also suggested we fill up the potholes from Otanile to Ilare (another village 5mins away in a different direction from Obokun). Now this sounds great but I am not physically filling in potholes because I said I could not come up with another form of exercise. I will walk in Osogbo, that’s enough for me. If you ask me, I will say that the corpers were looking for the easiest project to do. I really hope none of my fellow corpers read this but hey, this is supposed to be what I think.

Our community development this week was pretty uneventful. The Batch B corpers are graduating next week, lucky ones. But hey, they were once where I am. Also, they’re rotating our LGI (Local Government Inspector) and ALGI (Assistant Local Government Inspector). They’re moving to “they don’t know where” and we’re getting “we don’t know who” as our new inspectors. Apparently, they do rotations pretty often. This LGI was only in Obokun local government for like 6 months. Hopefully, we get someone “mellow.” A Batch B corper wished me luck with that and said he hopes we don’t get an Idi Amin or Adolf Hitler. Thanks mate! I hope not either. But this also meant that we couldn't submit our proposal because there's nothing that our LGI can do about it at this point. We have to wait for the next person.

Anyway, the light situation in Osogbo is getting worse. Plus I just realised that my window is so small so it means that there is hardly any ventilation in my room. And now I think their light fluctuation (the light is never stable) just blew up my fan. This is getting too much. I was told to invest in those "I beta pas my neighbour generator." They're really small, that's why they have that name.I'll have to look into that because Lord knows that this place is hot. Anyway, thanks for reading :)

Toyosi on her birthday :)

My new place, it's not completed yet. I need a bed and a small cupboard so that I'm not living out of my suitcase

Everything is basically on the floor but I bought the "rubber carpet" so I know it's clean.

The kitchen which I share with another tenant. Honestly, this is a space I'll hardly be using. I plan to bring frozen food from Lagos regularly so I'll get a microwave

Shope at her local government

This is what they drink at her local govt, Lolly Kay

The cool rock behind her local govt

That's part of my CDS group during one of our "illicit drug use" rallies. Honestly, I don't know if we taught the villagers anything but it was termed a success. We know that success is subjective.