From the local paper

Firm to establish seven auto plants in Nigeria
April 25, 2008
By Isaac Taiwo

MOTORCYCLE transportation system will soon receive a boost as Jincheng West Africa Limited has concluded arrangements to establish production factories of its brand of motorcycles in seven locations in the country.

The assurance was given by the Chief Representative, Jincheng West Africa Limited, Mr. Vincent Yang at the flag-off ceremony of Jincheng Cross Nigeria Quality Parade held at the National Stadium, Surulere Lagos, recently.

"We are not just embarking on training people how to ride in Nigeria but as already earmarked, we are commencing before the end of this year with locating one of the motorcycles producing factories either in Ilorin, Lagos or Kano," he said.

Addressing participants at the flag off ceremony, Jang said the main purpose of organising the event was to put the already tested and trusted quality of Jincheng motorcycles into further test to re-affirm his company's claim to superior quality over and above competition in today's motorcycle market, especially, in Nigeria.

"Today represents a memorable milestone in the history of Jincheng motorcycles success in Nigerian market in the last ten years.

"In this vein, we have designed this programme to further prove beyond doubt that Jincheng stands for nothing but quality in the motorcycle market.

"To this end, twelve good motorcycle riders drawn from members of Okada riders Unit in different states of the country including two champions from China Motorcycle Sports, starting off from here today will hit the road through Ibadan, Ilorin, Minna, Kaduna to Kano with your ever-reliable Jincheng motorcycles within five days.

"Simply put, we are saying you can ride our motorcycles from Western Nigeria to the North of the country.

"This is to further assure our customers across Nigeria that we live, breathe and sleep quality," he said.

Jang said prior to the memorable ride to the North, the champions from Chinese Motorcycle Sports, China had already had one-week training with the Nigerian counterparts on how best to ride safely and in addition insured their lives, and also provided them with helmets, shoes and every other materials needed for their safety.

Jang said the choice of Kano was based on the plan of a big show that will be taking place there and safe arrival from Lagos to Kano will further prove Jincheng motorcycles quality, durability and dependability.

Present at the occasion were Onitire of Itire, Abdul Lateef Daudu, Oba of Odi Olowo, Oba Fatai Irawo and representative of Olu of Mushin, the Otun Balogun of Mushin, Chief Taiwo Odubiyi.

Flagging off the riders, Oba Daudu advised them to be safety conscious and to remember that the full joy of their participation in the historic event, which no doubt will be for long remembered hinges on their safe arrival to their destination, Kano.

He prayed for their protection and journey mercies.

Some of the riders include a senior officer in Okada group at Ibadan, Temitope Abas, Bolaji Isa from Kwara State, and Belo Waidi from Osun State, who all expressed happiness for participating in the memorable event.

Money matters

So how much does it really cost to live here? Of course it depends on how you live. We went shopping on saturday and I've tallied it up below. There's an amazing difference in cost depending on if you buy fresh things in the local market or go to the "supermarket" and buy packaged food.

Local Market (New Market): $10.20
2 large papayas
1 pineapple
1 watermelon
Bananas (small bunch)
3 Avocados
2 Cucumbers
Fresh Parsley (bunch)
2 kg tomatoes
1 kg onions
4 red peppers (mild)
6 mangos
1 kg carrots
plus
$0.70 tip for boy to carry bags
$0.85 parking (with receipt)

super market #1 (Goodies): $7.82
1 loaf sandwich bread
4 dinner rolls

super market #2 (Park and Shop): $82.00
6 liters milk (aseptic liter boxes)
3 liters juice (aseptic liter boxes)
1 case diet coke plastic bottles
plain yogurt
6 samosa
1 paratha
2 jam
6 eggs
4 boxes tea bags
+ more I can't remember
emergency light ($32.30)
plus
$0.85 tip for taking cart to car

Beauty Salon (The Nail Studio): $25.50
1 wife haircut
plus
$2.55 for OJ (fresh squeezed)
$1.70 for tonic water (2) while I waited

restaurant (Cactus): $85.98
dinner for 2 - hamburger, calamari crunchies, glass white wine, calamari sauteed, onion soup, greek salad, tonic water, cookies

extras
$8.50 tip for driver

market: $11.75 (including extras)
supermarkets: $58.37 (excluding emergency light because it's not food)
Haircut $29.75
Dinner: $85.98
Driver tip: $8.50
Elapsed time: 5.5 hours

Best deal: the fresh OJ at the hair salon.
Worst deal: dinner. Wine was decent and only $4.25. Rest questionable

Brits in the lounge

When you enter a BA lounge at the airport one thing is immediately apparent, these people don't like each other. To qualify for the lounge including free food and drink you must hold a first or business class ticket. At LHR I think the first class gets an even better lounge than us Club World slackers.

The SFO lounge looks like each passenger has been equipped with a strong repulsive magnet. So they all are forced to stay as far away from each other as possible. You know how magnets can repel. If there are say 10 chairs and 5 people they will occupy every other one, trying to stay as far away from each other as possible.

The wild card is if there are (god forbid) children in the mix. Having a few of my own I've seen this happen, believe me. Children have a tendency to go wherever they like, and they do. Grabbing snacks and drinks, leaving them half eaten and drunk and sitting in lots of different chairs as if they all needed testing. I guess that's what the London Times is for, to hold up and protect the proper Brit from having to acknowledge that there are other beings about.

Now transport to LHR lounge. They have a separate room for children so that problem is taken car of. But what about the other passengers? My contention has always been that in a room full of people of different races, the Brits will ignore each other (they haven't been introduced after all) and the Africans will discover a common relative within a few minutes time.

So that's what they do! They are soon talking about Aunt so-and-so or uncle whatever and spoiling the whole atmoshere for the Brits.

Well I say good. There's enough ignoring each other in the world already, let's find out who each other is.

The float plane

One of our little romantic notions. Comes in to land on the lagoon about 07:00 and taxis to the dock. Picks up some passengers (10 place Cessna Caravan turbo prop, about $2 million new in this configuration). Takes off about 07:30 down country to the more dangerous areas. Quicker and safer to fly above it all. When it goes twice, that means some big shot went somewhere and back. It's a hoot to see them get off the plane in the blazing heat of the afternoon in white shirt and tie (I'm usually in my swimming suit by then). I suppose they have to dress for expectations, I've got none.

I never get tired of watching it take off, like a speedboat that turns into an airplane. Any water is a runway.

Speaking of things, there is a Federal Police officer that guards the plane. He's pretty friendly to us all and friday night we went out and watched the sunset on the dock. Showed us his AK-47 too. He said made in Korea, which I took to mean North. It's painted in green, red, and some other colors too. That's supposed to identify it if it's stolen. He seemed pretty casual with it tucked up under his arm. Since my wife asked, he assured us that it does work, i.e. fire.

Hard rain, lots of lightning and some thunder last night about 02:00. Nice to be snuggled in bed, but still not yet totally comfortable when things are blowing around like that. Wind whipping up now too, 15:30 swim appointment in jeopardy, lunch time now.

Offshore Life

Latest attempt to make life on the platforms more appealing.

Things Fall Apart

This time it's the television. Couple days ago the water was out. Everyday the electricity goes out. The drivers are on strike. The phone company is on strike. SAT3 link is down. The government officials have stolen all the money. The port is backlogged. The headmaster wants money to release transcripts. At the market the bigger boys beat up the small ones and steal their tips. The universities are in a state of collapse. The consulate's car has been robbed on the expressway. The Chinese have bought the copper mine for the price of a few hospitals. The olympic torch is a source of riots. Chelsea is out of the premier league championship. Bobby Fisher is dead. George Bush is alive. Bar beach is eroding away. The pool is full of bugs. They don't make that kind of light bulb anymore.

The Second Coming, William Butler Yeats (excerpt)

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Rain

Yesterday morning the air felt different. Looking out to the east the sky was dark, really black and getting closer. Turning to the west it looked like a typical morning, bright with light overcast. The wind was blowing as normal from the west forming long low waves on the lagoon rolling onto our shore. The wind wasn't blowing away the black clouds, they were piling up and backing up towards us.

A line squall formed, with streamers of rain below it as it approached the house. The air still felt humid and hot. The wind started whipping around, howling around the corners of the house and shaking the trees and bushes and blowing around whatever it could get its hands on. I was watching with some trepidation from the upstairs balcony. There had been some thunder claps but not close ones.

A few big fat drops of rain hit the driveway. The temperature dropped by what felt like 10 degrees and the wind now came directly from the east really strong. On the lagoon, the normal waves were now overlaid in the opposite direction with ripples that became whitecaps as the wind gained strength.

The entire sky was now a flat grey color. And the rain came like a million billion showers all turned on at once. The street turned into a lake and then a streaming river. Lightning and thunder were close and frequent.

The downpour lasted only about half an hour although it drizzled the rest of the day. They tell me that the rains will be coming soon.

It's the food, stupid.

While we are all navel gazing about our mortgages and the huge losses from risky speculation by unregulated hedge funds, there is a far bigger crisis looming, food. In particular rice. The price has risen sharply because of increased energy costs, rising population and other factors. India and Vietnam have stopped or cut back on rice exports. We have already seen riots in:

Haiti: http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7010619052
Bangladesh: http://www.indiadaily.com/editorial/19343.asp
Egypt: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1729061,00.html
Philippines: http://www.upiasiaonline.com/Economics/2008/04/15/food_riots_to_hit_manila_soon/6830/

In Mexico it's corn: http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-food-mexico-story,0,4414139.story

Quoting from that last article "The social impact will be tremendous." I guess most people would react pretty strongly to not having food for themselves and their families.

It's time for the US to get off the silly ethanol binge and produce food. There's profit and goodwill to be had that's worth a lot more than our current military adventures.

So I went sailing

Had a chance on Saturday to go for a sail at the local yacht club. I had figured on something pretty low key, like going sailing. Boy was I wrong. I was going to crew for this guy Paul who was getting ready for the Lightning national championships the next weekend. His regular crew was out of the country so he invited me along. The plan was to get out on the water for a bit of practice, since we'd never sailed together before and then participate in the regular 14:45 saturday race.

Well, we didn't get out on the water early because there was plenty to do fixing up the boat. Paul had bought it recently as a project and it still is. I helped where I could but there was plenty to do. One key thing was rearranging the blocks (pulleys) to make raising the centerboard easier. IIRC the board is 180 lbs of stainless steel that is raised and lowered through a narrow trunk involving a lot of friction. While Paul was up under the bow fiddling with that I was doing a few things and mostly baking in the sun. Bad plan, didn't drink or eat enough or stay in the shade enough.

I also spent time trying to learn the various lines (ropes) on that boat (a Lightning) since I wasn't familiar with it. "There are lots of strings" as Paul said. Here's the rundown as I can remember, starting at the mast and moving down the port (left) side of the cockpit.

* jib halyard
* jib cunningham
* jib luff tension
* jib sheet
* barber haul
* tweeker
* spinnaker sheet
* traveller adjustment

On the centerboard trunk
* spinnaker halyard
* centerboard raise/lower
* mainsheet

The starboard side was similar except the first three things near the mast were for the mainsail.

On the mast was the vang and Cunningham.

Simple huh? To summarize, when the race started, I was doing quite a bit of fumbling around while Paul was trying to win. (Did I say he is a recently retired General from the British army?) We actually got on pretty well considering. One complication I didn't mention was that there are some sailing terms different between American and British english. Took me a while to understand that when he was yelling at me to pull in the uphaul, he meant the topping lift. (etc)

After the race, we did several more practice spinnaker sets and jibes and came in. At that point I was really knackered (a British term I do know). Again I hadn't drunk enough water and was really dehydrated. Paul sat me down with a beer in the clubhouse while he saw to getting the boat put away. After chugging down the beer, I (discreetly) went to the bathroom and threw it up.

The next day, I could hardly move, I had used/abused parts of my body that weren't used to it. Particularly my forearms ( from gripping the lines) and the front of my thighs from hiking. Also several new bruises on my shins. With all those lines, that boat seemed to be trying to trip me at every turn.

The sailing here is in the harbor where the big ships are coming in and out. And a large dredge constantly going back and forth down the channel. The water is really polluted and when the tide was going out an amazing amount of plastic trash (bottles and bags etc) washed out of the lagoon into the harbor. In Santa Barbara the sailors clean the kelp off their rudders, here they clean off the plastic bags.

I might go back sometime.

The A/C beeps twice

Coming up the stairs just now to check on my Acrobat download. First hint is, it's suddenly quiet. No whine of the PC fan, no rush of air from the A/C units, monitor screen blank, can now hear the waves lapping on the beach from the lagoon. Oh S**t. Power out.

A few minutes later, in the time it takes for the guy to walk out of the back door of the guest house, open the door to the generator shed, bang on something and hit the switch, power starts returning.

The house doesn't wake up all at once. First I decide that the Wente cabernet has sat in the box long enough and needs opening, it is friday after all. Then listen to the sounds. First there is a single beep from the microwave. Then one from the alarm system. The freezer and fridge contribute low rumbles as the compressors kick in. The wall mounted A/C units in each room turn on one by one, each with two beeps and the rush of air from whatever fan speed they've been set at.

Back to status quo, air conditioned cocoon, bathed in white noise.

For those keeping score, a new (private) driver has been hired (after the old one stole the car while my wife was on vacation), he was to pick up the car from the impound lot today so we can get mobile again but the company drivers (and so the transportation staff) are on strike so no car. Got a ride to sailing for tomorrow so that's still on. Check this out, those drivers normally have access to eat in the company cafeteria, a significant benefit. When they're on strike they still come and eat in the cafeteria and then insist on their regular bus ride home too. Ay yee!

The plight of the tennis coaches

Wherever there's an expat community, there's a micro economy surrounding it. It varies from country to country. In some places, like Indonesia a household requires at least 5 staff. Cook, maid, driver, gardener, and cleaner. In west africa, two is pretty normal, driver and maid (stewardess) with the occasional family also having a cook.

Besides household staff there are others living off the obruni (white man). These people include artists, wood carvers, massagers, and tennis coaches. At the main compound, there are four full time tennis coaches. They do actual coaching as well as providing someone to play against and can source ball boys for that ultimate in luxury. The expat wives are ferocious players and the courts are booked solid every morning.

Someone decided that the courts at the main compound needed resurfacing. And that it would be better to close them all down for the 4-6 weeks while this was going on. This threw all the coaches out of work. These guys are not exactly rolling in dough. They get paid about $10 for an hour, a couple bucks more for ball boys. With no courts, these guys are really hurting. At our place, the court is still open so my wife had her lesson as usual on Sunday. The coach was happy for the work but was bemoaning his fate saying he was reduced to begging from family and friends to pay his rent until the courts were finished.

One of our more heartless neighbors said the coaches should "get another job". That's just it isn't it. There aren't any jobs. Very few people have what we would consider a regular job, like where you go everyday and get paid regularly and can depend on it. So many people are like these coaches, they found a niche and developed a livelihood and are clinging to it. I wonder if the resurfaced courts will be worth the pain the process has caused?

Making up the news

I think that watching TV news in a different country lets you see things more clearly. Instead of the stuff you are used to and accept, the novelty of the situation makes you really think about what you're seeing. And what I am seeing on Sky news is just garbage.

There was recent coverage of a small jet plane crashing into a house near London. The plane had experienced some problem shortly after takeoff and was trying to get back to the airport. The homeowners were away on holiday so the only casualties were in the plane. A pilot and 3 passengers IIRC. OK, fair enough, they had interviewed a neighbor to find out that no one was home and had footage of the fire brigade dousing the flames.

Then Sky news dragged out the google earth view of the vicinity and the factless speculation began. It seems there was a hospital and school not so far from the impact. And they had a map with circles and arrows to prove it. Then they started praising the pilot for his heroic job of missing said hospital and school. And to prove that, they trotted out an "aviation expert" of some sort and tried to get him to join in the fun. To his credit, the expert would only go so far as to say the the pilot undoubtedly had plenty on his mind as he was trying to save his plane.

The fact that the pilot was trying to save the plane is reasonable inference. The business about trying to miss the hospital and school is simply speculation with no basis in fact. We are glad the plane missed those places, but have no reason why that happened.

So should we take the happy part of the story, missing the hospital and school, embellish it with a heroic pilot and all feel good about the world? I'd rather live in reality even with one less hero.

Do Not Horn

That's what it says on the gate to our townhouse compound. So I never do, but when I come back from a bike ride, I do say "beep beep" to get the guards attention. He doesn't get it.

My bike had arrived the day before I had. So I unpacked it and pumped up the tires ready to go. My wife suggested 9:00 am as a good time. I figured that might be pretty hot, but did see the wisdom of waiting until after all the white collars had gone to work. I went at 08:30.

With a hearty "good morning, sir" from the gate guard I was off into the outside world. Well, not really very outside, still within the gates of our relatively secure community. It was supposed to be 5km for one lap around the loop road, didn't seem like a lot, maybe I'd do two.

It was all pretty pleasant. The roads are made with pavers, generally pretty smooth except for occasional dips and swirls, we are built on sand you know. There are a lot of speed bumps. Nice to keep the car speeds down and gives the cyclist something to hop over and sprint between.

After completing most of a lap, I decided to explore a bit. My wife knew some folks living on Road 64, so I thought I'd try to find that. I asked for directions and on the second try got good information and off I went down the middle of the peninsula. This had very few cars, compared to the outside loop road. So the riding was great, out to Road 64, then cut over on Road 28 and back home on Road 2.

There is a scheme to the road numbering that makes sense in a weird sort of way. You enter the community and at the first roundabout road 3 takes off to the left and road 2 continues straight. At the next roundabout road 2 continues straight and the road to the left becomes road 4 and then continues as road 5 and then road 6 straight down the middle. Road 2 and 3 end up looping around the whole thing. Roads between the middle road and road 2 are named road 24, 25, or 26 etc. depending on whether they meet the middle road at a point where it's named road 4, 5, or 6. Similarly roads between road 3 and the middle are similarly named road 34, 35, or 36 etc depending on where they meet the middle road. Roads off the middle road that don't go through to either road 2 or 3 are named like road 41, 42... and 51, 52... and 61, 62... to indicate what section of the middle road they extend from and that they are dead ends. Road 28 is from road 2 to the middle road beyond where it's named road 6 and the scheme kind of falls apart, road 64 is near that.

The Chinese restaurant is at the end of road 22 with is to the right at the second roundabout.

Shopping trip to the "New" market

When I was here last, about 9 months ago, the new market (across from Elim motors) was a jumble of bamboo and thatch stalls next to piles of unfinished cement block walls. (Everyone calls it that, don't know why) There was dirt or mud or lake for floor depending on weather. In fact the rear section had convenient planks to keep you above the lake.

Given the speed of building around here, I expected the same this time.

To my surprise, the old new market was gone. Bulldozed flat to a vacant lot of red earth. And the brand new new market next door was in full swing. I guess to keep the previous feeling, (do they have preservationists here?), the aisles were just as narrow as before. The dried fish and meat had been moved to the front so it requires navigating that to get to the fruits and vegetables (phew!). There are corrugated metal roofs and cement floors . Besides the new walls and floor, the whole thing had multiplied. Instead of ten stalls selling tomatoes there looked like twenty. Very hard to find stuff too. Compared to two long aisles through the entire market where you could easily see what was in the other aisle on one pass through, there seems to be about 10 aisles so you can't see and had to go up and down to see things, dodging the odd chicken and the guy with a 100lb sack of gari et. al.

Fun to watch my wife try to bargain over a pineapple with what looked to be about a six year old girl, neither side was giving a inch. Turns out there were a lot more better pineapples a row over. A lot of these guys want to sell a full basket of stuff for a price, that's usually too much for us. Buying onions, my wife was trying to convince the guy to sell less than a basket, in fact he kept adding more figuring we were complaining about not having enough. Plenty onions for a while now.

Papaya and pineapple spectacular as usual. Didn't see any watermelons. Tomatoes excellent.

Had a horrible flight

Something BA gave me to eat between SFO and LHR really upset my stomach. So barely ate or sipped anything from Tuesday evening until yesterday. Doing much better now, managed to force myself to have a Heineken yesterday evening. Locally brewed. It used to be the cans were actually from Holland and the bottles were local, seems they are filling cans here now too, what a confusion!

After getting to here, stepped off plane at about 8pm (local) into a blast of heat and humidity. Then dripped through the long line at immigration reserved for obruni's (white men). Sat in the company bus for a couple hours while others were rounded up. (now shivering in sweaty shirt from AC blast). Didn't feel all that secure in the far dark corner of the parking lot, but I suppose the couple policemen in their jeep could have woken up if needed. I was really feeling beat when arrived at "home" at around midnight (local). 9 hours +PDT.

Whatever I said before about the heat not being too bad, I take it back. Seems now is the hottest time of year, between Harmattan and rains. Next morning, I went out to put some packing materials from my shipment into the trash. Picked up one thing, and realized that business about mad dogs and Englishmen now applied to me. Put down what I had picked up and went back inside and took a nap, still feeling punky.

How about something good to say? Road (so called expressway) that I was grousing about before has actually been repaved at least for a short distance and we zipped along from airport. Not much traffic at midnight anyway but a nice improvement.

Shipment included my old computer (using right now so that's setup and nice to have). And my new bicycle which I hope to have ready to go out for a spin tomorrow early AM when bad people still asleep and heat lessened.

Will go out for a swim later too.

(note from editor, didn't get on bike for about a week, but did swim)

Here I am

I've moved to West Africa to live and work as a Linux sysadmin for a period of approximately two years. I thought it would be fun to share my experiences and maybe some lessons learned. Sort of Joel on Software meets Margaret Mead and Dave Barry. How that I could come even close to those guys!

So here it goes, please leave me any comments you might have.