Like rats

Just like rats waiting for the last breath, we wait for the unavoidable malaria...

Two more to go

Three came.

One is already down with malaria.

There are two more to go...

Easier

It is 6 pm on Saturday afternoon and the pool is empty before me. I am alone between the bushes of this artificial oasis in the outskirts of Lagos. The songs of Sigur Rós depress me as I remember the days when I would cross the country to go share the beauty of their concert with people I could really share a life with.

The rubbish on the streets, the smoke, the diseases, the poverty, the chaotic traffic, the insecurity, the walls of this compound that prevent me from seeing all of that... It's none of it that bothers me the most, but the lack of sharing the life that runs within my veins and which is ready to come outside.

I'll just turn off the music, go for dinner and forget about it all. Can I forget it and lie to myself to make it easier?

Beyond bizare

It was not enough to be working on Sunday. I had to find this fellow below my desk when I got to the office in the morning.

I showed it to one of the locals, and he told that "no, that's no cockroach sir; that's an agbakara, and it's excellent to eat when grilled".

Please note that the "Rivera Card" on the picture is the same size as a normal credit card...

Just until the next morning

There's a life outside, I know that there is. I remember that when I hear the accelerated rhythms of the speakers that get energetic at the end of the day on the other side of the wall, in preparation for the religious ceremony. Those who know it say that they don't like people watching, but it wouldn't be just for watching that I would like to go outside. And yet I continue as advised the path that is not naturally mine towards the guest house where I'll have dinner after thirteen hours of work, without ever leaving the factory, without risking having a life.

I sit at the table and I look at the faces around me, them also anxious for other places, but that don't seem to hear the noise from outside, or at least don't seem to be disturbed by it. Around the long table tepid conversations cross each other, with words being dragged around efficiencies, the new machines, the old operative procedures. The fatigue eliminates my patience to stand more of what I've been doing all day long, and after the fantastic pineapple that Duba, our cook, prepares for us every night, I abandon the table. I try to sit for a while in the living room, but I'm kept away by the screaming of another reality show that someone insists on watching.

I go back to my room, just to surrender myself to bed. I still manage to peep through a badly closed eye into the anthology of Portuguese poetry, but by this time there's no soul left to receive it.

In the morning I walk the ten minutes path between the guest house and the factory. It's during these minutes that I feel that another day has gone by without real life. Those are the minutes during which all the weight of my frustration falls over the expression wrinkles of my face, and it's almost when reaching the office door that the question is formulated: "what am I doing here?". But once the door of the office is crossed, the stress from efficiencies, the new machines and the old operative procedures makes me forget to look for the answer until the next morning.

Not all is bad

The European Commission has just published the black list of airlines that, due to lack of plane safety, are forbidden to cross the European air field.

None of the Nigerian airlines shows up in this list!

Coreia do Norte: Air Koryo

Comores: Air Service Comores

Afeganistão: Ariana Afghan Airlines

Kazaquistão: BGB Airlines, GST Aero Air Company

Quirguísia: Phoenix Aviation, Reem Air

Tailândia: Phuket Airlines

Ruanda: Silverback Cargo Freighters

República Democrática do Congo: Africa One, African Company Airlines, Aigle Aviation, Air Boyoma, Air Kasai, Air Navette, Air Tropiques, ATO (Air Transport Office), Blue Airlines, Business Aviation, Butembo Airlines, CAA, Cargo Bull Aviation, Central Air Express, Cetraca Aviation Service, CHC Stelavia, Comair, Compagnie Africaine d'Aviation, CO-ZA Airways, DAS Airlines, Doren AirCargo, Enterprise World Airways, Filair, Free Airlines, Galaxy Corporation, GR Airways, Global Airways, Goma Express, Great Lake Business Company, ITAB (International Trans Air Business), Jetair (Jet Aero Services), Kinshasa Airways, Kivu Air, LAC (Lignes Aériennes Congolaises), Malu Aviation, Malila Airlift, Mango Mat, Rwabika Bushi Express, Safari Logistics, Services Air, Tembo Air Services, Thom's Airways, TMK Air Commuter, Tracep, Trans Air Cargo Services, Transports Aeriennes Congolais (Traco), Uhuru Airlines, Virunga Air Charter, Waltair Aviation, Wimbi Diri Airways

Guiné Equatorial: Air Consul SA, Avirex Guinee Equatoriale, Coage (Compagnie Aeree de Guinee Equatoriale), Ecuato Guineana de Aviacion, Ecuatorial Cargo, GEASA (Guinea Ecuatorial Airlines SA), Getra, Jetline Inc, KNG Transavia Cargo, Prompt Air GE-SA, Utage (Union de Transport Aereo de Guinea Ecuatorial)

Libéria: International Air Services, Satgur Air Transport, Weasua Air Transport

Serra Leoa: Aerolift, Afrik Air Links, Air Leone, Air Rum, Air Salone, Air Universal, Destiny Air Services, First Line Air, Heavylift Cargo, Paramount Airlines, Star Air, Teebah Airways, West Coast Airways

Suazilândia: Aftrican International Airways, Airlink Swaziland, Jet Africa, Northeast Airlines, Scan air Charter, Swazi Express Airways

In Público

Disturbance

"Thinking disturbs as walking in the rain"
Fernando Pessoa

Worse than being in Nigeria trapped in a factory compound is being in Nigeria trapped in a factory compound while heavy tropic rains are falling. Even worse is to stop having electricity, and the worst is that the buildings have not covered communication between themselves, and I have to face all this water whenever I need to go for meetings or to look into the line...

But as everything bad can get worse, when the rain stops we'll be moving targets for the raising mosquitoes!

Imagine if he wasn't

Yesterday somebody from the factory got robbed on his way home. They stopped his car and took everything from him!

And the guy is Nigerian!

Long shirts and short skirts

I said I wanted to go there. He laughed. I repeated that it was there that I wanted to go. The driver laughed again, but this time not hiding a trace of fear that I was really serious about it. "It's already 10 am, so we'd better start going, right?", I asked trying to put a sad end to his doubts. Already accepting the idea, he just advised me that the Ojunwoye market was a messy place.

Messy? The most complicated of all the labyrinths is a child's game compared to such a place: now I can say that pure anarchy in not an utopia and it does exist on Earth. It exists in Lagos, Nigeria! I'm talking about an endless circulating path strangled by big shops, little stalls, fast selling carts, wooden shelters and cement stained constructions; infested by dust, dirt, stinking odours and terrible mosquitoes; crushed by striking heat and breathtaking humidity; crossed by stagnated highly polluted canals and involved in contaminated rubbish.

A market that has everything one can imagine. We walked in through the detergents area: for the floor, the dishes, the windows, but also the car if you have one, if you don't have, search for one further ahead, and also for your toilet, in case you don't use the beach, that is much cheaper than building a WC, and then you save money for the Johnny Walker Blue Label just right after, or the Chivas 20 years, the William Lawson's, the Port, the gin, vodka or tequila, the Martini, on the rocks is a possibility, because ice is also available, not white anymore, but for white we already have the t-shirts, sweat-shirts, long shirts, short skirts, jeans and jackets, hats and caps. Let's not forget the CDs, DVDs, boredom remedies and other goodies, engine parts, broken equipment for fools and other mechanical tools, from the more complex to the simplest, like that big dirty knife used to cut the raw meat disposed on the dusty floor, but to cut also the fish, the vegetables, the fruit and other hardly called food. When I saw living chickens in cages, I got immediately out of there and got back to the cosiness of the factory.

In the end, I bought a bottle of water, a cutting hair machine, a British old style hat and a Nigerian suit!