The game is on! The good thing is, I’m loving it. It started with this email that I got a few weeks ago informing me of a very intriguing holiday game in my department. It took me a while to respond to the email because I had so many other things to do, but I eventually did. Now I have a very intriguing secret friend following me about and leaving me clues, strange messages, and gifts in unexpected places. You may have to read this email to know what the game is about.
On Monday, I received the first notification that I now have a strange Amigo Secreto following me, and strangely, I got the message through this blog. Ah-ha, someone must have told them that I have a blog, and he/she must now know a lot, or at least a little about me and what I like. In any case, I rushed to the department immediately after seeing the message left on this post, and found that not only was there a mysterious gift waiting for me by my strange friend, there were tonnes of letters that had piled up there since August, since I never knew of the existence of any mailbox at the department tied to my name. I picked up the random gift – an organizer with my name on it, signed in print by the secret friend – and headed home where I discovered the name of the person in the department for whom I’m also supposed to be a secret friend. Oh yeah, it gets interesting. I’m not allowed to disclose their name here either, just in case they‘re reading.
But it was a pleasant surprise again today to discover just another gift – this time a photo frame that says “For your Memories of the US of A” and signed by “Secret Friend”. This time I’m really impressed because, once again, I wasn’t expecting anything. I had just finished putting up my own surprise plan into action for my unknowing subject, hoping that they‘ll soon discover a mysterious gift on their office table sometime soon, also signed by “A Secret Friend”, which is me. I can’t tell you the gift and clue that I left for my subject’s attention, again just in case they stumble on this blog entry. The surprise didn’t end there. It was checking into my office just before class this afternoon that sealed everything and sent me to surprise heaven. Right on my door was Shakespeare’s Sonnet 30, one of my favourite poems, printed on a white sheet on top of which was “For Kola” and signed “From Secret Friend and William Shakespeare.”
I’m full of suspense. My amigo secreto definitely knows how to surprise, and I am indeed intrigued. All I can do now to pay back is to make my own subject even more mystified by my own silent stalking and stealthy surprising. Today was just one surprise for them. I intend to do more before the end of the week. I like it. I like it. I like this idea.
*Note, I’ve used them/they in this post to hide the gender of my subject, only for their own enjoyment of this seasonal mystery game, just in case they wander onto this page in a fit of wonder, boredom or both.
And it was dark, so I was able only to take these few snapshots of them as they floated down in white flakes from the sky.
Yesterday, I discovered the American gold coin called the dollar. No, not the paper dollar bill, but a coin. I’ve been here for over three months and can’t believe that I never encountered the dollar coin in all this while. It is fascinating, especially for someone like me who has liked to pride himself as a relentless numismatist – a collector of coins.
I remember the first coin that ever fascinated me. It was the old 25kobo coin of Nigeria’s late 80s. Along with other coin denominations of 10k, 5k and 50k, the 25k coin had a very interesting significance for me perhaps because of the engraved symbols on it that looked like blisters on a black man’s hand. The coin was brown, made from brass, I think, and different from all the other coins that were made of silver. On it was the embossed image of the Kano groundnut pyramids of the 60s as well as groundnut seeds. On the coins, the pyramids looked just like little cones, but in larger pictures, they showed a concrete symbol of industry and hardwork with strong men moving huge sack produces of their all-year round labour. And although the images never really inspired me to pursue agriculture, there was always something very moving about staring at the image of the mammoth structure built from stacked sacks of annually harvested groundnut (peanut) from the land awaiting exportation to the corners of the globe. Those were the times of our great prosperity, when Nigeria was totally self-sufficient, just before oil was discovered in large quantity and everyone went around to sitting on their asses in government offices, waiting for their piece of the “national cake”. I never did ask exactly how the groundnut pyramids were eventually transported, or how many sacks/bags of groundnut made a pyramid, but looking at more than scores of man-made mammoth mounds of harvested food sitting around the northern deserts stamped in my mind an image that has refused to shake for over twenty years. And the 25kobo coin has always remained my favourite of all the coins made in Nigeria. Of course, today at home, no one spends the coins anymore even though there has never been any official pronunciation declaring them no longer fit for transaction. My University in Ibadan has remained the only place in the country where taxi drivers (and them alone) still collect coins in exchange for services. The twenty-five kobo bronze coins have by now been relegated to the dustbins of our profligate history.
The dollar coin that I saw has the image of James Monroe, the 5th president, on one side, and the statue of Liberty on the other. A quick search through Google has now shown me that there actually have been several issues of the currency bearing several different president’s images. I don’t know why the coin is not is much circulation, but I know for a fact that, unlike in my wasteful country, this coin is actually a legal tender acceptable by everyone and at every vending machine. I know this because when Tola put it in the machine yesterday, it gave me my Mountain Dew and returned the right amount of change. So what exactly is wrong with Nigeria? I mean, besides profligacy!