ktravula – a travelogue!

Browsing the archives for the Soliloquy category.

Desertification

Much has been said about the encroaching Sahara desert on much of the other parts of the continent. What has not been much available are physical evidence of such encroachment. I have followed closely the adventures of Nigerian Chief Newton Jibunoh who had driven across the Sahara in the 60s and lately a few years ago to call attention to desertification, but I was not chanced to see the photo result of his trips. The man has driven from London to Lagos via the Sahara desert about three times now.

While flying back into the continent two weeks ago, these were the pictures I took of the desert areas of Northern Africa from Algeria until parts of Northern Nigeria.

The sad fact, according to reports of the road trip, is that much of Northern Nigeria that were still arable about a decade ago are now covered by desert sand and dunes. Much intervention is needed, and fast, before we lose even more lands to the encroaching desert – the largest in the world. Check out this satellite picture from NASA.

Evening

I remember, no have forgotten, the evenings when night fell at 3pm. A lonely child on the streets of America squinting at his watch and wondering where all the daylight went. Then there were days of killing cold at lonely bus stations, while waiting for the scheduled bus. Dull summer evenings. Bright afternoons in the face of a deceptively bright sun. What happened? It all seemed like a dream. Did it ever happen? Was I, a few months ago, a curious face in the jungle of shops, brands and malls? I pour water on my face. No, it didn’t happen. It must have been a dream. Did I really fly for almost twenty-four hours over a dozen countries last fall, and returned again via the same route the cool harmattan evenings? My new iPod says yes. My old Dell says no.

It’s cool here, like the temperature of a cool spring, and I dreamt. I arrived in Edwardsville again and started looking for familiar spots. I looked at my phone and there were two time zones. Darn! That always happened. There was no one else to speak to so I called yarinya and she too was not available. She was in a different time zone. Am I in America? I ask. No, I’m here dreaming out the malaria in my flesh. I’m drenched in sweat, on a bed with yellow covering. There is no fan to provide the desired utopia. Nepa! And it’s May, in Ibadan, the breeze wheezing along with the soft clouds and burnt wisps of grass from a faraway place. What manner of dream!

I’m up now to put on the generator. Time to blog.

Confessions

The Nigerian Blog Awards 2010 have been giving me sleepless nights. Seriously! 😮

I try to think of what else to blog about, and I can’t get it out of my head that I’ve been nominated for the most number of categories in this year’s awards. This is too emotional for me. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not averse to awards or honours. I welcome all that they represent and all the responsibility they bestow on the nominee/winners to behave in a particular way worthy of the trust. Still, I was awed, humbled, sometimes swollen-headed, and then humbled again by the what it must mean to be considered worthy of those nominations. Give me the tissue, someone!

So I’ve thanked all the (invisible) people who nominated my blog, but it doesn’t seem enough. I want to go out on a tall building and shout out my appreciation, just go get the point across. Let me do so again here. I appreciate the love. Very much. Thank you. This blog – my own social network, my sounding board, my blackboard, my confession box, and all that it has been over the last ten months – won’t be what it is without the committed readers, commenters, guest-bloggers, fans and friends. It is you for that the drums roll.

KTravula.com was nominated for these categories:

– Best Daily Read
– Best New Blog
– Best Personal Blog
– Best Photography Blog
– Best Poetry Blog
– Best Student Blog
– Best Travel Blog
– Best Use of Media, Including Social Media
– Best Use of Theme
– Most Intellectual Blog
– Nigerian Blog of the Year

Now I can’t wait for the voting season to come and go (voting starts on 31st and ends on the 6th), so that I can get on with my life and resume the pattern of a sound sleep. This suspense is killing.

In the next couple of days, I hope to try to show you a few of my old posts that I often find myself reading all over again, for different reasons. For visitors coming to this blog for the first time because of the mention in the Award Nominations, the posts might give you an insight into why the blog might actually have possibly deserved those nominations. For old readers, they might refresh your memories. But tell me, what are some of your favourite posts, and why?

PS: Today I took a long overdue tour of my old Hall of Residence in the University of Ibadan. The structures are old but there are traces of renovations. There is also a new basketball court behind the Warden’s office. I took pictures. I will share them shortly.

Help!

Hey blog folks.

How are you doing?

I have missed you. Well, I haven’t technically left, so what exactly could that mean? In any case, I have actually been enjoying my time here at home. And that’s why you haven’t heard too many complaints.

There are no mosquitoes here. (I think that Lagos has patented their presence 🙂 ) Heat is bearable, sometimes. But yesterday while it was about 85 degrees Fahrenheit here in Ibadan, I heard that it was almost 90 in Edwardsville. See? I can’t complain. I still miss it though. Edwardsville, I mean.

Now however, I have just found out that I now have more time on my hands than I originally bargained for. No classes to teach in the morning/afternoon. No Chris to hang out with in the evenings, or Catherine to disturb in the department. No youtube videos to make, and no bicycles to ride. Well, I still have that stack of outstanding translation works to do. But that’s too boring. What else should I do with this time?

All comments welcome! 🙂

And have a nice week.

PS: On June 3, I will be speaking to a group of new departing Fulbright FLTAs at the US Consulate in Lagos. I’ve been invited as a “resource person” by the Consulate. I wonder if what I can tell those nervous grantees about the experience can ever be exhaustive at a three hour lunch meeting. But try I will.

Many Choices

There has always been more than one choice to make on returning to Lagos. When I left from here ten months ago, I was just an obscure citizen wary of many the propects of distance as I made my first journey out of the continent. Now I seem to have acquired a reputation of staring, and talking about the most random, most obscure details of everywhere I go. Nothing has changed about me, I like to believe, except for that little (just appearing) pot belly :D. Maybe I’ve made more friends, or spoken albeit virtually to more people since the last year. I’m still the same, I like to think. But here are choices tugging at my shirt as I contemplate the next first steps.

The Tourist: Looking at Lagos through the prism of a different country has definitely not helped my first days. Even I feel awkward now whipping out my camera while walking on the streets. These are places where I’ve walked many times before, so they are not totally new to me. I have a choice now of blending in totally as peacefully as I can as a returned son of the land, ignoring all inconsistencies visible to the eyes, or keeping up with the traveller spirit that sees all and tells all. This is not an easy choice to immediately make, and I’m sure that the genius folks who fashioned this travelling exchange programme never considered how hard it might be for one to fit into the new frame of mind of an old society after such a year’s absence. So, I’d just be me then, whatever that is, hoping that someone points out to me when I’m beginning to overstep accepted conventions.

No more culture shock posts, promise :). I’m home after all.

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