christmas memories

At Christmas I no more desire a rose,
Than wish a snow in May's new-fangled shows;
But like of each thing that in season grows.
--William Shakespeare

christmas in nigeria was a bit different then the christmas i've been spending in poland during the last four years. first of all we don't have snow, we don't have real christmas tree's, it doesn't get dark at 16h like it does here in poland, and it's not possible to buy somebody a great christmas present cause the shops in my part of nigeria are not equipt with the kind of things you'd give someone as a present. you'd always have to plan 6 months ahead with the presents and manage to buy then and hide them without anyone noticing. i beleived in santa clause for a long time thanks to my parents, who managed to make him so real. i remember two times that were special.you have to understand that in our house we got our presents on the 24th after dinner. one christmas i was waiting impatiently for the presents to come. we just finished dinner and i was determined to meet santa. i wouldn't leave the living room for a second. so my mom had a great idea.she brought my school books out and told me that i should show santa what i had done this year. i loved it. and just to make sure i wouldn't forget about anything too important i started looking through the notebooks with my mom. we were chatting away when suddenly i lifted my head and right in front of me, under the christmas tree lay our christmas presents. one of them was actually not under the tree cause it wouldn't fit. it was huge wrapped in those 50kg bags that you put flour in. it was my brand new bicycle ( i was about ten). i have no idea how they did it. but i didn't hear a thing and the tree was right under my nose.
the second christmas that i remember was amazing in the way that i really thought i saw santa. as previously i was sitting as close to the christmas tree as possible waiting for santa. i was getting impatient. and suddenly outside on our veranda i heard a noise. my parents heard it also. i jumped out of the house (my parents only convinced me that that was what i should do), not seeing anyone in the garden i decided to hide behind the hare's-foot fern that stood on the veranda. suddenly as i jumped behind the flower pot i bumped into a pair of muddy boots that i was persuaded belonged to santa, who had just turned invisible and hopped out of his shoes. if it wasn't for my mother who ran out of the house and told me that there was a rumble on the street that might mean santa is there and i should check it out, i would have stood there flabbergasted. i ran out but to my dismay i didn't find santa. dissapointed i returned to the house only to find out that santa had already been there. i missed him again but this time i got close. i saw his boots.
At Christmas I no more desire a rose,

this years winter

 

well i never thought that i would hear myself saying this one day but it dawned on me not so long ago that i d like to go back to nigeria in the near futur. who would have thought taking into account how much europe has to offer and how little nigeria can offer. i grew up in a place where supermarkets, cinema's, cable tv and many more things didn't exist for a very long time. as a kid i remember waiting for sunday to watch an old indian movie on nigerian tv. the cinema wasn't a place you went to so we were basically stuck with old video tapes that we had or our friends did. (i couldn't tell you how many times i've seen rio grande, singing in the rain or hello dolly). when it comes to shopping not much has changed. alright i have to give some credit the the great lebanese commerce that has opened 3-5 supermarkets in kano that actually started selling real magnum icecream, galaxy chocolates, kellog's cornflakes, dr peppers, good shampoo's, soaps and the list runs on and on and on. clothes shopping though is a different story. there is no such thing as needing a new dress for a special evening. you have two options: find something in your closet that the people you're gonna be spending the evening with haven't seen or find something in your friends closet that they haven't seen. most of the clothes you have you buy while you're on vacation out of nigeria. there are so many things that i could list but you'd have to see it to understand it.
i guess that it's mostly the people that i miss, for one thing it s great to sit down with somebody and ten years later remember the days when you use to sit under a mango tree and eat green mango's with salt wondering how much your stomach could take; or when you got bitten by her 5 year old sister so bad you went crying home. and then also they are the people who have been through what you've been through seen what you've seen grown up in the same enviroment as you. they're struggles even though motivated by different things are so clear and understandable to you.