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.