This Is Nigeria

So I had my first “This is Nigeria” moment today. This statement is uttered on occasion by expats who have had something not perform to standard. Mine started this morning with a phone call. Not from the wake-up call I asked for, but from my boss asking me if I was coming down to the car. I looked at the time, 7:15AM, what the hell happened to my 6:00AM wake up call. I told my boss that I was just waking up and did not get a wake up call as requested, so he said he would send the car back for me in half an hour. So I quickly get ready and head out the door. Once out the door, I knew I was in a country ran by black people, because what is bumping over the loud speakers… none other than R. Kelly. That was not too bad, mostly just funny. So I walk to the elevators and get on. Right as the doors close, the power goes out. I worried about that happening, given the frequency of power outages here. Sure enough, I was stuck in the elevator in the dark. It was actually scarier than I would have thought; I actually had to remind myself to stay calm. Luckily, the power came back on a minute or two later, and I got out and met Linus at the car. I thought the antics were over, but in trying to get across the road we were almost ran over by a Mack truck that ignored the cops instructions to stop. It was not the near-running over that made me think “This is Nigeria”, it was that the Mack truck was actually towing a bunch of people. It was just like any other 18 wheeler, but instead of a boxcar being on the back, they were towing what looked like an improvised bus set up. They had cut holes in this thing and added seats, and it seemed to function just like a bus except it was an eighteen wheeler. It was the coolest most creative thing I have ever seen on wheels.