I Made a Friend :)
This past Wednesday, I had my first real outing. It was not the first time I had been out socially, but it was the first time I left without the safety net of an expat escort. My tour guide tonight was a Nigerian guy named Ehiosu, or Ehi for short. I met Ehi through my good friend Michelle, and after talking to him on Tuesday, he said he would come and pick me up on Wednesday.
So Wednesday comes along and sure enough he calls and says he is outside the hotel. I get in the car, and only then did I bother asking him where we are going. To the mall he says, Silverbirds Galleria to be exact. As we near the mall I realized that it was a very popular spot, because finding parking was damn near impossible. So Ehi decided to make his own spot, which is not that unusual here it seems. The spot he choose was good, but quickly some of the folks came out asking him to move slightly further down the road. The folks that were telling us this are the people who use the lot as a source of income. They pretty much stay there all night, assist with parking in tight spots, and make sure your car does not get broken into. Ehi refused to move his car, much to their chagrin (this will come into play later).
Once out of the car, I noticed two things about Ehi. First he’s huge, at least 6’6, and second, he knows everyone. Before we even got in the mall three or four people were saying what’s up to him and once inside the mall it was a non-stop meet and greet. At some point he did give me a warning that he is very popular in Lagos, but at the time I probably just thought he was bragging. Well he shows me around the mall and we decide to grab something to eat. Well not too long after getting the food, he gets up and walks off, promising to come right back. About ten minutes later, he returns with two women, who evidently were going to be joining us for the night. Their names were Mary-Anne and Funke, the latter of which I had to ask twice about (it’s pronounced Phoon-Key). Strangely enough, once they found out I was not Nigerian, they became super bashful and shy. So we finished our food and decided to check out the movie Speed Racer, which I actually liked a lot. After the movie, Ehi sticks the girl in a cab (after much negotiation with the cab driver) and we head back to his car. He explained that he does not drive people back to the mainland after dark, because you stand to great a chance of getting robbed… fair enough. So instead he pays for the cab to take them home.
When we get back to the car, we noticed it had a little bit of a gangsta’ lean going on. His front driver side tire was flat. So here we are in the middle of some road at 11PM on a Wednesday with a flat tire. Naturally I thought, lets call AAA, but quickly remembered where I was. Luckily Ehi had a spare and a jack, but no jack lever. Luckily the calvary came. One guy came with a flashlight, another grabbed the jack, another went and found some pliers to use as a makeshift jack, and before long the car was in the air. These guys were definitely nice, but primarily they knew they were going to get some money out of the deal. An hour later, everything was fixed. We paid the guys for their help, and got on our way.
The whole night I was really thinking of two things. First, Nigerians are SO generous. Ehi refused to let me pay for anything while we were out the first night and the people that came to help us with the tire would have helped us whether we had money or not. The other thing that kept crossing my mind was Malaria. I was doing the statistics in my head every time I felt one of those little bastards bit me. One in fifty four mosquitoes has malaria here, and Malarone (my malaria pill) is 98 percent effective… so I can get bit 2700 times before I am statistically expected to get malaria. That gave me some comfort amongst the bug bites.
So Wednesday comes along and sure enough he calls and says he is outside the hotel. I get in the car, and only then did I bother asking him where we are going. To the mall he says, Silverbirds Galleria to be exact. As we near the mall I realized that it was a very popular spot, because finding parking was damn near impossible. So Ehi decided to make his own spot, which is not that unusual here it seems. The spot he choose was good, but quickly some of the folks came out asking him to move slightly further down the road. The folks that were telling us this are the people who use the lot as a source of income. They pretty much stay there all night, assist with parking in tight spots, and make sure your car does not get broken into. Ehi refused to move his car, much to their chagrin (this will come into play later).
Once out of the car, I noticed two things about Ehi. First he’s huge, at least 6’6, and second, he knows everyone. Before we even got in the mall three or four people were saying what’s up to him and once inside the mall it was a non-stop meet and greet. At some point he did give me a warning that he is very popular in Lagos, but at the time I probably just thought he was bragging. Well he shows me around the mall and we decide to grab something to eat. Well not too long after getting the food, he gets up and walks off, promising to come right back. About ten minutes later, he returns with two women, who evidently were going to be joining us for the night. Their names were Mary-Anne and Funke, the latter of which I had to ask twice about (it’s pronounced Phoon-Key). Strangely enough, once they found out I was not Nigerian, they became super bashful and shy. So we finished our food and decided to check out the movie Speed Racer, which I actually liked a lot. After the movie, Ehi sticks the girl in a cab (after much negotiation with the cab driver) and we head back to his car. He explained that he does not drive people back to the mainland after dark, because you stand to great a chance of getting robbed… fair enough. So instead he pays for the cab to take them home.
When we get back to the car, we noticed it had a little bit of a gangsta’ lean going on. His front driver side tire was flat. So here we are in the middle of some road at 11PM on a Wednesday with a flat tire. Naturally I thought, lets call AAA, but quickly remembered where I was. Luckily Ehi had a spare and a jack, but no jack lever. Luckily the calvary came. One guy came with a flashlight, another grabbed the jack, another went and found some pliers to use as a makeshift jack, and before long the car was in the air. These guys were definitely nice, but primarily they knew they were going to get some money out of the deal. An hour later, everything was fixed. We paid the guys for their help, and got on our way.
The whole night I was really thinking of two things. First, Nigerians are SO generous. Ehi refused to let me pay for anything while we were out the first night and the people that came to help us with the tire would have helped us whether we had money or not. The other thing that kept crossing my mind was Malaria. I was doing the statistics in my head every time I felt one of those little bastards bit me. One in fifty four mosquitoes has malaria here, and Malarone (my malaria pill) is 98 percent effective… so I can get bit 2700 times before I am statistically expected to get malaria. That gave me some comfort amongst the bug bites.
posted by Anthony Jackson at 6:34 AM
2 Comments:
You're a nerd
You are so optimistic sometimes. You really think the people would have helped you with the tire whether they had money or not? I don't. I think that 1) they knew yall had $$; 2) they were pissed at Ehi for not moving the car and had the tire slashed; 3) had those people lined up to fix your car (for payment) and any other car they decided to slash that night. I'm sure Ehi must have known this somewhat. I mean who carries around all the materials to jack a car except a jack itself. He must've known if this would happen that the people who caused it would come and fix it anyway with the rudimentary tools that Ehi had. That's my opinion.
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