Some interesting facts about Nigeria
Natalya Yisa is from Izhevsk, Russia. She met a guy from Africa and fell in love. The couple got married and for the sake of her husband Natalya moved to Nigeria, his homeland. Now she runs a popular blog where she talks about life in Africa.
About education in Africa
Sometimes it seems to me that there are no children here. That is, there are up to 2 years. And then they immediately turn into adults. Up to 2 years old, they play with kids, carry them on their hands. Starting from the age of 1, they are sent to school, where they learn the alphabet, numbers. Children are quickly introduced into everyday life. I read statistics: “In Nigeria, among 2-year-olds, 90% know how to wash, 75% can shop, and 39% know how to wash their plate.” The principle of education: not to spend a lot of time on education, but to be a good example.
About fashion and beauty
There is no such thing as a “male” color or a “female” color in Nigeria. Men can be found here in clothes of the whole spectrum of pink shades. Flowers, butterflies and even fabrics with lace and sequins – all this is worn by males in Nigeria. And, by the way, they do not become less courageous from this!
Turbans in Nigeria are a necessity. The first reason is, that African women have complicated hair. They are much faster to hide than to do a hairstyle. The second reason is dust, which is then very difficult to wash out if the head was not covered.
The hat is not just knitted, there is also a faux fur lining. As well as sintepon vests, shortened down jackets and even wool socks. And these are not units, many people wear it at +35 °C. Hats, like turbans, are needed to protect the hair from dust. And down jackets, “timberlands” and fur slippers are just fashion hits here. The more fur, the more fashionable.
About the difference with us
To make it invisible, we wear white or nude underwear under white clothes. And here they wear black under a white dress or white tight trousers. For them it is “corporeal”.
For us, mango is exotic, and for them – apple. Apple is one of the most expensive fruits here.
We all want to get a tan, but here they buy soaps, shower gels, oils and creams with the inscription “bleaching”.
We try to cook semolina without any lumps, and they do just the opposite. They later break it off with hands and dip into the soup (which is more like a thick sauce or goulash).
For us, natural hair is the coolest. For Nigerians – artificial (wigs, false strands).
We are used to the fact that mom cooks a delicious breakfast for her children, and here the children prepare breakfast, lunch, and dinner for their mothers.
We usually say, “No, I can handle it myself,” when offered to help, and they say, “okay.”
Questions that they don’t care about and to which they don’t know the answer
How old are your parents?
It is not customary here to ask about the age of the elders, so many do not know the age of their parents. Moreover, many may not have a passport at all. They make it only when there is a need to go abroad. The electricity bill document is the main paper in Nigeria (you can even open a bank account with it, but you can’t do it without it).
What is the air temperature?
Useless question. What’s the difference at all? We know that it is stable in December and January in the morning and evening to wear a sweater, and from August to October to take an umbrella.
What is the height? Weight?
I assume that only those that are needed for tailoring are known from the measurements. They don’t care.
How many kilometers from point A to point B?
The most specific answer to this question that I have heard is “far away”.
I never cease to wonder how differently they think.⠀
The philosophy of a Nigerian mom
This woman (my Nigerian mom) sometimes says things that I can’t help but write them down.⠀
“Marriage is the worst and most beautiful thing that will happen in your life.”
“Remember, every time you cry, I cry with you! Do you want me to cry?”
“If I hadn’t sent all my children to study in Russia, then I could have built a gorgeous house, and not only that. But that won’t make me happy. Investing in children is the most profitable thing!”
“Your children will solve all your problems. Just look at them.”
About her husband’s adventures in Russia
When the plane, which was heading to Russia, began to announce the start of the flight, Jacob wanted to escape. He thought he was on the wrong flight and was about to fly to China. The announcement was made first in Russian, and he was not warned that the official language in Russia is not English. He also arrived on February 23, and they didn’t tell him that there was snow in Russia either. He looked very impressive in shorts and a T-shirt in winter at Vnukovo airport!
At first, to buy a chicken in the store, Jacob bent his arms at the elbows (in the style of the “dance of little ducklings”) with the words: “Ko-ko-ko, please.” When the saleswoman finally understood him and brought him an icy and already plucked chicken, Jacob stopped understanding and asked the woman several times: “Ko-ko-ko? Is it OK?” In Nigeria, chickens are sold alive.
When one day, according to a Nigerian habit, Jacob said to the janitor: “Thank you, ma,” she swung a mop at him with the words: “Who are you calling a ma?!” He didn’t say anything more to her until he learned his first and middle name. In Nigeria, it is considered the highest measure of respect to call an adult woman “ma”, but addressing by name, on the contrary, is not accepted.
About food, traditions and everyday life
I miss bouquets of fresh flowers so much! There is no tradition in Nigeria to give flowers to girls. And it is very difficult to find them. I remember I wanted to make compositions for our wedding myself, and there were no flowers! I found two flowers on a tree, and that’s it. Mom, apparently, told our decorator about my idea and on the wedding day proudly declared that she “added fresh flowers to the decoration”. Pots with palm trees stood on both sides of the newlyweds.
If I cut a watermelon, then we divide it like this: pink for me, green for them. I exaggerate, of course, but they really pounce on the crust. They say it’s a cure. The question “What is useful?” is answered: “Good for the body.”
In Africa, too, quite a rollercoaster ride… Only from the mountains. It’s not water, it’s not dirt, it’s just a stone that was polished by children’s priests on bottles.
Meet plantain! It is not recommended to confuse it with a banana. They will laugh at you. Plantain is a vegetable. You can eat it both green and like this, almost black. Mashed potatoes are cooked from green, and they are the most delicious at the stage “it seems to be already spoiling”.
I went to the Barber Salon with Jacob for the first time and couldn’t take my eyes off the process. The master dips the blade in powder and draws the edges of the hairstyle.
Thanks to the powder, the skin of the face is not cut, the contours are clearly visible and everything turns out symmetrically. And after all the shorn curls have been shaken off, a pure buzz begins. The master wipes his head, neck, face with a hot towel, washes his head, moisturizes with oil and sprays with a fragrant spray. It costs all together less than 3 euros.
Transport means here is truly unlimited. What is not carried on two-wheeled motorcycles: 10 live chickens, 6 sheep, a family of 7 people, a refrigerator. Or like these guys with eggs. And after all, they drove like this for 3 hours.
“Nigerian wife!” was constantly repeated in the immigration office. I was just there because I was making a document called “Nigerian wife”, and I constantly responded to this call. And when others noticed that I was startled and almost answered “What?”, they laughed and said: “We’re not laughing at you, it’s just this woman’s name is Ninja wife.”
They add “maggi” to literally everything here. And pepper, very, very much pepper. Instant noodles are prepared for children at school. In addition, they give soda and chupa-chups to children under one year old. To prevent the meat from spoiling (due to a power outage), it is boiled, and then fried in a large amount of oil. Such “meat pieces of fries” can be stored outside the refrigerator for a week.
And the seeds are not cleaned, but gnawed with a peel. And there are no sweets here. You can only dream about chocolate bars with cookies.
Cashews are my discovery. It’s a fruit and a nut, two in one. The fruit is the yellow part on top. It resembles the taste of an apple, soft and juicy, everyone loves it. The nut is hidden in a green squiggle from below and is covered with poison. You can’t get it with your bare hands as the resin can cause a chemical burn. Therefore, they are fried first and only then cleaned one by one. Frying such a dangerous nut at home is not an option. Therefore, although cashews grow in our yard, there are no nuts in the house.
About compliments
“Darling, tell me something nice,” I ask my husband.”You are a mosquito, the only one I allow to bite me! You’re the sugar in the tea! You’re like an air conditioner turned on at 16°C for me!”. It’s good that I live in Nigeria and understand the value of each of the comparisons (mosquitoes carry diseases, so they hide from them in all possible ways).
About the living conditions of life and why there is something more important than this
There has been no water for 5 days. The last time such “5 days” dragged on for a month. How do they live? They store water in barrels. When it ends there, they buy it. They call a man with a cart and cans, and those who have the opportunity are drilling a well.
We are given light on schedule. The mobile Internet catches intermittently. Now we enjoy electricity in the morning from 8:00 to 14:00 and in the evening from 20:00 to 00:00. In principle, you get used to it. It’s even disciplining. I plan my day in advance, knowing when I can charge my phone or use the Internet. In Izhevsk, I could constantly sit on my smartphone and waste whole days of my life like that.
Before my first visit to Nigeria, I did not learn anything about this country and did not ask my husband. When we were going to go there to celebrate the wedding, many people began to scare me with different stereotypes. My husband watched in silence, and now I don’t even remember what I was told. I didn’t even think that it could be bad there, at my husband’s house.
We lived here for a month. We visited the village, the province and the capital, and I saw this contrasting country. We spent a week in a chic two-storey house with mountain views, with a swimming pool and its own water supply system. And there were days when we lived without water and/or electricity and it was scary to go outside without a local escort.
⠀
Nothing scared me. There has always been one thought in my head: “If such a cool man was born in and brought up in this country, then this country is also cool.” And here I am, and every day I am convinced of how different Nigeria is. But it’s always our choice to take one side or the other. It doesn’t matter what conditions are outside. What’s inside is more important. Appreciate each other.
The couple has two children, son Jago and daughter Zara.
