Well every day brings new challenges for me. My house guy had to leave early today which meant I had to brave the market myself for the first time since arriving. After psyching myself up and writing out a card with my Kinyarwanda numbers on it I ventured out. The thing is, I seem to have absolutely no concept of a kilo. I bought a kilo of tomatoes and Jesus, I will be eating them for at least a week. I don’t know why but I never thing of buying things by weight. Back in TESCOs I remember just grabbing the number I wanted and putting them into a plastic bag. Well here plastic bags are illegal for starters (yes, really!) and you actually have to ask someone for what you want in a language you don’t understand. So my house guy laughed when he saw how many I had and I have been busy trying to make passata. My kitchen now looks like the site of a chainsaw massacre but I have managed to get rid of a fair few.
I have also been introduced to the delights of Nollywood. Now I must admit I had no idea that Nigeria had such a big film industry until yesterday. Lagos is the centre of Nollywood, like the Los Angeles of Africa. One of the tutors brought in a Nollywood film to show the students called ‘against all odds’ and I couldn’t resist watching it. The films there are made for home viewing and apparently Nollywood churns out 200 new home watch movies a month, making it the second most prolific film industry after Bollywood (Hollywood actually comes third!). It definitely did make me laugh and I’m not sure it was in the right places. Africans like their drama so there was plenty of speeches about love and loss and strange priestesses. I learned that it is wrong to lust after a priestess because you and your family will die and that it is dangerous to be hot tempered. Good lessons to learn in life don’t you think!
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