Just as I was getting ready to sit down and figure out how to start this blog, Humboldt came up to me and demanded his mid-morning cuddles. I am luxuriating in the almost infinite time to do just that–cuddle Humboldt, bake, read, exercise, or really whatever strikes my fancy.
I initially didn't think I would have a blog when we were on our way over here but I've understandably had enough people asking what life is like that I figured this was the easiest way to tell people. So this isn't meant to be a travel blog or anything more than just me talking about my life to friends and family in a way that may or may not be very organized. If you want to be my blog editor, let me know. :) Or if you just notice a typo you can message me.
My honest answer to what's my life like here is that it's pretty normal. It honestly feels similar to when we moved to Seattle in 2020, and I didn't have a job but without the pandemic trauma and existential crisis about what I was going to do with my life.
Also similar to life in the US is that we are still in employer-provided housing. There have only been about 2.5 years of my life adult when I actually had to pay rent, and we're just continuing on this trend. The little to no rent is very nice but that means you also basically have to take what you are given and live in and amongst all your coworkers and that is generally really fun but can also go sour really quickly. There is even a housing committee here and just that term will send chills down the spine of anyone who worked for NatureBridge pre-pandemic.
This is definitely the nicest employer-provided housing I've had. It's pretty up-to-date, furnished, and big. We have 3 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms. The furnishings are definitely sad, beige and the few decor items we do have do not match each other, but there is a craft fair at school next week and then Nigeria day a few weeks after that where I think we will be able to buy a lot of interesting art and decor. Whoever was picking out material for the headboard, chairs, and couch (it's all the same fabric) asked themselves what would a cat like to scratch the most and then bought that, so keeping Humboldt from scratching has been a truly Sisyphean task. But we have a wrap-around balcony... so life balances out.
I haven't been able to get out and about in Abuja a ton until recently because we had a very limited amount of local money when we first arrived, and our international credit cards aren't reliable here. Credit cards do not really exist here and the only places that take them are the businesses around embassies and the school. So I had to conserve the cash they gave us for essentials to make sure we could buy groceries.
Now that we've been paid into our local bank account, I can finally check out a few more places without worrying about not being able to afford it!
My overall impression is that Abuja is a place that is still culturally defining itself. Abuja was created to be the capital in 1991, so it's still a young city, and even the people who've only been here 5 years talk about how much it's changed and grown in just that time. Most of what there is to do here is go out to eat and check out various malls and markets. There are a few museums that I'm excited to check out. Plus I'm sure there are hidden gems that haven't made it on the trip-advisor type sites.
I've learned that even people who were born or have lived in Abuja most of their lives most often won't say they are "from" Abuja. They are from where their family and ancestors are from. I've enjoyed chatting with the Uber drivers here about their home state and learning about a few of the different regions.
All of this isn't to say that everything here is the same; that is clearly not the case. One of the first differences you'd notice is the traffic. It seems that you can do basically whatever you want or need to while driving as long as you honk first. Do you want to drive on the wrong side of the road? Just honk. Going to cut across 5 lanes of traffic in 100 feet? Just honk. Passing someone? Honk. There's a herd of goats cutting across the major highway? You guessed it, honk! It's all fine.
Things like getting a bank account and SIM card also take a lot longer, which is unsurprising, but parts of it are also more modern than the US. We had to apply for a National Identity Number (like a social security numbers but more useful/integrated into daily life) before we could get a bank account or even a phone number. We spent hours and hours on multiple days doing immigration and bank tasks. The woman helping us at the bank was incredibly salty about something and would just get up and leave for 5-10 minutes for no discernible reason in the middle of helping people.
But then once we were actually ready to get a debit card, we walked up to the atm-style machine, entered our account number, scanned our thumbprint and were done in 2 minutes, rather than waiting days and days for a card to get mailed to us.
With a similar juxtaposition, a lot of places don't have websites or don't have very useful websites. But you can just text them on Whatsapp or Instagram, and they'll get back to you immediately. You can actually order from a lot of places via text on Whatsapp. You tell them what you want and they text you a receipt which you can use to transfer from your bank account directly into their account (It's even easier than Venmo or Zelle.) Then you just send them a photo of the receipt, and they'll dispatch a driver to deliver it to you same day. So take that amazon.
That's all for now. If you're reading this, I miss you! Call me.
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