On cockroaches and my childish reaction to them

Posted on December 7, 2010 by Good Naija Girl

If there are cockroaches in your house here, you are either a dirty person, or you live in a dirty area of town. Roach-infested places are often closed down, at least temporarily, and the cockroaches are destroyed. I’ve not seen a cockroach here, something that given my fear of bugs, I am very thankful for.

Nigerians are clean people, a generalization perhaps, but one I have observed to be true. I’m not just saying that because I happen to be Nigerian (especially since if you came to my house you’d be horrified by how messy it is). No, it seems to be part of our culture to be clean: we wouldn’t dream of leaving the house without taking a bath that day (not everyone around the world has adopted this philosophy I’ve observed!) and we pride ourselves on looking neat. We keep our shoes clean and polished, our clothes washed, ironed and looking crisp. We sweep our parlours daily and don’t let dishes pile up unwashed.

But despite these efforts, even homes like that of my great aunt, with floors so clean that you could eat off them, will have the occasional cockroach visit and that is something that I have trouble with because I am scared of bugs. I’m talking I’m going to scream if I see a bug even though I’m 31 years old kind of scared. The I can’t even move close enough to try and kill it scared. The Young children will inevitably mock me for my cowardice kind of scared. I guess cockroaches are like spiders here (another critter that I’m scared of).

One evening I wanted to ease myself (that phrasing makes me giggle; Naija speak for “use the toilet”) so I went to the bathroom with a flashlight as there was no electricity at the time. As I entered the bathroom and flashed my light around the room in my typical way, one cockroach scurried up the wall directly in front of me, and another roach dashed past on the ground in front of me.

I guess I was having a bad day because I screamed (predictably), stomped my foot and said “I can’t handle this!” and proceeded to go to the room I was staying in, grab my purse and march to my great aunt’s house (she lives one street away from my grandma) where I was able to use the bathroom in peace. I don’t have to mention that my grandma’s tenants’ laughs and jeers followed me all the way to my great aunt’s house…though many of them did offer to help me kill the roaches (through their laughter). After easing myself at my great aunt’s house she gleefully informed me that they have cockroaches too (for you see I thought they had found a way to avoid the critters). It gave her great pleasure to burst my bubble regarding me thinking I had found a solution to avoiding the creepy crawlers for the rest of my trip.

One evening not long after that incident, I was gisting in my grandma’s backyard with my cousin and a tenant and my cousin got up suddenly and went to take care of something. He did it twice more before I clued in that he was killing cockroaches that had come out at night before I noticed them and before my screams woke up sleeping tenants. Even seeing the dead carcass is enough to make my stomach turn.

So even though I know I can adjust without problem to bathing with ice cold water, days without electricity, and though I have no problem fetching water and doing dishes and laundry by hand, when it comes to bugs I’m a total princess. I hate it but I don’t see it changing any time soon…especially when you learn that even in Canada, I still scream when I see spiders and when I lived at my parents house I used to get my sister to kill bugs for me.

Are there any good Nigeria-friendly cockroach elimination remedies out there?

My twin cousins

Posted on February 3, 2010 by Good Naija Girl

My grandmother had three sets of twins. The youngest set of fraternal twins, my uncles, are so interesting: Uncle Taye* is the spitting image of my grandmother, while his slightly younger brother my Uncle Kehinde* favours his father. Uncle Taye married a lovely, hard-working woman and they had two sons, followed by a set of twin girls! My mother is especially happy that her baby brother is now tormented by his two daughters who appear to be identical twins. When we were in Nigeria a year and a half ago, I know that one of the twins was missing an earring and was possibly taller or shorter, and that’s how I differentiated them. One loved the camera while the other was literally scared of it. It was always a challenge to snap a picture before she realized what was going on and started crying.

The girls were so mischievous! If there was something you didn’t want them to get into, they’d be there, leaving destruction in their path. I so badly wanted to cuddle them but good luck tying them down long enough to get close!

And they had such enormous appetites! Seriously between them they could polish off a helping of iyan that would make me push the plate away half way through.

I can’t wait to see them again, to see how their personalities have solidified or developed. I’m particularly fond of twins (as if they need any more attention!) so I’m hoping I can get to know them a bit better next time.

*For the non-Nigerians Taye (or Taiwo) and Kehinde are the names traditionally given to twins by the Yoruba people: Taye is the name given to the elder twin, while Kehinde is given to the younger twin. The names’ meanings reflect this birth order but I don’t know the full version of each name. I’m not sure if this is a new thing but I noticed that some twins aren’t being called Taye/Kehinde anymore but prefer to be called by one of their other names instead.

Bonus trivia: Nigeria has the highest rate of twins in the world! I already knew this but while looking up information on how to increase your chance of having twins (not for me o!), I came across this article which made me laugh because it lists “Eat Yams” as one of the ways to increase your chances!

Beautiful Nigeria

Posted on January 18, 2010 by Good Naija Girl

Here are some pictures I took while I was in Nigeria in October/November 2008. If I had to give this set of pictures a theme, it would be fertility (that or lushness). All pictures can be clicked to make larger.

I love dodo (fried plantain) and this is how plantain looks on the tree before all the yumminess I love to eat happens. I had never seen this before (or maybe I did back in the early 80s but my 3 or 4 year old self did not remember it.

(And now someone’s going to tell me that that’s actually a banana tree rather than a plantain one.)

We have these flowers here too, and I think we call them morning glories. Does anyone know what they are called in Nigeria?

The next two are the same flowers (and their name, according to Tori, is bougainvillea â€“ thanks, Tori!). In the first picture I was trying some photo effect where you get the background to blur while focusing on something more in the foreground. I know there’s a more technical term for that.