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?

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!

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 – 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.

Okra!

Confession: I have no idea what sort of melon this is. Is it the one you get egusi from, perhaps?

(Random: I’ve always thought egusi should be spelled egunsi. Or is it spelled egunsi and I thought it should be spelled egusi? Now I’m confused.)

This is a papaya tree, right? We didn’t have papaya or even pineapple while in Nigeria. We did eat a zillion oranges though.

Right now I’d just settle to feel the stifling heat I felt on those days depicted above. Winter: go away!

From that question, we started talking about how things have changed from last November when we had just returned from Nigeria. I remember how homesick we were for Nigeria. Although we had been in Nigeria for less than a month, and although prior to this last visit I hadn’t been there for almost 15 years, it was like I had always lived there and I was getting used to the routines of the day: the NEPA shortages, getting water from the well, and sweating the day away. I loved seeing family members every day, and walking over to visit our cousins.

When we returned to Canada, we called our cousins and they called us every few days. We would play “remember when?” all the time, remembering the things we did, the people who touched our hearts, the close calls we had, and things like the crazy rainstorm that destroyed many houses in my grandmother‘s neighbourhood. We’d imitate the mannerisms of family members and laugh remembering them, or get angry remembering some injustices too.

We blasted Naija music from morning till night, and gushed to our brothers about how much they missed and how they have to go with us next time. We discussed potential businesses we could start should we decide to live in Nigeria in the future. We had trouble adjusting to our current timezone, waking up early no matter how late it was when we went to bed. If someone had told us we had to return to Nigeria immediately, we would have done so in a heartbeat. It was a good time.

But now, our memories of Nigeria are quieter, though they are not forgotten. They come up less frequently, and our calls to family members are less frequent also. This is due to our distance from Nigeria and our proximity to the reality of where we are right now. I know I have to go back to sharing stories of the people and incidents that happened before I really do start forgetting them.

Anyway, I guess this was a semi-homesick post. I think I’ll call my grandmother this evening.