The Good Old Days...

Hi everyone! Wie geht's? So, a brief sortie from my German bunker to talk about today's topic.

I have a rare day off on this wonderfully sunny Monday, so I decided (as you do), to waste some time on Facebook. And luckily too, because I saw that I had been tagged in a conversation about our old secondary school days. And my God, was it a (bad)trip down memory lane! 

Ok, for those who may not know, I went to a Unity school in Nigeria. They are the equivalent of the British Grammar school, or the French's Grandes écoles, but at secondary level. You usually have to take an entrance and score above certain cut-off marks in order to make the list. You were then "randomly" allocated a place in one of the Unity schools anywhere in the country. These schools were heavily subsidised, with respect to the quality of education they provided, because the idea was to train a selection of "gifted" children, while at the same time strengthening each child's Nigerian identity (they were established after the horrible civil war of the 60's). All the ethnic groups were mixed, and as you could be sent anywhere in the country, many of the students were boarders, as many lived far away (mine was about 6hours away for instance). We had three terms, with holidays and mid-term breaks, as well as monthly visiting days, but you effectively spent a huge chunk of your life at school (from about 11-17). So with that quick explanation out of the way, today's Facebook conversation was about SOME of the scary things that happened to us. I'm just going to put up a few snapshots of the comments, keep in mind that they were actually a lot of replies and almost everyone experienced something strange. Anyways, here goes...

"Great" memories of exciting times indeed. Can you imagine this stuff happening anywhere else? A rampaging (or several) paedophile(s), snakes, owls, Bush babies (Galapos), not to mention the evil senior/older students and teachers in a school of about 2000young girls (no parents!!!). I still wonder how we survived, and who chose the idiots that were our caretakers?! Still I guess that's why we are all so independent, adventurous and fearless today. I mean when you experience all these things as a kid, it becomes hard for anything else on earth to faze you. So guys, especially the Nigerians in the house, any "strange" or usual boarding house/school experiences you care to share with us? Please go ahead!

Nigerianising My World Since 2000-gbogboro

This post was inspired by J's post on sharing her food culture with her husband. I read her post and found it weird to read that some people seem almost ashamed of their culture. I'm not sure if it's the parents' fault for not having instilled better pride in their children or society's fault for celebrating certain cultures over others. Whatever the case, I will never understand how anyone could be ashamed of their culture, because to me one's culture is one's identity.

Nigerian me at London's Notting Hill Carnival in 2012

In my case, inasmuch as I love experiencing and being a part of other cultures, you simply could not have any sort of relationship with me without learning about Nigeria, the Yoruba people and even more specifically the Ondo culture! My cultural identity is part and parcel of who I am, and I proudly share the good, the bad and even the ugly with my entourage. I do this mainly through sharing the things I love the most i.e. food (as per the original FFO), and books.

For instance, I bought Things Fall Apart for the MIL in German and Americanah for Hanna my German friend/conversation exchange partner. And when we lived in Paris, my sis and I bought my French family friends about 4-5 books by both Chinua Achebe and Chimmamda Adichie. Just last week, my Mexican friend told me proudly on the phone that she'd bought Things Fall Apart and was reading and enjoying it too. Chinua Achebe is one of my very favourite writers, and it is of course natural for me to introduce my loved ones to his writing and through it, the Nigerian culture!

In terms of food, my main thing is fried rice which seems to  have worked wonders on everyone for whom I've ever made it. My French family now loves fried rice and plantains to the point that my French mum said, as we walked past an African shop two weekends ago, "look another place we can buy plantain for dodo, let me note down the address." And few weeks before that, my Mexican and Italian friends suddenly sent me whatsapp pictures of them eating and enjoying food at a Nigerian restaurant I'd once told them about in Paris. In both cases, I was shocked...and at the same time proud of the good job I had done! When I went to Nigeria nko? I brought back a few bags of Kilishi from which I was planning to send some to my mum in England. The mistake I made was taking it to show them at work where it was quickly devoured, sotay I had nothing left to send to my mum lol. This in spite of the stereotype about the French being snotty about non-French food.

As for T, laisse tomber as the French say. He loves Naija food as much (if not more than) as he loves me haha! Pepper soup, dried fish and prawns, egusi, fried rice, spicy kilishi, ati be be lo, he loves it all. I'm pretty sure that our future home will be full of wonderful Nigerian food, as well as British, German and other countries' cuisines, inasmuch as we do not validate or denigrate any one culture over the others. 

I recently spent time explaining the Nigerian elections to colleagues who saw my Facebook statuses and asked about it. And since my uncle is getting married, I am finally learning about this aspect of my culture and excited to talk about all the rites and different ceremonies to anyone that will listen. I've been explaining the Nigerian(Yoruba) traditional wedding process to Hanna and my MIL who is looking forward to seeing pictures. I even showed people at work pictures of my mum in her traditional outfit. 

The thing is even though I think of myself as a child of two cultures, I celebrate and talk about Nigerian culture more because it is less known here than the British culture, although I often go on about that too. I don't force my culture down anyone's throat, or pretend that every thing about it perfect (no one culture is),  but neither do I hide who I am. Instead, I surround myself with open-minded people who love me and everything about me including the craziness that is my Ondo-Yoruba-Nigeran-West African-British-English-Kentish self.

Do you have a bi-cultural relationship or friendships? How do you share your culture with others?

One Man's Meat, Another Man's Poison

Two of my French friends are in Thailand at the moment and like all generation X-ers, have been taking lots of photos and bombarding my Instagram page with the weird and wonderful things they have seen, particularly with regards to food. This got me thinking about how each person's definition of food "strangeness" depends on their culture and past experiences. As a Nigerian, I know that we have a lot of foods that many non-Nigerians would find curious or even downright disgusting. I'm talking for instance about Bushmeat, goat's brain in Isi Ewu, Ondo people (my parent's tribe) eating dogs, chicken feet, cows' legs, the offal and innards of cows/goats/birds, fish head and eyes etc. Even as a particularly picky child, I managed to eat and enjoy many of these delicacies without the slightest feeling of revulsion. However, one of the results of my ajala lifestyle is the fact that I have often been confronted with foods that many people, Nigerian and non-Nigerian, would find a little too strange. Of course my inquisitive nature means that I have tried and even enjoyed some of these dishes. Anyway, here's a short history of my "foodie" encounters.

Growing up, my mum (unlike my very picky dad) was an aficionado of the "exotic," and often bought and brought home various kinds of meat including Turtle, Bat, roasted Frogs and even one time Snake. I soon learnt to be comfortable with considering a lot of these as food items, and although I sometimes refused to eat things that felt too strange to me, for the most part, I tried almost everything.

Years later when I went to boarding school, I got introduced to the idea of eating insects...yummy, crispy-on-the-outside, moist-on-the-inside Termites! I don't know who came up with the idea, (actually Google tells me it's a well-known snack in certain parts of Nigeria), but we'd wait eagerly for it to rain then put buckets of water under light sources. The termites, driven out of their holes in ground and attracted to the light would then somehow lose their wings and end up in our artfully positioned buckets of water. They fell in their thousands, and we schoolgirls, ecstatic about this literally forbidden "fruit" eagerly gathered up the harvest and cooked them over candle-flame. Yes I know what you're thinking, carcinogens, improperly cooked food, fire hazard etc. My school thought the same things too, and this activity was completely verboten. However as you can imagine, the taste of termites, the clandestine nature of our activity and the chance to break rules meant that we did this regularly in the rainy season. In fact writing this takes me back to the good old days of the crispy, buttery goodness that were candle-roasted termites. 

Moving to France after having being a vegan for many years, I quickly realised that non-meat diet was a misnomer for the French, and promptly gave up veganism. I then ate and enjoyed Frogs' Legs, having previously refused to touch this with a 10ft barge pole in Nigeria, and tried Caviar which I found much too salty for my taste. A few years later, I tried Horse meat while on a date and didn't like it one bit, although I put this one down to the cook who was also a disastrous date. Steak Tartare which I enjoyed, came later, but it made me worry for ages about getting sick from E.Coli.

For my first Christmas in Paris, I was invited to a friend's place and served Foie Gras (literally fatty liver), a traditional Christmas fare in France. As a former vegan, I was a little bit reticent about eating it, but then my natural curiosity won and I decided to try it...loved it! (Un)fortunately, my principles over the cruelty to animals (geese and ducks are force-fed to effectively make them develop liver Cirrhosis) still cause me to pause each time I am offered this quintessentially French delicacy.

Crocodile meat, I've had this before when I was younger, but I had forgotten what it tasted like and only got to try it again a few weeks ago when my sister visited Brussels. She tried it for the first time at a Congolese restaurant, and fell in love. And honestly, who could blame her? The taste was amazing! It reminded me a little of the Asun (spit-roasted goat meat) my father used to make when I was a kid. However, the fact that it was crocodile (CROCODILE!) stopped me from really enjoying and re-ordering it, unlike my sister who got addicted and ordered the same dish trice in one week.

In Finland, I tried Mykyrokka (blood-dumpling soup) while visiting the then boyfriend's family and had been enjoying the meal until I decided to be polite and ask about the soup. Let's just say I found it a struggle to swallow the rest of my dinner when I got their responses. During the same visit, I also had Venison (deer meat) which was absolutely delicious but made me feel so incredibly guilty. I felt like I was eating Bambi! :(
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During my year abroad in Sweden, I tried Surstromming (fermented or rotten baltic herring, depending on who you ask), and nearly died from the odour that had me nauseated for hours. It was an epic fail of an experience which will never ever be repeated. On the other hand, the equally pungent Shrimp and Fish Pastes fermented in earthen pots for about 6 months underground, which I regularly had in Bangladesh was the bomb! It was used to make beautifully spiced blow-your-head-off hot curries, which we ate with Chappatis or rice.

And to finish, I'm not sure how I came about this exactly, but I've had Kangaroo jerky before, and I loved it! 

So that's my strange food history. What is the strangest thing you've ever eaten?

Travels

The last time I blogged before my long break, I talked about going to Nigeria, Turkey and Belgium.  So anyways this is what I’ve been up to this year, travel-wise…

I basically visited 3 countries over a four week period between April and May, starting with Nigeria where I went for my friend Dayo’s wedding. This was only my second time of attending a Nigerian wedding as an adult, and my first time of being involved in the process (I was the chief bridesmaid). The whole thing took place over three celebration-filled days and it was crazy! There were hundreds of people, tons of food and I discovered/learnt about so many new (to me) Nigerian traditions. The traditional marriage/engagement ceremony took place on the Friday, the church wedding on Saturday and the thanksgiving on the Sunday. Friday was really a hard day for me, because I was so busy that I didn’t have the time to eat, and I felt completely overwhelmed with the crowd of people, the noise and the general ambiance. At one point during the day I even broke down in tears, because in addition to the stress, I was helpfully shouted at a few times, because they felt I was inept as a bridesmaid. At almost 30years old, I had never been to such a ceremony and had certainly never participated, so I had no clue! 

Still, so many great memories were created during that weekend. The traditional marriage/engagement ceremony was particularly interesting for me, because I got to see so many things. The bride, being a child of two cultures, decided to incorporate bits of each side of her into the day. Her mum’s family is from Lokoja (central Nigeria) and her dad is an Ikale from Ondo state (south) and it was nice to see the aspects of both cultures represented, including the beautiful “aso-oke” worn by the bride and groom, the ululating and traditional dances, and of course the wonderful calabash music. I got to eat lots of food that I hadn’t eaten in a long time – agbalumo, kunun, wara, suya, kilishi etc. 

Agbalumo (African star apple)

Kilishi (Spicy, peanut flavoured, sun-dried beef jerky )

Wara (Cottage cheese/curd)

We also travelled quite a bit between Ife, Okiti pupa, Ore, Ogun state, and I went shopping with my friend at the famous Balogun market in Lagos. This market is like Peckham on steroids (I never go to Peckham because I find it overwhelming!), it feels like there are millions of people pushing/shoving you, it's super noisy, crowded and I’m sure you can buy pretty much anything there. I ended up feeling dizzy and almost fainted a few times, but I was really proud of myself for surviving such a bona fide Nigerian experience particularly since I was just recovering from an accident and wearing a neck brace (story for another day!)...

All in all, I really enjoyed my time in Nigeria, especially because I experienced/re-experienced so many things.  

Next pit stop for me was Istanbul where I spent about 16hours. I had decided to fly Turkish airlines to Nigeria, even though it wasn’t the cheapest airline, because I heard that the company provides a free layover service for its clients. If your waiting time in Istanbul is more than 6hours, you get to choose between a hotel room and a tour of the city. I had just seen Argo (the Iranian revolution, Ben Affleck), which had some scenes shot in the Hagia Sophia, and was itching to go see the church. So I deliberately booked my return ticket to allow for a long layover and took full advantage of the almost 100% free trip - lunch, buses, entry fees and everything else was gratos, although I think I had to pay £10 for my visa (3month, multiple-entry for Brits). I made a few new friends, had lovely food and got to see so many wonderful places including the Blue mosque, Hippodrome, German fountain, Serpentine column, Obelisk of Thedosius, Hagia Sophia museum, Basilica cistern, Spice bazaar and New Mosque. 

Spice bazaar (Site of my "beyoncé-ification")

One really funny (slightly racist??!) thing did happen in Istanbul, and I still shake my head and giggle whenever I think about it. We had just arrived at the Spice bazaar, when there was a bit of commotion and people started shouting Beyoncé’s name. Feeling excited about seeing her (I wondered if she was touring like me haha!), I turned my head in all directions desperately trying to catch a glimpse but then I suddenly realised that all eyes were on me. I “was” Beyoncé!!! Flustered, embarrassed and slightly bemused, I ignored them and just kept walking. It was really weird because I look absolutely nothing like her, but it was such a memorable way to end my time in Istanbul. 

One week after that, I was on my way to Bruges with friends on my first trip to Belgium. Bruges is such a quaint, picturesque, lovely little city, and we spent the first couple of days walking round the city, going to museums and eating delicious Belgian food. On the third day however, we decided to do a bike tour, cycling more than 50km from Bruges all the way into Holland. We took the scenic route along the canal, going through the beautiful villages of Sluis and Damme, where I saw the famous windmill. We stopped only briefly for photos and lunch, and I can tell you that by the end of the trip I could hardly walk.! Still, I thoroughly enjoyed my first experience of a cycling holiday.

 Damme and its windmill 

After that month, I felt like I really needed to recover and enjoy Paris. I haven’t really travelled much since then except to London for the unmissable Notting hill carnival in August, Kent to see my parents, and just this week to Utrecht for a friend’s PhD defense/party.