Time in Borno and Yobe states, North East Nigeria

Welcome to Maiduguri, Borno state

I have spent over two weeks between Maiduguri and Damaturu. As I had never been to Damaturu, I was unsure what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised. There will be more photos than writing in this post.



Grocery shopping



Fruits :-)

Life seems normal in Maiduguri



Government house round about



Hehehehehe



Kenyan feast! My colleagues are amazing.



House of Prawns, I kinda like the decor

One of the things I have always known about people who live in the North, is that they are warm and receptive. There is a tendency to stare at someone/something different (especially some of my colleagues), which is normal everywhere but people are generally nice. I tried wearing a scarf a few times, but the heat would not let me great. The heat here is something!



Lagos street Maiduguri. I found this bridge beautiful

Unlike what people might think of the North East, there are good roads and these roads are so clean! A friend who saw some of the photos mentioned that she thought the towns were cleaner than Abuja and she would like to visit. There are dirt roads of course and not everywhere has tarred roads but places are accessible. I have to add though, that the heat here is something!



Girls going to school, these ones may have been late!

In the mornings, it was normal to see children especially girls dressed up and heading to school. Again unlike the thought that there is no access to education or that girls are not allowed to go to school, there were a few girls’ only schools that I saw (I am not unaware that boys might be priority in certain parts and for certain reasons).



Welcome to Damaturu, Yobe state



"Let us dwell in unity"

The streets of Damaturu

With the normalcy here, it is easy to have a false sense of security and forget that there are security concerns. The wise thing to do will be to bear in mind that the security situation is volatile and could change in an instant. Also, from what a friend who lives here said, an attack could happen and in the next few minutes, life would continue like there was nothing. Two attacks were reported while I was here. One while I was in Maiduguri and the other, in Maiduguri again, while I was in Damaturu. Both of these attacks targeted the university. We drove past the university the day after the first attack but all seemed fine. Having a good sense of judgment and discretion here cannot be over emphasized.

Photo of the day!

My accommodation for two weeks

Fire wood

I fell in love with this baobab tree



On the way to a community

Life in the village

The crisis has brought many humanitarian and international organisations to the North East. This has made the cost of living higher in terms of accommodation and food. I overheard a few of my colleagues complaining of the cost of rent and had to ask ;)

I noticed that the sun sets around 6:30pm, and at 5:30am when I wake up, the light of day is already staring at me. By 5:45am, it is full blown day light.
Then you know how there are thunderstorms accompanied by lightning? Here, there are sand storms. And guess what, these sand storms have lightning too! There have been three major ones. Just when I was giving up on seeing any rain here, two days to my departure, there was a sand storm followed by rain :-)

I fell in love with baobab trees...

Some of the destroyed sites in Buni Yadi LGA, Yobe state

More destroyed places

After the rain, the weather was so pleasant

Passing...

When you know an Italian that can cook, be sure that you'll get the person's heart on a plate!
This double pasta dish was so delicious! Pasta, cheese, mushrooms, sausages, olives, garlic, olive oil, tomatoe sauce!

It becomes totally worth it where ever you may be when you are surrounded by amazing people! I've been totally spoilt on this field trip.



Featured on BellaNaija 

Interviewed by Unravelling Nigeria