We have had quite an eventful week back in Abuja. Our return home began with lost luggage, which resulted in items being stolen. These items included some things purchased for other teachers and students, as well as our new camera. We are still in the process of filing a claim with Delta, but we're not very optimistic about a refund.
The first week of school was as expected. The students, of course, were on the wild side, but nothing out of the ordinary for the first week back. It was difficult to return after a long 3 week break, but luckily the week went by fast.
Unfortunately, we have been experiencing an increase in mosquitoes. You would think that the dry season would not cause an increase in the number of mosquitos, but it has. We did not notice mosquitoes in our house until Monday night. We were rudely awaken and disturbed the whole night by their bites and buzzing. After asking around, we decided to fumigate the whole house with Raid. Since then, we have been mosquito free. We have not contracted malaria; at least not yet!
When we came home from school Thursday, we noticed that a couple of our ceiling tiles in the bathroom had fallen down, and we now have a leak coming from the water pipes. It turns out, the upstairs neighbors have a leaking pipe as well as us. So, the next week, our bathroom will be in shambles as plumbers fix the pipes. Chris and Lauren, who lived in this house last year, had the exact same thing happen last April. I guess it's par for the course around here. Hopefully everything will go smoothly and we'll have a working bathroom again.
While we were gone for break, the gas shortage got much worse. One of the teachers who stayed here said that he saw a line 3km long. People in Lagos couldn't even get black market gas. Things are getting a little better, but there are still gas lines. We're suspecting that some of these gas shortages are due to the government climate in Abuja right now. Yar'Adua, the Nigerian President, has been sick for many years and flew to Saudia Arabia for treatment over 50 days ago. Protestors who marched on capital this week were demanding the Vice President take power. The constitution declares that if no one has heard from the president in 50 days, then the VP takes over. Coincidentally, that same day, Yar'Adua called into the BBC and announced that he was doing fine. Nigerians have mixed feelings about the BBC report. Some believe it was Yar'Adua and that he's doing fine. Others believe that it was not him and that either he's nearly dead or altogether dead. Something that makes teaching in Nigeria interesting is that Jessica has both the president's grandson and the VP's son in her class.
