Goats, chickens and lizards, oh my!

Alarm clocks are useless to me in Nigeria. Every morning around 6:30 a.m., whether I want to wake up or not, the piercing caws of chickens wake me from my slumber. If you have never heard a cock crow before, it is not as pleasant as the fairy tale version cock-a-doodle-doo. It is alarmingly loud [...]

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Thanksgiving in Nigeria

Kitchens all across the United States are filled with boiling pots, hot ovens, delicious aromas and anxious cooks hoping the turkey turns out right. The last Thursday in November is the same as any other day in Nigeria. People in America ask me, “do you celebrate Thanksgiving in Nigeria?” The answer is deep. American Thanksgiving [...]

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Cara? Ta ni Cara?

Osu méjì ti lo ti mo ti wa ni Naijiria. Mo ti di omo Yorùbá bayìí. Mo ti fi orúko òyìnbó mi sílè patapata. Nígbá ti mo pade ènìyàn tuntun, mo máa n fi ara mi han bi Títílayò. Nigba mìíràn, wón máa n beere nipa orúko mi gangan, orúko abenibi mi. Mo máa so [...]

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The Yorùbá food culture

Food–how we eat it, how we prepare it and who we enjoy it with is a window into every culture. Yorùbá culture surrounding food is quite different than the that in the United States and everywhere else I’ve been. The Yorùbás follow a certain set of customs when eating. While they are widely practiced, they [...]

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Dance – a step forward

Yesterday I made significant strides to becoming more Yoruba. Keegan and I went to the Cultural Center of Ibadan where we are supposed to be a month into our internship. When we arrived yesterday afternoon, the directors of the government-run center had no work for us not to mention a plan of what we are [...]

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One month? Really?!

Exactly one month ago I left home. At the end of each month I (I think college students in general) tend to reflect on the past month and say something like “Woah, that went fast. It’s October already?” When September came to a close and it was time to celebrate 50 years of Nigerian independence [...]

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