”I am God”

In Nigeria, some of the traditional names in my village for men are Etan, Obio, Arong, Aidam, and Mbang, while for the women are Affiong, Nkoyo, Njong, Akon, and Ikwo. Then there are the popular names like Lucky, Blessing, Comfort, Favor, Golden Boy, which we can definitely contest, but what really gets me are names like I Believe, God‘s Gift, Ask God, and Thank God. And I thought we Filipinos are weird when it comes to nhames!

Wild (?) Africa

If I were an ornithologist, this would be paradise. Well, just the same, nakakaloka mga ibon dito. Hornbills are an ordinary sight, and one time I saw this magnificent blue bird flying just over my head to a tree (there might be online photos of the Turaco – Corythaeola cristata). The best thing is, they‘re just all over the place, you don’t have to wake up at ungodly hours and be quiet and strain to see anything with binocs. And I'm just in the fringes of an IBA! The Nigerian Conservation Foundation (BirdLife affiliate) has identified 55 IBAs in the country, and I happen to be beside the national park which is (so they say) the last remaining rainforest of Nigeria. There is still a lot of wildlife even in the hunting areas (we still hear gunshots up at the camp at night even when that area is restricted), and rather big mammals at that. We have deer, antelope, duikers, drills, chimps, and even gorilla. Of course I have yet to see these in the wild; although I see enough smoked body parts in the village. Only once have I seen a snake, and at a rather inconvenient predicament – it was moving fast from tree to tree while I was taking my jacuzzi bath at a stream directly below! The villagers claim there are still elephants somewhere in the national park, and even a leopard (the last one in the country was killed years ago). I still have to get these hunters to take me along; of course they‘re hesitant because I'm cercopan and we‘re escalating our anti-bushmeat advocacy, but I’m starting to make friends with people who can show me wild things. Let‘s keep our fingers crossed! In the meantime, I do appreciate the amazing little critters…

Filomena

It disturbs me how death is so ordinary in my village. In the whole of Nigeria, actually, death is pretty much a normal part of life. I have been quite alarmed at the number of deaths in Iko Esai since the start of the year, and the thing is, they don’t even know what people die of. This took on a whole new light for me when my first real friend died. I considered Filo a real friend because she was neither cercopan staff nor a possible beneficiary of my project. She has been living with her husband and three small kids in a city in a northern state but came home last September when she got sick. She got well and was supposed to go back in January but got sick again and never recovered. I met her during my first day in the village, and since then have been hanging out at her mother‘s restaurant (one of two in the village, open only during market days) under one of the few big trees within the village. She used to feed me Nigerian food all the time (and kept telling her she spends all day cooking), and even taught me a few recipes. I had intended for this to be my tribute, but I don’t have even a photo of her.