Plenty of time to write from Abeokuta!

hello! thanks again for your emails and telepathic messages. i am doing well -- a very proud auntie of a new addition to the family back in virginia, and spending this week in the very peaceful, friendly, historic Yoruba town of Abeokuta (about 70 km north of Lagos). the week in lagos was really interesting. the first two days were hard -- exhausting and complicated. it was especially hard to adjust to the leaded diesel traffic fumes everywhere -- many headaches! but a few reassuring emails and a few open conversations with folks here, and i had the strength to smile through the transition. i spent time meeting people, giving some interviews, navigating the city a wee bit, and on the last night enjoying a concert by Femi Kuti -- Fela Kuti's son -- in honour of my friend's birthday. i surprised a lot of people by demonstrating that an oyinbo can dance.

i feel that already i am beginning to understand more about 'Nigeria' -- or more precisely, about the specific interactions/locales/contexts i'm experiencing - than i ever have before. it is gratifying to feel my awareness and competence deepening, bit by bit. i have been taking every opportunity to write what i learn about the current political situation, to ask questions, read papers, etc. i'm also taking the time to let myself adjust -- am currently in that strange head-space where you start thinking in different sentence structures. my accent is changing, words are dropping in and out of my lexicon. minor difficulties and adjustments aside, i am very glad i have returned, and for long enough to get something done. i hope to learn a lot over the next 35 weeks, and to continue to come back over time.

Abeokuta is lovely. i am staying here with an old friend from my visit in 2001. Lekan now works for a local bank -- so it's interesting to go from visiting a lot of people in Lagos who are really struggling to make ends meet, despite their professional degrees in many cases, to now visiting someone who is able to afford a new car, etc. (according to some statistics i've heard here, most Nigerians still live on about $1 a day, which will basically buy you one meal and one sachet of water in a cheal Lagos eatery). Lekan and i get on very well; it has been a happy reunion. he has invited me to stay for as long as i need, or whenever i want, at his family home here. it is wonderful to feel so welcomed, and that i have a home when i need or want one. also pleased to hear that Lekan is thinking of studying in Scotland, and in any case wil be there this summer, so there will be opportunities to reciprocate. his home is a very traditional Yoruba style house (i hope pictures will follow sometime soon), inhabited at the moment only by himself and his mother. i sense that it's nice for her to have me around as company, and she is absolutely lovely. she fed me oxtail and cow intestine soup (unfortunatley i have forgotten the name of the dish, which hails from Benin) with garri, a staple starch. today she took me around and helped me to buy some adire cloth (traditional Yoruba fabric, dyed with indigo) at the market here. had a great time practicing my Yoruba, partaking of the great Yoruba greeting culture. my new surrogate mum has promised to speak only Yoruba to me so i learn more quickly. i plan to stay here at least a week, maybe two, working on the language, reuniting with my friend and his family and also interviewing some contacts he has. i have been invited to a wedding in Lagos this weekend. Nigerian weddings are always open to anyone who hears of them -- the more people, the more succesful the celebration. cooks work continuously to accommodate whoever turns up. so i have been assured that i am very welcome despite not knowing the family. in anticipation of the event, i have dropped off some of the cloth i bought with a local tailor to have a dress made.

next stop on my travels will probably be Ife, where another friend who i worked closely with in 2001 is now a lecturer at the university. i have heard many good things about Ife, but have never been there. i look forward to seeing him again and seeking his advice as i assess whether Ife or Ibadan, where i have worked before, will become my principle field site.

hope this email is not too rambling, and that it gives some sense of what i've been up to. i've been writing more richly ethnographic and political impressions on the laptop -- lots to say about the new administration, corruption scandals, the 'crisis in the Niger Delta', etc) -- but still find the transitional head-space and cybercafe environs slightly strange for communicating much of substance :)

be in touch, take care, o dabo!