Travels and other things

This can of hotdogs is sold in our little market. I have not actually bought one, because for one, they don't sell anything that comes close to being a hotdog bun. No matter what the can looks like, I don't think it actually has buns included. Second, I must have dill pickle relish for my 'dogs'. Which the closest they have in the store is a green chili looking relish from Thailand or someplace. I thought also how many small poodles are named after the makers of this obvious delight.

A local man who works as a driver owns this Bug, I think he told me its a 1978. The top is just a homemade rain tarp, not to be used for driving. The car is pretty rough, not bad from 20 feet away, but then few people own a car here percentage wise of the population. I've seen a few bugs around but not running.

The tread is completely gone on a couple of the tires. He told me its been difficult to find tires that will fit. Even back home I had to order them in for our bug.

From my first day in Nigeria I have seen bottles of peanuts sold by locals on the street. I've seen them in shops driving by with a proper label saying that they are sanitized and its done by health standards. Who knows. A level of trust is needed because these are hand shelled and put in bottles of a used nature. The bottles that are used for this are old alcohol bottles and they must be clear.

Notice the masking tape seal to the bottle caps. The small (I believe thats a 5th size bottle) bottle costs 60 naira, about 55 cents. The large size cost 200, a little less than 2 dollars. They are very good peanuts, I've had half a bottle already.

The small old guy at work who makes the coffee and tea sold these to me. He only asks me if I want a Fanta (orange soda) when I come in.

This is the second extra large centipede that has snuck up on me in the past week. This one was on the front door about eye height when I went to open it. It fell down just as I had grabbed the doorknob. The one early this week was sitting in front of the shower in the bathroom and it was bigger than this one.

The quiz for today is how much was the cost for this amount of food. The chips that look like Pringles are actually called Kracks and the are made in China ( a real good imitation), the drink is all local as is the bread. The candy bar looks English but its from South Africa under license from Cadbury. The peanut butter and Mayo are USA. Now for the total, $37. Thats right 37 dollars. The big costs were the peanut butter ( 7 dollars ) and the Mayo ( 3.50 ) and the candy ( 2.50 ).

At the beginning of the month the company ( Bristow Helicopters ) gives us our CLA, which is Cost of Living Allowance. Its 2500 naira per day, or about 24 dollars. They give it to us in cash, thats 78,000 naira in 200 and 500 bills. We shop at a little market close to the houses in the compound and get fresh stuff like Apples, Carrots and Eggs from some vendors that come in door to door. A dozen Brown Eggs cost about $2.50, so you can see we have to be careful with the imported food and use the local stuff if you can see that its good. The carrots I got look like the ones I used to grow, all different shapes and sizes. The eggs boiled perfectly though.