Luxureeeee!

This week we have escaped the diluvian streets of Kaduna for some Abuja luxury and a workshop at the funder’s Head Office.

We’re being put up in a very lovely hotel; our room has carpet (clean, fluffy carpet), a kettle, a functioning shower (hot), a bath with a plug that fits, and just a generally clean and extravagant feel. I didn’t expect that living in Nigeria would make me get gleefully excited at expensive hotel luxury – in fact, I expected that it would make me place less importance on mini-bars, flat screen TVs and room service and instead appreciate the simpler things in life – but I have to admit to being overwhelmingly happy to be here. It’s also fun to be with some other volunteers – we’ve met a great couple from California, and have finally been able to meet up with Lucy from the UK who we met on our VSO course back home and have been in touch with ever since.

I’m learning patience here. The last two days of the workshop have focused on financial management for schools. The facilitators have taken us through topics such as accountability & transparency, the importance of having more than one signatory on an account and how to fill in a bank deposit slip – all things with which I am very familiar. We have spent two days going through these principles (we have returned to most topics at least twice over the two days) and have had lengthy and heated arguments about certain issues, such as whether there should be two or three signatories and how to account for travel allowances. If I had seen the session plan, I would definitely have thought that the content could have been covered in half a day; but I’d have been wrong. For the majority of the people in the room, these weren’t everyday topics – these were brand new concepts. And as most schools here do not currently handle significant amounts of money (since none ever reaches them from local government) and do not follow many basic accounting principles, this will all be completely new to them too (it’s not difficult to see how corruption is entirely possible here.) It was obvious from discussions that it was very necessary to go over and over the topics, however frustrating it may have been for us. So sitting there is that room, reminding myself of these facts, I came one step closer to being a patient person.

I’m also learning that Nigerians see and talk about things very much in black and white terms (figuratively, I mean). Many of the Nigerians with whom I have worked and shared training are very keen to identify a ‘right’ and a ‘wrong’ answer in every situation. This, in my mind, is both a cause and a consequence of the situation described in a recent report on the educational system in five Nigerian states, which identified a lack of open questions being asked by teachers, and a distinct lack of opportunity for pupils to discuss or write in their own words. This workshop has also reminded me of Nigerians’ love for vociferous and heated discussion, and perhaps this too is linked to a passionate desire to arrive at the ‘right’ answers.

This black-and-white outlook seems to lead to a blame culture which is evident here. If there are only right and wrong answers with no grey area in between, compromise and agreeing to disagree don’t really come into it – someone is right, which means their opponent must be wrong and should get the blame. To my mind at least, this does not lend itself well to effective working relationships. And therein lies the challenge. I love it.