December 10th: My Boring Birthday

Okay all month long, I've been maintaining this tough guy persona. The kind that doesn't care or even remember his birthday. But deep down, I was hoping to wake up to balloons, confetti and a birthday cake. I haven't celebrated my birthday in about 6, or 8, or 9, maybe 10 years (still unsure) and I was hoping for one today. But alas! all my friends are in school and I'm the only one on vacation. So I had no party to go to or place to hang out.

Today was horrible! There was no electricity throughout the day to begin with. Also, the sun seemed hotter than it usually was on any normal day. Before going to work, mum gave me money for transportation to her office to collect 'some documents'. When I heard this, I thought that was a code word for 'birthday present'.
Taking my bath was a hell of an obstacle. Due to the unavailability of power, the water wasn't heated and so I had to spend several minutes motivating myself to step into cold water.

Getting transportation was another problem. I had to walk a long way before I could find a bike
*In Nigeria, there are 3 major types of public transport vehicles: The motorcycles (a.k.a 'Okada'), taxis, and the bus (a.k.a 'kabu-kabu').*

In order to get to my mum's office which was in town, I had to take an Okada to the bus stop, then take a bus from there to another bus stop and finally take an Okada to my destination. Now you can imagine how stressful that was, coupled with the heat of the sun. You should have seen me; I looked like an old man that was tired of life and its miseries. The only thing that kept me going was the thought of the birthday present I was on my way to acquire. It must be something grand for my mum to give me at her place of work. On my way to the office I thought of what the gift could be. Then my thoughts went to how I'll get 'taxed' by the security guards on my arrival.
*In this context, the term 'tax' means 'to be asked for money'. It's a common thing for a low paid worker in a place to ask usual visitors for money, although not directly. They do it in indirectly. A certain method they usually use is to begin asking how every member of your family is doing, how well your business is going etc... They don't stop the questions until they see some cash.*

I arrived the Central Bank of Nigeria (where mum works) and paid my fare to the Okada man. As I got to the gate, I noticed that it was a new guard that was present (I've gone there many times) and at the time she was stopping a lady from going in. As I reached there, she asked who I was. As I was about to answer, one of the old security guards who knew who I was came and said to her "ah ah, this is Mrs. Masala's son oh". And then she immediately drew the gate open for me to go in. I couldn't help feeling fly ;) I even turned back and winked at the lady at the gate that was still not being allowed to enter.

As all the security guards saw me, they began hailing me and welcoming me (that's another taxing approach). I tried my best to stay as far away as possible before they came drained me. I walked so quickly to the main entrance that it seemed like I was running.

I entered mum's office and greeted her. She told me that since I was now 18, I was ready. In my mind I was seeing her giving me the keys to a car.
I asked "ready for what?'
"ready to open a live forex trading account so that I can transfer my money to it and you can start trading it for me"
My heart stopped beating! I journeyed through seven mountains and seven seas just to be told that I'm going to start working for my mum! I could have turned her table over and walked out, but that seemed a bit too dramatic. So I just said "okay".

She told me to go open an account with a bank immediately. I collected some money and walked out of the office. As I approached the gate, I could see the security guards lined up in front of it. They wanted their tax. I gave the four of them 1000 naira to share amongst themselves.

I got back from the bank, went home (there was still no power) and slept.
What makes unavailability of electricity a problem in my home isn't the prevention from watching TV or all that, it's the fact that my dad comes outside and begins to inspect the surroundings. Whenever he sees something out of place or untidy, he calls us to take care of it. Then he sits and monitors us all as we work. I guess he feels if there's no TV, everyone must suffer. 

*By the way, my dad's retired from the military. This is why he's always home watching TV and complaining about everything*

Today goes down in my books as one of the most uninteresting birthdays I've had.
Next Saturday's the day Pete and Deb (my younger siblings) will be coming home from high school (its a boarding school). And on Monday, my eldest sis would be arriving from Abuja (another Nigerian state). At least the house will be livelier when they arrive.