Second Panicky Day In Kano

Monday morning I woke up. Hopefully, this would be the day I get my Western Union infusion. I went to the internet cafe which is at the other end of the street with all the banks. After some surfing, I headed back and the banks were now open. I went to the GTBank. All the banks in Nigeria have this airlock type system to control access to the bank. You press a button and enter the phone booth sized tube and then a few seconds later, it opens on the other side. I got a form, but their pens sucked and I couldn't write on the forms. So I headed home to get a better pen. Since I was home now, I decided to try a closer bank. I tried the Diamond Bank first but the form for me to fill out didn't say Western Union on it anywhere and it was missing some fields. The guard who helped me get the form tried to tell me to have a seat and he'd get another form, but I decided to try another bank. I went to Intercontental Bank. There I got a form and filled it out, but they told me I was missing the money transfer control number. Great!

Back to the internet cafe to email my parents and ask them to send it. I also had them text it to my phone. It didn't take long. Then back to the Intercontinental. I gave them the form and my passport. Then for the second time in a week, she said that she didn't think that was me in the picture. Flattering, but when my ability to survive depends on her believing it's me, it's disconcerting. I told her I weighed over 200 kg 8 years ago. Then I offered my driver's license. She preferred that. In the end all worked. It took about 15 minutes from when I went in (the second time) to when the teller eventually set down a huge thick stack of N500 notes. Yikes, it's one thick stack. I managed to fit it into my money belt, but it was tight.

OK, I can breathe now. I returned to the hotel and relaxed. I'm ashamed to say, I watched Life With Mikey with Michael J. Fox. At least, they played About a Boy which is much better a bit after that.

In the evening, I headed down to the hotel bar and sat there with a Star thinking about what I'd do. Then this woman came and sat with me. She first wanted to make sure I wasn't married. I'm not sure why. She said she's in town from Abuja for her sister's wedding and was staying at this hotel for a while. We chatted for a while and then she hinted that she's like a Maltina. (In Africa, any beverage whose first 4 letters are "malt" are alcohol free beers). It was only N120 (US$1). Then she showed me how to eat Nigerian food. She ordered some meat from the restaurant for N100 (US$0.80) but it was just cold chunks. She said a rather lengthy prayer over the food. By now it was dark and she started putting food in my mouth. Next she got N200 (US$1.60) and ran across the street to get some suya which is hot, spicy, barbequed meat. She did another lengthy prayer over the food. It was pretty good and there was a fair amount of it. Everytime she told me to eat she did so by saying "chop chop". Finally we shared an African salad which has some sort of sweet vegetable and chunks of what I think was also meat. Again she said a engthy prayer and kept saying chop chop.

Finally, I was pretty tired, so I excused myself to go back to my room. She asked if I wanted an escort. I told her no thanks, but I can find my way. Then I went up and went to sleep.

Tuesday, November 18, 16:01 Nigerian local time