In The Cyber Cafe

To get the meaning of my name, check the 11th verse of the 55th chapter in the book of Isaiah which by the way is in the old testament of the bible. To get a glimpse at my character check John 1: 43 - 51. For the past 10 days our internet service providers have been disappointing and its not being helped by the 7 or 8 days we were forced to stay home due to the census. We are still calculating our losses even as our salaries are yet to be paid. The university of port Harcourt where i work, school and leave is still trying to take on some form of activity but we all know that it will not be the case until after the easter holidays which comes up mid month; the school calender started officially last Monday but no time table for lectures has been released.

Welcome to my world, where things happen rather dramatically. I look forward to going home from work; its really been a long day with high voltage blowing up as many as 4 computer monitors and the rains disrupting our services for as much as 20 minutes; not to talk of the power outage that lasted for as much as 3 hours. Indeed I give God praise for strength (i did consume 3 meat pies and 2 bottles of sprite) but we must thank him all the same for provision.  I hope to read a bit at night for my taxation exam which comes up next tomorrow; by the way am doing my MBA with accounting as the option.

I did not go to the cyber cafe early yesterday because I needed to mentally tune my mind for the academic task ahead. The examination titled advanced taxation was very tedious but I gave it my best shot. Needless to say by the time we finished it in 2 hours 30 minutes the tension was high. The ten of us were just shaking our heads in disbelief cause it was very loaded. I had to make a dash for the cyber cafe hoping that there could be a little distraction. I had just been hit by a nightmare in the middle of the afternoon in the name of an examination. I suddenly felt like throwing up; so i ordered for peppered chicken from Mr. Biggs which is at uniport junction. I thought the bird flu scare would have caused a decrease in price but it did not. I bought it for N330. In any case I was much more stabilized after that and I did my job quietly before going home. For the records, we did not make use of public electricity yesterday cause we can no longer afford the negative impact on our clients and networth.

Thank God for strength; although i was having a headache. I don't envy those of you who are married with cars. Things have stabilized a bit in the office; my boss had to climb the mast and re-earth the radio antenna separately, he also tightened the connectors which where loose. We did not use generator for the entire 10 hours that we were in the office today which is quite a relief to us in the management team. I had to drop the car at the mechanic, after which I proceeded to the classroom for my final lecture in Oil and Gas Accounting which was rescheduled from 10am to Midday. It altered my plans because I was supposed to pick the car by that time and also go to pick my cousins son from the boarding school which has closed for the easter break. It was really a terrible situation. I left the mechanic by about 12.50pm and entered the classroom very tired and unsettled. I left the classroom and did the school runs in record time but was now tired, hungry, dehydrated and with a headache. If I thought the cybercafe will ease my stress then I was in for a shocker.
It was a picture that increased my pain. This our country is really becoming something else. Oh my God, indeed it appears a miracle will have to save my weekend. How can pastors preach against corruption when they wine and dine with the politicians who are the main players of the game? Is my eyes deceiving me? There must be a common denominator between all this people.
My mind had just received a flashing and it needed to be cooled down. A bottle of coke with two tablets of paracetamol did it. Just look at the picture which was culled from one of our local newspapers.[img][/img]

There was a storm in the University of Port Harcourt on Saturday night which caused  some trees to fall on the public electricity power lines thereby disrupting both private and public supply of electricity.  A section of the wall surrounding the Choba campus which is not up to a year fell in the course of the downpour

Yesterday was Palm Sunday and there was a lot of street procession by our Christian brethren across the land. A friend of mine called it the beginning of the Holy week; whatever that means I do not know. Religion has really made the average Nigerian lazy and more corrupt.  There was this procession by the roman catholic outfit which was very long and divided into 4 groups - young girls/women, older ladies, older men and the young boys/men guided by the priests and their men servants. Each group singing at the top of their voices 4 different songs and disturbing the peace. I wonder where in the bible we are commanded to carry on such traditions. 

In any case, today is a public holiday; i hear the Muslims are celebrating something. The economy has again been grounded. Thank goodness that our university environment is still shielded from the mainstream society so some academic activities are currently taking place even though there is no electricity and the water supply has been cut off since the storm. Friday this week will be yet another public holiday together with Monday next week to commemorate the death and resurrection of the Man from Galilee; but again i ask - why Monday? the Lord Jesus Christ rose on the third day which is Sunday so why are we now adding Monday?

No light, No water in the house and in the cyber cafe its the same thing. The banking hall is impossible because a lot of clients want to withdraw money in anticipation of the coming easter break. For 4 days beginning on thursday midnight the Nigerian economy will be grounded; what a shame. Back to the cyber cafe, the automatic voltage regulator of the 35KVA generator has packed up so we are using the 10KVA combo backup generators. This country is indeed a land of unusual things. I have an examination tomorrow so i don't intend to spend a lot of time at the office today.

Why can't people take NO for an answer?

I came to the cyber cafe and the client support staff were not around. The manager my boss stopped by on his way to church (Its good friday) and told me that the engineers were coming to repair the primary diesel generator which has a problem. Infact the secondary diesel generator also developed a fault yesterday so we are left with the petrol generator which can only carry half of our installed capacity.  

It does appear there will be no work today then this dude walks in that he wants to check his mail. I sweetly tell him that the client support staff are not around so he should come back or better still check another place. He now starts to say that I should help him, that he is travelling to see Oyakhilome in the good friday miracle night. I gently and slowly repeat myself that there is nothing I could do. He now feigns deafness. By now I am getting agitated. After a while he leaves following which I shut the entry doors and put on the airconditioner.

All this public holidays are really a terrible hindrance. In any case the boss might have used his discretion to give the staff some holiday seeing that even the clients are also not readily available.

Today is the Matriculation ceremony in the University of Port Harcourt. There is a hold up on the east - west road intersection; infact its even on the choba road so a lot of people are walking. Photographers are making brisk business. Thankfully the sun is laughing happily.  I have been invited to a couple of "matric" parties in the evening. The Cyber Cafe is still not open to the public because of the slowness of the link. The Service Providers keep giving us hope but it appears we might have to leave em by next week. Imagine 7 weeks of no business and there is nothing anyone can do in terms of legal redress. A 1000 apologies to all my fans.

We are have just entered the 7th week of no work; right now I don't know who is telling the truth. Our service providers have almost succeeded in ruining our office. Its democracy day and the sun is shinning. The University campus is in a quiet mood and I am in a mischievious state. I have a feeling something will happen this week.

Last night was something else, it was like in the days of Noe. There was lightning and rolling thunder with a very heavy downpour that sleep was temporally suspended.  I am very surprised that there was not much material damage around the university.  I went to the cyber cafe and our new service providers were off. Oh yes, we finally made a choice to get a stable service providers which we tested yesterday and the speed was rather unimpressive but there was no break in transmission.  Bad news though, the lightning wrecked some collateral damage at the our service providers site so i  have to revert back to the old crew which appears to be faster but still goes off during electricity outages.  The sun was trying to show face but its back to the dull weather. Funnily enough there is no cafe staff in sight, perhaps they will come on Monday.

Today was very interesting. I went to the cyber cafe to check my mail and the speed was still slow. Logged into my yahoo messenger so I could chat up some associated but it appears they were busy. I decided to go about my itinerary to GRA Phase II which included purchasing a samsung printer amongst others.

Beginning from UniPORT, the rain started pouring and the traffic was light so it did not take me time to get down to Rumokoro where I made my first stop. Most of the stretch of Ikwerre Road starting from FGC junction is being currently resurfaced. It surprises me that this road construction work is being done in the midst of the rainy season. To my surprise there are few cars today on the road. The rain is pouring and the lightening activity is very high.

My real destination is a company called Direct on PC hereafter called DOPC. On getting nearer to my destination, it occurs to me that I might have left the road and am in a river.  Hard to believe but many sections of the popular woji road in GRA Phase II has been flooded due to blocked drainage and the company (DOPC) am going to is right in the middle of it. I thought Peugeot 505 had high ground clearance but it was barely enough to swim through.

DOPC has a reputation for maltreating their clients so I was told. On getting to the gate after driving or is it canoing through woji road which is now river woji, the gateman kept me in the river a little longer with his questions.  After he left me in when I had introduced my self orally he introduced me to a receptionist who I liked to think was a black witch. She kept me standing for some time as she appeared to be very busy making and receiving calls then posted she me to some guy upstairs who is i call the Innocent demon. The guy did not offer me a chair but said that they had the printer in stock but I will have to come back tomorrow because  another devil who issues receipt will not come to work today and nobody else can issue me the same receipt. By now I was in cloud nine wondering aloud how I am going to paddle the car through that river only to come back again the following day. I was then told by another demon in training possibly doing IT that the river is at its least tide and when next I come I should be prepared to roll up my trousers cause the water will have taken over much of the grounds inside the compound. It was in haste made I to leave and the waters indeed were only increasing.

In Nigeria, we do not have options that is the truth. The gsm companies take our money and insult us, same with the banks (infact its even worse). The politicians continue to perform government magic (why else will someone be resurfacing a road in the day time during rainy season?) and the result is that what it takes much more effort to accomplish the same task in our country than anywhere else in the world.

The office was officially opened today and we are experiencing some routine challenges. I must give kudos to the government electricity body (PHCN) for giving us constant light in the last 3 days. Its been very encouraging, no burning of diesel, the air conditioning, music and best of all a fast browsing experience. I have been getting to meet a lot of people on-line through nairaland using the yahoo messenger.

Turnout is still poor though its getting better.  A lot of football fans are already getting disillusioned with the way the African representatives are fooling around with the ball in the ongoing fifa world cup. So they come in to browse away their sorrows. The weather has been quite bright and friendly on the whole indeed the environment within the University of Port Harcourt is just great and its the Lord's doing.

The latter part of yesterday was quite different. From nowhere characteristic of Port Harcourt, there came a heavy downpour and the weather became cool. A colleague of mine who had been very lousy with his timming and reactions got the boot. The work attitude of some Nigerians is pathetic. Our reward system is not helping matters at all; the management has however informed us that things have to change. Lets hope our internet connection remains stable so that our clients can be satisfied.

The weather today was so undecided that i considered sleeping in a little longer but it was not to be. I monitored the world cup update on CNN while enjoying a cup of MILO and 2 slices of toasted bread. A quick shower and I was trekking to the office. Trekking is my hobby and the weather was very cool. The streets of the University of Port Harcourt were largely bereft of people and I suspect its because the freshers are on break.

In the cyber cafe, things are warming up. The clientele is increasing by the day but the internet connection is still quite unstable. Our service providers have assured us that it will be rectified. The sun is shinning loudly and am looking forward to the rest of the day. Fridays are quite interesting and ends with choir rehearsals in the evening.

Its about 4pm and the weather has started changing. My shift in the cyber cafe has just ended and on the whole things are improving - the clients are coming back and the link instability is smoothening out but not at its best yet. Public electricity has been unstable since yesterday's heavy rainfall and there is presently a traffic jam at the University of Port Harcourt junction on the east - west road.

My first attempt at a poem through sms ended up causing commotion among the trial recipients which were 30. I have decided to post it here for all yo nairalanders.

I just realized there are some ill mannered people right here on Nairaland. Its very unfortunate the way some of us use yahoo messenger. Swearing and profanities are not part of our culture so I get pissed off when I come across some "pretenders" who never even reach airport they yan. By the way the only thing "International" in the Port Harcourt International Airport which is the second busiest airport in Nigeria after the one at Lagos is the word "international"

The Cyber Cafe is slowly getting back into its normal self at least the service provider  is co - operating and the clients are happy with the services  The remedial students (popularly called "basic" students) of the UniPORT are starting their first semester examination today. Public electricity which I will refer to as "NEPA" from now on is also co-operating.