In The Cyber Cafe

Woke up feeling very cool; i don't know if it was because I knew that I will not be going to church. Its not easy going to church that is some distance from where you reside. Listened to a sermon from Dr. Charles Stanley and one other guy on christian TV, it was quite nice. Unlike our tongue lashing, power screaming pastors, this guys were quite gentle and they spoke reasonably. I learnt of the favor of God and it was quite an interesting programme. My friend came around to take me to the cyber cafe where we were supposed to do some light maintenance but we had to get some diesel first in case there was an outtage from the public electricity supply. Driving along the east west road from the university junction up to airport intersection by obiri ikwerre there was no diesel so we took the bypass to NTA road and still nothing. We had to come back and start the maintenance with our fingers crossed. It went fine and we were back home for lunch which was jollof rice and fried chicken. After that we settled down to enjoy a george benson vcd and then ended up with the sunday sunday tonic we call "siroo" which is the pro evolution soccer on sony playstation 2. It was indeed a wonderful day and the weather is quite hazy.

Its been a month since I was posted from the cyber cafe to a government setup and really I am still adapting to the culture of the place.  Its an Info Tech facility and I am looking forward to contributing a lot. Unlike the former place where my working hours were very flexible, I have to sign an attendance register latest by 8am 5days a week. The funniest part is that you sign in and even though there is a column for signing out, no body fills that part. The Internet connection there is very fast and the place is air conditioned and spacious. I will be working basically with a web interface and network administration. I still get to visit the cybercafe especially on weekends and some evenings.

Its been 2 weeks since the choir in the church I attend went on break, they normally do so like twice in a year; talk of an annual leave. I too can do with some kind of a break. The cyber cafe is empty and to make things worse, NEPA have take the light (gbosa). I think its a saturday and the east west road by uniport junction is blocked with all kind of vehicle. Maltina is scarce and I don't know why.

Its amazing the number of things guys do just in order to get/keep the attention of a damsel but that is not what i want to talk about today.  I opened an account with Intercontinental bank as I ranked them very high in IT deployment. They had just opened a branch in the university and were saying that the account is locked to an ATM which will be issued (i was made to believe almost immediately at the worst - 3 working days), to start with their branch at the university park campus should be described as a cash office even though it has an ATM machine and a VSAT, its small. Getting my withdrawal booklet took me like 8 days; it was then I knew that the ATM card might take up to 8 months; its about 5 months since then and nothing has happened.

It was yesterday when I got the information that the Rivers State government made a request to NEPA to switch off electricity to Port Harcourt and its environs during the day because of the gas turbine project which they are connecting. In the absence of electricity how can one keep busy especially with this harmattan weather? I read the newspapers till sleep over came me then the university generator was switched on for 2 hours during which I did some work on the computer and had lunch and back to the newspapers when it was switched off again. Wow!!! the cybercafe which would have taken away some of my boredom has been shut down this saturday to reopen on monday because of the increase in diesel overhead. Took a bath to cool off and then also gave the car a bath and took another bath again. Thank God for the outside tank; at least I don't have to worry about water.

All through this week, I have been a resource person with digital bridge institute which has a training program for select academic staff of nigerian universities. For the south south zone, the Information and communication training centre of the university of port harcourt was the venue. On this particular day, I decided to dress corporately and right from the house I could not help smiling. I am a typical African man, like fela I don't see anything in dressing like a gentleman especially with this our hot weather. Anyway my mom started, ,  you look sharp today that's nice, my sister was like wow u look good. On the road, the gardener that normally rides past me without even blinking called my name with a loud "oga good morning" and I was like "spare me" In the bus and now in the office, my colleague was "this must be your wedding day" - I just smilled. The way you dress really matters afterall,

I wonder who designated December 1 as World AIDS day; even on the google web site there was a symbol of a red ribbon which I got to understand while watching a documentary on aljazeera news indicates that such a person is having AIDS. Indeed, there is an increase in the awareness of the global epidemic - that is what they call it.

Personally, I don't see AIDS as an epidemic because you can by your way of life and certain actions prevent yourself from getting it; preventing mosquito from biting you in Africa is like trying to remain alive inside a coffin that has been buried 6 foot under. I also don't believe that condoms is the best way of protection; abstinence and faithfulness (in marriage) is a far better deal.

Is there a world malaria day? I think more people have died from malaria and the worse part of it is that they could have been treated.

Not much is happening around this days, its amazing the type of politics am seeing in my new posting. You have to be a skilful diplomat trying to balance everything; so many unstructured interactions and a lot of nonsense. From the outside you will expect so much but nothing is happening with a lot of people. The governor has declared a holiday for state civil servants to enable them give the president a rousing welcome as he comes to commission the gas turbine and some of the federal civil servants have used the opportunity to be absent from work. The cleaners don't sweep and nobody queries them, the messenger wants to do the job of an administrative officer and nobody says "jack", tomorrow they will say their salary is small. What a country!!!

Did it just occur to me that persistence pays? Maybe not, but does it really? is it always for the good? Due to the season, the cybercafe now closes by 5pm officially, in reality we close by 6.30pm. The cybercafe has an installed capacity for 25 client user systems of which 15 are operational for now. At about 5.15pm, only 3 systems where in use and one of them wanted to buy an hour to which I replied that we were closing by 6pm and so he won't finish his time. Some people came after 6pm and wanted to buy time to which I refused that we had closed, and they left. Then my former lecturer came and I was OMG; I could not tell him that we had closed so he started using the system. Another guy came in and said he had a ticket which he brought the previous day; by this time I had switched off all the remaining systems. He went on to say that he will not be in the university environs the next day which I believed was a lie. In any case, I switched on the system and he finished his time; my lecturer was still there and it was pass 7pm when they lock the back gate meaning I will have to trek round.

Just then, he got up paid for his time and printout then left and I started walking in the direction of the gate that was locked, even though I saw people walking past me to pass the long way, I still persisted. When I got there, the security vehicle was parked there and 3 people were there insisting that they must pass the gate even though it was past 7pm. Looking back, I have experienced when they lock the gate by 6.45pm and I went round but today might be different and it was because they opened the gate for us to pass through and indeed I learnt a lesson.

As early as 8am today, I was at computer village which covers some streets at the Ogbunabali area here in Port Harcourt. My flash drive was bad and I needed a replacement amongst other things. The first offer I got was 3k5 for a 1GB san cruzer product and it looked good on face value but a careful examination of the packaging did not impress me. They brought other products like lightwave and still others more but I was not still convinced. I decided to check another store and there I saw the lexar product and it was cool only that a 1GB was going for 10k. It then occurred to me that I should check the web to ascertain the real cost of the product and then compare to know if they should send it or whether I should get it from the US. There are fuel queues all over the place with few stations having petrol; I hope its a temporal situation.

The bus I entered today while going to work was a moving piece of metal. That such a bus will be allowed to carry university students within the campus shows that the students representatives have been compromised. Many students kept complaining on how the new administration installed a "puppet student union executhief" whose only achievement is the increase of compulsory dues from N200 to N2000 which they intend to share amongst themselves. The bus eventually came to a halt opposite the roman catholic church and trust the lamentations and insults that followed. The driver quickly opened the engine compartment and touched something which enabled the bus to start. Coming back from work was even worse, the tyre simply burst and I just resorted to trekking home as I simply have had enough of this nonsense.  If in a small community like this university rubbish like this is allowed to happen then what about the general uneducated community?

We have come to that time of the year when everything seems to slow down and the zeal to reach the office reduces. A lot of people are saying merry christmas but I am not interested. There is an abundance of fuel scarcity and the price is now N100 a litre for petrol. Transport fares have increased by at least N30 in most places. Good employers like mine have paid this month salaries by 20th into the bank but alas the banks are now saying there is not enough cash. Am looking foward to the holidays because I intend to rest and do some stamina building routines.

What happens when all of a sudden you stop enjoying things you previously liked? The political situation in the country though dynamic has suddenly created a this interest in my system, I just go blank when in the political section of nairaland. Not much is happening, supposed to be on holidays. Everyone seems to be travelling but the idea has not crossed my mind. Infact going outdoors does not seem very fascinating. Good music still creates a spark and thankfully I have just discovered a jazz tv channel - talking about trade and tourism channel on Pas 7/10 ku satellite where south african music is show cased. Their bass lines are simple yet uniquely particular to that area of Africa. Their videos show case the natural environment that God has bestowed on them; its such a blessing.

A visit to a friend's house in another part of Port Harcourt brought me to the reality of darkness. Its like where am staying is heaven, most of Port Harcourt is in darkness which is made worse by the absence of Petrol to run private generators. Not many people travelled to their villages this time around as there is no money in circulation. I wonder if its because EFCC has frozen the Rivers State bank accounts. I hear that in the black market, petrol is now N250 a litre, did someone just say that democracy is a good thing? This country na wa - ya ya ya ya ya. There is a heat that comes with darkness especially in the day time.

Was woken up by a phone call from a friend at 7.05am who informed me that the fuel station in the university was about to start selling. I rushed down to the place without thinking and queued up as the 8th car from the pump. By 10.30am, the manager of the station came and without any apology announced that petrol will be sold to the over 60 cars with one pump at N67 and jerrycans at N90 with the other pump. The bottomline was that the tanker did not bring the whole 33000 litres but around 11000 litres. While the pump selling N90 was moving smoothly the other was having one problem or the other. If the cars did not block everywhere, the attendant suddenly disappeared. Infact, even jerrycans where being sold at that pump. The whole game plan we recognized was to make as much money by the petrol station. It was about 1.50pm that officials of the DPR came and the station manager immediately ordered both pumps to sell to cars, that was how I got petrol at about 2.05pm. This country is indeed the greatest.

In everything give thanks for this is the will of God, , finally the year has come to an end and all thanks and praise to God. Am putting finishing touches to my resolutions which will empower me in the coming year. Looking back now, I can say that everything was not as I wanted it to be but God knows best. The public electricity situation on campus has deteriorated but the university administration has been up to the task by making the generators functional during this festive period. Thank God the fuel scarcity did not affect diesel. I am looking forward to a year of spiritual invigoration and establishing quality relationships with reasonable people.