Posts

The Trip Before the World Shut Down

Image
It’s hard to forget my time in Turkey, (not just because of the good times, the people, the food and the experience). But because I casually left the Uk on the 1st of March aware there was a pandemic, but not consciously living out the reality of the pandemic; only to return on the     8th  to be so aware that I wondered about why people were packed closely and coughing with reckless abandon at the Immigration point in UK. I wondered why no one was screening us for symptoms, why no one wanted to know where we came in from etc. And that was where the fear began. I looked at our whole arriving flight as a potential missile that landed in the UK. And I extrapolated that to all other flights coming in from everywhere else without checks and I knew, sadly before the leaders realised it, that we were sitting on a ticking time bomb.  And right after that trip, life changed: at work, with travel,  and even at home! By the 10th of March, I was fit testing for FFP3. ...

Defending the streets

The sun wasn't so intense, it had just the right balance, everything about the day was going fine -part affirming that the force was with me and the planned journey to Portharcourt was in line with God's will. You see the hour's long journey to Portharcourt shouldn't normally require this much permutation and calculation, but with the spate of kidnapping and robberies on the East-West road, one can only re-strategize: reappraise the importance of the journey, decide on the best time etc. So I was to head out on a Thursday (Neither a market day for Mbiama market nor the day workers living in different cities travelled more), between 10 and 11am, (a good balance since these enemies of the highway tended to target the morning or evening rush). Heading back at at most 3pm would also ensure I missed the peak of the city's traffic as well as the kidnappers who didn't get any victim in the morning. Lastly, balancing the pros and cons of private vs public transportati...