Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Nigeria Elections #3


Todays screen grab is a lady pounding yams in the city centre right next to the election main office. We spend hours here waiting for the officials to come out of hiding as this whole election goes crazy. They also had live catfish on offer. This morning I saw a man on the roadside holding a live rabbit by the legs for sale. Our taxi driver assured us it was being sold for a pet. Apparently they eat dogs here and some restaurants sell them. I have not seen any dogs anywhere in the city or country. We continue to chase press conferences and sit in confined rooms fighting for camera positions.There is little protocol here and one soon learns to push and shove but still everyone is generally good natured and there is much laughing and continues greetings and shaking of hands and saying welcome on any and every occasion. I went to a scary place to find some cheap headphones. Little rabbit warren passages with these bright kids stripping computers printers etc and fixing circuit boards. You can buy any pirate software you want at good prices. Fortunately I was with an ex Durbanite now living here who has been hired as our researcher. He is ex Hilton boy complete with dreadlocks and this very English accent. His nameis Kariba and he is a complete scream. As usual I am feeding the days story back into the tepid night sky as the clock heads towards midnight. This Bgan satellite device was designed for me as you have to point the thing until you get three green lights displaying. For us colour disadvantaged people there is also a beeper that rises in pitch with the correct angle. Just to have the unit is R 3000 per day plus time on the satellite. Supposed to be 256kps but because of weak signal about half that. Bit of a con really as one has to pay for time connected and not data transmitted..

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