Youth Interrupted, episode VI

It’s a nice Sunday afternoon here; I’m at home listening to some nice jazz and chatting to friends via msn a.k.a the modern miracle of technology. I should be content at this stage but I am not. After all, my stomach is full; weather is nice; I don’t have to do much at the moment; so why this disconcertion?
At the beginning of the week just gone by, I finished my exams to my delight and set out on an interesting journey of binge drinking and pulling. Of course this write up isn’t about my pulling (er, alright I didn’t pull the ones I wanted to pull) but I will confess to having a good time. As the night grew old, I suddenly realised that I was the only person of colour left in the pub; save for a black girl who was a member of our party, and an Asian (Indian sub-continent) boy who had brought a Chinese girl on a date…odd eh? I’ll be honest I began to feel uncomfortable, and I think the other girl started to feel this way too. As the pub staff started to herd the revellers to the sitting area on the lower level, the black girl declared that she had had enough and needed to home; naturally my chivalrous nature came to fore when I insisted that I escort her home knowing fully well that I would not be let back in the club. As we walked down the lane, I noticed the Asian boy and Chinese girl walk hand in hand ahead of us. Now I won’t go into details of if I went straight home from there but what struck me at the time was the fact that all the coloured people left. Why?
Later on in the week, I resumed work again and to my chagrin was advised that we (foreigners) were not allowed to work overtime “simply because they could not be bothered to get someone to monitor when people were doing over the hours allowed on their visas”. What a load of tripe!!! Here we have people inciting religious intolerance, sponging off the government and working illegally and you stop people from working? Ludicrous! Naturally, I’ve put in the applications for a new job to begin ASAP…sigh the joys of being a student!!
In the last three days, I have received more information (telephone calls and emails) off my old contacts in Nigeria more than all the while I have been in this country. I found it rather odd to be honest, considering the fact that these people hadn’t as much as written to me in the last two years. Perhaps I’ve been fortunate and have hit the news for some innovation I am yet to know about. Or worse, Madge came to Nigeria and realising I wasn’t in the country; turned right around and left…the outrage!! Anyway, of all the calls I received the most disturbing came from one of the chaps I used to work with in Lagos whom I shall refer to as BH. Now not that BH and I were particularly great friends or not, but after two years he rings me at four am in the morning for a chat, long distance. Even more intriguing was the direction of the conversation which (sparing the gory details) basically indicated that I was lucky to away as “that (this) is the environment that suits me best”! Whatever does that mean?
The events of the last week have caused me to reflect on my journey to this country and the life I once had. Peculiar to most travellers, one tends to question one’s decisions and ask the immortal question, did I make a mistake coming here? I reflect on my life past and the one I live now and I can’t seem to answer that question. I question my disillusionment at what I have found here and subsequently my actions leading up to coming here and even those of now. Why did we all leave the pub that night? Is it so unheard of that overtime will not be given to international students, after all; the proviso for a British student visa remains financial independence? Perhaps paranoia explains my reaction to the sudden contact received from home, after all Nigerians are constantly calling and visiting each other. In the process of living in this country, perhaps I have forgotten already. Anyway, in the next couple of entries of my blog, I am going to visit the events of the last couple of years leading up to how I got here. Perhaps I need to remind myself before I forget!!