Dear Villagers,

I am writing to you all today from a mission I am engaged in, I am writing from Bangladesh where I am employed with an election observation team. The People of Bangladesh will be going for elections soon and I am one of the long term election observers.

My flights to Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh were very long and physically exhausting. I have four different flights to reach Dhaka city. At a point I almost felt like I wouldn’t make it in one piece. I remember going to the stewards' cabin and standing with them for more than 2 hours entertaining the poor stewardess and singing to them in Yoruba and showing off on some of the Daddy Shokky’s ridiculous and obnoxious dance steps (at my age!). Most of the hostesses had been to Lagos before because Emirate Airline flies Lagos route. But this was the first they were hearing songs in Yoruba and this was the first time I was entertaining air hostesses because I was excessively bored. I did this because I could no longer tolerate sitting in the chair after flying for more than 24hrs and had totally lost count of hours and stopped figuring what time it was back at home in Nigeria; whether morning or afternoon. But thankfully we made it and even though the immigration procedures were slow and long, we made it out and we were settled in a large and comfortable hotel. The following day, we moved hotel to another 5start with more security where all observers were camped. There were some from EU, UN, IRI and a host of others. But none from Africa (I guess observing elections elsewhere is not of importance to Africa even if we messed up with Kenya, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, and cross our fingers for Ghana, Guinea and a host of others yet to take bad lessons from the Nigeria April 2007 electoral precedence)

The training at the hotel (for three days) was great and very comprehensive. We were bombarded with loads of information about this country, its people, its politics, its laws…we well prepared for the field posting which will be our station throughout the duration of the election. By this time I had not recovered from my jet lag and it was seriously difficult for me to go to bed and sleep earlier that 5am or 6am local Bangladesh time. I told doctors about my lack of sleep and they said that must be because my body has a certain rhythm that it was used to and which it was following and that must have akin to the time structure back at home and that was true because at home in Nigeria, I hardly went to be before 11pm in Abuja.

We have been posted to our location. Mine was a district which was on the south of Dhaka but we needed 5hrs to reach there and we had to cross the river with a huge ferry. I am in a team of two and have a jeep, a driver and a translator.

Here our meetings with all election stakeholders are going on well. We are really impressed with situations of things here and so I have no complaint other than the fact that I came from a 5 star hotel to a 0.5 or 1 star hotel here. They are really not in the same category but that is the nature of the job.

I have an issue though; a serious one our elections have been moved by 10 days and our organization is pleading with us to stay. To have us replaced with cost huge logistic nightmare. 

The people here are so receptive of us particularly me. I am the only African here and so loads of people want to talk to me and shake my hands. For the first time in my entire life, I feel like a star amongst the people. I am FED UP eating rice. It is the only food I get to eat here and I am really worried about the food. I have never in my life felt like adoring the thoughts of eating pounded yam; amala; fufu, afan soup or ogbona. How could have have under-rated our beloved tuwo, the lafun, the embiripo or our famous Ikokore... Now I know and practically agree that north, east, west or south; home remains the best.

However aside from my challenges with food, I am fine and will continue to be fine and do my work and return to you all alive.

I must attend meetings now and sleep later. I send you my warmest regards, and promise that tomorrow, I will send you an extraordinary incident that knocked me out beyond repairs.

Greetings

Dele

Robot  # 1 | 01.12.2008 00:17

Dear Villagers, I am writing to you all today from a mission I am engaged in, I am writing from Bangladesh where I am employed with an election observation team. The People of Bangladesh will be going for elections soon and I am one of the long term election observers. My flights to Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh were very long and physically exhausting. I have four different flights to reach Dhaka city. At a point I almost felt like I wouldn’t make it in one piece. I remember going to the stewards' cabin and standing with them for more than 2 hours entertaining the poor stewardess and singing to them in Yoruba and showing off on some of the Daddy Shokky’s ridiculous and obnoxious dance steps (at my age!). Most of the hostesses had been to Lagos before because Emirate Airline flies Lagos route. But this was the first they were hearing songs in Yoruba and this was the first time I was entertaining air hostesses because I was excessively bored...Read the full article.