Terror From Above

I was awoken in the middle of the night by something heavy landing on my chest.  A bit scared and unsure as to what was going on, I reached up to find out what had hit me. It felt like flesh, cold, clammy flesh!  My first thought was "it's a frog."

Terrified, I tried to grab it to throw it off of me.  It was too heavy.  I felt it again, a hand!  In a half-awake stupor I began to panic.  Did some sort of dead hand just fall from the sky and land on me!?  Groping at this strange object, I found it was still attached to an arm. 

Then I realized it was my hand.  My right arm had fallen asleep and was completely numb from the shoulder down.  I couldn't feel my left hand touching my right one.  I had thought my right hand was lying next to my body on the bed.  Relived that severed body parts were not falling from above, I left my numb arm where it was and went back to sleep.

(image from Vampires in the Fog)

My Favorite Quote About the New CERN Accelerator

"I think it's a very important project," said Katie McAlpine, 23, a Michigan State University graduate who made a rap video about the project.

What would Biggie and Tupac say if they knew rap had reached this level?  Now, if only I had internet that allowed me to watch YouTube.  Oh well, don't look a gift horse in the mouth.  I'll watch it in a few months.

Friday

Some people look forward to Casual Fridays; some people look forward to First Fridays; but me, I look forward to Traditional Fridays.

Traditional Fridays are fun and colorful.  This is the day everyone (well, nearly everyone) in the office dons their "natives."  This is what Nigerians call the outfits that are more African than Western.  Really, with things like A-line skirts and collared shirts, the outfits aren't truly native or traditional, but the ensembles are very African, modern African.  And they're beautiful.

For the guys, the outfits are probably also easier to put on and more comfortable.  The men in the office trade their suit and ties for loose fitting elastic-waist pants and long loose shirts made out of the same lightweight material.  The female outfits can be better than usual, but it depends on how fitted the native is and how suit-like the regular daily wear is.

One of my favorite things to do on Fridays is stand at the end of the hall outside my office door, looking over the balcony railing.  Bright, brilliant colors flutter and flow, up and down the stairs, in and out of doors.  On every floor, vibrant materials parading around.  Humongous headdresses, flounces, ruffles, you name it, if it's big and bright, it's there.

And I like the nice break from my boring suits.

Me on my first Traditional Friday (Zambian garb, which everyone recognized as not being West African)

 

 

And me this past Friday in my new natives, which everyone complemented me on, saying "ah, now you are Nigerian."

Hi Ho Hi Ho

It was Saturday, but I went to work.  There was a meeting of the Research Team of the WIPO/NCC Study on the Contribution of Copyright and Related Rights Based Industries to the National Economy of Nigeria.

The meeting was scheduled to start at 10am.  I arrived at 9:59 and, just as I expected, was very early.  The narrow conference room had barely enough room for the table and chairs and for one person to squeeze along the wall on one side of the room.  This resulted in some people having to actually climb over others in order to take their seats. 

The meeting finally started at 11:30 and ended at    18:00.  At least the chairs were cushy and fairly comfortable.  The table fell apart in the middle of the meeting.  The head of the table had a half-circle extension on it.  The extension was attached by a screwed in bracket, but the screw tore out of the wood on the big part of the table and the extension fell off.  Somehow, the National Consultant running the meeting managed to balance the extension's bracket on top of the big table without interrupting the meeting or dropping his laptop.

Several secretaries were also at work that day.  They brought out coffee and tea, pitchers of water, crackers, sugar and condensed milk shortly after the meeting began.  About an hour later, they returned to collect all the items.  At 3pm, they brought us lunch.  And then after lunch again, they brought out the coffee and tea supplies.  No crackers this time though. 

When we weren't munching on crackers, we could take little sweets from the dishes on the table.  Being my adventurous self, I picked up a little orange and black striped wrapper.  "Tom Tom" it proclaimed.  Inside, a black and white striped candy that smelled a bit like licorice.  I like licorice, so I popped the candy into my mouth.  Yuck.  The black part was licorice all right.  But the white part was mint.  This resulted in a sort of licorice-cough-drop flavor.  I bit into it and tried to eat it as fast as possible.  That was the end of my sweeets-tasting for the day.

The meeting was pretty interesting, even if it was incredibly long.  But it was well-organized and the group knew what it wanted to accomplish, set out a plan for how to accomplish it, assigned people and set deadlines.  I'm excited to see how things progress.

Shameless Plug for Donations

As you know, I'm currently in living in Nigeria.  You may also know that I previously spent a couple of years in Zambia.  Living in Africa makes one acutely aware of the impact of HIV and AIDS, but it is not just an African disease. 

In Middle Tennessee alone, there are over 300 new cases each year.  One out of every 250 Americans has HIV, only one out of 500 knows it.  While our infection rate is not nearly as staggering as the one out of 5 in Zambia, it is still devastating.  The fastest growing rate of infection is in African-American women; young people and people of color remain the most at-risk groups.  This is why Vanderbilt's Black Law Student Association (BLSA)participates in the Nashville CARES AIDS Walk.

Last year (see p. 3), BLSA and the Vanderbilt Bar Association (VBA) challenged the Law School student organizations to participate in the AIDS Walk.  Because of the great participation in this challenge, the Law School became the third highest fund-raiser participant in the Walk.  We're out to do it again!

Please support Team BLSA.  You can support any of the real walkers on our team page, or support me as a virtual walker.  Either way, any little bit will help; pennies do add up!

Donate Here