The other day a man shined my shoes and was going to charge me only 30 Naira…that’s the equivalent of about 20 cents. That got me thinking about the value of the naira here (which is sometimes lost on us expats because we choose to or have to shop in places with ridiculously inflated prices) It also made me think about how hard it must be to make a living here if you are walking the streets offering to shine people’s shoes for 20 cents a pop. So I wondered, what else could one buy for 30 Naira?? Of course I went first to my driver to ask him. He knows things :) After a very funny conversation with him, I discovered that for 30 Naira I could buy:
- 3 akara (fried bean balls) or;
- 3 bags of drinking water (the tiny kind that you bite a hole in & suck the water out of) or;
- 6 Tom Tom (licorice candies); or
- Some small “biscuits” that are like a package of saltine crackers or cookies;
Or, a shoe shine. Hmm. Decide for yourself…is 30 Naira a little or a lot??
I hope that shoe shiner guys got a lot of business today so he can buy akara AND water tonight.
2 comments:
Hi sweet friends!! I had a computer switch over and lost the blog address for a while but now I am back and so glad to "see" you.
Hello, my name is Jessica and I am a high school student in Denver, Colorado. In my World Literature class, I have an assignment to research what life is like in another country around the world. I decide to research Nigeria, because I have had two different Nigerians come and live with me for a year each. Part of our assignment is to get in touch with someone currently living in the country. I have tried, but failed, to get a hold of the kids that lived with me in the past, but have been unable to do so because they do not have internet access where they live. I was wondering if you could just tell me a little about what you know of Nigerian life and how it differs from the United States. If you could help me out I would really appreciate it, it looks like you are doing some great things over there. One day I hope to run an orphanage over there, so you are very inspiring to me with all the work you are doing. God Bless
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