I have been home for a month now.

I have been home for a month now.

And I’m learning to live with the opportunities of living at home.

Here are some of these opportunities:

1. The fèrègèdè seller. Do you see her picture here?

The last time I ate fèrègèdè was when I was in the primary school, and a feregede seller came to our school during lunch time. Fèrègèdè is a special type of dark beans. You cook it for hours, and the fèrègèdè seller must start cooking in the evening and leave the beans on the wooden stove overnight, so that it is ready for sale in the morning. I saw this fèrègèdè seller as I was negotiating through the potholes at crawling pace, and quickly stopped to buy some fèrègèdè from her. When I got home, I soaked some gari and had the feregede with it. Damn! It was delicious. There is no fèrègèdè in America. And I’m no fan of burgers, cakes and fries.

2. No internet.

(How on earth is there “No internet!” You have paid for these services!

But in Nigeria, you learn to live with such frustrations as part of daily experiences).

3. No electricity.

(I got a generator. I turn it on. Neighbors come to charge their cellphones at my place. The good part is that those who used to call me “Olorisa and Babalawo,” and who used to say I worship the devil now swallow their pride and approach me to request allowance to my generator power to charge their phones).

4. No roads.

(The roads are awful!!! “Awful” would be annoyed to be used to describe the roads, because awful is too pretty to qualify the roads.

And it is raining buckets, so the potholes are filled with water dyed with dirt. But because you have to drive real slow, you get to watch the details of life, and if you are lucky, you see the fèrègèdè seller).