Acknowledging Privilege

You know one thing that comes with looking at old things with new eyes? Interesting discoveries!  

For those of you who do not know, I have been in Nigeria for thirteen days and I will be here till the end of the year. So, I’m writing about what it feels like to go back home after half a decade. I already said in my last post that everything seems familiar except that it isn’t. And by that I meant that I’m now noticing things that have probably always been there, but had managed to go unnoticed. Every time I notice something, I wonder if I'm thinking and acting like a foreigner in my own motherland. It's a weird feeling. But it is what it is; I've been out of touch. 

Let's move to today's story. One night last week, Oye knocked on my door because she had been sent to get something called a “ruler”.  Oye is the amazing maid, who really has been my right hand person. She's been helping me relearn the art of crossing Lagos streets, perfecting my haggling skills and most importantly  removing as many traits of "I just got back" as we can. 

It’s going to be pretty hard to fully recreate the scene that played between us because we dialogued in Yoruba. But anyway, she came in search of a ruler. Being new in the house, I had no means of knowing where things were before I became an occupant of the room, but she seemed like she needed my help in the search for this ruler. It took me way too long to figure out why she needed my help! But when my brain was finally done booting, I realized that she knew what she needed was a ruler, but did not know what a ruler was! 

I tried not to let the deeper impact of this realization be reflected in my facial expression, because we’d already had a few embarrassing English- learning sessions earlier in the week. But in that moment, I became even more aware of how accustomed I had become to privilege. Yes, even knowing what a ruler is, is a privilege. 

I had a moment there, and just became more grateful for the things that I've been privileged to know, and also the things that thanks to privilege, I'll never know.

   As for my life in Lagos, I'm still liking being back home (well, on most days). The heat rashes are real, and so is the tan. My camera is still being underused because, what better way is there to announce that "I just got back" than to whip out a camera to snap regular people doing regular things? However, my phone and power bank have been serving me very well! And my Snapchat never sleeps... Feel free to hop over there  @fopsyyy. I want to go for this festival I read about on Facebook sometime next week, so expect a photo flood soon.

Until then, feel free to get back to whatever you were doing.

Fopsy!