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April 4, 2004

Well, traveling again, naturally

Tomorrow morning, I'm off to Columbia, South Carolina for one last week (unless they love me so much they buy more of my services- technical services, o ye with dirty minds!).

I have spent a total of 10 week there since last September, and I have made a couple of new friends there.

One of them, Yvonne, is originally from Nigeria. She has been here in the USA for over 30 years, and is a citizen - for those of you who may wonder.

Yvonne is one of the most joyful women I have ever met. She is always smiling and cheerful.

One day, we talked about Nigeria. Her mother and several of her brothers and sisters still live there (she is from a family of 12 children). Yvonne says that Nigeria has completely lost its middle class - there are only the political rich and the poor. Even in Lago, there can be weeks with no electricity in most homes. Yvonne visited Nigeria last month, to visit her very ill mother. There is so much crime and corruption there, that her brothers and cousins would not let her rent a car - it would make her stand out in the crowd and she would risk being victimized. She had a whole series of places she was to take cabs to and buses to before she could meet one of her brothers to go visit her mother.

Hearing of countries where people are afraid to travel because of the real presence of highwaymen is quite startling to me. As Yvonne told me, the government of Nigeria has become very corrupt, and only the very rich are safe. Nigeria once had a large middle class and the streets were once safe - but in the past 30 years, things have gone terribly wrong.

I'll be happy to see Yvonne tomorrow. I'm quite relieved she made it back here safely.

Another new friend from South Carolina is Shannon. She has an absolutely remarkable background that I'll tell you about someday - if she says it is okay.

Shannon and I can sit and drink sweet tea and talk for hours. I feel like she could be a younger sister. We have as many differences as we do things in common, but our personalities click quite well. I'll be happy to see Shannon again tomorrow, too.

I suspect that I could be good friends with some of my favorite female bloggers out there - Theresa, Pam, Kate, Key, Joanie, Beth, Juliette , DC, Helen and LeeAnn - I hope someday I get to meet you all. I think you are all great, and I feel like I could be an older sister to all of you. (yeah, I am pretty damn sure I'm older than the whole bunch of ya!)

Posted by Beth at April 4, 2004 10:00 PM

Comments

Posted by: pam at April 5, 2004 7:10 AM

Posted by: Teresa at April 6, 2004 3:41 PM

Posted by: DC at April 6, 2004 7:55 PM

Posted by: beth at April 6, 2004 8:04 PM