What’s happening up in the sky?

 I woke up and went to bathroom to perform ablution. I looked at my time, but when I came back something strange happened. My day starts that way, every day, with going to bathroom and looking at time.

This is a consistent routine. There is no call to prayer. When I was in Kano I would ignore the muezzin’s call and keep on with my sleep. I’d spring to my feet on the last minute. I hardly missed the prayer nonetheless. 

Prayer time

I read the Qur’an after the prayer and get to my table. First thing is open the email. New messages would start trickling in, but there are sometimes messages that I sleep on. I work, develop and edit documents while responding to emails. I am not an early eater. I work from when I jumped on the chair until 10am for breakfast, other times till 2. I don’t normally schedule classes in the morning. So, everyone would have a chance to buy time.

Once I finished classes, I catch bus and rush home. I acquired some books that I read. I feel guilty spending hundred dollars a month on books. This is not much, but if you look at the condition in Nigeria you can see what I mean, you can see what hundred dollars can buy.

My workload rests on my shoulder, staring at me every day. I need to attend the classes I audit, do the reading and respond to texts in short essays, develop materials for the classes I teach and attend to my own personal life: chatting and calling folk, shopping and cooking and napping when necessary.

The day for the useless sun

 

It was a bit difficult from the start. Not that the work is much, mine is easier compared to other colleagues. It was just I didn’t yet find the balance. The imposter syndrome stuck with me. But I slowly found my rhythm. At any rate, I’m good at what I do. Though everyone can speak and write well, especially in the English Department, chances are not many could match my stamina and love for reading. In the undergraduate classes I audit, not everyone has the clarity of thoughts for brilliant articulation. And certainly, not many are well read as to write with the same clarity, which is my area of strength.

For the personal thing, I do month-long shopping. Cook large enough food to last for days. Weekend that supposed to be for rest is spent largely attending to personal needs. The ABU experience, the breathless race against due dates come again with a great sense of déjà vu.

But it’s almost the kind of life I want, spending hours indoor without undue interference. On one occasion I spent two days indoors with my books without going anywhere as near the couch, which sits at the middle of the living room with tendency towards the door. In these two days I barely met my roommate. I went out of my room only for food and to bathroom for ablution.

People back home often have trouble understanding cooking for the whole week. Does the food not spoil? Yes, it doesn’t. There is a system for keeping your food. One minute without electricity would be disastrous in the US. Almost everything that you can think of depends on power and the internet. The weather, for instance. A lot of things are shaped and organized from the weather perspective.

Back in Nigeria I was scared by the horrible tale of cold. Warning came from several quarters. I take things lightly until the day I was at one of the university’s centers. A writing blinks from a screen for international students to note that winter can be brutal here!  

In the early days, anytime I went to bed I would shut my eyes and wait to freeze. One of the things I never thought is possible is going to bed like I do in Nigeria: going to bed with boxer shorts. Freeze, it seems, I never would.  Once indoor, you’re insulated from the outside temperature.

Houses and anywhere else that people would live or work is equipped with heating system. I am gradually seeing the context. People are always indoor because the weather is volatile and the environment hostile. They need to be conquered and subdued to a condition suitable for human habitation. There is a time that the days are shorter and colder. I was amused learning that we’d soon be there. Shorter days for a reason. Of what use the long days if snow is falling?

You would have warning signs in the sky for any change in weather conditions in Nigeria. Every season is clearly demarcated. But here, you can have anything in one day. It might rain. A second later the sun is up smiling at you. A minute later it would be cold or windy. All in a matter of seconds. I once went out in light clothes, trusting the sun in the sky. The chilly wind hit me. I tried to brave it. The sun was so ineffective I had to go back home and wear heavy clothes.

Things are so sudden and pronounced, or maybe because they are closely tracked and publicized. In Nigeria, you certainly don’t take official announcements seriously. The time shift was announced at the Juma’at mosque. Zuhr prayer would be at11:45am, Asr 2:19 and maghrib by 4:45pm. My first thought was a doubt and shrug. Let’s wait: let’s wait and see if the sun would go down at 4:45pm.

I was even joking on WhatsApp that we would pray Asr with the sun up. As we progressed into the day, at 3pm the sky was golden, evidence of immanent twilight. The sky was already dark at 4:45. No wonder I had trouble understanding my student once telling me our appointment was 5 at night. Five at night? Is that what you call night? I now understand.

Earlier that day, in the morning, I came back from bathroom and found the clock in my phones adjusted itself one hour behind. It was a psychic rupture I struggled to process. Things like that are distant phenomena to us. No wonder people here are keen in what’s happening up in the sky.

 

Madison, WI