The Nigerian Office

My side hustle led me to a business located about 20 miles from where I live. However, I felt like I was transported several thousand miles away to a business location in Lagos, Nigeria. This particular office is a medium-sized business owned by a couple of Nigerians. They employ several Nigerians and non-Nigerians alike. Aside from the fact that it is owned by Nigerians, here are some of the things that made it totally Nigerian:

The selling of stuff. To be precise, the sale of items totally unrelated to the business itself on the premises of the business. One overly made-up lady came by while I was there and tried to make me an Avon convert. I was on the phone and noticed her hovering around waiting for a chance to get my attention. She introduced herself and asked if I had used Avon before. I am more of a Mary Kay person when it comes to direct-sale cosmetics but being that I like to support my people, I bought $20 worth of Avon products from my sister. She helped me find a color to match my skin tone and took my order carefully when I finally decided what I wanted. She even promised to order the items that very night and get them to me at the weekend. Great customer service experience there.

Unlikely food smells. It was around lunch time but still the aroma of Bank Olemo stew was not easy to ignore. I asked if someone was indeed selling food and was told that there was indeed a food peddler on the premises. Wow. I was told to hurry if I wanted any of the $7 per plate items she was selling because the food peddler was about to leave. I found her in the parking lot and asked her what she had available. She opened her trunk and revealed several coolers with Fried Rice, Jollof Rice, White Rice, Meat Stew, Dodo, Chicken and Fish. I told her I wanted white rice - I was feening for that Bank Olemo stuff I'd just inhaled and ran inside because it was so hot outside. She brought my white styrofoam to go box replete with white rice, dodo, shaki, and fried meat. For one brief second, I thought I should have specified fish when I spotted the shaki. When I got home, I discovered that the food was really as good as it smelled and was glad to have caught her.

Name calling. You can never be sure what to call people when you meet them and while I am prone to using first names, I have been burned badly in the past and take my cue from others around me. If people are using first names freely, I will also use first names freely. There's a caveat though. If they are around my age, I will use first names freely. In this office, I mostly use first names to address the people I am familiar with. Some call me ma'am and I call them sir in return. Today, however, one guy referred to me as that "Aunty over there" and I was stomped for a short while. I won't be calling him Uncle but I'll have to remember not to call him by his first name to his face. Got it?

Yelling. Instead of picking up their phones or going over to their co-workers' desks to engage in conversation, I noticed that people were yelling from the comfort of their offices. I guess if it works for them why bother adopting other forms of communication?

Children in the hallway. There were two cute girls with neat back-to-school cornrows using the computer in the hallway. I assumed that their parents worked there and asked the super-nice Admin Coordinator whose children they were. To my surprise, they were Mama rice's children. Free babysitting, ko? She'd left them there to continue about her business. I don't blame her. A woman's gotta do what a woman's gotta do. Besides, the kids were totally safe there and busied themselves with computer games while the adults conducted their business. After a little while though, the younger one got tired of the older one monopolizing the use of the computer and started crying. I went over and asked her what was wrong and she started boohooing even more - "I want my mommy!" Yepa, what have I caused? I reassured her that her mom would be back soon and motioned for one of the more familiar 'Aunties' to come and take care of their baby.

Overall, it felt good to be in that environment for a change. Nigerians are ever so helpful when it comes to explaining things that one would normally be shy to ask others in a regular American setting. I had a little bit of a problem printing a document and two of the office guys came to my rescue. Later, I forgot my password and they didn't make me feel like a complete idiot. Finally, the tech guy was very nice when I made him hold for a looooooong (maybe a minute but to me that's really long) time while I ended a phone call. People (Nigerians included) are often leery of Nigerians when it comes to doing business. I find that there is value to supporting one another and building wealth within our small community. Other immigrant communities (Indians, Chinese, Hispanics, Brazilians, Italians) have become quite adept at growing both small and large-scale businesses primarily geared towards their communities. I'm looking forward to the day that we see more Nigerians taking full advantage of this thriving economy and conducting legitimate business with one another.