Mundane

Oni dodo, oni moin-moin

Nigba ti won o ta won gbe gba ka le

Ewa wo ija ni Lafiaji

Every business needs a good crowd.

I am partially obsessed with this folk song. I guess this obsession is related to it's space complexity. So much so that I have a vivid mental picture of the scenario it describes. This has caused me to reflect much on what philosophical value it might have. I think I might have found one that isn't too much of a stretch.

I'm reminded about a story of a missionary, who upon entering a village, proceeds to attract a crowd. This could take the form of pretend madness, or staged fights. The ultimate goal is to get people to muster, out of curiosity, after which the 'Good News' can be broken.

We see this strategy being applied by oni dodo and oni moin-moin: in their bid to improve their floundering sales, they proceed to stage a fight. I imagine this strategy was quite successful, it even earned them a folk song! In modern business parlance, I guess the saying goes, 'Any publicity is good publicity'.

I had known this song for quite a while. And knew 'by head' that Lafiaji is some place in Isale Eko. I serendipitously saw a sign post that said 'Lafiaji' around Obalende last year, and I had gone through this place many times!

I know this song is open to multiple interpretations. The song itself is quite organic, you can easily come up with your own stanzas. Variant stanzas I like are the landlord-tenant and lecturer-student ones. Admittedly, the other stanzas don't remotely fit my hypothesis. Maybe someone will come up with a more encompassing explanation, or we all can just agree that the song is nothing but a joke :)

Exactly four weeks ago, today, I arrived in Warsaw. I had left Lagos the night before. This was the culmination of about two months of efforts from me and my current employer.

I got an offer from Codility for a Software Engineering role about three months ago. I had always wanted to live in Europe so there wasn't much of a decision to make! (Well, decisions are always messy, but I will spare you the boring details).

This is my first time living outside Nigeria for an extended period of time (the other times being 2 days in Accra and 4 days in Zurich). There were the expected "shocks" (not so much of a shock if it's expected, eh?). Public infrastructure on point! Water, Electricity, public transport and internet at home. Well the water part isn't so impressive, you can provide your own water, without providing noise. But electricity! I miss the sound of gen and PHCN's stochastic nature (I don't know their new name) I guess you can say I had developed a form of masochistic relationship with the power company. Finally, I get cheap internet! Unfortunately, Airtel won't be giving me a refund for the 'fortune' I've paid to them. I like the fact that the public transport is effective and cheap (yes, cheap. I spend less on transport than I'd spend in Lagos and don't get me to reminisce about the state of public transport). Comparatively there seems to be a lot of work to be done and this causes some form of guilt. (I hope the guilt fades away in due time)

Polish people seem friendly, even though I wouldn't know for sure and despite the fact that I had a very weird experience on my second day here (some random guy flipping me off for no reason, thankfully this hasn't repeated itself). My sample is highly biased though -- mainly the awesome folks at Codility. Also, I'm largely deaf and dumb (and illiterate) so I can't tell if you're talking about me (not that I even try). But at least I don't feel unusual.

I have made zero progress towards learning the language. I'm not sure why. To think that I didn't even make any sustained effort to learn a few phrases before appearing here is quite shameful (that's assuming I feel shame). I guess it's partly because I hadn't decided how long I would be staying and I had overly estimated the usefulness of English. Also, Polish get's touted to you as being completely useless outside Polska. While my colleagues all speak English, I feel like my quality of life is greatly reduced by not understanding the local language. During my first few weeks here, I found that I felt more anxious than I ought to in public situations and I think this is attributable largely to my unfamiliarity with the Polish language. You can imagine how I felt during the Warsaw Uprising Anniversary last Friday. The trams just suddenly stopped and people started getting down and I had no idea what was happening. I couldn't relate the event with this occurrence even though I had read about the uprising earlier that day. Anxiety! I should sign up for a language course soon.

Food has been somewhat difficult because my lazy ass won't cook. (I literally tried cooking my ass. Okay, I'm kidding). Yesterday, I decided to revert to my UNILAG diet. I guess my body can still take some junk food battering for a few more years (and what's the exit plan you ask me?). Lunch has been a very strong motivation for going to work everyday (as opposed to choosing to work from home when I don't feel like). Consequently, I don't know much about how to actually buy food myself. As expected, much of the food I've eaten here is weird and I have also learned that spicy here doesn't even taste spicy. I should try to find out what the non-spicy tastes like. I also think I've eaten more potatoes per period than I ever had even though today I learned that I'm yet to start eating potatoes -- potato is a traditional Polish meal (I imagine there are a million ways to prepare them). I still have garri! I visited some 'African' restaurant two weeks ago (actually they are just Nigerian, they were even playing 'Akanchawa' and some Agatha-Moses-esque songs while I was there). As I suspected, their meals have been largely localized. The dodo was so soggy, my friend Busayo would have raged out of the place. They seemed to lack pepper too (I guess it's the pseudo-spicy nature of Polish food)

I've also learned that moving far away from home doesn't change you from being your reclusive self. I'm sure I've spent more time in 'solitary confinement' than I ever had. I'm scared I might lose my speech! I could give excuses: language, etc. but I think the fundamental trait is responsible. I have visited a few places though. I saw the Old Town during my first week (and I heard a performance of what I will assume to be the Polish version of 'open the floodgates of heaven'). I've also attended a 'party' and an open air cinema. Dominic is easily responsible for 75% of my outings (I hope you notice I'm being fraudulent by giving you only a percentage). I'm grateful that he's been inviting me to hangout. Last Sunday, I went for the weekly city-sponsored Chopin concert at the park whose name I'm too lazy to look up. I hear it happens throughout summer. The performers come from different parts of the world and play Chopin's music. Chopin is like a big deal here, there's even an airport in Warsaw named for him (that's the airport I arrived at actually). The guy who played when I attended was a Chinese student in Columbia. This is the kind of thing Toluwase would enjoy! I have also visited the Warsaw Hackerspace once. I hope I can make more recurring visits soon.

To learn of the future, to discern the present, to interpret the past. Speak to Ifa!

You can speak in parables, Ifa is the original "omoluwabi". Ifa already knows what you're likely to say, he precisely knows what to say to you. Ao ri iru eleyi ri, ni afi n da eru ba oloro!

Ifa kii se eke. Ifa's high priests -- the Babalawos -- they harbor no bias.

With a single throw of the Opele -- or multiple if your case dictates -- your fate will lie encoded, in its eight magical bits. Pointers to the Odu Ifa -- human experience cataloged in multiple narratives.

A learned statistician, as he throws he chants about the errors associated with statistical tests. Let the right stochastic coupling occur. "Acknowledging type I and type II errors, make them far from me today".

He knows just what to say now. Yes, every day of his ten years of study prepared him for this consultation. Having learned the Odu by heart, he will now proceed to recite the part to which you are now temporarily coupled.

You who seeks to know, I will tell you something. Listen to his recitation with reverence for it is all he will say to you. It is centuries old wisdom that has guided the many before you. Determine if you will let it guide you.

Let Ifa guide you, stochastic coupling or not, every chapter of the Odu, in it there is wisdom for you.

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I tend to procrastinate things indefinitely. I always hope by deferring what I have to do to a later time, I'd be in a better position to do it. It's a form of perfectionism -- I'm a lazy perfectionist.

Unfortunately, I have to deal with reality. I will always be in a state of knowledge deficiency and a later time might always be a better time in this regard. However, things must get done. A thought should be articulated using the best words possible, but it should be articulated.

I have come to tumblr, to document my thoughts. I do not regard them as profound and my writing skill is very ordinary -- hopefully it's not sub-ordinary. I figure that now must be a time to do so, perhaps I'd get profounder with time or better at writing (or self-expression generally). This should be more interesting than facebook posts.

I want to tell stories -- views into and snapshots of my life. I hope to write about technical stuff (I'm an Engineer by training) and document projects that I might be working on. I want to write and have the illusion of being heard (or read).