Adebayo Ebenezer Mayowa

I could narrate Enugu like it's mine. Writers should keep telling the story about their city, people live through them.&nbsp;

One day I will write about my city too.

But that day is not today. Today I finally visited Enugu.

I love meeting any new city at night, the night presents the city at its settled serene state; you know how you meet a baby sleeping and smiling in the middle of a night- that was Enugu yesterday.

I came in at midnight, not like it was planned but it came well written-never trust google Maps for Nigerian roads!

Enugu is a serene place, quiet town and safe..

My first time exploring the East and everyone believed look Igbo- So I took the name Ekene.

This is how I settle on every city-

First the taxi colour, then the common food and finally a little adventure around nature.&nbsp;

Enugu means a city on a hill. The full thing is Enu Ugwu, so it will be a crime if I don't see it through the hills-Milliken hill was my lens.

I started early this time, I am hiking solo and my tour guide is a friend I just met below the hill.

It was a fast hike, we got to the top easily, in 8 hours I should be leaving Enugu.

Next destination was Ngwo pine, I have seen too much of it in pictures why not experience this reality.

Ngwo pine, it's 20 minutes from Enugu city, as usual, I was supposed to take a cab around but my last trip to Ibadan showed the magic of a Keke ride.

Sitting in the comfort of this keke, I am on my way to Ngwo (I am still fighting to get my pronunciation right). The road is clayed tiled, we drove through Miliken hill down and finally got to Ngwo.

Chinwe Ike, God is great! The hit Album of the duo -Resonance, came to my mind, I sang along as I move through the pines and remembered a similar scene from the musical video lee lee o. Nostalgia hits me as I wander through time. 14 years gone like the wind.

Never explore any place in Nigeria without a local around you, most places are still not touristy and some places are forbidden from visitors.

I met Chuks, he offered to take me around and we agreed for a fee. We went to the cave after the pine.

This is my 3rd waterfall in 4 months and this is very distinct. The wall is a reddish coloured limestone and huge water and the ray of sun slip through from the ceiling down the little stream at

the floor-Awesome is the word and Ngwo is the cave!

OKPA-if Amala is to Ibadan then Okpa is to Enugu. I bought a few from the local seller a friend recommended, it's my first time and it tasted good. Very good!

You look Igbo she said, why is your name Mayowa. I am not I replied. This is called Ube in Igbo and Pears in English, she continued.

I bought some and tasted it on my way to Owerri, it tasted awful. The man sitting by my side stared at me as if I had committed a sacrilege.

Yeah, I did, it was only when I got home my host told me it was to be roasted or cooked- Terrible me!

The taxi here has very similar paintings to those in Lagos- yellow and black stripes in between.

In my 24 hours in Enugu I have learnt few words, I bade the locals goodbye-Ndewo! #WeMove!

MAYOWA BLADES the Founder of Naidrenalin Adventures, is a Russian trained Aeronautical Engineer and Adventure Travel writer.

When Mayowa is not at work, he is curating group adventure travels around Nigeria, exploring, taking beautiful photos and writing about the numerous unknown tourist sites in Nigeria and beyond. He enjoys good food and&nbsp;group adventure tourism.

Pulse Contributors is an initiative to highlight diverse journalistic voices. Pulse Contributors do not represent the company Pulse and contribute on their own behalf.

My visit to Enugu, the city of hills and red sand. [YouTube/Flo Chinyere]

Enugu- I have lived in this city through stories. From Chimamanda's Purple Hibiscus to Chinua Achebe's There was a country.

My visit to Enugu, the city of hills and red sand

<h1>For centuries, this humor have travelled well over intervening cultures. Among writers who have joined this “bandwagon” is our very own Nigerian Teju Cole, in his Essays-Known and Strange Things. </h1>

But satirical dictionaries came into their own in the post-Victorian era. In 1913, Gustave Flaubert’s, posthumously published a satirical definitions with the title -Dictionary of Received Ideas.

All these, have one thing in common- lazy lines of brilliant wit.

Apparently I have always been entranced by the idea of a satirical dictionary. In this effort I try to recreate my experience with my travel around Nigeria to give punning but true definition. I hope most can relate with this:

AGBOKIM-Home to a flowing magic- can you hear the sound “abrakadabra”?

ARGUNGUN- Something fishy going on.

BAUCHI– just repeat “Bauchi”.

CHAPPAL WADDI-A little more altitude, a little less attitude.

EPE–O-fish-ially a tourist destination.

IDANRE!-Nature’s romance! The land kisses the Skies and left onlookers speechless.

IKOGOSI - Make up your mind! You’re half way cold half way hot.

JEBBA-Where Mr Mungo finally Parked

JOS-Inactive volcanoes -active turmoils.

KAJURU -Castles &amp; Fairytales!.

MOUNT PATTI– And the disciples gathered on Mount Patti. Sound biblical right?

MAMBILLA– Tea hot tea! Did I mention Tea?

NGWO– Tall pines, soft Okpa, enchanting waterfalls.

OWU– A wonder in the wilderness.

OLUMO– Hiking goats and hiding places.

OSUN GROVES– Disney land of Orishas.

RIYOM - Folded rocks&nbsp;laundry.

SHERE -granite rocks, hikers first love.

TARKWA BAY– Two Rastamen trying to sound Jamaican

UDI – Cool breeze. It’s kind of Coal in here.

YANKARI–Hausa say ‘Yankari’, Yoruba say ‘Ire a Kari’.

ZOO-Shhhh a minute silent to their bemoan their current state.

The dictionary of Nigerian touristy destinations - A satirical compilation

The very first such dictionary was that by the Persian Nizam-od-Din Obayd-i Zakani, when he wrote&nbsp;lexicon back in the 14th century.

The dictionary of Nigerian touristy destinations - A satirical compilation [Pulse Contributor's Opinion]

<h1>In all ramifications, Nigeria is beautiful! And her Natural sites are stuck in between fun and beliefs.</h1>

&nbsp;"Tradition and beliefs" have served as a powerful heuristic term for most tourist places in Nigeria.

At Ado Waye Mountain, where the beautiful and tranquil Iyake&nbsp;Lake&nbsp;sits beautifully like a baby in her swing ", my joy is popping out white like an ear of corn into white petals. This is an amazing beauty! The tree is reflected and mirrored symmetrically. In between all these- I am still a cultural idiot. The tour guide believed the lake is bottomless and spiritual. That's custom!. The same thing was said of Owu waterfalls, the louder you scream, the more it pours. That's science!

Each time a tour guide explains and gives details about places we have visited, every syllable fall on my ears like the sound of a school bell. Very sharp!

I can repeatedly say Nigeria is beautiful, from the havens of magical Idanre hills in southwestern Nigeria to the magnificent Kajuru hills in Kaduna North central Nigeria.

Road trips in Nigeria have something peculiar- the road hawkers. Somehow somewhere before I was born, some people in Nigeria must have agreed that loaves of bread should be a traveller's souvenir. So Buy bread!

First, we don't understand something, and then it becomes a mystery and what next? Do we worship it? Some Mysteries should be solved or have reasonable explanations. Nigerian tourism this year had a fair share, thanks to social media. Who knew the word "Borno" could also sit with "Tranquility". Jaffy waterfalls in Borno are one of those natural places where you can be at peace with your soul. But then a bomb explosion might be not too far away.

On our trip to Oyo, we stopped to refuel; the little hawkers rowdily harassed us with all sort of wares.

Buy bread, Uncle. Akara Ogbomoso re o.

The word Akara drop into my oily ears and sunk deep. I turned to see who hawks Akara in the middle of this hot sun and behold this little girl. As a street photographer, the picture of a girl selling in a wild street is confusing- gorgeous yet discomforting.&nbsp;

The Akara on her tray doesn't look soft, in Yemisi Aribisala words-&nbsp;The word Akara in itself should be soft, selectively broken on the back of that letter k; this didn't fit those descriptions. It looked more like the flat&nbsp;kuli kuli&nbsp;you find around Niger state.

My curiosity and taste bud wanted a taste. I bought some.

Aki Nuka or Abacha you find in the East are like the Debinos and Sugarcane you see along Mokwa in Niger Northern Nigeria. The Wara and Asala (African Walnuts) you find along southwest Nigeria leave your taste bud's southwest experience.

In Bayelsa's Yenogoa, the expression "to open a can of worms" makes the indigenes salivate rather than create any complications. Edible squirmy worms are sold on the street and eaten with passion and cutting the life cycle short of the poor larvae.

Food is the most primitive form of relaxation. You feed yourself with more than just food when you travel. Travel more!

Road trip, beliefs, snacking and thinking out loud! [Pulse Contributor's Opinion]

Mortals come and go, but nature remains.

<h1>Measuring is as old as man. People always have measured things; distance, length, weight. Measuring has become so easy that we don't even think of the act. This simple act has gone through an evolution. Finding a standard measurement was difficult for our ancestors in the very beginning.</h1>

One of the earliest methods of measuring is the use of the human body. Africans measured things differently with body parts and sometimes with objects or farm tools.

In Igbo, the length of the middle part of an average person's index finger is called Ntaji and is equivalent to twenty millimetres in western measurement standard. The Yorubas measure litres of water in garawas, and oil in Ìgò which means bottle. The most everyday places you can notice how measurement works are the marketplaces around Nigeria and Africa at large.

A little observatory walks around famous open-air market around Nigeria such as the Balogun Market, New Benin Market, Oja Oba in Ilorin, Ibadan's Bodija Market and Enugu's Ogbete Market or even the Yankaba market in Kano shows grains and spices have a particular unit of measurement.

Before colonialism, our forefathers have several ways of measuring their farm produce and quantifying them for sale. Most of these practices are still quite in use today, and most have come to stay. Let's explore a few.

Mostly in Northern Nigeria, the mudu [pronounced:moo doo] is the unit of measurement. Although all the mudu are not of the same size; they are typically identical in design, mostly cone-shaped. The one found in Kaduna, Taraba, Kastina and Abuja are similar dimensions, and the ones in Kano are twice bigger.

Therefore people of Kano refer to that found in Kaduna as&nbsp;half mudu or tiya. A mudu can be filled with about 0.17 kg of grains for the smaller one you see in the capital city Abuja and 0.32 kilograms of the bigger mudu common in Kano.

The smallest unit of measurement is the tin, mostly tins of evaporated milk brands. Often referred to as&nbsp;goni goni&nbsp;named after a famous tin manufacturing company. A smaller container is the empty 170g milk tin or 410g for the bigger. About eight of the big milk tins would fill the typical Kano mudu and about nine of the smaller would fill up the Kaduna/Abuja mudu.

As you move towards Southwest Nigeria, Kongo is the prevalent unit of measurement. For example, in Balogun market, most sellers fill sacks using&nbsp;kongos&nbsp;and buyers are typically asking for the price of a kongo of rice or beans. Oyo, Ogun, Osun have the same size while Lagos, Kwara and Ekiti are slightly bigger.

A kongo takes around 1.5-1.7 kg of grains for local measures, which is about five times of a big mudu. The smaller unit is called the&nbsp;derica, which is named after the tin tomato brand ; a derica is half of a&nbsp;kongo.

In South-Eastern Nigeria, crayfish and most grains are sold in plastic paint containers which they often referred to as&nbsp;painter. These are empty plastic container used to store paint or popular custard brands. These four-litre containers can hold grains or food items of about 2.75 kg. In Enugu's Ogbete market, egusi, ogbono seeds or bambara nut are sold in smaller tins; milk tins, tomato tins, margarine tins, similar to what you find in Northern Nigeria.

The equivalent of a painter in Benin city, South-south Nigeria, is "the rubber." In Marian market Calabar, "Cups" are standard for selling gari, rice, beans, melon and other seeds.&nbsp;

&nbsp;Onions, sweet potatoes or Irish potatoes and tomatoes are mostly sold by volume in baskets, plates or bowls in most Nigerian markets. Arranged in heaps or mounds, the tomatoes, onions or pepper balance on each other in a pyramid shape to fill this medium size plastic basket commonly used as domestic bins, and on a larger scale, big hand-woven baskets are used in wholesale and retail market sales.

A big basket of tomatoes weigh between 40-60kg with the tomatoes mostly sold by volumes, and those that can't afford to get in bulk go for the smaller plates or bowls, which are usually plastic dinner plates.&nbsp;

These system of measurements are far from perfect as they are measured in volume which depends on the size and density of the products and also how the seller fills them, instead of their weight.

Traditional measurements in the Nigerian open-air markets. [grain]

One accurate measurement is worth a thousand expert opinions-Grace M. Hopper.

Traditional measurements in the Nigerian open-air markets [Pulse Contributor's Opinion]

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Adebayo Ebenezer Mayowa

Articles written by the author

My visit to Enugu, the city of hills and red sand

The dictionary of Nigerian touristy destinations - A satirical compilation [Pulse Contributor's Opinion]

Road trip, beliefs, snacking and thinking out loud! [Pulse Contributor's Opinion]

Traditional measurements in the Nigerian open-air markets [Pulse Contributor's Opinion]