Back Home

Every time I come back home to Nigeria, I find there is some new and exciting difference. Last year it was the Lagos state governor Babatunde Fashola and the major improvements he was making to the state, the bowling alley that had opened up at The Palms Shopping Mall, and the go-carting place by Tafawa Balewa Square that I still haven't been to. I must remember to go there before I return to the U.S.

Still, there were always a few things I could count on remaining the same. Constant power outages, crappy Internet, and good food amongst other things. So before I came home this year, I made sure to take some extra time to say farewell to constant electricity and most especially to broadband Internet.

"Oh, how I'm going to miss you broadband" I said. "Google, YouTube, Crunchyroll, Facebook, LinkedIn, Skype, AIM, Engadget, Gizmodo, XKCD, Questionable Content" I wish I could take you all with me. No, no, I was not talking to you Twitter and definitely not you DrexelOne, but red string, I think I'm going to miss you most of all... (sob, sob, sniff, sniff) "God willing, the dialup won't be too bad and maybe we'll talk red - but I can't make any promises."

With my tearful goodbyes complete, I caught the next flight out to my home country prepared for the worst. Only to find soon after my arrival, that I no longer had to deal with dialup speeds on a 56K modem at home. Or plan a visit to my cousin's so I could jump on their relatively faster wi-fi. Or even stop by my father's office so I could use his VSAT connection for a few hours.

Because now we have USB modem's in Nigeria! Introducing MTN F@stlink. My one-stop shop for blazing fast Internet speeds. Yeah it's still a far cry from broadband and I still had to part ways with YouTube and Crunchyroll as a result but man, was it good to see Facebook again! And as you can see, I'm more than glad to have TRS back.

So as it turns out going back home no longer means going without a homepage. Perhaps one day it will also mean going without blackouts. Ha! Wouldn't that be a day to remember?

Now there are a whole bunch of other things about this trip that deserve some face time. Like the Dramatisation of the Duet and the people I've seen and the places I've been. The majority of these, I will talk about next month when I have to say goodbye to them as well. The Dramatisation however deserves an entirely different type of coverage, and I will be releasing a special edition on it just for that reason.

For now though, this is about all I have to say about my trip so far. God bless MTN!