nigeria is full of different landscapes. the country is split into thirty six states and each (from the ones that i have visited thus far) are quite different! i live in the plateau state, and surprise! it is on a plateau! which is apparently, the saving grace from the heat during the dry season. we get what is called “harmattan” which basically means that sand from the sahara desert gets swept up to the plateau and leaves a fine dust. it also provides us with built-in air conditioning, and makes the plateau much cooler than the rest (and it is still ridiculously hot here!).

well i’ve also been able to visit a couple of other states, and their landscapes are completely different. the roads leading there look quite similar, with small villages along the roads. but one of the states (called kaduna state) is very mountainous (not snow covered mountains but they are too big to be hills – see first picture above). we climbed up the highest one we could find, and the mountains stretched farther than we could see. a very good view!

the next state i’ve been to is called bauchi state, and this is where i went on safari. it was fairly flat, but not the savannah (which is what i was hoping for when i pictured “African plains”…apparently those don’t exist in Nigeria). we were mostly in undergrowth, with lots of trees, bushes, etc. we didn’t see an amazing amount of animals, but it was still pretty cool nonetheless.

and the third type of landscape i have seen was also on the plateau, and not really reflective of the rest of the plateau but there is a river that runs through the state (not the Niger river) and at some point there was a volcano (or something like it) that left these magnificent rock formations. the rocks were black, and interlocked with eachother but in strange shapes. they staggered in places, so that they looked like various sizes of columns and pillars. they were very smooth and a lot of fun to climb on! when i looked across them, they reminded me of elephant skin because it looked like very very dry skin that had cracked. the irish folk that here have named these rocks the giant’s causeway because it is strikingly similar to the rock formations in northern ireland.

the thing that is similar about all of these landscapes is the dryness. it is amazingly dry here, which makes sense considering it is dry season. no rain, ever. although its nice to know that everyday is going to be sunny and warm, all of my pictures are brown, because that is what everything is here. the dirt, the trees, the bushes, etc. apparently in rainy season (starting in April), the country is just absolutely green and beautiful. i am pumped for that time of year! the plants we have on our compound are already beautiful (we have amazing gardeners) so i will probably fall more in love during the rainy season.

so that is a taste of the weather/natural sights to behold here in the country of Nigeria. its hot (which i personally thrive in) but i’m not going to lie, i kind of miss the snow.

(check out some pictures on f-book:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=156429&id=511061642&ref=nf

(pictures take forever to upload on this blog…)