Drinks, Games and Nigerian Guinness

An obvious cultural difference here is the culture of drinking and particularly in relation to aiesec. For all those in the know, your average aiesec conference is filled in the daytime with some gruelling sessions, but then at night we party, drink, chat etc. etc.

The whole drinking games thing seems to have missed Nigeria entirely. Now I remember going to the Asia-Pacific conference and pretty much everyone knew at least about the game zoom. No-one knows anything here, so I am having lots of fun teaching.



One of my first nights here in Ife I played a very interesting game of never, never with 3 boys. And on the weekend, I whipped out the only bottle I brought from Australia (one very large bottle of the old aussie favourite, bundy O.P) and taught some friends zoom. I think I might have started a movement. Rest assured Marty, the hash run will come and as soon as I get the aussie compendium I shall introduce skolling (no they haven't heard of that either).

Aside from the games the drinking culture is also minimal. Yes, most boys get into it, but the girls don't want to be seen drinking in public. Normally the girls just drink Maltina which is like a very, very sweet, non-alcoholic, beer-like, sugar fest. The beers taste ok, plus they are a bit stronger, bigger and cheaper (all good things). However there is usually only about half a dozen varieties max. Typically either Gulda (not that much removed from a Tooheys), Star (a clearer larger) or one little gem I've had – Nigerian brewed Guinness! (its really strong and only comes in bottles). A 600 odd mL bottle of star is about $1.20 Australian, which is cheap for me but not eastern European cheap (so I'm told).

The oddest thing about having a few drinks is the timing and venue. By 9pm most people wanted to leave. If you did that in Australia we would still be making jokes about you 4 hours after you left before the thought about going home even popped in my mind. And drink driving isn't exactly a major crime here (well to be truthful its not policed) so I pity the poor souls who engage in this regularly.