Malaysians in Nigeria

Masuk kandang kambing mengembek,

Masuk kandang kerbau menguak 

-Malay proverb

From Google Translate (which I have to alter to give more sense)

You bleat when in the goat pen,

Moo when in the cowshed...

But the best to explain the above Malay proverb before Google translate comes up with things like "GST is good for you" or  "I'm not 3.85 CGPA" (hahahah, kidding) is,

"When in Rome, do as the Romans do"

How clever our forefathers, yup, the English ones too..for coming up such proverb. We are here as guest, and we do our best to follow the customs here... 

But despite the above reminder, after a while the sense of belonging and wanting to be among your contrymen was overbearing. We need to mingle among Malaysian, (the food was the strongest factor..) to be among our people and to  ..ahem... gossip too (that was Madam's motivation). 

The chance came when Madam went for a trip all over Nigeria, to meet up with the team. It was while in Abuja (the capital  of Nigeria since 1991, before this it was Lagos) she visited the High Commission (Nigeria is also a Commonwealth Nation) of Malaysia. She met both staff Mrs. Sarmiah (Third Secretary, Admin/Consular) and Mr Gadafi (Head of Chancery), also Datuk Lim Juay Jin, the High Commissioner himself. They chatted like long lost friends, I was told. They exchanged stories and phone numbers of other Malaysians in Nigeria. Most of them are in the Oil and Gas industry. 

Tip: to anyone who is on a long term overseas assignment, please get yourself registered at your embassies. They need to know your whereabouts (just in case).

pic. above left: Mrs. Sarmiah, Madam and Mr. Gadafi
pic. below left: Madam and Datuk Lim (High Commissioner) source: madam's fb

It was certainly a fruitful meeting and Datuk Lim was a gracious host too. With the info given, we managed to track a few of them. Some had already left, some may have changed their mobile number. But with the help of Dayang (which we met while we were staying for a few weeks at Eko Hotel), we managed to locate ALL Malaysian in Lagos....at last!

A date was set, and it was agreed that the first meeting would be at our place. One by one, they arrived.

first round goes to the children

First to arrive was Capt. Shatish and Pushpa (Dr.) with their 3 children. Followed by Amaludin and Norhuda also with 3 children! Dayang came too. All of them from the same workplace and lives nearby. Capt. Gordip from Bumi Armada also came..and last was Keisha. She married a Nigerian and is staying in Lekki. 

the adult's turn...oh no..trust Madam
to take 'nice' photos of me!

Shatish, Pushpa and Norhuda

It was great! Most of them had been here for quite some time. Like Capt. Gordip, he is completing his tenure. Will be going back to Malaysia first, before continuing in other parts of  Africa. We swapped stories, recipes and the usual hot and current gossip from Malaysia. 

The food was great and Pushpa (our resident chef) made cendol. She actually did the green cendol stuff! It was heaven. 

cendol and the ingredients to make it

 Of course we had the usual introduction and the story of how we ended up here. I guess when you are away from home and will be away for a long time...you somehow connect. 

all of us...in Lagos

I think it was a few weeks later and in a mosque, met another 2 more Malaysian. It was Ibrahim (the eldest among us) and Saifuddeen from Matrade (Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation), the national trade promotion agency of Malaysia. Ibrahim has been in and out of the country on a 3 month assignment, each. Saifuddeen also had been here a few times in the past and this time, he is tasked to head the office of Matrade for Nigeria and other West African nation (24 countries under his belt).

two more! Ibrahim and Saifuddeen

There were more of us here in Lagos, actually. Ibrahim told us about Morgan (I think) and there was Gabriel (friend of Shatish and co.) Saifuddeen came with his family will be meeting the chiefs and ogas (big man or boss....mmmm many bosses), also state and federal officials as part of his work. Things ARE looking up for me, finally...

Saifuddeen, Gabriel and Ibrahim were present this time

Well, one after another makan-makan (eating) session were held in either our place or Shatish's place. Had farewell dinner before Capt. Gordip left, but not the WhatsApp group fortunately. 

Capt. Gordip's farewell dinner

Once awhile, Morgan the super busy IT Support Engineer would join us, with the usual response.. "sorry bro, on standby". Married with children, he is alone here. Going back in mid-June for the much needed 'recharge'. Actively sending image messages in the WA group and asking us, how was our night. 

Morgan trying his best explaining that the recent
 gout problem was not his fault, totally

moved outside for teh tarik (pulling tea) session

By now, you might've guessed that I really like the green Nigeria football team shirt. Bought in Ikeja a few months back. 

Anyway, I enjoyed our gatherings. Really. We created our mini-Malaysia here in Lagos. Home away from home. To all our friends and families in Malaysia, we are okay here. OK? Aheh!!!