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Awa Ti Ibadan

@awatiibadan

30 Aug

(7/7)

The man mentioned a Muslim name as the person who had used the phone to call and that he wasn’t at home but that when he got back home he'd let the caller call back.

I didn’t know anyone in Dubai by that name. It was when the man allowed her to call me back that I

found out that it was my friend!

What I didn’t know was that she had told her boss that she had an elder sister in Dubai. My friend is Christian but in the Arab world, it is not advisable that you provide a name that is not Islamic and so she had adopted the Muslim name

which the man had mentioned over the phone.

We began to talk but she couldn’t talk freely, her boss was right next to her – anything she said that sounded suspicious could get her into more trouble.

Luckily the man walked away and we could talk freely.

Read 18 tweets

Awa Ti Ibadan

@awatiibadan

28 Aug

A W A Y F R O M H O M E
________________________

(6/7)

I had spent two years in Saudi Arabia and I had nothing to show for it. I came to the country to work and earn some money but there I was in the airport with nothing. I called the big sister.

She told me to use my remaining money to buy a train ticket from Saudi Arabia to Dubai.

The big sister met me at the train station and welcomed me. She was the one who connected me with a family in Dubai where I worked for a year.

The purpose was so as to, at least,

earn some money that I could come back home with. In this family, the work was still much but there was ease too – I had a measure of freedom, I could use my phone with no hassles and I was paid my salaries.

The sister however warned me that when I was ready to leave I should

Read 17 tweets

Awa Ti Ibadan

@awatiibadan

25 Aug

A W A Y F R O M H O M E
_____________________________

(3/7)

"Sometimes we’d go to the desert and spend some two, three days and the cold in the desert is indescribable. Whenever we are going to the desert, we will pack so many bags you’d think we were leaving for the moon.

Sometimes we wouldn’t even spend more than a few hours in the desert yet they would pack everything they can pack.

A whole car is loaded with boxes and everything they believe they’d need to replicate their home in the desert.

It didn’t matter if we’d only be

spending a few hours in the desert - they didn’t care! They still expected you to cook several dishes as though we were back at home.

While you’re moving up and down through the sand in the scathing evening cold, these guys just sit down, cross their legs doing

Read 18 tweets

Awa Ti Ibadan

@awatiibadan

24 Aug

A W A Y F R O M H O M E

(2/7)

"The worst period of work was during Ramadan. If you work within a house, just take it that you will not sleep for the whole period of the Ramadan.

The thing about the Arabs is that they love to see all sorts of meals on their table even if

no one would eat it - so we’d set a grand table that has all sorts of meals.

On the day the fast starts, I’d begin to prepare sahur from around 11pm the previous day and I will cook all through the midnight till about 3am.

Now when sahur is over, I’d begin to

wash all the plates, bowls, cutlery and pots used to serve and eat. All of that washing and cleaning up will start from when sahur is over till about 9am.

Then I’d resume cleaning the compound, washing cars etc., that could last for another 2-3hours.

Read 18 tweets

Awa Ti Ibadan

@awatiibadan

23 Aug

A W A Y F R O M H O M E

📍: SAUDI ARABIA 🇸🇦

(1/7)

"When agents pitch to you about working in Saudi Arabia, they will tell you great things about the place; they’d tell you that you can work as a nurse or paint some decent jobs to you.

They would also tell you about the huge amount of money that you would be paid.

When you earn N10,000 per month in Nigeria and someone says you can earn N150,000 per month, the idea of traveling begins to look enticing.

My brother, it is all mostly lies.

My first job when I got to Saudi Arabia was to be a care-giver, to take care of an aged woman in diapers. The aged woman I was to take care of was the mother of my boss.

Upon my arrival, I was told that I couldn’t own a phone and so my boss seized my phone.

Read 17 tweets

Awa Ti Ibadan

@awatiibadan

13 Jan 20

@AdewaleYusuf_

This is the story of @AdewaleYusuf_ and how he began what has become the biggest tech media company in Africa - Techpoint Africa.

He was magnanimous enough to share every detail - the good, bad & ugly and over the next 4 days, I'll be reposting the story here.

Here is 1/4

1/4

“People meet me and think I am one ajebota. I am not. My father had a block industry while growing up and I was always at hand to help me. My mother was a trader and so growing up was just the regular life. We lived within our means, no extravagance, no luxurious lifestyle.

Just the normal quiet, regular life.

After graduating from Loyola College in 2004, I couldn’t advance my education to the tertiary level at the time because there was no financial resources to do so at the time. I was introduced to computers in Ibadan. My father had a friend

Read 14 tweets

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