"The Bush"

My operations manager is as intense as I expected, but I didn’t anticipate how hard core she would be outside of the office! First day in Abuja and she had me mountain biking. It was an absolute blast and an excellent way to start my three weeks in the country. 3 guys and the two of us hit the road beginning in a wealthy neighborhood where the Governors (big guys in Nigeria) have their "lodges" aka mini palaces. One minute we were next to these villas and then we quickly hit a hill and the next minute we were literally in the bush. Some people here say that anywhere you are in Abuja, you are 15 minutes away from Africa, and it's true.
Muddy, dusty, dry, wet, chickens, rocks, ridges, the whole 9 yards – it was a challenging ride. We road through Fulani (nomadic tribe) villages. The "huts" here are completely different than those in East Arica. They look like mini grass domes. "Obiyo,"(or something like that!) children would scream after us, many of them chasing and trying to get high fives. I attempted to give high fives, but found that even after an hour on the trail I was still not quite ready to let go of my death grip of the handle bars. Therefore, the young girls decided to smack my butt as I rode by. I’m very thankful I didn’t run any little Fulani children over, though it was close. I only almost ate it once and we only got off once to trudge through a swamp.
At one point we stopped on a hillside overlooking a field and a small group of huts in the distance and I thought…ya know I could get used to this, or at least I understand how so many others get used to it and never want to go back.