an·ec·dote 3

Soon after I finished putting up a post about the fuel scarcity that made mention of black market fuel sales on the street, I left the library and luckily found a ride home with a house officer (medical intern). The coincidence of the timing, makes this story even the more hilarious. anecdote 3!

an·ec·dote 3: "THAT'S HOW WE DO BABY!!"

As I set out with the house officer to his car, he notes, his gas tank is on E (empty) but he knows where he can get some fuel. So we enter the car and head out into the streets, there is a gas station right opposite the hospital, so of course we saw the craziness of people hustling to buy fuel at the station. The house officer cockily says, "I don't have to do such." I gave him a look of "Oh ok, no need to impress here," and we sped off opposite the vicinity of fuel scarcity mania. A little less than 2 minutes later we get to a side street where a small crowd is gathered, many people are carrying jerricans. He excuses himself and hops out the car, he goes to his trunk and grabs his jerrican and disappears.

The house officer reappears maybe like 5 minutes later, and proceeds to open his gas tank. I had recently had a discussion with my friend, who says he doesn't mess with black market fuel, the most he can do is put it in his generator, he doesn't trust it in his car. As a result, I quickly shout to the house officer, "ARE YOU GOING TO PUT THAT IN YOUR CAR?!" he responds with a smug look, like "of course" and proceeds to pour the black market fuel into his gas tank. So I turned back around in my seat and waited for him to finish. He finally finishes up, hops back in the car and he exclaims "THAT'S HOW WE DO BABY!!" and before you know it we are back out on the road zipping through the streets.

Where I stay is no more than 3-4 miles from the hospital. While waiting at the light, the house officer's car starts to make a weird noise, sort of like a sputter. I ignore it at first, but then alarmingly look up at the house officer to get confirmation that the sounds the car is making is familiar to him. However, when I look up at his face, his facial expression, told a story of confusion. When the light turned green, and we moved the engine made a knocking sound, and the first thing that came to mind was BLACK MARKET FUEL!!! I wanted to say "boy I warned you about putting that mess in your car", but instead I remained quiet.

Maybe less than 24 feet from the turning into the estate I stay in, the car slows down to a complete stop. The house officer went from quiet to irrate and I did not know what to say or do, so I remained mute! In my mind I was thinking why couldn't this have happened AFTER I got home?! A little while after making a few phone calls to his mechanic, we sat in the car in complete silence, it was so awkward, so I decided to cut the tension and yelled "THAT'S HOW WE DO BABY!!" However, instead of my outburst serving as some comic relief, the house officer shot me a cold glare of annoyance. So I remained quiet until his mechanic came. I wanted to leave him behind and walk my butt home, but I waited to be nice.  We remained outside for another 2 hours, before the mechanic was able to do some magic and get the car moving again, the ride home was most definitely awkward!


I think that's the first and last time the house officer will be giving me a ride home, but it will also be last time he EVER puts black market fuel into his car tank. I never had the nerve to tell him "I told you so", so I will say it now: I TOLD YOU...THAT'S HOW WE DO BABY!! :-P

It is what it is!

SIDENOTE
The black market sellers are making a killing, fuel is sold for 97naira per liter, the house officer bought 3 liters of fuel for 1,500naira, making it 500naira per liter!!!!!