Monday, February 2, 2009

Emmanuel's facebook photo


This smart, good-looking 18 year-old young man is Emmanuel, who I met today near the guest house. Emmanuel's mother sells food on the street, and I got to talking to him while eating some of his mom's fried yams.

Like nearly everyone here, Emmanuel wants to come to the States. He spends time in online chat rooms, practicing his English, which is excellent. But his biggest problem is that it's very hard to make friends online when they find out you are Nigerian.

When Emmanuel told me his Facebook picture is of some rapper, I asked him why he didn't have his own picture up. "That's very expensive," he said. So I snapped this picture and told him I would email him a copy. "It's that easy?" he asked. It's that easy, Emmanuel.


4 comments:

  1. I think this is my favorite of your photos so far!

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  2. Thanks, Amy -- and thanks for reading!

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  3. Evi - proud Nigerian chic.June 25, 2009 at 3:44 AM

    Sean! Sean! Lol. You have been in Nigeria but you have obviously failed to read the psychology of the people.
    This boy Emmanuel is 18 years old has a facebook page yet doesn't know that you can take a picture with a phone, that's very impossible. Like we would say in 9ja "impossicant!"
    He like many others you met would tell you sorry stories because you are a white man and like Emmanuel admitted, they all believe that America is the place to be (they will be so shocked when they get there; anyways story for another day)and since you are an American they will tell you the sorriest stories so you can "help" them either with dollars or a visa.
    To tell you the truth Emmanuel here probably wanted your camera not the picture.
    Guy wise up, you have been deceived!

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  4. Hi Evi. I don't see how I've been deceived, as you call it. Emmanuel hasn't give me any sorry stories, nor has he asked me for money or a visa to the US. Come to think of it, he didn't ask for me to take his photo, either, but I was happy to do so. It didn't cost me anything and took me about 2 minutes to download it and email it to him.

    Easy when you have a digital camera, a laptop, and an internet connection, as I do. Not so easy otherwise.

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