By Tony Ubani

Until coins weigh you down

The jingling sound of coins announces the coming of a Nigerian. The coins are heavy and rips open the pocket when they clatter. Hardly is there anything you buy in Russia that you would not be given their coins as part of your change. There are no round figures to buy things without coins. The problem is that the coins can weigh you down from walking in the cold roads.

Sound of music

The headline, Sound of music, takes your mind to the classic film about a young Austrian woman studying to become a nun in Salzburg, Austria in 1938 who was sent to the villa of a retired naval officer and widower to be governess to his seven children. After bringing and teaching love and music into the lives of the family through kindness and patience, she married the officer and together with the children they found a way to survive the loss of their homeland through courage and faith.

No, not about this film that every family should watch. I mean the original music by artistes. Since arrival in Russia, I have observed that Russians don’t speak English. Those who understand and speak pretend not hear.

The almighty American currency, Dollar, is like a taboo when you present it to hotels for your bills or transactions. You must get to the Banks to change it to the Russian Ruble. The Russians love their Ruble. We all know that Russia and America are the Superpowers of the World. They always agree to disagree. They are like Aki and Pawpaw. Always at war but never apart.

While the Russians don’t want anything American or English in their land, it baffles me that in most Malls, homes, hotels, and night clubs, all the music that waltzes from their loudspeakers are English songs by English artistes.

I have tried to find answers to this, but the few Russians I asked wag their heads and tell you that music is good for the soul. Truly, music knows no boundaries as it connects people from different religions and places. Music has added charm to me here without the Super Eagles. It would have been monotonous and boring without it.

So, music is our companion as we watch other nations go for the most coveted diadem in the World, the World Cup trophy.

Music connects hearts, opens horizons of your mind and gives you an immense pleasure. Even patients suffering from severe health problems or any disease can, sometimes, recover with the help of musical therapies as it directly touches to your heart and soul.

As Ekaterina puts it:  ‘’all those songs mean what I need them to mean. I may not understand the language, but the rhythm moves my soul and my legs”.

And like Shakespeare said: ” If music be the food of love, play on, give me excess of it; that surfeiting, the appetite may sicken, and so die”

I love St Petersburg

In St Petersburg, a melancholic boat tour guide tells how it is when summertime’s ‘white nights’ of 3am daylight have gone. He describes the ‘black days’ of winter, when it’s dark as you leave for work at 8am, dark again at 3pm and you ‘just want to go to bed because it’s minus 30.’ And then he quotes Alexander Pushkin. ‘I love thee, city of Peter’s making, I love thy harmonies austere…’ Life in Russia can be challenging but its people love their land.

A stitch in time saves nine

Nigerians are still mourning  that horrific accident that claimed lives and property when an oil tanker exploded during rush hour traffic Thursday in Lagos.

My heart bleeds for my country and their leaders. Since I arrived here in Russia two weeks ago, I have not set sights on a tanker or trailer. Yet they have heavy and long haulage vehicles that ply their roads only at night. Such heavy duty vehicles are restricted from plying the roads in the day time. They have schedules and adhere to it strictly. That way, accidents are prevented, traffics are avoided. What do we have back home? The few roads that we call expressways are occupied by trailers and tankers.

We wait for disasters to happen before we roll out press releases and condemn the acts. The Apapa-Oshodi Express way which links two ports, Airport and Sea Port had been occupied by trailers an tankers. Businesses have been crippled and many people have lost their lives due to the inconveniences. Who cares? The Navy are inconvenienced by the perennial blockade by the trailers. I understand that we have military installations around Apapa, Kirikiri and environs. They are accidents waiting to happen. We’re only waiting for accidents to happen before we set up probe panels to unravel the mystery. What happens to the saying; ‘’A stitch in time saves nine”.

Missing my barbershop

With as little as N150, my hair is cut. And it takes five minutes before the barber shaves off the hairs. Many men in Nigeria loves the skin cut which keeps them sparkling clean. Only a few younger ones go with the afro which allows the hair gets up to the bird nest level. I always have a hair cut. It’s in South Africa that you normally see men with the bushy hair style.

I usually barb twice in a week to maintain my shimmering looks. One of the most important things about looking youthful is to have a modern haircut.

But three weeks in Russia without barbing has changed one’s looks.

I tried to get a hair cut but ran into a road block. The barber without looking at me twice presented 500 Ruble which is approximately N8000. N8,000 to barb my hair? Some of my other colleagues with bald hairs went to barb too. The barber flashed the same bills to them.  It was then that Duro offered to help. And with only shaving stick, he did a better job than the N8,000 Russian barber. Christian Okpara whose bald hair did not take seconds to shave has advised Duro to consider barbing when he drops his pen. With bald hairs like Christian’s, Duro might go hungry if he listens to him.

Generosity of Russians

It’s this nation’s people, with their kindness, who are creating some indelible memories.

On Thursday I left my phone on the back seat of a Volgograd taxi but recovering it seemed impossible. Yet Yana Kurilov, who works at the Ring Hotel, arranged for her husband Denis and friend Tania Khalipa to drive me, in 40C heat, to track down the volunteer who booked the cab.

The driver tells him he cannot see it but four hours later calls the hotel to say he’s found it. Yana and Denis go from their home to the taxi office to collect it and return it to me. That’s humanity!