Fifty Naira? Anonymous

Fifty naira is the price of a child's chin-chin snack pack; the payment given to a roadside tailor for complicated repairs; the worth of a palm-sized carton of guava juice. Fifty naira is, technically, the equivalent of a seventh of a dollar (~$0.14), but in Lagos, Nigeria, its worth is far greater. On a sultry Monday morning it dawned on me that fifty naira was all that separated me from obtaining the job of my dreams. Fifty naira would pay the bus fare from my home to the school were the job interview was being held. However, I, the spendthrift and lover of chin-chin, did not have the amount

"Ko si." My mother said when I asked her to lend me the money. Hers was a simple refusal, but the glint in her eyes showed that she was determined to turn my predicament into a lesson. And so, with great trepidation, I determined to walk the five miles to my interview. The sun shone, gnats bit my ankles, and Okada (commercial motorcycle) drivers pelted me with insults for sharing the pedestrian walkways with them, but still I persisted. On that day, I walked as a matter of necessity, but surviving that trial allowed me to glimpse my potential for endurance. I got the job and, thereby, gained the ability to pay subsequent bus fares, but I...