“Ol’ boy check out those babes wey tanda over there!” Eddy announced to Ugo. The excitement in his voice jerked me back to the moment and I as looked in the direction he was indicating, I noticed two young Russian women standing next to a statue of Karl Max that was just a few metres in front of us. They were having a cigarette and from the way they smiled at us, it seemed as if they had been discussing us. We came abreast of where they stood but I continued to walk on and later stopped a few metres ahead of where Ugo and Eddy were now talking with the women.
I have to find a way to proceed with Adelaide. I was thinking. And it seems that the best place to start would be to invite her to our Independence Day party, which was just two weeks away. Yes, I will invite her. And on that day I will dance with her and though we cannot yet communicate with each other in Russian, she will know by the look in my eyes and by the way that I will hold her close to my heart that I love her. Yes, she will know of my feelings for her because love is communicated by other means other than just words…
“We just got ourselves a date for Saturday!” Ugo announced proudly as they came up to where I had been waiting for them. “Now we suppose begin buy booze as I hear say na booze be the trick with these Russian babes!” He stated that they now had to look for alcohol since it was said that the way to score with Russian women is to get them drunk.
We crossed over to the other side of the park where the shops were located and we found the one where, a few days earlier on the day we had arrived, we had witnessed the incident with the drunken man next to the queue for booze. The shop was quite big inside and as we entered we noticed a little queue at one end of the otherwise empty shop.
“You sure say dem dey sell booze for here!” asked Eddy.
An elderly woman who was carrying a bag walked towards us as we stood near the entrance trying to decide where to go. She had just come off the front of the queue which, from the two loaves of dark brown bread that stared back at us from her open bag, was probably a queue for bread.
She gave us a toothless smile as she came up to us and then started to say something in Russian. “We don’t speak Russian” Ugo said smiling back as Eddy and I looked at each other.
She smiled again and then took out one of the loaves of bread and then said something again in Russian. And I’m sure that somewhere in her sentence I heard her say Africa.
“No thanks!” Ugo said “We have bread in the hostel. But thanks anyway!”
She looked disappointed and then, shrugging her shoulders, walked away.
A middle aged woman sat at one corner of the shop looking at us. Behind her were stacks of empty crates piled hapharzardly next to the wall. She was wearing a long white coat and a cap that reminded me of the clinical coats, which medical students wear for the clinical courses in Nigeria only that the hat that sat on her head looked more like a witches cap than a clinical hat. She was looking at us as we stood near the door. And she wasn’t smiling. But we still decided to walk up to her and make our enquiries about the drinks.
“Good evening” Ugo said.
She looked at her nails and then looked away as if somebody else was trying to get her attention. “Hello!” Ugo greeted again.
She got up from where she was sitting and still pretending that she hadn’t seen or heard us, walked away towards another similarly attired woman who wsa sitting several metres away in front of shelves that were bare of groceries.
“Which kain dismissal be dis?!” Ugo asked turning to both me and Eddy who had been standing just behind him.
As we stood there trying to decide what to do a young man walked towards us. It was Volodya, Seyi’s room mate. Volodya was a very lively 2nd year medical student who was from the neighbouring town of Novocherkassk. Because he spoke some English and wanted to improve on his spoken English he had specifically requested to stay in a room that had English-speaking students. But from the very first day that he heard Seyi speak, he started to complain to whoever cared to listen that the language Nigerians speak and call English certainly did not sound like English.
“You mother f....ers speak Anglisky like you speak African language!” he said “I want to learn to speak American English not Africansky!”
However he got over his initial shock of our "Africansky" and from the second day decided that his job would be to teach Seyi and the rest of us poor "Nig'erisky studenti" how to be proper Russians. So he started off by teaching Seyi how to swear in Russian.
“You haven’t learn Russian if you haven’t learn how to swear. So start with the swear words!” He advised Seyi.
“Hello you Africansky Mother f…ers!” he announced smiling as he came up to us.
“Yo banna vrot! Volodya” Ugo responded with a Russian vulgar expression that Volodya had taught us. Some people looked at us amused at the exchanged of greetings between us and Volodya.
“We want to buy some Vodka but the shop’s completely bare!” Ugo complained.
“I know that you people will become good Russians very quickly! You’ve learnt how to swear now you want to graduate into Vodka!”
“Yes, we want to do some foki-foki with some Russian girls on Saturday and we need as many bottles as we can buy.”
“You mother f…ers! I told you give me nice Africansky girl to do foki-foki with and I find you cheap Russian woman!”
“We’re serious about the Vodka, Volodya. And besides you’ve already said you don’t like most of the Nigerian girls because you’re scared of them!”
“Yes. Most of them are very hard like men. They don't look like djenshini! But anyway, give me money I buy you Vodka. As many as you want”.
Ugo gave him some Roubles and he had gone up to the two women in the white coats who were now chatting away in a corner of the shop. He spoke to them for a while and then handed over the money to one of them. Several minutes later the woman came back with a bag which she had stuffed with newspapers and handed it to Volodya.
“I got you your Vodka, but we must drink one bottle today!” Volodya announced as he handed the bag to Ugo.
“How did you do that?” Eddy asked.
“I have my ways.” He said grinning “But I also do foki-foki with that older one!” he added winking.
“Disgusting!” Ugo responded, but Volodya just grinned and walked away.
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