We had a kettle; we let it leak:
Our not repairing made it worse.
We haven’t had any tea for a week…
The bottom is out of the Universe
― Rudyard Kipling, The Collected Poems of Rudyard Kipling

Know that feeling? When you drop your iPhone and the pristine shiny screen shatters into a zillion starburst lines? You consider contacting Apple, the local repair shop, maybe a key cutting shop that fixes things on the side? And the price is eye watering. That feeling?

In Abuja, there is a market for everything.

Including for fixing just about any electronic device you can imagine. Dozens of huts scattered across the dusty red ground. Men squashed together on wooden benches prise the innards out of the devices handed to them, perhaps more in hope than expectation. There are no manuals on site (or in sight). These guys armed with soldering irons and adhesive just seem to know how it all works.

And it’s not all electronic devices, there were yams roasting, coconuts piled high in a wheelbarrow.

Oh, you want a DVD, they have those too. Just don’t tell anyone you heard it here.

Oh, and when you hand over your iPhone or Samsung for repair, it will probably be fixed but your warranty may be history. Just saying.