This thing

Nigerians are generally intelligent people. That people here can understand each other is probably clear proof of that. After all, a lot of conversations feature the word “thing” and related words. A typical sentence could go like: “please get me this thing that I need for this thing, you know?”. And people actually do know. Being vague in answers is also more than permitted and if I ask someone “where did you go this weekend?” I am not surprised to hear “I went somewhere, for this thing”.
Living in Nigeria has proven to be a mind-cracking game, and in my own case it is worsened by the fact that I don’t speak fluent pidgin, or Hausa. Today I tried to give our gateman instructions for when a friend of mine would come and visit, and before I knew it I was discussing the dustbins on the compound. And I have NO idea how this turn in the discussion came about.
I think next time I’ll tell the gateman he has to do this thing because this person will come at this time, needing this thing. Probably he’ll be able to understand that better…