Caboose

A horribly early start to catch the bus back to Abuja, getting dressed and taking machines to the bus station before it was light. For once the bus wasn’t horribly overloaded, so we had a fairly comfortable ride from Eket to Uyo, where we had to hang about while the bus for the next stage of the journey filled. We used the time to get some breakfast (rice and stew) and buy biscuits.
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On Sunday morning we had a leisurely start to the day, Kay and Jenny went to church while Mary and Pete took Marebec and I on a walk to Opobo II, a new town being built nearby. On the way we passed a crane that had been brought in to build the road/causeway between Opobo and Opobo II, which had sunk into the swampy ground. We were also shown the huts built to fool this year’s census into thinking the population of Opobo is higher than it is. The picture below right shows Peter, Henry and Mary (with the obligatory umbrella).

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The plan for Saturday was to take a boat across the river to a village called Ekereborokiri and walk through the jungle to another village, where we’d be picked up. We started the day with a breakfast of Indomie and egg at Lady B’s, in the rain:

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Bit of an early start to catch the boat back to Yenagoa, with Ebenezer, Timi, Amy and Ine waving us off at the jetty.

We had a much smoother ride on the speedboat this time, don’t know whether this was due to a better driver or just better weather conditions. On arrival at Yenagoa we were greeted by an immigration official, who insisted on seeing our papers. He didn’t notice that my entry visa expired several months ago, I hadn’t fished the copy of my extension stamp out of my wallet. Maybe he was just hoping for a dash.
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The main planned activity for the day was a trip to the beach, with Pete, Mary and Ine. First we walked to the AKWA school, to see the nursery and primary classes.

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Another slow start to the day, with a leisurely breakfast and then a pleasant walk along to the market. It’s quite a small market and most of the produce comes in on the “market boat” (the big one in the picture below left).

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After a good night’s rest at Amy’s house we had a late breakfast and Amy took us for a walk round Akassa. Although it was quite cloudy and damp (being rainy season) Akassa is a beautiful place, so we had frequent stops to take pictures. We also stopped along the way so that Amy could check for messages on her phone. Coverage is very poor so you have to stand on a jetty and hold your phone up in the air to have any chance of getting a signal.

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When I was at the skillshare workshop in Akwanga the other week, Tracey was talking about a trip down to the South-South she had been planning and said she was looking for people to join her. A few weeks later Tracey, Jenny and I met up in Abuja to start the two-day journey to Akassa.

We took the ABC Transport coach to Port Harcourt, much more comfortable than the bush taxis we normally use. The coaches are the same ones most of the companies in Chile used, made in Brazil by Marcopolo, with air conditioning and reclining seats. They even served us a meal on board and showed videos recorded from satellite TV.
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My colleague Tayo got married to his girlfriend Bisi at the weekend and I was invited to Akure to attend both the traditional engagement and the reception the next day.

One of the staff buses from FRCN picked us up outside Radio House on Friday morning and we all piled in for the (roughly) six-hour journey down to Akure, in Ondo state. The bus was much more comfortable than public transport, we had a seat each and it didn’t get too hot. We even stopped for a while at Lokoja, so I managed to get some fried yam and akara for lunch.

We arrived just in time to get changed into Nigerian traditional dress and walk over to the engagement ceremony with Tayo (the pictures were all taken by Jonah):

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I went for a walk last week, to try to get some pictures of Abuja. It’s a weird city, lots of big concrete buildings but also large areas of undeveloped land. In this picture you can see a view across one of these areas towards (from left) Le Meridien hotel, the International Conference Centre and Radio House.

Many of the undeveloped plots are being used to grow crops, or have illegal buildings on them. The Federal Capital Development Agency is currently trying to rid the city of these illegal buildings, with a series of demolitions.

Some of the buildings in Abuja have been in progress for some time, such as the National Ecumenical Centre. Many seem to have been abandoned for a while.

When I have a free weekend (not for a while) I’ll go for another walk and take more pictures. It’s not an unattractive city, but very short on any kind of excitement.