Caboose

I got a text from Aine last week with details of what to do on arrival in Minna. I texted back and asked if she’d meant to send it to someone else. It seems that she had asked me at the St Patrick’s celebrations the week before if I wanted to come through and I’d said yes, maybe too many Guinnesses had been consumed.

After the usual bouncy and dusty trip from Kaduna I arrived and met Aine, Thessa, Jenny and Pete at Mr Biggs for breakfast. Then we headed out to Gurara Falls to cool down in the waterfall. Julia was a bit delayed coming across from Jos, so met us at the falls.

We had a lovely time, although the rocks and sand were a bit too hot to spend any time lingering at the side of the water. As there hasn’t been any rain for quite a while now there wasn’t much water, so you couldn’t really swim but it was marvellous just floating and cooling off.

After a while a group of small boys appeared (they always do) and alternated between doing their own thing and watching us. Doing their own thing seemed to mostly be paddling and catching very small fish. The watching was especially intense when we were leaving and the girls were getting changed, there’s no link between staring and rudeness in Nigerian culture.

In the evening we had a few beers and some suya at the barracks, about the only place in Minna to get alcohol. The heat was terrible, even after the sun had gone down.