Caboose

Dave, Marebec and I took Friday off work and met Phyllis horribly early in the morning for the eight-hour trip up to Sokoto. The early start was both so that we can complete the journey in daylight and because the cars at Jabi motor park fill quicker early in the morning.

Before long we were off, with the road gradually deteriorating once we passed Kaduna. The bush on either side was noticeably greener than in February and we saw quite a few camels and donkeys along the road once we got further north. We also had an unexpected (but short) stop in Zamfara state when one of the car’s tyres burst.
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I stayed with Kay at her house in Kubwa (one of Abuja’s satellite towns) last night. Mary joined us for a lovely meal and to watch a DVD. Although most of the rubble has been cleared up you can still see the scar’s resulting from the recent demolitions in Kubwa. Opinions are still divided over how good an idea it is to go around demolishing all the illegal buildings.

In the morning I headed down to the expressway junction to meet Alex and several others for a picnic up at Usuma dam. After some interesting driving through huge muddy puddles and into the bush (in a VW Golf) we found a nice spot and started the barbecue.

While we were waiting several local women walked past us, on the way to the reservoir to do their washing. A Fulani boy also turned up with his herd.

Around the time the food was ready it started to rain, getting heavier and heavier until we were all huddled in the cars. The Fulani boy stayed standing out in the open, watching the animals.

Another trip out into the bush with Alex, this time up a different lump of rock in the Mpape area.

On the way up we walked through a Fulani village (you can see it in the left-hand picture), full of cows, sheep and people. This looked like a proper nomadic village, with houses that can be packed up and moved easily. Once we got to the top the clouds rolled in and there wasn’t much of a view.

Dave, Karen, Jenny and her friend Rachael came round on Tuesday afternoon, while we were waiting for Marebec to finish work we went up to the roof of Radio House, which gives you a great view of Abuja. Here’s a (partial) panorama:

The full-size image is 8322×1074 pixels and over a megabyte and has some of Abuja’s landmarks labelled.

Afterwards we went to one of the Radio House chop houses for minerals.

Tracey left Nigeria this morning, at the end of her two-year placement in Gindiri, Plateau State. While she was there she had a cat, which had kittens just over ten weeks ago. She needed to find a home for the kittens, so Marebec and I now have two of them. They’re called Tracey and Sue (after two of the recently departed VSOs), we can’t currently tell the difference between them, I think we might have to get collars for them.

I was recently asked to record a promo for one of our neighbours at Radio House. Emmanuel had written the script, I just had to read it a few times and my voice is now going out a few times a week on Kapital FM.

Here’s the promo (288KB MP3 file), so that people outside Abuja can enjoy it.

Got a call from Alex this afternoon asking if we wanted to head out to visit Bwari pottery. Shortly afterwards he arrived with Tracey and Karen and Marebec and I joined them for the drive out to Bwari.

Bwari is one of Abuja’s satellite towns, with lots of housing and some government organisations there. The pottery was set up following the example of the Pottery Training Centre at Abuja (renamed Suleja when the new capital was created here). The buildings are of traditional construction, with grass roofs, and the site is very peaceful.

We watched one of the potters at work and Marebec had a go with his assistance.

There’s an interesting article about pottery in the Abuja area here.

Tracey will be leaving Nigeria next week now that her placement has finished. She’s organised a series of leaving parties in various places.

On Saturday morning Bob’s (heavily loaded) car left Abuja for Jos, picking up Jenny and her friend Rachael in Akwanga along the way. After a nice lunch we spent the afternoon wandering around town, doing a bit of shopping. Jos is much cheaper than Abuja for almost everything, I picked up some honey, video CDs and a thermos flask which I’m planning to use for making yoghurt.

Saturday night was great, the party was at the PW life camp. They provided lovely food (real sausages!) and plenty of drink. There was much dancing and singing until the early morning.

Festivities restart next week with a party at Bob’s place on Saturday, one at the Abuja PW life camp on Sunday and a picnic on Monday.

Last night I went to the Mummy market at Abacha barracks (officially Mogadishu barracks these days) with Medel and Marebec, it’s one of the best places in Abuja for grilled fish. They have an open area with the half oil drum fish and chicken grills surrounded by open-air bars.

While we were eating it started to rain, getting heavier and heavier with bright flashes of lightning all around. The people running the fish stalls set up brightly coloured umbrellas to cover their grills, which were lit up beautifully by the bare bulbs they use for light. It was a shame I only had my phone with me, with a proper camera it would have made a fantastic picture.

To make things even better a three-piece band were playing in our bar, the whole thing was one of those moments that remind me why it’s so good to be in Nigeria.

Some of the bits of equipment that should have been in the house when we moved in are finally starting to arrive. Yesterday we got our table and chairs:

This means we don’t have to eat with plates balanced on our knees any more and we can sit outside in the evening. We’re just waiting for wardrobes now.