Caboose

We went back to Gurara Falls on Sunday, very different from the rainy season trip as you can see in the pictures:

As there was much less water this time we could have a picnic on the beach and then go for a swim.

The Abuja Carnival finally happened last week, but I don’t have any pictures. This is mostly because the whole thing was so badly publicised that we never found out when the various events were happening.

For example, I think there were carnival parades Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday but nobody could tell me when the parade was due to start or when it would finish at Eagle Square. On Saturday there was a regatta on Jabi Lake, but I only found out about it afterwards. It seems the best way to find out what was going on was to sit indoors and watch NTA.

It looks like a lot of effort went in to organising the carnival but this was ruined by the lack of a published programme. In fact, posters advertising the carnival only went up about a week before it started. Maybe it’ll be better run next year…

I’ve had a few emails from people complaining that I’m too negative about Nigeria. Here’s the most recent one, with my reply below:

Below is the result of your feedback form. It was submitted by arcalad@yahoo.com (Peter) on Thursday, November 24, 2005 at 02:35:04.
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Name: Peter

email: arcalad@yahoo.com

Page title: Parents’ visit

Comments: Hi,

I have been going through your blog for a while now,and i guess you are not in any way enjoying your stay in Nigeria.Your comments and observations actually show this.You seems to complain too much about the situation at hand,and i guess you dont like virtually everything you see in the country from the people,culture down to the foods.You forget this is a developing country and i think you didnt do your research very well before coming over on what to expect.
Please try and post some good things about the country you discover to give a more balance look to your blog..i wish you will open up and have a relax mind while you enjoy your stay in Nigeria.
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On Sunday Alex took Marebec, Dave and I for a walk up Aso Rock. This is the inselberg that dominates the Abuja skyline (when it’s not too dusty to see it). The plan was to walk up in the afternoon, watch the sunset from the top and then return to Alex’s for dinner.

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Mum and Dad came to visit me for a week, it’s taken me a little while to sort out my pictures and write this. (The picture is of Mum and Dad at the Farin Ruwa waterfall)

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My parents are arriving tonight and will be here for a week so I probably won’t be updating this for a while or checking my email very often.

To celebrate the end of fasting many towns in Nigeria hold a Durbar. In the past this was the Emir’s review of his troops, with cavalry regiments contributed by each district. Alex originally organised for a few of us to travel up to Kano for the Durbar there but in the end he couldn’t make it because of work commitments. Instead his sister Viviane joined Dave, Marebec, Kate and myself for the long and dusty journey north on Wednesday.

Once we had checked into the hotel we had a late lunch at a Lebanese bakery near the Central hotel then headed to Kano’s famous Kurmi market. The market was very quiet because of the public holiday, many of the stalls were closed, but we still had a quick walk around. We also went for a quick stroll along the street outside.

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Abuja is a famously dull city and most of the time it seems to be government policy to keep it that way. The minister for the Federal Capital Territory, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, has been responsible for demolishing most of the (admittedly illegally-built) buildings that formerly provided useful services to the inhabitants of the city.

Next month the government have organised something more constructive, the Abuja Carnival, organised by the team responsible for the Notting Hill Carnival in London.

I’m still here, the past couple of weeks have just been very quiet. This is mostly because several people have been away.

The new batch of volunteers arrived yesterday, so I popped across to the Crystal Palace to say hello. It’s one of those weird things where I’ve been in touch with most of them by email but never met them before.

Alex took us on another picnic on Sunday, this time travelling a bit further to Gurara Falls. The falls are usually listed as one of Abuja’s tourist attractions despite being about an hour away to the west.

We left Abuja in sunshine, drove through some very heavy rain and arrived at the falls just in time for the rain to hit there. The good thing about all the rain was that the falls were very impressive.

After sitting in a small shelter for a while the rain eased off and we tried to find a suitable spot for the picnic. The rain kept coming back though and Alex’s usual spots were underwater so we retreated to the car. After eating some houmous and lebanese bread in the car we drove back to Alex’s house, where he cooked the chicken we were supposed to barbecue at the falls.