{"id":494,"date":"2006-04-18T09:21:10","date_gmt":"2006-04-18T09:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.caboose.org.uk\/archives\/2006\/04\/18\/my-nigerian-adventure\/"},"modified":"2006-04-20T15:39:31","modified_gmt":"2006-04-20T15:39:31","slug":"my-nigerian-adventure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.caboose.org.uk\/b\/archives\/2006\/04\/18\/my-nigerian-adventure\/","title":{"rendered":"My Nigerian Adventure"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sunday 19th March<\/strong><\/p>\n

I arrived into Abuja at around 8pm but the heat was still almost overpowering as I stepped out of the horribly air-conditioned plane.\u00a0 The immigration desk officials were efficient and very friendly (thank god the Americans haven’t been training them!) and I was soon collecting my luggage and meeting Kevin.<\/p>\n

As it was dark I could not see much as we drove into Abuja and to Radio House where we would be staying with Marebec for the night.\u00a0 I met Marebec and Russell before gratefully heading to bed although 5am alarm call had been set!<\/p>\n

Monday 20th March<\/strong><\/p>\n

Up very early and off the Jabi motor park (which is actually called some other name which no one actually calls it) to get a car to Kaduna where Kevin now lives.\u00a0 My mum and dad had prepared me for the state of the cars and I think being half asleep made me distinctly relaxed about the safety of these vehicles.\u00a0 We got a car quickly and were soon heading off.<\/p>\n

We headed to NTI when we reached Kaduna and greeted the many security guards before dropping off the rucksacks in Kevin’s room before a greeting tour of all the staff in NTI, many who appeared to be asleep.\u00a0 We then went into Kaduna for a look around the market and the city itself.\u00a0\u00a0It was overwhemingly busy\u00a0with people and traffic everywhere in no apparent order, not at all like\u00a0British cities.
\n\"Eleanor<\/a><\/p>\n

That evening we met some of the other VSO’s in the Air Force Club for a few beers and then\u00a0for some dinner in the form of suya<\/a>, which was unbelievably spicy, so much so it brought tears to my eyes!\u00a0 It was then a white knuckle ride on the motorbikes to get a car back to NTI.
\n
\nTuesday 21st March<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kano, an old Hausa city, was next on the tour.\u00a0\u00a0Once we got into the city centre by means of a taxi, which broke down about every 100m, we found a hotel in the Christian area.\u00a0 We then visited the museum, where my torch came in handy as the NEPA was off, the dye pits and\u00a0a general wander around the old city.\u00a0 Apart from the usual calls of oyinbo<\/a> quite a few people seem to think we were international observers in Kano to monitor the upcoming census even though we did not have matching t-shirts and caps.<\/p>\n

Wednesday 22nd March<\/strong><\/p>\n

Before we travelled back to Kaduna we visited the Dala Hill where you could see the full city although the Harmattan<\/a> meant it was quite hazy.\u00a0 From here you could see just what a large city it was and realised why Nigeria is Africa’s most populous nation.
\n\"Eleanor<\/a> \"View<\/a><\/p>\n

The journey back to Kaduna was particularly uncomfortable, due to the forthcoming census travel restrictions very few cars were leaving, so both of us were in the front passenger seat for the three hour journey.\u00a0 After we folded out of the car at NTI a relaxing afternoon was required and a shower!<\/p>\n

Thursday 23rd to Sunday 24th March<\/strong><\/p>\n

As there was going to be a travel ban on the Friday and Saturday Kevin had decided that we should travel to Kabba and stay with Fathers’ Noel and Leo.\u00a0 We got there in the late afternoon and were promptly counted by the census officials\u00a0of whom one was writing and four were watching and providing\u00a0advice.\u00a0\u00a0Tammie and Kim, two other VSO census refugees, were already there and a relaxing evening of good food, good drink (isn’t it always!) and great company ensued.<\/p>\n

We spent the next couple of days relaxing in the lovely surroundings, watching a strangely addictive American soap, taking walks and drinking courtesy of\u00a0our very\u00a0kind hosts.<\/p>\n

Sunday 26th March<\/strong><\/p>\n

Travel was again possible so we all headed off in our respective directions.\u00a0 Kevin and I were travelling to Oshogbo where we were met by Laide who drove us to Shuah’s house where we had kindly been invited to stay.\u00a0 That evening we ate in the Nigerian equivalent of McDonalds which despite a extensive menu only had about three dishes.\u00a0 Despite this what we had was considerably nicer than McDonalds fare.<\/p>\n

Monday 27th March<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oshogbo appeared to be quite a small city compared to the others I had visited.\u00a0 It has a very impressive mosque and not quite so impressive palace and also the Sacred Forest.\u00a0 The Forest contains a shrine and a multitude of carved sculptures where were very beautiful.\u00a0 It was very peaceful as there was not another soul to be seen.
\n\"Weird-looking<\/a> \"Eleanor<\/a><\/p>\n

In the afternoon, Laide drove us out into the country to visit a waterfall after a delicious lunch at an African kitchen.\u00a0 That evening we enjoyed dinner at a chop house on the main street watching the small children disciplining the babies in their charge by means of a good smack.\u00a0 I don’t think the Nigerians would think much of the Scottish Executive’s smacking ban!
\n\"Eleanor<\/a><\/p>\n

Tuesday 28th and Wednesday 29th March<\/strong><\/p>\n

Due to the census Kevin’s original itinerary including Calabar had to be amended due to lack of time and therefore we went to Jos instead.\u00a0 It was a slightly trying journey, and in fact downright terrifying, but the cooler air was a welcome relief after being in stuffy cars all day.\u00a0 We had been recommended to stay at the Christian guest houses which are numerous, however, there was sadly no room at the inn.\u00a0 We soon found a hotel and headed out for dinner.<\/p>\n

The next day, after a particularly cold bucket shower (the cooler night time temperatures being to blame), we visited the museum which was very interesting apart from the slightly strange anti-drugs exhibition which appeared to have been put together by young children.\u00a0 Outside the museum there were lots of tall trees absolutely laden with bats – this did make me slightly uneasy as I tend to associate bats with rabies!<\/p>\n

That evening we enjoyed a lovely dinner at a Lebanese restaurant which made a welcome change from the spicy Nigerian food.\u00a0 Back at the hotel there was no light so we were presented with a candle as we arrived and were soon in bed.\u00a0 However, at around midnight what Kevin thought was a mosquito was heard and prompt mosquito net hanging was taking place after which I realised the ‘mosquito’ was in fact Celine Dion from the next room!<\/p>\n

Thursday 30th March<\/strong><\/p>\n

On my final day we travelled back to Abuja to get my flight in the evening.\u00a0 I had thought we had been lucky not to have any of the old wrecks that we had been in break down and indeed it was.\u00a0 A few cars later we arrived at Radio House to have a shower and get ready to go to the airport.<\/p>\n

Friday 31st March<\/strong><\/p>\n

Arrive back at Edinburgh airport to sideways rain and 5°C and wish I was back in Nigeria.\u00a0 I thoroughly enjoyed my visit and especially appreciated the friendliness of the Nigerian people.\u00a0 Although running water, reliable electricity, hot showers and hair straighteners were most welcome I would love to return to Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sunday 19th March I arrived into Abuja at around 8pm but the heat was still almost overpowering as I stepped out of the horribly air-conditioned plane.\u00a0 The immigration desk officials were efficient and very friendly (thank god the Americans haven’t been training them!) and I was soon collecting my luggage and meeting Kevin. As it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,11,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family","category-travel","category-vso"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caboose.org.uk\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caboose.org.uk\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caboose.org.uk\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caboose.org.uk\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caboose.org.uk\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.caboose.org.uk\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caboose.org.uk\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caboose.org.uk\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caboose.org.uk\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}