It was 12:00pm on the 5st of March 2013 when I arrived in Nigeria. I shall not bore you with the details of the hustle and bustle of luggage packing and seat finding. Nor will I burden you with the details of my excruciatingly long flight and the insufferable individuals riddled with diarrhea of the mouth and an evident inability to undertake basic hygiene rituals. Instead I shall attempt to recall and retell to you my glorious adventures of taste and sight and all other senses. Although forgive me when I say that the experience of reading this does not come close to a firsthand experience.
Some places have the ability to quite literally take your breath away. Now I do not refer to the tear-jerking pangs of putrid ordure found in some part of every country, but the special, different places that make you stop a while and – at the risk of sounding so brazenly cliché- smell the roses. Standing outside the airport, luggage in hand I was compelled to just take a minute and breathe in Nigeria. The buzzing sound of different exotic languages filled the air as passersby conversed. The air itself was alive with smells from goods carried by locals on head baskets as they persuaded newcomers to buy their roasted peanuts and fried banana chips. Even the clothes people wore were different. Oh! What colour! Vibrant patterns of green and gold and purple and blue caught the sunlight in the most beautiful way.
Upon seeing this I decided to walk. Not in any particular direction and not to any particular location, but just to simply…walk.
As I walked I passed a church, just finished from mass but still ringing with songs of praise. They did not stand politely and sing in undertones, they danced and clapped like the songs were from their hearts. The building overflowed with people, many of whom were outside and didn’t seem to care much. Nobody had hymen books. Children dressed in smart Sunday clothes ran round the church grounds laughing as though the world was theirs to enjoy, and so it was. The heat blared down on me angry and fierce but I pressed on, eager to see more of this newer brighter Nigeria.