Waiting

I am sitting in an airport at Port Harcourt. Waiting. This is what is done in Africa. So far I have only been waiting for two and a half hours. It could be far worse. It does not bode well for my trip home as this is only my first flight; there are still two more to catch after this. That is if I arrive in Lagos in time for the next one. If not, the next flight back home to South Africa leaves in two days time. I do hope I make it, but then again there is no point worrying about stuff you cannot change. I am learning to go with the flow. I don’t like it though!

My book is pretty good, but I don’t want to finish it before I get on the flight. A couple of little bugs crawl across the page I am reading. Their tiny legs pumping with vigour. I squashed one but the other was too fast. There have been a lot of bugs over here. Not wild and dangerous bugs but just little things with which I don’t normally share my space. The pasta I cooked the other night came with free weevils. Big, fat ones with stubby legs. I fished some of them out of the boiling water but gave up and decided to eat them. I think they tasted just fine! My sandwich today had one of those little ones that were also on my book. After ten days in Nigeria, I did not give the little critter a second thought. It was my cheese sandwich and it tasted out of this world.

There are plenty more bugs where those came from. It certainly explains the large population of brightly coloured lizards that seem to be everywhere. These guys enjoy them too.

The electricity has died three times while I have been waiting here. Nothing much changes; the lights go out and the slowly rotating ceiling fans rotate slower and then stop. This part of the country is oil rich and yet there is no constant power supply. Something to do with corruption and power. Most of Port Harcourt has no electricity during the day. Very simply the place runs on generators and the generators run on fuel! Fuel is hard to come by. My heart breaks for the people queuing for fuel as they wait for hours. One drives past fuel stations with long lines of empty cars. Thirsty car after car, just waiting. It is pretty incomprehensible that with all of the oil, there is no oil refinery. Or at least any oil refineries that still work. Now all oil and gas is shipped off somewhere else, refined, and then imported back into the area. Words cannot describe how ridiculous this is.

No fuel means no electricity which also means no refrigeration. It is a little difficult to freeze meat without power all of time. That does not stop anyone from trying. I can only imagine the number of times in a day that it defrosts and refreezes. It does not seem to bother anyone. It bothers me! I have become an almost very good vegan for my stay here. Whilst I have thoroughly enjoyed lots of beans, some cool bugs, and plenty of pasta, I am looking forward to meat and eggs and more meat!!!

As for queues, fuel, oil, and electricity, one can only hope that sanity will prevail over greed. But it perhaps best not to hope too much or too long.....