Post date: Aug 10, 2014 12:05:04 AM
26 Feb 1964
I have a million things to write about, this week. I went to Abonnema, in the Rivers area, the delta of the Niger River, this past weekend. First I stopped at Port Harcourt Friday night, hoping to stay with a friend of mine, but he had travelled to Enugu to go to a party there. I ended up staying in a native hotel with water which didn’t work and mediocre food, for $6 for bed, dinner, and breakfast—pretty bad for what I got. It was clean, at least.
The other PCV in Port Harcourt is a girl, and would not put me up for the night. She was at the European Club when I got there, where I gather she spends most of her time, in the pool. There are many ex-patriots in this town, and many Americans among those. Shell has a big oil receiving station there and a lot of exploration. Many of the engineers go out to the bush for two or three days, then come back to base camp or town and get drunk. They make fabulous wages. Most get $6 per day food allowance, which means they have to eat caviar to spend it all. One Belgian representative gets $25 a day food allowance, and saves all of his $10,000 a year salary. No wonder white men—including Americans —are 'ugly.'
Saturday I rode up to Ahoada, visited two PCV’s, and started for Abonnema on a dirt road which led to a river and stopped. There I hired a canoe for $1.25 to take me to Abonnema—a trip which took 1 1/2 hours. This town is very interesting. There are no roads and only one street, although it is a big town — no cars. The houses and shops and stalls are only a footpath apart. It is the first town I have seen where a car is just impractical. Not even many bicycles.
Its twin town, Degema, used to be a big produce trading center, loading sea-going ships for export, but Degema is completely closed now. Only a few rotting wharves and warehouses remain, plus the company managers’ houses, which have been taken over by Nigerians. All trade has shifted to Port Harcourt.
My PC friends had gone to Enugu for the party (as I had suspicioned) so I found another canoe and went back to the end of the road. I returned to Ahoada for the night. That evening as I was in Ahoada buying some victuals, one of the typical ignorant, primary-school-educated gov‘t workers stopped me for my ‘tax receipt‘ [bribe], which, of course I don‘t have. The very morning another of his kind had accosted me, and I had been cleared of any responsibility in the authority. This guy wanted to take me to the tax authority. I told him I had cleared that morning, and , anyway, I didn‘t earn any salary in Nigeria. Then he asked for a ‘dash’ or bribe not to tell. I promptly offered to take him to the police station and turn him in, whence his story changed quickly to a request for a ride to his home town on Sunday. (I wasn’t going that way.)
I didn‘t see any of my friends, but I saw a lot of new territory and met three new friends. The swamps along the rivers were the first mangrove swamps I had seen. The people in that area are very 'bush' and extremely friendly. If I smiled, they grinned. If I waved, they were most happy. But if I smiled and waved, they were ecstatic! Great fun.
Shell wanted to drill a new well near Ahoada, but the bridge wouldn‘t hold their heavy trucks so they worked all night and built a new bridge—one of those portable ’Bailey bridges’ which just require slipping in pins to tie sections together. Pretty nice of them. It opened on Saturday, about half and hour after I got to the bridge. Sunday I returned by way of Owerri, to see some new country and learn that it is a shorter way. I saw some typical jungle, too, with three tiers of vegetation: top of tall broad-leaf trees, middle of palms, and tower tier of bushes, small rubber trees, with vines hanging all around. Most bush is not complete, having only two of the tiers, and to the north, with less rainfall, the tallest trees do not grow, except in stream-beds, where the palms do not grow. Impenetrable.
Monday morning (I have no classes), I went into Arochuku to see the tailor about making some more trousers for me; and stopped to watch the tinker mend an iron kettle. It took him an hour. Fascinating. First he chipped out a neat hole around the cracked portion, then cut a sheet metal plate to fit the hole. He stuck this in with mud inside the kettle and turned the whole upside-down. In his charcoal forge he heated a mixture of brass wire, solder, Zinc, and lead in a piece of iron pipe smashed flat at one end. When this was molten, he built a dam around the crack with mud, and poured the metal over the crack. This filled the hole nicely, and the pot is as good as new. These tinkers will replace the bottom of a large enamel basin (sans enamel) or patch a hole in a similar basin. They make sheet metal boxes, fix stoves, forge iron goods, etc. Now I can see how Benin could have a history of bronze casting and Bamenda of brass casting.
Next holiday I may go with one of the Roman Fathers on his tour of the bush mission stations. They go out for a week at a time, saying mass in the many small churches with no parish priest. They cover a large area and go deep into the bush, eating with a local family and sleeping on a cot in the local school. Sounds like a very good way to see some of the deep bush. Many of these people have never seen two white men at one time! Fr. Greenen is considering getting a small motorcycle for these trips, as they are more maneuverable over bush reads than the parish Peugeot truck.
Friday I go to Ohafia, 30 miles, to visit a PCV and a Canadian. Friday night the doctor has invited me to dinner. Saturday morn I have to go to Umuahia to the bank, from which I shall go to Orlu to the postponed party. Since I have no classes until 3pm Monday, I will stay away and shop Monday morn.