Day 2
The long wait
It was a good night sleep. Went to the dining hall in the morning to find out that we shall be leaving for Port Harcourt at 3 pm. Funny thing was that while we were eating breakfast, it became obvious that our flight to Port Harcourt will now be at 5 pm. So we had a bit of more time to spend.
Ikeja bridge
The internet was taking ages to work so one had to go to the lobby to make any kind of progress with whatever one was uploading. Eventually the Facebook pictures were uploaded and we could wait for our trip to the local airport to catch our flight.
In a Lagos taxi
We left for the short journey to the airport at 3 pm. It is nice to go into the local airport in Lagos again. The Murtala Mohamed Airport 2 or MMA2 as it is known is where all the internal flights are depart and arrive to and from Lagos. The beauty of Nigeria is that when we got there, we were told our flight would now be at 7 pm! Great! Now we have to wait 4 hours hoping to catch a flight that was originally meant to be at 3 pm. Fingers crossed as to if we will be able to leave at 7 pm.
Murtala Mohamed airport 2
Meanwhile we checked in. One had a some bottled water with him and was surprised that one was allowed to take it inside. To be fair, one had to take a sip to show the official that it did not contain liquid explosives or something like that! On the other hand, the name of this blogger was clearly spelt wrong on the ticket issued. However one managed to get through all the security checkpoints without any one of the layers of security detecting this fault or raising any fuse about it. One’s feeling was that the security personnel were only giving the appearance they were checking your papers. This is a serious let down.
Inside the departure hall of MMA2
The flight.
At 17.30 hours and just like that, our flight was announced to take off at 6 pm! Nigeria! We got to our seats only to find them already taken by someone else. They had the same seat numbers issued to them as us! It turns out that is common practice. You just sat wherever there was space! When those whose allotted seats we sat on came, they just shrugged their shoulders and looked for available seats elsewhere.
Nothing much happened on the Aero (the name of airline) flight which went on very smoothly. Nice and competent crew. We even got some in flight snacks which was unexpected given that it was a 45 minute flight. That we had to use our knees as trays made a mockery of the whole stuff though. There were no in-seat trays on the flight. There were just gaping holes where those trays apparently used to hang on the back of the seats.
The arrival and departure halls of the Port Harcourt International airport has to be the sexiest, funniest and the most exotic ever! They were just made of some makeshift Bedouin tents that gave the appearance of a party tent. To be fair, it was makeshift because the arrival and departure halls were being reconstructed. All the luggage were hand delivered to us. There were no conveyor belts!
Sparklyn Hotel Port Harcourt
Asari Dokubo
We got to our hotel for the night (Sparklyn hotel) and quickly settled in. We had a delicious dinner. Our European co-travellers remarked that it was the best Nigerian meal they have ever had. The very friendly chef was called to our table to receive the well-deserved compliments. It was the best way to end a long day. Just as we were about to retire to our various rooms, Comrade Ofehe (the leader of the group) informed us we were going out still. It was to meet with the former military leader of MEND (a Niger-Delta armed resistance militia) Asari Dokubo.
Asari Dokubo with the crew
Thus we were driven to the Presidential hotel in Port Harcourt which was about 10 minutes’ drive from our hotel to meet him. Asari is a very impressive man. Two of the three Dutch co-travellers had met him before during their previous trip. He spoke fondly about his projects including schools in Benin republic and what his hopes were for the future. And while he appeared sleepy and a bit uninterested earlier during our arrival, the more he spoke the more agitated and alive he became. He clearly had an idea of what he wants the school to become; the best. One wondered though why the school had to be in Benin republic and not in Nigeria. One is sure there are good reasons for this. In any case, this meeting made our plans to go to Benin republic unnecessary. He was the one we were planning to visit there as one was later told.
We came back to our hotel around 2 am and happily we could just get some sleep!
