We had to get up early on Sunday morning for our flight to Abuja.  6am is very early for us as friends and family will know.  We'd packed up everything again the night before and so, only needed to check-out of the hotel and have a quick breakfast.  The driver was to collect us at 6h45.  He arrived on time and we left for the airport.  The night before it was dark when we traveled to the hotel, now we were traveling in daylight and I'm not sure if this was a good or a bad thing. We got to see more of Nigeria but it was not a good sight.  At one point we were driving behind this van with flashing red and green lights.  It looked quite festive but as we passed him we noticed corpses lying in the back one of whose arm was hanging out and swaying as the vehicle moved.  Our driver explained that this van picked up these corpses on the highways and took them to the mortuary for identification.  They don't have id's here so not sure how they identify them.

When we arrived at the airport, our driver told us not to answer anyone who asks us where we're going but to move straight to the counter for Arik Air.  When the car stopped about half a dozen guys rushed to it.  Our driver was very good and assigned one of them to take our luggage and we followed him into the "terminal" which was a makeshift building more like a massive gazebo.  By the time we arrived in the terminal this one guy had morphed into three.  While two of them guarded our luggage, the other took our passports and got our luggage booked in.  His fee for all of this was NGN7000.  We only had NGN5000 and he seemed to be satisfied with this, promising he would make right with the guys who guarded our luggage.  They looked very sad, so I'm sure they saw none of it.

Then the long wait again before boarding at 9h15.  Bateleur looked through the window and saw a McDonnell Douglas standing outside and he said "hope that's not our one".  About a week or two before we had to fly out, one of them crashed into apartments soon after take-off and about 159 people were killed.  Oh happy day.  I started saying my prayers and telling God to please take my soul and Bateleur's in case he forgot, if we should die today.  When we finally boarded we were happy to see that it was a Boeing.  Then they separated us as we had to be body searched before boarding.  Flight was good and we eventually arrived at our destination.  What a short-lived relief as we were stopped just before entering the gates as the armed guard needed to check our luggage.  Bateleur got out to open the bags but the guard told him to get back in.  He needed to scan our bags while another guard walked around the vehicle with a mirror to check underneath the car.

I decided to blog about our trip to Nigeria to find some good things.  So far I've mentioned quite a few bad things but on the good side, the guards are very security aware which makes me feel a lot safer in the hotel.  The people are friendly and helpful and the women's dresses are beautiful.  I wish I could have one.  I wish I could take photos but Bataleur's colleague was actually taken into police custody for taking photos of a church and mosque, so I'm very careful.  He had to erase them all and he even had to write an apology letter. They do have beautiful buildings.