Days 10 & 11: Akure and environs

(The first part of the diary of this day - Thursday October 15th - is found at the end of the previous post - sorry!)

Based on a text from Genesis 21 about the divine timing of the birth of Isaac, we were supposed to draw direct lessons about the punctuality of “youths” in church. This was more eisegesis than exegesis: I approached the subject with great scepticism but in fact we had a good discussion and I enjoyed myself much more than I expected to. I left just after six and came back home for a tea of rice, stew & spinach followed by fresh pineapple. Tolu then proposed a little expedition which is unusual as we don’t often go out after dark. (Nigerian friends in Manchester had made be promise that I would not go out after 6pm. I have broken that promise on a number of occasions – but I suspect they were thinking about Lagos. Akure is very different. I have yet to feel unsafe.) We went to a “beer parlour” run by a cousin of Tolu’s where we had a very welcome cold STAR beer. Most of Akure feels and looks rather like a shanty town; there is no power apart from in those establishments wealthy enough to own their own generator; driving at night is treacherous on these roads – so all in all it was quite an adventure. But we got there and back safely and had an interesting conversation about the history of the African church in between. Bed about ten. Again I was woken on and off by some prayer vigil taking place somewhere – though without the loud speakers thank God! But I have given up hoping to have a good night’s sleep.

I don’t think that I have mentioned the heat? I don’t really know how hot it is. It is very humid – and the sun is fierce when it appears – but there has been plenty of cloud and of course lots of rain when we were in Warri. What I do know is that it is never cold – I have needed nothing more than a cotton shirt – and at night only a sheet. The best you can hope for is that there will be a breeze in the evening.

This morning (Friday October 16) Tolu and I did a number of errands around town before heading about an hour outside Akure to some famous hot springs. Like so much else here, the resort is terribly neglected and in desperate need of TLC, a coat of paint, and some serious investment. The stream from the spring bubbles down the hillside and it really is remarkably warm. It was directed into a decrepit swimming pool which had about 6 inches of pure clean water. There were two local boys swimming there and I joined them for a welcome splash around. So much of the infrastructure of this country is in a terrible condition: nobody seems to realise that tourists would bring money. Apart from three locals there was nobody else at the resort and the surrounding chalets which had once been available for hire had all been abandoned. As we were leaving another car arrived and I saw only the second and third white people I have seen since arriving.

We came back to Akure and have spent the afternoon catching up on this blog and trying not to get too frustrated that the internet line just cannot cope with uploading photographs.