Days 5 & 6: Benin City and Warri

We got to Benin City about 5pm last Friday night - the very worse time to arrive. The streets were packed and it felt like all of Nigeria's 140 million citizens had descended on the Oba's Market in the centre of the town. How I did not die from carbon monoxide poisoning I do not know (come to think of it, how all Nigerians do not die from carbon monoxide poisoning is nothing short of a miracle). We met up with Tolu's brother Femi and his wife Lilian and baby son Davies who were to be our hosts for the night. By the time we got to their apartment down the most amazing labyrinth of mud roads, it was nightfall and there was not much to do except eat and sleep. Once again, activities were curtailed because of lack of power.
The following morning we had breakfast and then Femi showed me his paintings: he is a very talented artist. He was to be our guide for the morning, and on the way into town we visted the University of Benin art campus where Femi studied and admired a remarkable sculpture park.
From there we went straight to the city centre and parked in Kings Square (which is actually a roundabout) - a very well maintained circular park that houses the national museum. Although the museum looks impresive from the outside, it is in very poor condition on the inside.
(An interesting aside: the first display case was in darkness because the attendant was charging her mobile phone....)
Nevertheless, the museum contains some amazing bronze work from Benin City's fascinating history and that of their Obas or kings. That history took a violent turn in 1897 when the British destroyed the Oba's palace after rumours of human sacrifice. All so recent! We went from their to the said palace (rebuilt on a small scale at the beginning of the 20th century) to find that we could not have an audience with the present Oba without an appointment. Nevertheless, an investiture of chiefs had just taken place and I was pleased to meet them and have my photograph taken with them. There was not much else to see at the palace and so we went to the Bronze workers street where we bought a traditional souvenir.
After that, Femi directed us to the outskirts of town and it was "Goodbye Benin City - Warri here we come!"
The road to Warri is the best that I have experienced yet - if only they were all so good. We would have steamed along but for the fact that there were army checkposts about every 3 km. This is because of the security problems that they have had in the Delta States. One soldier asked me whether I was not afraid to be taking this road! Not exactly reassuring!
Somewhere along that road we left Edo State (Motto: The Heart of the Nation) and entered Delta State (Motto:?). By the time we got to Warri (about 3pm I think) there was a tropical storm taking place. It was a deluge! We stopped on the outskirts of town and called Jonathan Esin Junior - our host in Warri and the only reason that we had ventured into Delta State. Jonathan was a member of St. John's, Cheetham, for a few years until 2007. He soon arrived and I berated him for providing Manchester weather! It was very good to see him again and he took us straight to his house where we met his mother, his brother and sister-in-law. From there we went to meet his vicar Canon Anthony to clarify what I was to do in church the following morning. The answer was NOT MUCH! Canon Anthony was watching his church football team take part in a tournament and he greeted me with a guffaw HAHA! YOU ARE FROM THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND WHICH IS DYING! ARE YOU WITH THE GAYS OR NOT? I did not think this was a promising start. The Bishop of Warri was also at the football field and I was introduced to him in the same ambivalent way. I agreed to bring a greeting in the service the following morning and it was quite apparent that that was as much as I was welcome to do.
From there, Jonathan took us to our hotel which was fairly basic but perfectly adequate.
I came back with Jonathan, leaving Tolu at the hotel, to spend some time in a cyber cafe. After, he and his brother Okes took me to their local - a bar in a compound somewhere- and I had my first beer since the airport - and my second - both very welcome! The speciality of the house was pepper soup with catfish made by a large woman whom Jonathan referred to as Baby. You have to choose your own catfish from a large barrel where they vigorously resist capture. Half an hour later and the poor creature was on our table and very delicious it tasted too. This was my first pepper soup and Baby had apparently toned it down for my sake: it was still very hot.
Jonathan ran me back to the hotel and sleep soon followed.
Sunday morning we were up soon after six to wash and breakfast before being collected by Jonathan at 715. The Church of the Advent begins their morning worship with a Bible Study at 730. When we got there fifteen minutes after that things were well underway with perhaps 25 people in church. The service proper (Morning Prayer) began about 815 and was to last until about 11. By the end there must have been 150 people in church. It was surprisingly Anglican - I had expected it to be more different. The sermon was delivered by the Reader and went over my head. There was a worship band and a good choir; traditional hymns were sung from A & M Revised - so I felt very much at home. I sat at the front and was allowed to bring a greeting. It was all very friendly and the amibivalent welcome of the previous day seemed even more unnecessary than it had then.
After the service we took a number of photos before Jonathan ran us back to our hotel.
We rested for a couple of hours before J returned to collect us for Sunday lunch at his house: jollof rice, chicken (for the first time) and salad. Very good!
After lunch, J and his brother Okes took us on a tour of Warri. It is an oil town and we saw the refinery from outside and walked around the docks. None of it was very prepossessing but it was a pleasant enough couple of hours.
We returned to the family house for pepper soup - this time with chicken - and then it was time for goodbyes and J ran us to the hotel where the three of us had a beer together before bidding J goodbye and then going to bed.