Slavery Museum

          On Tuesday, December 11, we had a surprise visit from one of the school van drivers.  He is the one who usually takes the expats shopping for groceries.  We were very happy to see him.  We had walked to the bank the day before to get the rest of our spending money for December but had no way to exchange it for Naira.  The school pays us in dollars so it is easier for us to transfer it to the US.  The bank will not exchange it for us so we have to go to the black market in the dangerous part of town.  We were specifically warned NEVER to go alone.  We would definitely risk our lives trying to exchange money.  So we were stuck with money we could not use without assistance from the school.  We took care of that first and then went on the usual grocery run.

          A paid a ridiculous amount for two plastic chairs and a small table to sit at outside of our flat.  Now that we are home all day when the generator is not on, sitting inside in the heat, is more ridiculous.  I am sitting outside right now typing and watching the sun go down.  Being next to the Equator the sun comes up about six and goes down about six all year long.  The birds sound so foreign to me.  If I couldn’t hear car horns and I closed my eyes I would think I was in the middle of a jungle.  I wish I could spot some of those birds.  They make the most interesting sounds.

          We told our driver we planned to walk all the way to the Marina Resort so we could go through the Slavery Museum.  He said we did not have to do that, the school should provide us transportation.  He said when he returned the van he would ask the accountant who was working during the break.  Our school boarding house is being used for a youth camp during the Festival.  We didn’t get a call so Wednesday morning we left as planned to make the trip on our own.  We bypassed the dangerous area to get there which meant quieter streets but I still think it was a better choice.  We told the guard where we were going when we left our compound.

          It only took about an hour to walk there.  I had used Google Maps to make sure I knew which road to take down the hill.  When we passed by the entrance to the State-owned Governor’s mansion and the church we used to attend, we also came upon a gate blocking the road we needed to go down.  A guard came out from the Governor’s mansion to ask us where we were going.  We told him and also that we worked at Surefoot the Governor’s wife’s school and he let us go through.  I was very thankful because we had already come down the hill a long way and I didn’t want to go back up and around and try and find a different road.

          We had to pay at the entrance to the resort but we received a receipt so I felt better knowing it was not just a scam.  They were just sitting in chairs on the side of the road so it didn’t look very official.  We sat under a huge tree along the water and enjoyed some refreshments before going into the museum.  The Festival calendar said there was a craft fair but we didn’t see anything going on.  I am beginning to wonder if anything the activities calendar says is accurate information.

There were several other plants all growing on the tree we sat under.

The vines looked like they were choking the tree.

          The museum had a cute little gift shop so I was able to get a Native item for a Christmas gift and something to hang on the wall in my office back home in Oregon.  It has become my place to showcase my travels.  The Slavery museum was very good.  The displays were all interesting and they had some really old artifacts.  There are no words to describe how it felt having a Nigerian Native give us an oral tour of the entire place.  We were standing there, two Caucasions from the US, listening to him describe the slave trade and the conditions his people were made to endure in the ships crossing the Atlantic.  The Port of Calabar was the biggest exporter of slaves.  The Native people in this area were well known as the strongest and most valuable on the slave market.

Traditional Fisherman

The tide was out.  It reminded me of the Sound around Olympia, WA but the beach was not nearly as clean.

           Outside of the museum we went down to the dock and saw a small traditional fishing boat.  There weren’t very many people around so we just headed back up the hill.  This time we went on the other road which took us right into the area we wanted to avoid but it was early enough in the day that it wasn’t too crowded.  We just stayed on the main road and didn’t stop until we got all the way home to our safe haven in the compound.  I don’t have a way of measuring the distance but our legs were really tired and our clothes were wet from the humidity and sweat.  Surprisingly, we were only gone for 3 hours.  We only sat for a short time so it was a good workout.