Barka da Sallah

Or Happy Sallah (I think). Sallah is one of the names given to the celebrations that follows the end of Ramadan and is the real reason we have had two days public holiday here in Nigeria I have now discovered. We were invited for some ‘chop’ by a member of the Programme office on the first day of the public holiday and it’s the first time I’ve been out of Abuja since I’ve arrived. We didn’t exactly go very far but it was nice to go on a wee adventure all the same. Along the way we passed what is supposed to be West Africa’s largest housing estate (Gwarinpa), and by largest I think it means it has the largest houses in it that you are likely to see, some of these things were HUGE. For a country that is dealing with poverty on such a large scale there is also a huge amount of wealth here.

Anyway we arrived after some debate as to which house it was we supposed to be going to and were welcomed with a feast of jollof rice, marinated meat, salads and cat fish. It was really nice to be social and meet some more locals and at the end of the evening we were kindly driven home and have been invited out to the cinema today, having seen the trailer for Conan the Barbarian last night I’m hoping we go for that! I shall report back later...