We slept in later, of course, after our spectacular day on Saturday. Miriam was up as usual at the crack of dawn and Turner rises early as well. I failed to mention that while we were living in the lap of luxury in our private rooms, as all of the guests in the house were, Turner and Miriam had given up their own room and were sleeping in a room off of the main house that we think is used for the assistants. Such incredible hosts! We hope that they come back to the US and then we can reciprocate in some small way.
We straightened up some more of the soda bottles that had been left out from the last couple of days and tried to arrange things back in to order. We had our final breakfast, Nigerian style with our yam and pepper soup and said our goodbyes to Peace, Miriam's cook/assistant in the home and offered her thanks for her hard work. We all decided to return to the craft village and the market to do some final souvenir shopping. We were a large group...Miriam, Ebi and Matt Larsen, the 3 Wentworths, Jim and Mary Ann, Dean and Rebecca Thompson... and some friends of the Isouns and now to us from the DC area and their daughter Kaya (sp?). We piled into 3 vehicles and headed over to the crafts market. Not all shops were open, it being Sunday, but enough were to make it fun. We all made wonderful choices and dickered away with the vendors...jewelry, artwork, leather cushions made from camel hides called poofs with leather"rugs" to match, woven baskets, wooden carvings, and much more...then we were off to the open air market...it was sweltering at this point, and the sun was beating down on us, but we were determined shoppers...a mini stimulus package. Melinda was most interested in buying cloth to take home and others spotted scarves and such, but cloth was definitely the big seller at this market. With Miriam as our official haggler, we made good purchases in short shrift and we meandered our way back to our vehicles. The market on Sundays has a different feel. Many of the stalls are closed up as people are taking the Christian Sabbath off to attend church or rest. There is a less frenetic pace than on the other days. However, the Muslims who rest on Saturdays stand in for them providing their wares in front of the closed stalls. The vendors are never pushy with you. While they encourage you to come in and see their items for sale, they respect your personal space. On our way out Miriam stopped to buy oranges that had had the rind cut off because we were all parched. Then it was back to the hill to relax a bit and have cool drinks and chat. We all had slices of the wedding cake which was more like a ginger/spice pound cake. Nigerians don't have many sweets or snack food that we saw. It was very tasty. A little later the wedding couple showed up after spending a day by the pool with their friends at the Hilton. They chilled out with us and began opening presents and several of us went into the kitchen to prepare a big vat of Jambalaya for dinner. There was a flurry of activity in the kichen as we sterilized the veggies before chopping them. Peppers, onions, garlic tomatoes & chicken stock were simmering on the stove as we deboned chicken to saute and then mix in with the sauce. Melinda had brought cajun spices with her as a gift and so the sauce was authentic, and we gave it a more healthy flair because we also threw in corn and green beans...It is called Jambalaya, you know. There were many toasts and stories. Diseye came by with Ilse, Hella and Marie Jose and joined us also for dinner. They had stopped in earlier and dropped off gifts for us before our departure. Melinda had a wonderful surprise. The pot that she had painted at the pottery village had been fired and Stephen had brought it into town and delivered it to Ilse. What a great memento of our trip that will be. Marie Jose also gave us a Dutch dishcloth to remember her by. She was also a fun addition to our mix. There was much discussion and laughter and toasting. It is always great to hear the opinions of others and find out what makes them tick and to mull around in your mind what others think and make your own assessments. We hung around the dinner table until probably around 10 pm. Victoria, Tariye's household assistant came in to say goodbye and we gave her a round of thanks for her hard work and then things started to wind down. Everyone began to trickle out and we went to our rooms to try to figure out how we would be able to get all of souvenirs in the suitcases. It was close to 1 am before we finally got to bed. We showered so that we wouldn't have to do anything in the morning except hop on the bus at 5:15...Can't believe it's gone by so fast...what a special time we've had here.
Cheers,
Melinda, John and Matthew
We'll wrap up in the next post and then have some reflections about our trip as we process all of it in our heads. Plus we will get up some photos soon, we promise!
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