Iron Must Yield

John woke up this morning to the call to prayer from the nearby mosque...he knew that it wasn't a recorded chant when the caller cleared his voice after coughing. It is a sound that we hear five times a day...the Muslim community here are Shiite.

People have been arriving steadily now as we approach the wedding day. Cousin Jim and his wife Mary Ann arrived last night from Michigan, sister Ebitari and husband Matthew came this morning along with the Pastor Dean Thompson and his wife Rebecca from Kentucky, and some friends of Tariye who live in Delhi, one of them went to Harvard Business School with Tariye.

So the game plan today was a trip to a local pottery village. Brother Diseye and his wife arranged the day and the transportation. After people had a late brunch to allow for jet lag, 4 cars and drivers came to load up people and a barbecue picnic to take with us.

We headed out for the 45 minute drive from the Maitama district (where Miriam and Turner live) to the village of Bwari. The drive for many of us was as exciting as the destination. We passed through a number of villages driving down the main commercial center. Driving in Nigeria is like driving in somewhat controlled chaos...cars, trucks and motorcyles everywhere and drivers that went to the Bill Wentworth School of Driving. The entire trip was a sensory feast...Everything imaginable is available on the side of the road...you want roasted corn...you can get it...you want tires...you can get them...iron work,clothes, furniture, pharmacy, electronics, passport photos, hardware, papayas, gasoline, or as they say, Petrol, literaly by the liter in used soda bottles, and of course the ubiquitous yam stand. The upholstered furnitre section of the road way was facinating. The shop and the finished product were completely out in the open. Perhaps a hundred finished pieces in leather and fabric lined the side of the road with open air shop immediately behind. the frames were nailed together and upholsterers including generator powered sewing machines applied the final touches. We were moving into a less prosperous area, but the sense you get even when you are in the poorer sections of the area is that these people have such an entrepreneurial sense it is remarkable. If there is any semblance of a business opportunity to be had, they are all over it and seem not to even understand what a limitation is. We all liked the names of the business/organisations. Our favorites were, Pinky and the Brain (for a girl's school) and an metal working shop named Iron Must Yield.

So we arrived athe Bwari Pottery Village and unloaded our supplies. Besides the driver, we had also taken along a cook who would prepare the traditional dish "Suya" Nigerian barbecue to us. Ilse and her mother had prepared salads and vegetables and dips and Miriam had packed coolers full of drinks and water. While Ilse and her mom and the cook began the preparation of the lunch, we went to take a tour of the pottery process given by the proprietor Stephen Mhya. Stephen was a particularly engaging man who lives in a house close by and oversees the operation. He was trained by an English potter and now they produce pottery by order and to sell in their "outlet" and at local bazaars. Everything in the process is done on the premises and all of the raw materials are Nigerian including the clay, save for kaolin which they have to put in to the pottery to make it stronger. The process is fascinating...first the raw clay is brought in and mixed with water and poured through sieves to get any sand out...then mixed again with water and let to dry until it is the perfect consistency to store in a cave-like "clay cellar" underground. When the potting process begins, the clay is pounded until pliable and any imperfections again culled out by hand and then the potter, who demonstrated using a kick wheel potter's wheel, deftly shapes whatever piece that he is making. The man who demonstrated made a pottery vase in short shrift with amazing dexterity. he's definitely done this before. Then it's off to the drying room for a week or so. Next are the firings...both the bisque and glaze firings are done in a wood fired kiln. Stephen claims his kiln reaches 1,300 degrees Celsius or if my math is correct 2,373 degrees. Any potters out there who can verify this temperature? The 16 or so guests did their best to provide their own version of an economic stimulus at the showroom.

The ride home was just as facinating as the ride in. Two memorable sights were a load of local yobu steers in the back of a large open bed straight truck. These local cows have huge horns like American longhorns and all of these cattle were lying down. Our driver explained that they always lie down on short trips and stand up on long ones. It was at this point that I figured he was just supplying and answer to my questions if he didn't know the real one or was having some fun at my expense. The other memorable sight was seeing a couple of cars headed towards us in the wrong lane (two lanes in each direction.) We were headed back to town and the traffic out of town was backed up for miles so the solution for several brave souls was to cross the center divider and drive in the wrong direction in our lane. No one seems to be overly concerned with this an everyone seems to adapt well.

We arrived home around 6:30 pm in time to watch a huge Nigerian sun set over the city. A few more guests were arriving from the airport and everyone set about their tasks for the evening. John and Matthew tried on their custom made Nigerian made suit for the wedding and let me tell you folks... they looked some sharp!
Pictures to follow!
NUA!!! (Nigerian for Good bye) (I think!)