Thursday, December 27, 2012

IX. 3 nights in Abuja

   Later that day we went to a local restaurant where they wanted to order fish. They picked the fish they wanted to eat . Uncle A. bought a mix of sweetened popcorn and peanuts for me. Soon the girl serving came and said she cannot cook it because she is alone and she cannot serve and cook at the same time. So she brought them cow head or tail with pepper soup.  I drank Eristoff and uncle A. took a soft drink.. We left after they finished eating  because the mosquitoes were biting me. Back to the hotel I went inside room where they sprayed Flit and I slept while the man continued drinking at the bar. 
   The next day we went to the Ministry to stamp the birth certificate. A policeman working there helped us and we supposed to come back and pick it 2 hours later. Near the parking where we left our car there was an outdoor restaurant. Woman working there were enticing the costumers by telling them out loud which good foods they cooked.  I took a bottle of water while they ate semo with soup.  Bianca ate with them. We found a taxi to show us the road to the embassy located on Nelson Mandela street. At the embassy the consular attache  couldn't help us much because the council was travelling and we supposed to book an appointment long before. He was so frightened and insecure, i couldn't tell why. The fact that we took the risk of driving 700 km and that I was leaving the country before the council was coming back did not matter. A kind man working there that we encountered when we arrived seemed to be more willing to help but had no power. He excused himself that he cannot on the air condition because it had a lizard inside. 
We asked the attache if we can transcribe the document we needed there and he said that he must check because the procedure is complicated. He asked us to call back in 1-2 hours so that he will find out. When I called he said that he cannot help us and that we should book an appointment in 2 weeks time when the council will come back. I wasn't expecting to make this long travel without working things out. We left there  surprised by their lack of interest in helping us. 
    Later that afternoon we went looking for an old friend of Alex. The road was extremely bad that area. Charles bought pineapple that we kept in the trunk and he also bought some sliced watermelon pieces that we ate with a toothpick from a black bag. We went to the place where his friend used to live and we could not get any information about the guy so we came back through the capital to avoid the bad road. Back at the hotel I gave the pineapple to one of the boys working there to cut it for me  and I drank strawberry yogurt milk with uncle A. I regret not going to uncle's house to meet the other members of the family. Who knows when I will be in that city again to have that chance. 

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