One story you won't read here!
Yes, well... it was a pretty funny story, how I came to leave this last time. My sixth Final Departure, it was, and perhaps this one shall stick. But it would be kind of embarrassing all around to tell the story, so we aren't going there just yet. ARE we, NEO?
NEO is mostly correct, as usual. The only thing is, it wasn't racial, unless you happen to believe in the Master Race, but ethnic. Let's just say I left a German feeling as if it was I who had made a fool of him and leave it at that. They never have been very good about Reality Checks, have they? Well, most of them. I would make an exception for the Happy Snapper, there.
I had told the story about the Isolo Gun Club pimping our ride to another German, one who knew nothing of Nigeria, when he just looked at me (and not in a flattering way) to ask, 'Why are you still there?'
I really couldn't come up with a smart answer to that question. Honestly, I might still be there if it weren't for my little problem. The weird thing is, I don't drink and I don't chase the local wimmin, so what the attraction is, money aside, I cannot really say. Perhaps it's that it's the perfect place for a cynic. Everything goes wrong, just the way it's supposed to! Smooth-running places make me nervous waiting for the collapse; in Nigeria it's already happening, since!
It has taken a while to get used to the idea of being in one place for more than five weeks, since I have spent most of this past year at school in London. It sure was nice not to have that clock ticking the days off until I had to get into the big alloy mailing tube to go back to the Centre of Excrement and whatever new trouble there was there to be found. That said, though, it would be a lie to say that I don't miss it.
Unless you happen to be married to a woman who makes more money than you do it might not be a good idea to follow my example. On the other hand, yes, there is life after West Africa so that this might just be a good time to leave the troubled Delta for a while. But then I would say that, wouldn't I?