130.Angel of Maiduguri

130.

Angel of Maiduguri

One of the VSO’s I met in Niger gave me the address of one of her girl friends, Ann, who is a teacher at a women’s college in this town.

After a long backpacking search in the dark I find a house I think is hers. The Canadian girl who opens the door greets me with an open radiant beautiful smile: “Ann’s gone for the summer. Come on in. Spend the night. Stay as long as you like. Would you like a hot bath and something to eat?”

This rescuing angel is Robin and, Robin, if you ever read this and recognizes yourself, I would like you to know that you were the most beautiful and kindliest person I had met in a long time. I hope someone is as good to you someday as you were to this tired, hungry, dirty traveler!

Hot water flowing from a stainless steel tap fills the clean porcelain tub. I look in the mirror: good grief! There must be a human being under all that grime! I am surprised this unusual girl even let me in! I spend an hour bathing and getting presentable.

When I return to Robin’s living room she introduces me to another guest that arrived while I bathed, a young Nigerian man. The three of us sip tea, listen to Bob Dylan tapes and talk about the females attending this school whose highest ambition is to become the first wife of a rich man or if that does not work out, to be the second wife of an even richer man!

It is a lovely, quiet evening and when I retire to the guest bedroom it is to sleep between pink sheets protected by a pink mosquito net. Oh, my!

Robin would sincerely like me to stay and I could sure use some rest time, but I am worried about the border guards. I have only a three-day transit visa for Nigeria and I sure don’t want to see the inside of a Nigerian jail!

Robin warns me about the roads east. She has heard that they have been flooded by rain and are impassable but next morning after fixing me a grand breakfast she takes me to the lorry park across town on her Honda motorbike and wishes me a “bon voyage”.

Thanks and good fortune be yours always, Angel of Maiduguri!

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