This page contains annotated pictures, but movies and their descriptions can be found here. Remember that with Firefox you can right-click on a picture to view it separately, with more detail! Unless you're using Internet Explorer, then I'm not sure how to help you.. Someday there will exist a CD that has the best movies and pictures on it; on request, I'll come to your house/desk and display them. Remember that you can right-click on a picture to view it separately, with more detail! Unless you're using Internet Explorer, then I'm not sure how to help you..
Barry Rawn's Trip to Nigeria- Page 1page1page2page3
I actually spent about 18 hours in Dubai instead of 45 minutes, due to a flight delay. You can read more details in my daily journal. The gentleman in the picture is Kwamme, a Ghanian man who was stuck in the same boat- well, plane I guess. We did literally ride the same boat at some point, but that was part of a 30USD tour.. He and I and another traveller, Elizabeth Moubarak, banded together during the mix-up. I don't have a picture of Liz, though. It was a lot more fun going through it with them!







The channel flowing through Dubai (left) had many ships, sometimes 3 deep, moored on its walled banks. People seemed to live on some of them. After night fell, about 3/4 of the way through our tour, we visited the gold shops. All the stores you see in that picture, and most every other shop along the set of pedestrian roads seen there, were jewelry shops. The buildings are about 4 stories tall, and people live above the stores. There were also a small number of shops for simple folk. A man tried to convince Kwamme and I to follow him inside to look at some cheap watches. We weren't interested.




The top row of pictures shows the Orok household, which was in a gated compound in Calabar, Cross River State. You can see me washing clothes (upper left), and a pile of plantain next to the house (upper centre). Can you find the photovoltaic panel in the picture? (hint: check the slanted windows..) Calabar is actually pretty clean, but you can see some storm detrius in the gutter photo (upper right). Also, a chicken- can you find it? (hint: bottom third). The panel charged a solar lantern that I brought with me, and that provided florescent light for us at night during the inevitable nightly power interruptions that occur in Nigeria's overloaded grid. Telephone booths are actually a little hut where you borrow someone's cell phone. (right most picture). If you look at the wall of this other compound, you'll see the popular, low-cost security feature of shattered glass. (picture next to this caption) I never found out exactly when or why people started doing this, but motivations may have included colonial paranoia, civil war, and distrust of your neighbours during tougher times.
page1 page2 page3