Opobo Town

New year was spent on an island in the delta region, Opobo Town, where three VSO volunteers are based. The town is not on the national grid and has its own electricity generator that powers the town at weekends and along with other communities we visited shows how diverse this country is, particularly in terms of access to rescources and services such as electricity, water, education.

We took boats to reach the town from the mainland and arrived on new year's eve as celebrations were starting. We quickly went to Lady B's chophouse for rice and stew...Lots of dancing around at midnight, accompanied by one local policeman and his gun...nice!

A traditional New Year's Day walk, but slightly different to normal as we took a boat to another settlement, we were shown how the shoreline was being protected with local materials and walked through the forest, where we saw a pair of hornbills...

Monday 2nd was a very exciting day, with a masqueade performance and parade at the king's palace. Different compounds competed and covered in paint and costumes, paraded and danced past the king. The 'spirit of Opobo' also seemed to be in a staged fight with its keeper on a roof in the king's compound. I will put some pictures onto the artist gardeners site soon.