Today went to celebrate the rebuilding of Statoil's beach house. All the expats went up the creek by boat and were met as usual by the women and children of the village, who then carried everything across the sandbank to the beach. Joy came with us to look after Mathilde and two Stewards came to prepare the food.

The beach house had been knocked down and rebuilt from scratch. It has the same layout as before, with 2 bedrooms. We must go out and spend the night sometime. The shower, toilet and lights work now too!

Erik, Daniel and I built sandcastles, caught sand crabs and played in the surf - always good fun. Erik and Daniel bought beads for around their necks from the sellers who always come and sit at the fence.

Lunch was spread out on a long table in the shade and the kebabs and salads were delicious. As we were eating, the villagers started their party outside the fence around our beach house and we could hear their drumming and singing. Statoil had bought the village a cow so they could also celebrate the completion of the building work (which they had done, by the way).


In the afternoon, they came and invited us to join in their party and we went and danced with them. They had made a covered dance area with benches around the edge. The band sat at one end, while the women of the village sat on the benches. The men danced or milled around. It was interesting to see that the elders had a special table nearby where they could watch, and were treated with much respect.


They all had a special way of dancing, lifting their arms and shrugging with their shoulders in time with the drum beats. Joy thought it was funny because in her region of Nigeria (River State in the Delta) they dance with their hips.

It was fascinating to get this glimpse into village life and an eye opener for the boys, I'm sure. Mathilde always gets a different picture of the beach than we do as Joy takes her off into the village to play. We don't know what she gets up to, really...!

Jeremy