WELCOME TO HELL - LAGOS, NIGERIA
PREAMBLE “Welcome to Hell” There were two omens. The dream, the night before we left. We were on the plane, taxiing down the runway, the engines started to scream, and I suddenly felt an enormous rush of fear and loathing for the journey I was about to take. “No!!” I yelled, “I don’t want to go!!!” The second omen was conveyed via the inflight movie, which was “Groundhog Day”. This tells the story of a man who is condemned to live the same day over and over and over again, but of course I couldn’t know how prophetic this was until I’d been in Nigeria some time. On arrival at Murtala Muhammed airport, Lagos, my first thought on leaving the aircraft was: “So that’s what foetid really means.” We were greeted by Jim’s two colleagues from the High Commission with the words “Welcome to Hell.” Friday, 25 June 1993 We set off last Friday, after staying overnight with Uncle Bill and Jackie in Sevenoaks. Thursday night I dreamed I was ...