Nigeria - The first and last time (continued, p.2) To hell and back We thought we were prepared for the worst state "highways, traffic jams and other" charms "of Nigerian roads. We read everything that has ever been written about the stretch of road on which we had to travel to Abuja, but we just were not ready, what we face in reality. It seemed like we were driving through the scenery of one of the novels of Stephen King. All around him was devoid of any color, everything seemed to be grayish, the sun eclipsed smog and black smoke from the fires, even piles of trash have lost their color and any connection with life. The road was destroyed by an endless stream of trucks and fuel tankers, ruled by a completely insane drivers. Machines are constantly heels, avoiding potholes, some of which resembled the size of craters from explosions. None of the machines were not working marker lights, none of the machines did not have rear view mirrors, in fact, some did not even have a windshield, so it seemed that on this road, one thinks only of himself. Trucks suddenly stopped suddenly changed direction or that was even worse, rushed straight at us, so we had to go to the sidelines to avoid a collision. Shoulder could tell the story of this route eloquent of all. Burned Body fuel tankers, trucks, and what little remained of the car, creating a picture of a hellish place. People were dressed in clothes dirty-gray tint, naked children scurried about in heaps of garbage along with the ghosts of goats and chickens. The population of Nigeria is 150 million people, and wherever he directs us your opinion, we come across people who have made all efforts to get food. Pothole on the highway a lot of roadblocks. Items traffic police make up a large part of them. They are constantly forced to move out to the side and began to tell stories about what our car should be confiscated because we drive on the right side. The policeman took out a worn book with the laws of 1976. He poked his thick dirty finger in the list of violations, even though we did not see anything there about the cars with the right wheel, apparently, we were able to read better than he. We were told that it is unlikely we will change the steering wheel on the road, on which police said he had confiscated the car, if we do not "think of something." We shook their heads, they say, we can not think of anything, and now he himself will have to think of something. In the end we resorted to the tactic of waiting. Guards said that we can give them, and to my surprise, my friend Tom said again: "All that we can offer you - it is God's blessing." Oddly enough, but once again it worked and we continued on our way. Now we were facing a challenge, we had to overtake the 40 fuel trucks! But after some time the traffic police stopped us again. They wanted to look at our fire extinguisher. Unfortunately for them, we had a fire extinguisher, so that they could get them from us, even blessing. It was somehow strange that they wanted us to fire extinguisher, because our car was the only intact on the road within a radius of 1000 miles. Maybe he wanted us to help with the extinguishing of the fuel tanker, which soon caught us on the road. Life began to lose a familiar form and turn into a surreal fantasy. A little later we ourselves have to pray and ask God's blessing, hoping for a miracle and that would arrive in Abuja before the darkness comes. Egg-traveler We got to the city Suledzha. Perhaps here are the gates of hell. Difficult to describe this interweaving of people, trucks, trash and those who are evil knocking on our car, trying to get on board. Movement finally stopped, everyone was on edge, horns hooted, and the car was so close to each other, which between them no one would be able to squeeze through. My palms were damp when I began to count how many miles we are left to Abuja, while I would not even know what lies ahead. In the end, little movement has been renewed. Somebody dropped their luggage to the wheeled cart to the ground and desperately tried to collect as much as possible before the next car behind him will run on its priceless cargo. I can not imagine how someone can find meaning in it, so joyless existence? Start material: Completion of material:
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