Friday – A day in the office

A day in the office. Bankole, who it turns out has a bad lung infection, appears briefly then, following doctor’s orders, goes home to take his antibiotics and rest. While Duncan meets with his aptly named fundraising counterpart Charity, I spend some time properly captioning the selection of photos so they will be most useful to the office.

There has been talk of going out for a drink after work with Adi, the political officer, and some of her friends, but at the end of the day Duncan is absolutely knackered and just wants to go back to the hotel. I don’t want to mess up the logistics by requiring a separate driver, so I go back to the hotel with him.

It’s the night of Nigeria’s second match in the Africa Nations Cup, so I decide to go to the bar to watch it. The bar is packed, the atmosphere festive. I am both the only woman and the only white person there, bit of a curiosity, but I cheer when Nigeria scores (the second goal even I, not ordinarily a football fan, can see is perfect, a header off a corner kick) and when the Nigerian goalie makes one of his fantastic saves (suspect this guy will be playing for Arsenal or Man U soon), so I am accepted by the fans and included in all the back slapping when Nigeria wins. Make the mistake of ordering a steak sandwich (marinated? for how long and in what?) and while I am eating this Sam turns up with his friend Dan. On hearing that we have not gone out for a drink with Adi, he offers to take us to hear some music in a bar tomorrow night. I’m well up for this.