Hey,
Yesterday, my father and I were driving to this village. I didn't know where we were going then, but we were being guided by one of my father's friends here. We drove one the roads, and I looked up at the tall hills surrounding us. It was a really awesome sight. We drove for a few minutes, getting farther away from Ile-Ife, when we entered the village. Now, most of you guys in the states and UK think a village is a place in the middle of nowhere with five huts and about twenty people, suffering. Well, forgot all that trash. We went to a real village. And it was amazing. There were was a wide, winding dirt road that was the main one, and then side paths branched from there. You could see a giant hill with trees growing all over it, and it looked really peaceful, even though kids were playing and running and screaming everywhere. There were people frying Accra (more on that later), kids smoking gari (look at), other people people drinking palm wine (the extract from the palm tree. It's not really alcoholic), and other people frying fish. The fish looked really, really good. So anyway, it was pretty cool. Then, totally out of context, were these big shiny looking Chryslers and Mercedes that looked like the ones in Victoria Island, Lagos. I was confused, and trying to figure out what was going on. My father and I were being dragged around by his friend, who was introducing us to these people in costume. Some had fake rifles, others had slingshots. I was trying to figure out what was going on. At first I thought it was guerrilla theater, but then I saw a guy who looked pretty ticked off and was screaming at all the supposed actors. The friend of my fathers dragged us along and made us follow the people. Then we saw a guy with a camera. Finally it clicked; it was a Nollywood movie! Nollywood is (duh) the Nigerian film industry. Honestly, the movies are done very poorly, with horrible acting and even worse effects. And each movie is the exact same story as the one after it: there's this guy and his girlfriend. They're about to get married, but his ex-fiance still wants him and wants revenge, so she goes to a shaman dude and tells him to put a curse on them. Then everything goes crazy and ghosts start appearing and several relatives close to the unfortunate couple get murdered. In the end, though, a higher spirit comes and sets everything right. Or there's this other story about a village back in time that has a curse on it or there was a family feud and everything hits the fan. And it's the SAME THING EVERY TIME. I can't take it. But I have to admit, it was kinda cool to see the actors really do it. We watched one scene being made, and then went. I had a really good time,
Signing off,
The Traveler
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