Another couple of days, and another sets of shocks. Some of them I prefer to write about however once back on English soil...
I took a trip to one of the forts once operated by various countries involved in the slave trade. I ended up getting a tour of the place that was a bit more in depth compared to what the daily stream of tourists are shown or told, partly because my tour guide was also the guy I befriended years ago and who isn't employed by local government, unlike most people at the fort. He does however have unrestricted access to the place, and I'll leave it at that.
We stayed with an acquaintance from the UK who has now retired there and is busy setting up a grocery shop. She has a maid, who turned out to have gotten married in December last year. Her age was told to me as being 23, but I am not so sure that is totally correct. I would say that it's more likely she is in her late teens. Her husband is 40 and European. Apparently, it isn't uncommon for European men to come over and look for a young local bride. The girls families tend not to object to those marriages if the grooms are financially sound.
Adultery is also not uncommon on both the male and female side. One female that I met has a boyfriend who shows up during the week when her husband is off to the big city to work. By the time he gets back home for the weekend, the boyfriend has cleared off. She has four kids. I hesitate to guess who the fathers are.
Driving on the motorway between cities is scary to the extreme. It tends to be mainly one lane traffic, with freight trucks and "taxis" competing for the road space. Overtaking is all part of the game, including being overtaken whilst busy overtaking. Once the sun goes down that becomes a real kamikaze effort, especially when many of the vehicles don't have their lights on. With no speed limits on some stretches, I am now unwilling to be on the motorway after 6PM.
Military or police road blocks are common on the motorway after 5PM. I reckon that I went through at least 20 over a 4 hour journey. It's mainly the mini buses that I saw getting waived to park at the side of the road by machine gun waiving officers. The bus and taxi drivers often get subjected to a shakedown according to my chauffeur, because they tend to have cash on them.
We missed getting stuck in traffic when a lorry jack knifed at the other side of the road just minuted before we arrived at the spot. Luckily there was just about enough space to wiggle between the front of the truck and a tree. Had he been another ft or so on our side of the road we would have got stranded.

In one of my posts I mentioned the state of the electrical infrastructure there, but didn't want to post any pictures from the spot just in case. So here is a pic to give you an idea of what I meant.