Rivers

Rivers State sits on the Niger Delta and Port Harcourt, its capital, is the centre of Nigeria's oil and gas industry. That shapes everything about a posting here: the employers, the cost of living, and the mix of people you will meet.

Much of the state is riverine, and a good number of communities are reached by boat rather than by road. Port Harcourt itself is a large, busy city with a strong food culture and a considerable expatriate presence.

It rains here more than almost anywhere else in the country. Pack accordingly.

The South-South is where Nigerian cooking gets richest, and the coast puts fish and shellfish in almost everything.

• Edikang ikong — a dense vegetable soup with waterleaf and pumpkin leaf, and about as good as soup gets.
• Afang — okazi leaf soup, often with dried fish.
• Banga — palm fruit soup, eaten with starch in the Delta and with rice elsewhere.
• Fisherman soup — fresh river fish and periwinkle in peppered broth.
• Starch — a stiff, translucent swallow made from cassava starch, particular to the Delta.
• Ekpang nkukwo, atama soup, and roasted fish sold by the roadside in the evening.

If you eat seafood at all, this is the posting for it. Periwinkle is eaten out of the shell with a pin — watch somebody do it once before you try.

Rivers is predominantly Christian, with Anglican, Catholic and a very large number of Pentecostal congregations. Traditional practice and river-based festivals continue alongside, and are a visible part of community life rather than a private matter.

Sunday morning is quiet. Camp runs a church and a mosque with service times on the timetable.

Masquerade and festival seasons close roads and draw large crowds. They are worth seeing and are not spectacles to walk into uninvited — go with someone local.

The South-South is the most linguistically varied zone in the country — Efik, Ibibio, Annang, Ijaw, Urhobo, Isoko, Itsekiri, Edo, Ogoni and many more, often several within one state.

Nigerian Pidgin is the genuine common language here and is spoken more fluently and more widely than anywhere else. If you learn one thing before you arrive, learn to follow Pidgin at speed.

• How far? — hello / how are you
• I dey — I am fine
• How much be dis? — how much is this?
• Abeg — please
• Na wa o — an all-purpose expression of surprise

In Efik and Ibibio areas, Sosongo is thank you and Mesiere is a greeting.

The South-South has the longest and heaviest rainy season in Nigeria, running roughly from March or April into October, with a short drier break around August. Rain arrives hard and stops as suddenly, and drainage in the towns is not always equal to it.

Pack for it properly: a light rain jacket, a second pair of footwear so one pair can dry, a waterproof bag or plastic sleeve for your phone and documents, and more socks than you think you need. Humidity is high year-round, so cotton dries slowly — quick-drying fabric earns its place in the bag.

Keke napep and minibuses cover town routes for a fixed drop. In the riverine local governments, some communities are reached by boat rather than by road, and the boat is ordinary public transport rather than an excursion.

If you travel by boat, insist on a life jacket, do not travel in an overloaded vessel, and do not travel after dark. That is not caution for its own sake — it is the difference the safety record actually turns on.