bio - biography

Stories of our life in the foreign

1971 Short visits to West Africa

71-01 Cameroun Pepa with the local boys

71-01 Cameroun 22

71-01 Cameroun 32

71-01 Cameroun 27 tropical timber wood for export

71-01 Cameroun 41 View of a street in Douala

71-02 Ghana 87 Local transport in Accra

71-02 Ghana 85 Two modern women in Accra

71-02 Ghana 93 Jan on the beach

The boys joined me spontaneously when Pepa was preparing the camera. These were the times that there were hardly any tourists and as a white man you got a lot of attention.

71-03 Ivory Coast 108 We were not allowed off the airport because of security for an important official visit.

71-04 Stop over in Sierra Leone 115
 

71-05 Nigeria 123 Lagos

We travelled without any visas, and at entering Nigeria customs objected. We made a deal with one of the officials and he kept our pasports in his office at the airport. Returning after a few days we observed the situation at the airport and we took our chance to recover our pasports during a moment after he had left the office. I had seen the place on the shelf where our pasports were kept. Then we hurried to the international exit for continuation of our travel.

71-5 Nigeria 124

71-05 Nigeria 121

71-05 Nigeria 119

71-05 Nigeria 125

71-06 Canarias 18 Joaquin Ferraz y Pepa in Las Palmas

Our friend Joaquin Ferraz was at that time a teacher in Daora (Spanish Sahara still a colony of Spain) and he met us in Las Palmas on the Canary Islands. He knew the place very well and we had an interesting night at a nightclub with lots of good looking girls.

71-06 Canarias 24

71-06 Canarias 23 Volcanic crater

71-07 Spanish Sahara 34

71-07 Spanish Sahara 35  With Joaquin at the local bar in Daora.
They had Berberechos as an appetiser standing on the bar and while trying to stick one on a wooden toothpick I did not notice that I was in fact pressing the skin and producing quite a large spray of what was probably olive oil without noticing it. Untill there was a loud protest of the man standing next to me, looking worriedly at his nice suit. After all they took the incident in good faith, but I will never forget.

71-07 Spanish Sahara 37

71-07 Spanish Sahara 45  School class in Daora, Joaquin Ferraz y Pepa

71-07 Spanish Sahara 53 Tea ceremony wit Pepa

71-07 Spanish Sahara 58 Bedouin tents from the outside.

71-08 Malaga 66

From the Sahara we had a flight to Malaga and then by boat to Melilla to visit the family Garcia Torres of Pepa
Most important to Pepa was her visit to grandmother Pepita.   
The family had a big house and we stayed with her aunt Emilia. Emilia Garcia Torres geboren in 1908, Bousfer (Oran Argelia) The son of Emilia was Eduardo Murillas, a well-known painter who lived from his art and taught at the local academie  that was later named after him.  He did desert landscapes with bedouin local characters, camels and such themes that were very popular. We got some landscapes  of the Pirenees done in aquarel in the collection of the Fundacion.
Pepa was very close to the daughter of Emilia, Fifi Murillas Garcia , she was married to Paco Ortuña. In later years she lived in Alicante (Spain), and Pepa kept frequent contact with her in writing and by telephone. Both Fifi and Eduardo visited us in Sabayes in the 80ties.

Pepita, la abuela de Pepa en su casa en Melilla.
Photo by Jan van Eden 1979

71-08 Melilla 69 Traditional houses of the local population.

71-08 Melilla 74

71-08 Melilla 75

Melilla was in those years an open city with good relations with Marocco. There was no problem with immigrants or refugees as we got to know it later on. Bustling trade with Marocco.

71-08 Melilla 81

71-08 Melilla 83

From Melilla we took a flight to Madrid on our way home.