Talking to the police

Driving away from a bush bar in the evening, we came across a police check. I tried to ignore them and drive on, but clearly I had to stop as the police man shouted quite angrily ‘stop’ and since they do carry guns…

So I stopped, afraid I had to defend myself for not stopping immediately, etc etc, but instead the following (typical Nigerian) conversation took place:

“oyibo! How you dey?”
“fine oh, good evening sir”
“oyibo, how work?”
“fine, thank you, how work?”
“Fine, how family?”
“fine, how is your own?”
“thank you, how Nigeria?”
“we love Nigeria, thank you”
“so what did you bring for us?”
“we didn’t bring anything, sir, only our smiles”
“ah… well… uh… ”
“thank you sir, good evening sir, bye bye”

And we drove off, with the sweet smiles still plastered on our faces. By now we find it normal to be stopped at gunpoint only to engage in a conversation about work and family. Somehow I don’t see Dutch policemen do the same…