I don’t know why Nigerians travel like they are relocating with a full kitchen.

Me included.

I carried:

Garri

Kuli kuli

Crayfish

Dried pepper

Chin chin

Milo

Groundnut

And two rolls of plantain chips

Just small backup food!

At the airport in Amsterdam, customs scanned my bag and the man frowned.

“What is all this?”

I said proudly, “Food.”

He removed the bag of crayfish and almost fainted.

He asked, “What… is… this?”

I said, “Sir, it’s protein.”

He said, “Not in this country.”

They allowed the Milo, allowed the chin chin, even the kuli kuli — but that crayfish? They kept it like it was explosive.

As I walked away, food, depleted, my spirit was crying.

But I told myself:

“It’s okay. We move. We will survive.”

Later that night abroad, I drank garri without crayfish.

It tasted like heartbreak.