Can you buy a souvenir shirt when you are out ..........

Can you buy a souvenir shirt as a present for someone who is retiring. These words were mentioned casually by my husband recently. It sounds like such a simple request and in my old life back in the UK or Spain,I would have relished the thought of going shopping. Instead I was struck dumb trying to think of where I should start this search or if I could even get out of this task!

Firstly, this was no ordinary shirt - no, they wanted a typical Equatorial Guinea man's shirt. One with the President's face on it no less. Secondly, they didn't have an exact size - just that it was for a large man.

I asked around and one of the gardeners told me of an area where I could find the material for this. Apparently the First Lady is the person who distributes this material so is not readily available. Donna and I set off one morning with a driver heading for this area. The look of surprise on the driver's face should have been a big clue as to where we were heading. It was an area we had never been to before.Lots of people, cars and rubbish. We had to turn our heads away as some of the animals we saw were in a pitiful state and being there is not one vet here on Bioko Island, there is nothing we can actually do to help. It does amaze me that the locals don't seem to notice the state of the animals but then again I expect humans take priority over domestic animals. There were stalls down both sides of the busy main road and although we could see materials hanging on a few stalls, it became clear that the driver had no intention of stopping and letting us walk the route.

We ended up back in the main area of Malabo driving up and down streets looking for material shops. Eventually I asked the driver to stop and let us out and we walked a few streets asking in shops but getting nowhere. Suddenly on the corner of a street we saw a window decorated with some A4 sheets of paper with dress designs on them. We knocked and entered a small space of around 4m x 3m which was home to 3 vintage sewing machines, a cutting/ironing shelf, a tailors dummy, some material and 3 guys and 2 women.

The air conditioner was blasting out and it was a welcome relief to be out of the heat. As usual no one spoke English but I did manage to discuss the requirements for the shirt in my pretty basic Spanish and showed the main man my husband's shirt which I had brought along for size comparison. He started making chalk marks on the expensive blue shirt while I started to stress that he was going to cut it up! He did not have any of the material with the President's face on it but said he could get some. Eventually we both understood what I wanted, what he could do, when it would be ready and then agreed on the price of 35,000 cfa which is £44/$74. 

Now considering the economy in Equatorial Guinea, this is a considerable sum of money but for a bespoke garment it was worth paying the money (and it wasn't my money!). With a 50% deposit, my receipt and a promise that it would be ready in a week, we left the shop happy that we had at least succeeded in part of the process. All we had to do now was wait with fingers crossed to see if it all turned out ok.

We then went to the supermarket where I saw a large guy wearing an orange version of the shirt I was looking for and I did consider asking him if he would literally sell me the shirt off his back but though better of it as did not want to be known as "mujer tonta de inglaterra - that nutty English woman". 

A week later I returned to the shop to be greeted like a long lost friend, although he did ask where the nice lady with the brown hair who did not speak any Spanish was, so I think he was disappointed it was me that turned up and not Donna. I could not see the shirt hanging anywhere and started to panic but he reached under the ironing table and pulled out my bag and unveiled an extremely large shirt complete with long sleeves - I had asked for short - but appearing perfect in every other way. I was so relieved.

After much handshaking and nodding of heads, making sure I also had my husband's shirt which was still in one piece, I left the shop to bring the garment home. It was only when I got home and inspected the shirt, that I realised that the faces of the President had been sewn onto the material which was actually the material of the P.D.G.E political party. It had been sewn so expertly that unless you ran your finger over the material, you would never have guessed.

I was excited to show my husband the result of my hard work and after he had seen the shirt and agreed it was "nice", he then informed me that the guy who was retiring was not actually coming to E.G. after all!