Monday, November 05, 2012

The 335th good thing about Lagos: making lasting friendships

Anyone who has been in Lagos and involved with the expatriate community as long as I have has said a lot of goodbys.  There is something that forges strong friendships when people live in a "hardship" location like Lagos where everyone is away from family and other support systems and has to look to other expatriates to network and learn how to cope and survive.  Often people leave during the summer, and I missed plenty of goodbys when I was away, but I returned this fall to still more.  This is only a small percentage of the farewells, but a few that I've been a part of in the past month.  All these women (and their husbands too, I'm sure) have made huge contributions to the expatriate community here and they will be missed.

There are different elements with each goodby party -- some have shopping and pool time, all have gift giving and food and the group photo.  In random order, here's some photos from recent farewell celebrations.











 Goodbye Jane, Wendy, Marilyn, Teresa, and all the many others that I've bid farewell to during my time here.  I've met so many wonderful women here who have enriched my life, and the good thing is that with Facebook and email, we can keep in touch even when we will live great distances apart.

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