Looking for good in Lagos

The 285th good thing about Lagos: Scarification is out of fashion

2011-10-26T22:38:00.000+01:00

At the lecture at the museum this morning, we learned about scarification in Edo State. The capital of Edo State is Benin City, which has a rich culture of sculpture and bronze casting. They had a couple of masks on display which show a variety of markings.

It's kind of hard to see in the first photo, but there are vertical pegs above the eyebrows to indicate scarification markings.

These markings are called Iwu. The practice of Iwu goes back 5 1/2 centuries. It is said that the Oba (king) at that time designed the markings and declared that everyone should wear them as a badge of identification. Every adolescent was supposed to be marked. Not to have markings was a proof of "foreignness." Young people were marked before they were married. It was done individually, not in a communal ceremony. In this culture, babies were circumcised, but the scarification was done as a young adult, except in the case of royalty. There is an adage that "royal children see blood once in life," so they are both circumcised and marked when they are young adults. Sometimes being royal is not a fun thing.

The scarification is not just done on the face, but there are markings vertically down the torso. Men have 7 marks on their torso and women have 16. These are long marks with proscribed positions and names. It does not look fun to have this done!

The Iwu surgeon is called the Osiwu. To learn his craft, he has served an apprenticeship that lasts over 7 years. The job is dominated by males, but a female can also serve as an Osiwu. The tradition of Iwu began to die out over 50 years ago during the colonial era. There are still groups of people in remote locations who practice Iwu, but it is more unusual today.

I do still see some people with facial scarification. I had heard that during the Civil War in Nigeria in the '60's that mothers would have their babies marked to make them easier to identify should they be separated. But I do see some children with facial scarification and I think among some people the marks are more there for beautification rather than identification. There was a museum staff member who stood up in the sharing/Q&A time after the lecture who pointed out the marks on his face and said that they were there because he was sick as a child and they cut the marks in his face to let out the bad blood. So he added that sometimes scarification is done for a curative purpose.

I'm sure to some people that scarification is no different than the tattooing or body piercing more common in Western societies. But I personally would prefer a less permanent method of decorating my body. And for identifying with a group, I'll go for a group T-shirt any day.

The 284th good thing about Lagos: tow truck drivers get a workout

2011-10-26T17:35:00.000+01:00

When I was going out this morning, there was a vehicle about to be towed from our complex parking lot. From the pictures, it may be hard to tell which vehicle is being towed and which is doing the towing. The towing vehicle looks like it's about to fall apart, but it was hitching up the newer vehicle to tow it away. Now, tow truck drivers in the States have a quite sedentary life patrolling the highways for accidents or vehicles in trouble. But once they have their customer, it's a pretty easy process to winch up the car to be towed -- it's all done mechanically. But this morning the towing vehicle had a chain on a pulley and, after the guy attached the chain to the car to be towed, he had to physically pull on the chain to winch up the SUV. It took a lot of chain pulling and huffing and puffing to lift the back of that SUV.

And, I'm no expert, but isn't it going to mess up this SUV to be towed with its rear wheels up in the air?

The 283rd good thing about Lagos: So far I haven't been harmed by the Sigidi!

2011-10-20T21:01:00.000+01:00

These little figures look pretty harmless and even kind of cute. The tall one is maybe 8 inches high. But to followers of Yoruba traditional religion, these sigidi are very powerful. I learned about them at a lecture at the National Museum, where they displayed these two examples. Sigidi are orisas, or demi-god figures with the power to do evil or harm. We were told they belong to the sub-diety category of medicine, which differs from other orisa. These belong more to the realm of magic rather than the sphere of religion. But every respectable Yoruba priest will have at least one of these in his shrine.

When a sigidi is fully "developed," the spirit that it houses can be sent out to do evil deeds. The speaker said that the sigidi is used to be sent out on an evil mission. They are never used for good deeds. They can be used for revenge, or used to settle scores, or to know the truth in a conflict. After an aggrieved person makes an offering to the priest with a plea for the power of the sigidi, the priest will offer an incantation which gives the sigidi's spirit the power to inflict injury to the designated recipient.

When I left the museum, I asked my driver if he knew about the sigidi. I was relieved when he said he had never heard about it. I think it's best if this one is kept on the down-low. In fact, why am I writing about this at all? You're all my friends, right?

The 282nd good thing about Lagos: varieties of flour with instructions

2011-10-20T20:30:00.001+01:00

Grocery stores in the United States usually stock a variety of flour -- white, whole wheat, unbleached, cake, self-raising, etc. In stores here there are the usual white and whole wheat (at times -- we cannot count on any store having in stock what we need -- there are constant supply issues), but also totally different kinds of flour than I would find in the States -- yam flour, rice flour, bean flour, cassava fufu flour.

I thought this bag of flour I bought was interesting with the list of uses. It "Can be used for the following way: Baking of Bread, Baking of Cakes, Baking of Meat Pies, Baking of Fish Rolls, Baking of Chin-Chin, and For any hardened of food." You don't get that comprehensive a list on any bag of American Pillsbury flour!

The 281st good thing about Lagos: helpful people around the embassies

2011-10-16T00:07:00.001+01:00

Visas are always a frustrating issue for expatriates in Nigeria. I don't know how many pages of my passport are taken up with Nigerian visas, but I know it's plenty. Getting a multiple entry visa that lasts a year is like the Holy Grail. Often there are issues with expatriate quotas and work permits and when our visa expires, we are only allowed a short-term, and sometimes even just a single entry visa. In the month I've been back, the guy who handles this with the company has had our passports and he's been supposed to be getting us new Nigerian visas, as last time we just got single entry visas. He still hadn't gotten them, but we had to ask him to give us our passports back. We are looking forward to a trip to India in a couple of weeks and we needed to get our Indian visas, which takes a week. Our apartment is right next to the Indian High Commission, where they issue the visas, so it was an easy walk over there one morning this week. I had my application forms completed, with passport pictures attached. As I walked up to get in line, I was approached by several Nigerians asking if I needed passport photos. "No, I have them," I told them. They then asked me if I had my yellow card showing my immunizations. I hadn't known this was needed, as it wasn't listed on the application -- and I'm not sure it was, though most Nigerians waiting had theirs in hand. The guys held out a completed yellow card ready for purchase, with immunizations already stamped. I told them I would just walk home and get my accurate yellow card, and my neighbors in line agreed to hold my spot for me. When I returned, the helpful Nigerians asked if they could help provide me with a copy of an airline itinerary or hotel reservation. Luckily, I had those already in hand. But it's interesting to know that they could provide any documentation necessary right on the spot for travellers trying to get a visa! Maybe they could help our company visa guy, who will have to get us new Nigerian visas in a week after we get our passports back from the Indian High Commission, something he wasn't able to do in the past month. I'm afraid it's going to be a nail biter, getting our passports back in time...

The 280th good thing about Lagos: Balogun market

2011-10-15T23:47:00.000+01:00

I had a spontaneous trip to Balogun market when a friend invited me to go there with her after the museum lecture. Her son was in Lagos visiting and she wanted him to have a real Nigerian market experience. Balogun market is very nearby, but we are advised to go their with security, as it can be a rough area. So it takes some organization to get there, and I jumped at the opportunity to join with them. There's a big variety of goods available in this market area, but the big attraction for us is fabric. But I did take some pictures of things that we didn't go for -- like these dried fish, which were really long. I hadn't seem them quite like this before.

Need any cow stomach?

Here's how we usually see dried fish -- curved into a circle with a skewer and then dried.

And then there are some hoofs. Really don't know how they will use these.

The streets are full with lots of people carrying lots of things on their heads.

The white people always get lots of cries of "oyibo." There are so many thousands of stalls with so many fabrics. I don't know how they stay in business. There are areas of the market for different kinds of fabric -- for juvenile fabrics, men's clothing fabric, upholstery fabric, glittery fabric, etc. I'm sure I haven't explored even a small portion of what's available there.

Plenty of purses hanging for sale in this shop.

Kind of hard to see in this picture, but there are lots of coral beads for sale in this shop. There's a whole area of the market for beads.

After we got our fabric purchases at Balogun, my friend wanted to go take a look at the Yaba Market area. I had a visit to Yaba Market four years ago. At that time, we were commenting on how this building was a fire trap, as it had floors of cloth piled high and kerosene lamps all over to light the building. Well, about 6 months after our visit, the building burned down. I had heard that they were rebuilding the market building and it was amazing to see how huge this market will be. There are plenty of sellers all spread out around the market that is being built. We didn't get out of the car, but just looked from the windows, so my pictures have the glare from the car window. I don't know if we'll still be in Lagos when this market is finished, but this will be another really interesting shopping experience when it opens.

We decided not to get meat for dinner from these guys chopping it up.

You can't really tell from these pictures how enormous this market will be, but it is several blocks wide in each direction. I hope they finish it soon!

The 279th good thing about Lagos: learning about the talking drum and a fond and caring farewell

2011-10-15T22:03:00.001+01:00

When I am free, I enjoy going to the museum for a cultural lecture on Wednesday mornings. This is designed to be kind of an in-service training for museum staff, but they open it up for expats to attend to allow us to have our own cultural learning. The first lecture of the fall season was on the talking drum in Yoruba traditional society.

Here's some of what I learned: The talking drum was originally created as a means of communication. It was used by the Alaafin, the royal head of the Oyo kingdom, to motivate his army during war. It was used as an alarm clock at the beginning of the day and a signal at the end of the day. The morning song for the Alaafin basically tells him "wake up and put on your trousers," meaning, your responsibility cannot be delegated. The talking drum was also used to preserve the history of the people. Stories were told, accompanied by the drum, and then the melody of the drum would remind the people of the histories, so the words of the stories weren't necessary. They believed the drum had a magical power, as it could evoke emotions. Other drums were made to address only one god, but the talking drum could speak to many gods, and also address royalty, deceased ancestors, and a drum for politicians. It is believed to be the youngest drum, but also the most powerful, because of its ability to imitate tonal language.

The drum is shaped like an hourglass, with two heads sown together with leather. The strings that circle the two drum heads are squeezed and pulled to give the drum beat a different tone.

The talking drum is the mainstay of Yoruba drumming tradition. It is used to praise God and "highly placed people." It adapts to accompany all styles of music. The speaker closed by saying the drum is a gift from the Yoruba people to the entire universe. Doesn't that make you feel special?

At the museum this day there was also a special ceremony saying goodby to Melissa, who has been a regular and long-time attendee and supporter at the museum, as well as the Lagos expat community in general. Her husband passed away suddenly in August and she is getting ready to leave Lagos. I was touched by the warmth and caring the museum staff showed to her. They gave her a nice gift, spoke a beautiful prayer asking for God to watch over her, sang "For she's a jolly good fellow" and another farewell song, where some got up to dance her a goodby dance. We wish you all the best as you move forward, Melissa!

The 278th good thing about Lagos: market shopping in Abeokuta

2011-10-15T18:38:00.001+01:00

Abeokuta is known for its indigo dye pits and fabric design. We had a nice walk through the fabric market and fabric dying area. Lots of fabric was laying on the ground or hung on lines in various stages of the dying process. Tubs of indigo dye were all over the place and the draining furrows in the ground were stained blue.

I loved the painted illustration on this maternity home.

The market area of town was busy on this holiday. Of course, we couldn't get away without buying some fabric!

I couldn't get to my camera fast enough to get a close up of the lady in this next picture, but she has quite a load of plastic ware on top of her head, plus a baby on her back. I'm always amazed at what they can balance!

On our drive out of town, we had to stop after we passed our church's building in Abeokuta. We were kind of envious looking at this building that looked like an oasis in the bustling, ramshackle city.

We wish our church building was like this one!

On the drive home, I had to stop and buy another yam pounder. One really isn't enough!

The 277th good thing about Lagos: Independence Day trip to Abeokuta - great day to climb Olumo Rock

2011-10-15T17:27:00.000+01:00

It was the 51st anniversary of Nigerian independence on October 1st. Because it fell on a Saturday, the following Monday was designated the vacation day. We were invited by friends to join them on a day trip to Abeokuta. We had been there in the spring of 2009, but were happy to experience it again. It's always great to get out of Lagos and see the countryside and something different. And the nice thing about travelling on a holiday is that the traffic is very light. When we got to Abeokuta, we took the scenic route around town.

We arrived early to Olumo Rock, which gave the city its name, which means "under the rock." In the "early days" -- I think our guide said it was the 1700's, a group of Egba people came to escape the Dahomey invaders (that kingdom is mostly in what is now the Benin Republic). They hid out under the rock for 3 years. Now it is a genuine tourist site.

It has a grave, shrines,

and the remnants left from the years of use as a hideout.

I hope they were shorter back then, because it would be very difficult to spend 3 years hunched over like this! Hopefully they were able to get out from under the rock frequently!

Our friend Norm is more nimble than the rest of us, and he took the ancient route to the top, which used ladders to get up this crevasse and then he scrambled up the rock.

We took the stairs, but had the same great view at the top of the rock.

This is St. Peter's church, which they said was the first Christian church structure in Nigeria, dedicated
in 1844. We were questioning this, as the Portuguese presence was much earlier in Nigeria and certainly they had some kind of churches. But maybe it's the oldest Christian structure still existing.

We felt "on top of the world."

The 276th good thing about Lagos: Cultural Day at the American International School

2011-10-15T15:58:00.001+01:00

I always enjoy getting over to the American International School on their cultural day. Most of the students and teachers dress up in Nigerian clothes, there are activities and demonstrations teaching Nigerian culture, and they prepare Nigerian food for the students. It's an exciting day for the students.

The school was decorated for the event.

There were performers.

You won't want to miss this riveting action video. The shells are alive!

They are periwinkles -- they boil the shells and then the bright periwinkle colored animal that is living in the shells comes out, cooked and ready to eat. I didn't taste it...

There's always a lot of interesting food displays.

And the best thing is the shopping -- they limit the prices so the students can get some good deals -- and the parents and other visitors enjoy the great prices too. I always get baskets here, because there are such great deals.

I haven't ever bought a palm leaf hat, but they are popular with the students.

The 275th good thing about Lagos: Giving laptops to Nigerian scholarship students!

2011-10-15T15:27:00.000+01:00

At the end of September, the American Women's Club held the first event of the fall season, the Membership Tea. The US Consul General's wife was so gracious to hostess the event at their residence, which has a beautiful back yard on the water.

I had a display table telling new members about Community Services. Scholarship students stayed by the Scholarship table to tell about the AWC program of offering scholarships to Nigerian students.

There was food, informational speaking and greeting friends.

My personal highlight was the gift of a laptop computer to each of our scholarship students. We had a generous private donation that was designated for education, and the AWC board decided that this would be a good use of the money. Our students were so excited to have their own laptop, which will help them so much in their studies.

I mentor two students, Samuel and Victoria. They are wonderful people and good students and I was so happy that they were able to receive this gift!

The 274th good thing about Lagos: long summer breaks

2011-10-15T15:12:00.000+01:00

I've been on a long blog-cation and I've been telling myself for a while that it's time to get back to posting, as the post backlog is growing. I've been back into Lagos for just over a month now and have been keeping busy and having fun, and I'll get to posting about that soon. But first, a summer review: I'm really spoiled here, as because my husband is the one tied down to work, but I am free to take a longer break in the summer. Brent made it to the States for a couple of weeks, but I took a full 3 months of life in the States. It was great! I got acquainted with Mason, my newest grandchild, who was born in May. He is a cutie with a great disposition, a wonderful smile and even a dimple!

We went to Colorado for a reunion with my family. Here the two newest grandchildren met for the first time.

And their older brothers and sisters, the cousins, had a fun time together.

Brent really enjoyed being with his grandkids!

Here's us with children and grandchildren

And the big group -- my parents, their 5 children and most of their grandchildren. We had a wonderful time together and we are all so grateful to my parents for making this happen every other summer.

Then some of us were able to go directly to Utah for my niece's wedding. Ally was a beautiful bride -- best wishes to Al and Jack for a joyful life together! It was wonderful to be here for this special event.

Of course, before and after these events, there was time in Houston -- for fun in the pool and park with grandkids who live nearby. And always lots of jobs around the house to take care of. And some not so fun stuff this summer -- my first ever ambulance ride after I tore my calf muscle on the tennis court, which injury triggered a case of shingles, and then yard work got me an exposure to poison oak. I felt like I had aged 20 years with all these physical complaints. But going home is still very worth it!

I extended my summer vacation a bit so I could take an end of summer trip to Boston to help our youngest son, Jordan, get settled into a new life. He left his job in California, drove cross country and started law school at Harvard. We're very excited for him and proud of him.

I made great use of Craig's List, which is great in Boston, especially at the end of August when so many students are at the end of their housing contract and there's a lot of furniture free for the taking. While Jordan was involved in orientation, I went around collecting furniture. I spent a total of $5 on their furniture for this room -- everything was free except for one table. The bedroom furniture was only slightly more. The leather chair and ottoman in the corner was like new -- it was the best find!

And the extra bonus of going to Boston was spending time with our daughter, Lindsay, and her family. Austin sharing his popsicle at our picnic and concert in the park.

We visited a farm and the boys got into sorting the eggs in the chicken house.

Beautiful baby Natalie!

Summer was great!

The 273rd good thing about Lagos: A special Museum event for children

2011-06-20T04:02:00.000+01:00

A week after the last "Museum Day" event, I stopped in at the Museum to take a look at "Children's Museum Day." I knew there would be a lot of cute kids all dressed up, and the event didn't disappoint.

There were two "Miss Museums" there.

And lots of children....

And all the children seemed to want their pictures "snapped."

There were dance performances, kind of a fashion show, where costumed contestants pranced in front of the judges (and it was clear that many girls had watched models go down the runway, because they had the "walk").

I don't know if this was Barney, or some other TV cartoon figure, but he got into the dancing with the kids.

It's kind of hard to tell in this picture, but there are a couple of girls facing the seated judges.

There was a fun head-tie wrapping contest, where girls were judged by the speed and skill of execution of their head ties.

Here are the contestants facing the judge.

The kids all seemed to enjoy the food provided for them and all the festivities. (And I did too)

The 272nd good thing about Lagos: Museums have a beauty queen, and she doesn't have the patina of old age.

2011-06-20T02:59:00.000+01:00

I'm now enjoying summer in the States, where I've been for just over a week. I'm enjoying a much faster internet connection than I had before I left Lagos, so I'm finally going to catch up posting some pictures of things I enjoyed in Lagos before I made my exit.

I was one of only two oyibos in attendance at the National Museum for Museum day.

There were school groups in the audience, some with hats at a jaunty angle,

and all with neat uniforms.

My favorite part of the event was seeing the importance the museum staff placed in the occasion. Nigerians are very fashionable dressers and they made the most of the event to dress up, which means great head ties for the women.

The woman standing in this photo had just wrapped the head tie for the seated woman.

The men dressed up too.

I had plenty of time to take pictures before the event, because it started about an hour after the posted start time, which is typical "Africa time." The organizers tried several times to move me and the other white woman up to the head table with the dignitaries, but I declined their request. There was no reason we should be honored, and I really don't like this habit of putting us in a place of honor just because we are white (plus I thought that I might want to slip out early and wanted to do that discreetly). I was glad that we stayed under the tent with the museum staff because we had an interesting time visiting with them. They had a good time at this event.

There were performances by school children who presented dances from different Nigerian cultures.

These kids just loved getting "snapped." As soon as I took the picture of one, they all called out with requests to "snap me!"

I was glad we were seated under tents, because just as the speaker began his speech, the skies opened and there was a huge downpour. Even without the rain, it had been difficult to hear and understand him, but with the rain it was impossible. I felt sorry for him because he totally lost his audience as people were more concerned with getting away from the rain and making sure the tents didn't burst under the weight of the torrent.

"Miss Museum" had a lovely smile and presided over the festivities. She was not an antiquity.

After the program, the children posed for pictures with "Miss Museum."

The 271st good thing about Lagos: A new LDS Stake in Lagos

2011-05-21T22:20:00.001+01:00

My regular blog readers know that I am a Mormon, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. My church has many members here in Lagos and it must be growing. The church has been organized into two Stakes here in Lagos, and last Sunday members of both Stakes gathered for a conference where a third Stake was organized. (An LDS Stake is like a Catholic diocese -- an administrative unit that consists of a number of congregations which are organized geographically.)

Because the Stake building is full when there is just one stake gathering, we knew it would be stretched to the limit with both stakes in attendance. The meeting was scheduled to begin at 10, and I heard that people were arriving at 7 AM. We got there just before 8:30 and the main building was full.

They had set up tents out all over the parking lot with video projections from the podium. They actually had a good sound system and the video worked. There were strong fans outside, so actually we ended up being more comfortable outside under the tent than inside the building. There's no AC in this building, so, with it as packed as it was, it got pretty warm in there. I don't know why this picture of Brent came out looking so strange -- it's a normal picture, but when I put it into blogger it got all distorted.

We are now members of the new Stake, the Lagos South Stake.

There were lots of missionaries on hand to hand out pamphlets and answer questions. When we go to Stake Conference, which is on the mainland, our company requires us to go in the bullet-proof vehicle and with policeman and security detail. We think this is exercising much more caution than is necessary on a Sunday morning, as the troublemakers are usually sleeping off their Saturday night by then. But one of our company security guys has come with us before to Stake Conference and, instead of napping in the car with the driver and policemen, he attended the meeting. He's said before how much he enjoyed our church and after this meeting he had lots of questions and said it was all very interesting. We told him about how all these new Stake leaders that were put in place had regular jobs and their church responsibilities were taken on as volunteer/lay positions. They would not receive a salary for their church work. He thought that was amazing. There was talk in the meeting about LDS temples and the hope expressed that someday a temple would be built in Lagos. The security guy asked questions about the temple and said that he thought he would like to join our church so someday he could go to the temple. So we got his contact information to pass on to the missionaries so he could learn more about it.

We love associating with these Nigerian members of the church. They have a wonderful spirit and excitement about the gospel. My American LDS friends may be interested to know that I could almost count on my fingers the number of white people in this gathering of thousands. The reorganization was assisted by two black church authorities, one from Kenya and one from Nigeria. All the members of Stake presidencies of the three Stakes are black Nigerians. Though the church may seem awfully white in much of the United States, here it is entirely a different color -- and that's a very great thing! It was exciting to be here for this evidence of the growth of the LDS Church in Nigeria.

The 270th good thing about Lagos: Celebrating Women's History with the US Ambassador to Nigeria

2011-05-20T21:51:00.000+01:00

Women's History Month is in March, but the American Women's Club had a delayed celebration in May this year. Some dedicated members planned a very nice luncheon with the US Ambassador to Nigeria, the Honorable Terence McCulley. He gave a nice speech and hosted a question and answer interactive session.

Our Lagos Consul General Joe Stafford offered a toast to the women present.

Recognized Nigerian women were present. Below is a photo of a new senator-elect, Chief (Mrs.) Oluremi Tinubu. Her husband is a former governor of Lagos State. We also recognized the out-going Deputy Governor of Lagos State, H. E. Princess Sarah Adebisi Sosan. Women are making a contribution in the Nigerian political process and I think that's a really good thing.

We had a nice lunch and, as women will do when they gather, had a nice chat.

There was a changing of the guard this past summer in the US State Dept. representatives to Nigeria. Our Ambassador and Consul General previously were both represented by black American women. Now we have white American men in their places, but they still seem to be really great men, good leaders and they know how to appreciate women, so they'll do just fine.

The 269th good thing about Lagos: Royal Wedding celebrations

2011-05-15T23:14:00.000+01:00

Aren't these royal wedding cookies beautiful? Too beautiful to eat, though they were on display this past week at the meeting of my monthly book group. Our hostess was British and she had just returned from England (where she got the cookies) which was still reeling from the excitement of the wedding of Will and Kate. Discussing the wedding continues to be a subject of conversation with women here. It really was fabulous, wasn't it? We were in Nairobi on wedding day, but I insisted that we return to the hotel at noon so I could watch the festivities live. Brent watched for a bit before taking a nap, but I reveled in all the celebrations. There were a number of wedding watching parties here in Lagos, where expat women dressed up for the occasion and had English food, wore tiaras and did many things to really get into the celebration of the big day. Though Americans and British women were the ones I knew that were most getting into the excitement of the wedding, I think Nigerian women were also interested in the event. I don't think they hold the years of British colonial rule in Nigeria against this beautiful young couple in love. I wish Will and Kate a long and joyful future together.

The 268th good thing about Lagos: African book group

2011-05-15T22:53:00.000+01:00

For many years, wherever I've lived, I've been a member of a book group. I enjoy reading different literature with the intention of discussing it with others. It impels me to read things that I likely wouldn't pick up on my own and expands my understanding by hearing what others have gleaned from their reading. I still have a couple of book groups in Houston that I return to when I'm in town for one of their discussions. Just after I moved here I joined a book group similar in scope to others that I've participated in -- reading a book a month with a broad variety of literature. It's a great group that I continue to enjoy.

This past year I joined another book group that operates on a different scale and it's been a rewarding, though sometimes consuming, experience. The African Book Group has been in existence since 1984. It's a subscription book group (meaning members pay an annual fee to participate) and maintains its own library. And it meets weekly, every Thursday afternoon, which is quite a commitment. We don't read a book each week, sometimes we watch a movie or have a speaker or discuss something that requires less preparation time, as last week when, for the first time, we reviewed a blog about someone's experiences in Lagos. All the books discussed are either by African authors or about Africa. The members of the group come from a great variety of experience and background, with Nigerian members as well as expats of many nationalities. I've enjoyed learning from and hearing of the experiences of the women in this group. We recently had a luncheon along with an Annual General Meeting, where we discussed the bylaws and organization of the group and had a treasurer's report -- much more official business than I've ever had with a book group before.

I haven't enjoyed every book we've read this year, but I've always gotten something out of the discussions that we've had on our reading. And many of the books have given me a greater understanding and insight into African life and experience. We're currently choosing books for next year's schedule, so if any of my blog readers have suggestions for interesting books about Africa or by African authors, I would welcome your input.

The 267th good thing about Lagos: visiting the other side of the African continent

2011-05-14T15:29:00.000+01:00

Africa is a big continent, and I know that one can't generalize about it. But there's something about this part of the world, this continent, that can get into your blood and your soul if you'll let it. It has many challenges, difficulties and troubles, but everywhere I've gone in Africa I've experienced and seen things that have delighted my eyes and my heart and I've made memories that I'll treasure always. Earlier in my life I never had a goal or great desire to explore Africa -- I was into Western arts and culture and Europe was my utopia. But, given the opportunity to live here and travel around a bit on this continent, I've been bitten by the Africa bug (thankfully, not yet one giving me malaria or another tropical disease) that makes me want to visit every country on this continent. Unfortunately, I'm sure I won't have time or money to do that, but I was very glad that on our trip over Easter this year, we were able to travel to Kenya and see a bit of East Africa. Since we've lived here, we've been to North Africa (Egypt), South Africa, other countries in West Africa (Senegal, Ghana and Benin), but this was our first time in East Africa. We had a great time in Kenya!

We started by flying to the coast, to Mombasa, and spent Easter weekend at a beach resort there. The resort was great and very relaxing.

Mombasa is known for its tusks, which were erected before the 1952 visit of Britain's Princess Elizabeth (now the queen).

Mombasa also has a great Portuguese fort -- Fort Jesus was founded in 1593 and has some atmospheric views. The surrounding Old Town has some interesting architecture.

On our city tour, we visited the Akamba wood carving cooperative, which has around 3000 wood carvers from the Akamba tribe. Much of the carvings from Kenya come out of this center and there's a shop with pretty good prices where individual carvers get rewarded for their work.

After 4 nights at the beach near Mombasa, we left for a 3 night safari. It was very reasonably priced to deal directly with a Kenyan company and it also helped that we were going at low season. We finalized plans just a few days before we left and we had a great time. We had this large Toyota land cruiser jeep to ourselves with an experienced driver/guide.

The roof opened up for the game drives. Our driver/guide was very proud of his jeep. He said he gets lots of compliments on it. "It's styled like a race car," he said proudly.

We soaked up the beautiful scenery -- like this view from our balcony in the Tsavo West game park.

We saw lots of great birds, like this red-beaked hornbill that came right in to the lodge,

these beautiful crowned crane beside the road

and lots of ostrich.

There were many varities of antelope. There were klipspringer posing for pictures on a cliff.

and beautiful gazelle, lots of dainty dik-dik, impala, waterbuck, kudu and eland.

Lots of animals stared blankly at us, like these buffalo,

zebra,

and giraffe. Much of the landscape reminded me so much of the American West, especially southern Utah, with the red earth and scrubby hills. Then it would surprise me when giraffe and elephants and zebra would wander into the picture.

We saw lots and lots of elephants. We visited Tsavo East and West and Amboseli National Parks. Each one had a different landscape, so there was great variety, and we saw interesting things in each park.

Amboseli is at the foot of the Kenyan side of Kilimanjaro, and we had a great view from the window of our lodge room. Of course, we had to pose with Kilimanjaro in the background and I had to get pictures of many animals with Kilimanjaro in the background.

Gazelle with Kilimanjaro

I think if you zoom in, that's a wildebeast with Kilimanjaro.

I can't really tell what animal this is, but that's definitely Kilimanjaro in the background. I really should get one of those cameras with a really big lens for a trip like this. My pictures will never win any prizes, but mostly, I just enjoyed the trip without worrying about documenting everything with pictures.

We had been looking for cats the whole trip and had just missed them in several places. I told our guide to not worry about it, I was having a great time even if I didn't see lions or leopard. But it seems like it's every safari guide's goal to help their clients see the great cats. Just before we left Amboseli, he got a call on his radio (the guides are all connected with radios that help them notify others of a sighting) of some lions. We first saw a bunch of hyena...

and then a pride of lions napping in the grass. We watched for awhile as they would get up and walk around to find a new position. They definitely were having a lazy day.

As we were travelling in low season, we usually had lots of space and didn't see many other vehicles around, but for the lions, there was a crowd. Nobody with a stylin' race car jeep like ours, though.

We ended our trip with a few days in Nairobi. In town we enjoyed the National Museum, the railroad museum, and a great African art collection on display at the National Archives. (I did have to pause our sightseeing to watch the Royal Wedding. Kenya is where Will and Kate got engaged, you know. Brent had a royal nap during most of the ceremony.) We got a driver for a day trip out of town and had a fun hour watching baby elephants at the Sheldrick elephant orphanage. They take care of orphaned elephants that have been found all over the country, babies that have lost their mother to poaching or illness. When they are old enough, they are brought to their center within the Tsavo East park and transitioned into the wild.

It was fun to watch the babies be bottlefed,

and I got lots of video and pictures of them rolling around in the mud. I think my grandkids will enjoy watching them play. The mud is like sunscreen for the elephants, and they had a great time getting themselves covered with it.

I had been reading "Out of Africa" during the trip, so it was interesting to me to visit Karen Blixsen's house, now a museum, which is the setting of the book. The movie was also filmed here. The town is now named Karen, after the writer.

I really loved seeing the other coast of Africa. I'm hoping for a trip that will include the Masai Mara and Tanzania during the Great Migration. But that will depend on how long we stay in Africa. I'm glad that at least we had the chance to visit and see a bit of the beautiful country of Kenya.

The 266th good thing about Lagos: meeting an acclaimed artist

2011-04-21T06:32:00.001+01:00

First I'll give an election update: As expected, Goodluck Jonathan has been declared winner of the Presidential Election. But some people in the North aren't happy about his win and there has been some after-election violence by supporters of the candidate from the Muslim North. Here in Lagos, everything is as usual. We will be out of town for the final elections of the cycle, for State government, rescheduled for the Tuesday after the long Easter weekend. The Lagos State Governor is quite widely supported here and it's pretty much assured that Fashola will be reelected, so no problems are expected.

When I was in London just over a week ago, I sat and ate a sandwich on a bench in Trafalgar Square just below the "4th Plinth" which has become a showcase for contemporary sculpture. I admired the Ship in a Bottle and how it complemented the statue of the Admiral Lord Nelson, the great British navy commander. I noticed the colorful sails, and I knew that the artist had won a competition to have his work displayed on this column, which was vacant of the statuary atop the other columns in the Square. Little did I know that very soon I would have the opportunity to meet and hear from this artist. For some reason Blogger won't let me upload pictures to this post right now -- I'll try again later and hopefully will edit this post, but for now I'll just link to some pictures for those that might be interested.

Yinka Shonibare is one of the best known Nigerian artist that doesn't live in Nigeria. He spent some of his childhood here, but went to the UK when he was young to study art and hasn't returned. He works in London. About his "Ship in a Bottle" he says: "For me its a celebration of London’s immense ethnic wealth, giving expression to and honouring the many cultures and ethnicities that are still breathing precious wind into the sails of the United Kingdom. A ship in a bottle is an object of wonder. Adults and children are intrigued by its mystery. How can such towering masts and billowing sails fit inside such a commonplace object? With Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle I want to take this childhood sense of wonder and amplify it to match the monumental scale of Trafalgar Square." His website says "Tying together historical and global threads, the work considers the legacy of British colonialism and its expansion in trade and Empire, made possible through the freedom of the seas that Nelson’s Victory provided." I guess it's fitting that a bi-cultural artist would create this work that celebrates the legacy the British colonial empire has given to the world.
Yesterday Yinka spoke at a cultural center here and talked about his art and rambled on about other things. To explain why he hadn't returned to Nigeria in 30 years, he said that when he was 19 he contracted a virus which attacked his spine and paralyzed him. He is able to walk now, but is still quite crippled and obviously disabled. The crowded room of people (though the room didn't fill till an hour after the announced start time and the talk started 1 1/4 hours late -- Africa time can drive a prompt American nuts) was very appreciative of his presence, though some in the Q&A time questioned him what he was doing to support the arts in Nigeria and challenged him to do something more. He said his art was about revolution, though I didn't see much revolutionary in his work, though he had some pieces that were interesting. But I really do like his use of Nigerian wax print textiles. The vibrant fabrics here are one of my favorite things about the visual feast that is West Africa.

The contemporary artist and work I was most enraptured with on my London visit to the Saatchi Gallery has no connection with Nigeria, but her work showed a revolution in the world of insects. Tessa Farmer's work "Swarm" shows an enclosed clear box filled with insects hanging on nylon lines. When looking closer, you see tiny crafted skeletons which are riding on or attacking the larger bugs. The tiny skeletons were made from organic materials -- bug remains and stuff found in the artist's garden. It was amazing to me the skill and craftsmanship in creating these tiny creatures. I took a bunch of pictures of them and hopefully sometime I'll be able to upload a few here (even though they have nothing to do with Lagos....).

We're off to Kenya for an Easter get-away. I wish you all a wonderful Easter and I'm sure I'll soon have a report on our view of the other coast of Africa.

The 265th good thing about Lagos: Democratic elections, hopefully this time, free, fair and credible

2011-04-16T15:39:00.000+01:00

This "Arab spring" as they are calling it has made us all aware of the power of the people, and how people everywhere want to have freedoms and the ability to choose the leaders of their country. We were here 4 years ago during the last presidential elections and I was confused then about many things, and I can't say that things have been cleared up for me. Yar'Adua, from the North, was elected, but then he disappeared and then died and the Vice President, from the South, Goodluck Jonathan became President. This North and South stuff is important (the way I understand it) because the majority party, the PDP, had an arrangement or informal agreement within the party that their candidate would alternate every 8 years between the Muslim North and the Christian South. They refer to it as "regional power sharing." When Muslim Yar'Adua died and the Christian Jonathan took over, the North lost some of their "rightful" years of power. So, when the PDP decided to keep Goodluck Jonathan as their candidate, there was some fear of conflict over this leading up to this month's election process. But, though there are always local uprisings and violence in Nigeria, there, thankfully, haven't been any widespread disruptions. Goodluck Jonathan is widely expected to win the election and remain as president.

Voter registration was a long and involved affair that was scheduled for January. It was delayed and extended into February due to problems with the equipment and the process. There were 70 million people eligible to register to vote and the information on the election commission's website says that the final number registered was 67,764,327. This is an amazing percentage, especially considering many people had to take a day off of work and wait in line for hours to register to vote -- it was not an easy process.

Elections were scheduled for 3 Saturdays in April. We were expecting to miss the first Saturday of elections while we were in London, scheduled for April 2nd. That was why Brent got an extra weekend in London, as the company wouldn't do airport runs from Friday through Monday due to election travel restrictions and their own excess caution, so we had to leave on Thursday. Since it gave us a free weekend in London, we aren't complaining! But election morning, after some people had already cast their vote, the election was cancelled because many polling stations hadn't received their election materials. All the votes that had been cast were cancelled and the elections that day were rescheduled for last Saturday, April 9th. So last Saturday elections for the National Assembly were held, with votes cast for the House of Representatives and Senators. But voting was just held in about 2/3 of the precincts, as some areas were still not equipped to handle the process.

Today is the presidential election. The really different thing about the election process here is that this city of 16 million (or who knows how many) comes to a complete halt, and I assume it's the same in other cities throughout the country. The borders of the country are sealed and there are travel restrictions throughout the nation. No businesses are open and people are expected to stay home all day except when they walk to their local voting place. I can't imagine anything like this happening in the States. We live on a very busy road here and normally get a lot of traffic noise in our flat, so for us election days are quite peaceful and relaxing (great for catching up on blog posts....). I'm not minding being restricted to our apartment. And we have a fairly good view of the election process, as our local polling table is right below our bedroom balcony. I went out on the balcony when I heard people gathering midday. At first there was a small crowd gathering as they waited for the polling station to be ready. Shortly after noon, they were instructed to get in line and soon a poll worker was giving out little slips of paper as she called out numbers, I guess giving people their voting order so they could get out of line while they waited their turn.

The wooden voting table was under a large tree beside the road, so it's difficult to see in this picture, but someone was sitting at this table, writing something on each ballot to get them ready to hand out to the voters. Hopefully she wasn't filling out their ballot and marking votes for them!

Since the initial crowd, voters have been coming and going from the polling station. There are definitely more people voting at this election than there were here last Saturday. The percentages I heard of votes cast overall last week ranged around 20-30% of voters. Many Nigerians I talked to said either that they didn't know who to vote for, so they didn't bother, or they were hesitant to go out because there were so many police in the streets and they were nervous to leave their homes.

The final election day, for State offices, was rescheduled for Tuesday, April 26th. So this will be a day during the work week when the economy will again come to a halt as voters are given the opportunity to go to the polls. Although I am amazed that they allow 3 days of total non-productivity for this election process, I suppose that it is admirable that the country will put so much emphasis on the importance of voting. There is great hope that the voting here will be more free, fair and credible than it has been in the past, when the process was full of fraud and corruption.

I don't think our current president needs me to wish him "Goodluck" on his election today. According to this campaign poster, he also has the good wishes of President Obama, and assures him "Yes we can, sir!"

The 264th good about Lagos: accompanying my husband on a business trip, part two

2011-04-16T14:10:00.000+01:00

We had just returned from Amsterdam when Brent learned that he would be needed in London on business the next week and would need to leave early because of travel restrictions for the elections over the weekend (more on that on my next post). Since his trip was going to be extended over a weekend, and since we had BA points waiting to be used, we repacked our bags just a few days after getting back to Lagos and headed off to probably my very favorite city to visit -- London!

I fell in love with London when I first spent 6 months there as a university student on a study abroad semester. I never tire of spending time there and don't mind at all going about on my own. But on Brent's free Saturday, we enjoyed a day trip out to Windsor together. He had never been there to visit the castle. It's everything a person expects in a castle, and also has some really splendid State rooms and so much history. Add that to a beautiful day, and it was a great outing.

I love that most London museums are free and so I don't worry about stopping in to a museum I've visited many, many times before. I enjoy going back to see works of art that are like old friends. There are so many museums that I never have time to go to them all. Art museums are my favorite, but I always try to find something new or that I haven't gone to in a long time. I had probably gone to the Imperial War Museum 33 years ago when I was a student in London, but it wasn't the same place now. It is a very interesting museum, with a lobby filled with aircraft, tanks and all kinds of war equipment. It has great exhibits on the Holocaust, spies and espionage, war art, as well as Britain in the World Wars. I was here till closing one day and hope to go back to see more.

On Sunday Brent and I went up to the British Library to a very interesting exhibit on the English Language through history, and then to a unique exhibit at the Wellcome Collection on Dirt. I tell you, it really was fascinating. But because we were in the area, I had to stop at King's Cross Station and pretend I was going off on the train to Hogwarts. There was a lot of construction going on in the station, and I was looking around station nine and the guard there looked at me and asked "Harry Potter? Go right down the hall there by platform 8." We just beat out a large group of people also wanting photo ops, so I'm glad I wasn't the only "mature" person wanting a picture there.

One day I went along on one of the guided London Walks, which are a very good way to get a closer look at a neighborhood. We were all amused when the guide pointed out this sign above a pub. I had noticed the name on the pub, "The Three Kings," and expected the picture on the pub sign to be like the nativity scene 3 Wise Men. But the 3 Kings here were King Henry VIII, King Kong, and Elvis. The English do like their royalty.

London was starting to buzz with royal wedding excitement and there were wedding souveniers available everywhere. (I did resist purchasing any.) Also everywhere are lovely London city parks and the tulips were blooming. Beautiful springtime!

I enjoyed two free lunchtime music concerts as well as a peaceful choral evensong service at St. Martin's in the Field. When visiting London I always go to St. Pauls and walk across the Millenium Bridge to the Tate Modern. It was a perfect spring day.

Our last evening in London, we walked along the Thames walk near our hotel and watched the sun set behind Hammersmith bridge. What a wonderful city!

The 263rd good thing about Lagos: accompanying my husband on a business trip, part one

2011-04-16T13:30:00.000+01:00

I've been suffering from a dismal internet connection for the last few weeks, but we got some repair work done yesterday and, though it still can be spotty, I'm hoping that I will stay connected long enough to write a blog post. I've got a few that have been waiting, the first two are travel reports, but, if I make it to the third, I promise it will be Nigeria related.

A month ago Brent and I left for Amsterdam. He had a conference to attend and I wanted to go along, so we extended his trip over the weekends on either end so he could enjoy some downtime too. We had a week of wonderful weather and I loved having time to get to know some of the wonderful things this city has to offer. This city offers a bunch of not so wonderful things too, but I'm going to focus on the good stuff, because that's what I do on my blog. Here's me loving Amsterdam -- we rented bikes for a day and enjoyed away from the city into the countryside and another ride along the canals and through a city park. No one would have mistaken us for locals, but at least we avoided collisions and injury.

This windmill was along our bike ride in the country,

and here's a view of Amsterdam's charming city canals.

During the week I got a museum pass and spent much of my time wandering the streets from one museum to the next. I found I didn't have time for the sex museum, the torture museum or the marijuana museum, but I managed to hit many of the other ones that Amsterdam has to offer. We also had a wonderful day trip to Haarlem, where we visited the enormous and fabulous St. Bavo church, where we were lucky enough to be there during a wedding and heard the wedding march played on a massive organ in the church where Mozart had played the organ in 1766.

The town square in Haarlem looks much the same as you'll see in the 17th century paintings of the town.

Maybe then they had long lines of people waiting to do their shopping.

But this day they were waiting for their ipads from the Apple store next to the McDonalds.

We were a little early for the tulips, but there were still lots of beautiful flowers around, in city areas,

and in pots by doorways.

The fabulous Keukenhof gardens opened while we were there, and on our last day in the Netherlands, we went there for a visit. The tulips weren't at their peak, but there were still plenty of flowers to enjoy, in beds outside and in the pavilions. They had a windmill too.

We always used to laugh about how many flower photos my dad used to take. I guess I inherited this compulsion, because I couldn't resist. And I was wishing my parents could be there to enjoy this beauty with me, so I'm posting some pictures so they can see some of the incredible variety of floral creation that we saw there. And we weren't there at the park's peak to see the blooming tulip fields -- we'll have to go back someday!

We don't see this kind of natural beauty in Lagos, so this trip, with walking, biking, flowers, fresh air, wonderful art and culture, was a real shot in the arm for me. And it's always summer in Lagos, so this reminded me -- in other parts of the world, it's spring! Enjoy!

The 262nd good thing about Lagos: Women motivated to raise money for charity

2011-03-29T00:24:00.000+01:00

I have met so many wonderful women here in Lagos -- Nigerians and expats. This post is in praise of expat women who are talented and dedicated and service-oriented. They knew that the American Women's Club needed to raise money to continue to support our charities and so they decided to put on a bazaar. They formed a committee and came up with some creative crafts to celebrate the season and called the event a "Spring Fling." For a number of weeks, some crafters met weekly and made things to sell.

We covered the bottom of clear glass plates with fabric and sealer to make really cute decorative plates.

When they were drying on cups, they look like mushrooms....

Our lovely plate model here, Pattie, made a beautiful African quilt fabric using the "Steps to Freedom" pattern that was our big raffle item. (I didn't win it, but I am making a quilt using this pattern now. Someday I hope to finish it!)

We made fabric Easter eggs to hang on these great iron trees that we had a guy make for us to sell.

Easter egg table runners,

Here's our booth with one lovely model displaying some fabric jewelry,

This is Chi Chi, my favorite Nigerian jewelry maker.

Expats sold things as well as Nigerian vendors.

I didn't take pictures of the bake sale and food booth, but the hot dogs and baked goods brought in some good returns and were popular with the crowd.

Overall, it was a great success!

Thank you to our fun, crazy, creative, talented Spring Fling organizing committee!

The 261st good thing about Lagos: Our oldest son came here on a business trip!

2011-03-15T21:55:00.000+01:00

Almost 3 years ago our youngest son, Jordan, came to visit us and see Lagos. Until this month, he was our first and only family visitor we've had here. We really didn't expect our married children to be able to come here, so we were thrilled when we learned that our oldest son, Daniel, told us that he would be coming here on a business trip! He works in research for Shell and came here to teach a new computer model to reservoir engineers. He was here for almost two weeks and we really enjoyed seeing him and showing him a bit of Lagos, even if he did have to work during the day. He came over every evening for dinner that he didn't have a business commitment. Though he stayed with his business colleagues at the hotel during the week, to catch the company bus to and from the office, he did move over to our place over the weekend.

He enjoyed relaxing at our place in the evenings, playing games on his I-pod.

On our Saturday together, we were glad that one of Brent's co-workers, who works for Total, invited us to come to the Total beach complex. We've had a wonderful time when we've been here before and we enjoyed showing Daniel a different view of life in Lagos. Life vests are mandatory on the boat to the beach.

Fresh air, palm trees, open spaces and quiet are all part of a day at the beach.

Though we spent most of our time relaxing by the pool, we did take a walk down the beach.

There are these wrecked boats along the beach -- we

always wonder why they aren't salvaged for the iron.

One great thing about a day at the Total beach is that they cook and provide the meal. It's a no-worries day!

The whole place is really great, but we wondered why this basketball backboard was sitting on the sand. No dribbling a lay-up to the basket here!

Video games on the i-pod were the relaxation activity here too.

Big smiles at the chance to be together!

On their last day here, Daniel and his colleagues had some free time, so I took them out to Lekki market for some souvenier shopping. I wish I had remembered to take their picture at Lekki market. The woman in their group was most excited about the shopping, but I think they all felt good to get out and see something different, good about finishing their work here and ready to head home. Thank you, Shell, for bringing Daniel here for a visit!

The 260th good thing about Lagos: Good looking Security

2011-03-04T18:01:00.001+01:00

On our recent charity visit, ExxonMobil was very generous to provide our bus and security. After taking a good look at these guys, one member in our group staged a photo which many of us decided to use. The driver and security guys enjoyed posing for this shot!

The 259th good thing about Lagos: Charity visits

2011-03-04T17:56:00.000+01:00

This week, instead of a regular charity committee meeting, I organized a field trip to visit a couple of the charities that the American Women's club supports. These are a great way to raise awareness of our charities and get women to think about how we can better support them.

We had a bus full of 17 or so, and brought some donations along with us. Our first stop was my second visit to a Lagos State rehabilitation center in Majidun, Ikorodu. Here's most of our group in this picture, which is framed by the condensation on my camera lens.

We weren't allowed to take pictures of this government facility and I won't repeat the same history that I related in my first post about this place. Though they said there were over a thousand people there, we probably didn't see more than several hundred. There were good-looking, happy children and heartbreakingly malnourished children, and the same for adults. Many mentally ill people end up there. We visited a building that was a dormitory for teenagers that was a really awful place -- we were advised just to peek in the rooms and not to touch anything. It was smelly and there were naked bodies lying on the floor. One young boy there recently died from hemorrhoids, which had gotten very bad before anyone even noticed. It's a tragic place -- so many people there with nothing to occupy them. There is so much more that could be done. We came up with some ideas for ways to help them with craft/skills training.

We then drove to Child Life Line, a facility that rescues boys off the streets. I've written more about this charity in my post after my first visit there. We were very grateful that the road leading to Ibeshe, the village by this charity, had recently been graded so it didn't have the huge mudholes that we faced on my previous visit! As we drove down the path leading to the center, we faced a herd of cattle coming our way. They are now very well photographed cattle, as all the women on the bus got out their cameras. I wish I had taken a picture of that.

We had a nice time looking over the facilities at this very pleasant center. Here's our group in the dining building.

I was able to see the use of the furniture and kitchen equpment that had been donated by ConocoPhillips in December. The cook was so grateful for her shelves and cooking equipment!

We were so impressed to see these solar panels on one of their buildings. They had been donated by someone in the Netherlands. They said that they provide much of the power the center uses.

The boys are learning sewing and tailoring. Most tailors here use these old treadle machines which are more practical with the lack of reliable power.

There were two sticks stuck in the ground on each side of this sandy area in the field. Those were the soccer goals. Like most Nigerian youth, the boys love to play soccer.

There are good people doing important work at both these places, but it was especially interesting to see the contrast between the government center and the private charity. Given the choice between the two, it was easy to choose where I would stay.

The 258th good thing about Lagos: Unusual fruits

2011-03-04T17:19:00.000+01:00

I've started attending a weekly book group that reads African literature (I should feature that in its own post sometime....) and last week a member brought some fruits that I haven't ever seen for us to try.

This first one is called "awin" in Yoruba. The English name is "velvet tamarind." This fruit has a furry seed cover (the velvet part) which you peel off and then you suck the pulp off a hard seed which is inedible. There can't be many calories in this one and it takes a lot of effort to get each one. But it was kind of tangy and tasty.

This next fruit is called "agbalumo" here and they weren't aware of any English name for it. It kind of looks like a plum on the outside, but when it is broken open, there are a lot of largish white seeds with pulp around it. You take out some seeds and suck the pulp off them. Again, kind of tasty, but not a lot to them.

Although these were interesting and kind of tasty, I could see why they haven't come under widespread cultivation and distribution.

The 257th good thing about Lagos: Visiting a motherless Babies home

2011-03-04T17:06:00.000+01:00

Last week after our regular Bible Study, we went as a group to visit an orphanage, called the Motherless Babies Home. We went to spend some time seeing the facility and holding the babies. Many of the 100- some children were at school, but there were many babies and toddlers and physically-challenged who were there during the day.

I really love these women I interact with at Bible Study -- they are such a sincerely good group of women! Here we are talking to the matron of the orphanage.

We were not allowed to take pictures of the children, but here are a couple pictures of the facilities.

Don't know why this picture is so foggy -- I think my camera had some condensation on it. It really wasn't foggy outside.

Chevron is a big supporter of this facility, but I was pleased to see that Conoco Nigeria had been a past supporter.

I had a nice time holding a skinny little girl who they said was a year old, but didn't look older than 4 months. There was a newborn baby who was absolutely precious who had been found in a dumpster the previous week with umbilical cord still attached. There were a number of heartbreakingly handicapped children who spend their days laying in cribs without much human contact at all. There were a number of babies and children that looked like nothing but skin and bones. I know they are fed there, so I didn't know if they had just recently arrived or had some kind of illness that didn't allow them to be nourished. It was so sad. But many babies also looked very good and happy. We brought toys and books for them, but we were warned that they often disappear, taken by workers to their homes. The Chevron ladies that come there weekly always bring their toys home with them so they have them to use each week when they return.

We had a lovely visit and, since this home is very convenient and welcomes visitors to come as their schedule allows and interact with the babies, I hope to stop in regularly.

The 256th good thing about Lagos: Sixteen years of Small World

2011-03-04T16:52:00.000+01:00

I've been in Lagos now for one-fourth of the Small World charity events in Lagos' history, where the expat women's groups get together and work hard to put on food and a show to raise money for Nigerian charities. This year was the 16th year of Small World and I've been through my own little cycle of Small World participation. In 2007, I didn't really know anything about it so we didn't go. Our first Small World in 2008, we bought the tickets and enjoyed the food and the show and I wasn't involved with anything. In 2009, I helped choose the charity for the American Women's club and I took a shift at the food booth. Last year, I was over AWC's participation in the event and organized food and also performed with the British group. It was a busy, stressful event, but really rewarding. This year, for a number of reasons, the AWC decided not to participate in this event -- and I really felt bad that the Americans weren't there helping with this great evening that raises a lot of money for charity. But this did allow me to revisit my first year of non-stressful attendance.

Small World is still going strong despite the abdication of the Americans. They raised over 32 million naira for charity this year. They now have a very slick looking website. And we had a very nice evening out enjoying food and entertainment.

I didn't get any good pictures of the evening, but I'm going to post some bad ones:

The theme this year was "Go Green." They wanted to emphasize the importance for the entire planet of protecting our environment. They used recyclables in the food plates and decorations, used solar powered lighting and recycle bins, they featured fashion made from recycled materials, with the emcee's gowns and also on fashion models on display.

Here's Brent when we arrived questioning: "Which country's cuisine should we try first?" We didn't get to half of the booths before we were stuffed to capacity.

We did try some pork from the Phillipine's booth....

We had some performers from the Indian dance team sitting in front of us. The costumes of all the performers were really spectacular this year. And we really appreciated that this year, unlike the other years we have attended, there were no outbursts of booing when the group from Israel were performing. There was noticeably less applause for them than for the Lebanese or Palestinian performers, but at least no rudeness. I always found that so disturbing.

Hopefully next year the Americans will be back participating in this charity fund-raiser!

The 255th good thing about Lagos: a trip to Nigeria's neighbor, Benin

2011-02-23T23:05:00.000+01:00

Last week there was a Muslim holiday on a Tuesday (Happy Birthday, Prophet Mohammed!), so some dedicated Nigerian Field Society members decided to extend the weekend and planned a trip to Nigeria's neighbor to the west, Benin. We love to go on these trips because we always make some new friends, we get to have the safety in numbers of traveling with a group, and someone else experienced in the area has done all the hard work and we get to tag along and take advantage. We drove to the border, a trip which would have been much faster than the 2 hours it took if not for heavy traffic and bad roads. We crossed the border on foot, after filling out forms and waiting in lines, and were met by a guide with a minibus on the other side.

Benin has an interesting history and culture. It used to be called the Kingdom of Dahomey and there are some mud-brick palaces left from that time when it was a powerful country. After visiting this first palace in the capital city of Porto-Novo, we traveled up to Abomey, which was the capital city of the Kingdom.

We weren't allowed to take any pictures inside the palaces, which is where the really interesting stuff is. What is left of the palace in Abomey is just a small portion of the huge complex that it was when the kingdom was in the height of its power. When the king was ushered out by the French in 1894, much of the palace complex was set on fire, so the French wouldn't get the buildings. There were a lot of interesting things about this culture. The king was protected by women soldiers -- referred to as Amazons. (An interesting parallel to a certain Libyan dictator who is right now losing the grip of his power, but who won't go down without a fight.) There are some interesting building decorations that show these women battling their enemies which make it clear that they were not to be messed with. But, except for these female bodyguards, it wasn't that great to be a woman in this kingdom, especially one married to the king, because when the king died, many wives were buried alive to be able to serve the king in the next world. There was a lot of human sacrifice in this kingdom, and one of the buildings that would house the king's spirit was made with mud mixed with the blood of slaves.

This palace doesn't look like much from the outside, but it is a UNESCO World Heritage site, so I was very glad to put a check mark by another one of these on my list.

Benin is a country that has kept strongly to its traditional religion. Though many citizens say they are Christian or Muslim, most also still keep to their animist beliefs and especially follow voodoo traditions. The country is covered with voodoo shrines and sites, usually marked with white flags.

We visited a "voodoo village." Not at all a tourist site, but a place where people go when they need some voodoo done. There were shrines with fetishes outside...

and inside....

and the voodoo priest performing some rituals was slightly inebriated from consuming the alcohol that is part of many of the rituals.

We went to the market, which was a treat of the senses for many reasons. There was a very smelly part of the market with animal parts that were to be used in voodoo rituals: monkey heads, snakes, chicken parts and feathers. We saw a guy splitting apart the head of what had been a very pretty horned antelope. It was all kind of fascinating in a gross and smelly way. But we were told we couldn't take pictures in the voodoo part of the market.

But there were also pretty things, and not so pretty things, for sale in the market:

palm oil

soap

cassava flour

animal dung sold for fuel

nice displays of vegetables and grains.

One interesting thing in this country was that the gas pumps were few and far between, so all along the roads were "filling stations" with clear glass and plastic bottles of gasoline and gas mixed with oil for the motorcycles.

The gas is sold in clear bottles so the purchaser can see the purity of the gas.

We also visited an archeological park which had some underground hideouts which had been used by the residents to hide out from warring Nigerians in the 1700s. Now they let Nigerians, and Nigerian expats, visit them -- as long as you aren't wearing red cloth. They never made it really clear WHY you couldn't wear red cloth into them. But you couldn't, and so one man in our group went shirtless into the hole. And one big underground room they had made into an art installation with these hanging bottles decorated by artists. Kind of random, but pretty.

One really fun thing we did was take a train trip on a small private train.

This was a great way to see the countryside and the villages along the way.

There was lots of pretty countryside, which looked pretty wild, but actually had a lot of small scale cultivation.

People were using the tracks as paths and we passed lots of friendly people who waved to us as

we went slowly by. Children came out running to wave at us as we passed through their villages.

There were a lot of old run-down train stations left over from colonial times. The country is trying to reestablish train travel for transport of people and goods, but right now not much is happening.

One town we passed by had a busy market covering the tracks. The train stopped before we went into town, allowing people to move off the tracks, but then we passed by and stopped to watch as very quickly the tracks disappeared back under the people and their wares.

We then traveled to Grand Popo, which is a beach resort area just a very short distance from the Togo border. The beach was lovely and the whole atmosphere was very relaxing.

In the early evening we had a nice boat ride to a village across the water, where they put on an interesting masquerade performance for us. The masquerade itself was similar to ones we had seen before, with twirling haystack performers.

You can just catch a small glimpse of the pig in the water behind the drummers.

But the real treat for us was that the whole village seemed to be out and they were enjoying the performance even more than we were. We loved to admire the children, who loved in turn to be admired and have their pictures taken, in between their dancing and prancing around.

The whole thing had the atmosphere of a town party, and we were pretty sure they kept celebrating long after we departed back to the hotel for our delicious Valentine's Day dinner with tables set on the beach. We weren't ready to go back to Lagos the next day!

The 254th good thing about Lagos: Making African quilts -- even the trimmings are beautiful

2011-02-06T22:37:00.000+01:00

I was trimming the quilt blocks for an African quilt I'm making and, when looking at the pile of trimmings, I couldn't resist getting out the camera:

The 253rd good thing about Lagos: Tame wild animals helping to celebrate Mardi Gras

2011-02-06T22:29:00.000+01:00

Last night we went to a fun Mardi Gras party which was held in the garden of a beautiful home. While we were visiting and eating, we were visited by a dik-dik. This smallest of the African antelopes usually lives in the wild, but this one is at home in the garden, eats vegetable scraps and grazes on the lawn and is very friendly and sociable. The dik-dik is named for the alarm call of the female, but this one wasn't alarmed by the crowd at all -- she just quietly wandered around getting strokes and admiration for her very beautiful markings. But, unlike the rest of us, she didn't sport any Mardi Gras beads.

The 252nd good thing about Lagos: an chance to be a small part of making someone's life easier

2011-02-04T14:27:00.000+01:00

I was very glad to arrive safely back in Lagos last Sunday evening. I am especially glad that Lagos is right now a more peaceful place than Cairo. It's been amazing how quickly Cairo descended into chaos. When we visited there a couple of years ago, Egypt seemed much more functional than Nigeria. My friends who moved to Cairo from Lagos last year have had to evacuate, leaving their home. Not very long ago, I would have put the odds of us having to evacuate much greater than their odds. But I'm hoping this African reform/ revolution contagion will not spread to Nigeria. There are presidential elections scheduled for April, and there is generally some upheaval and turmoil before elections here, but hopefully the Nigerians will let their voices be heard in the ballot box and they won't resort to demonstrations on the street.

A week before I returned to Lagos, I got an email from a friend who helps the American Women Club support a local charity. The club has helped Mama Theresa and Ife Oluwa for a long time and Mama was in need of a wheelchair. I sent out an email to some friends, asking if anyone had an unneeded wheelchair that they could donate. I also started looking on CraigsList to see if there was an affordable used one to buy, and I checked with the airlines to see what it would take to transport one back as extra baggage. I found that there were used wheelchairs available at quite good prices, but before I purchased one, I got an email back from a friend that he had a wheelchair that he would give to me. After some emails and phone calls, it seemed that KLM would be willing to transport the wheelchair even if I wasn't in need of it, though I wasn't sure till I got to the airport if they would charge me the $200 extra baggage fee. In the end, there was no charge and no hassle. I brought the wheelchair out to Mama Theresa this morning and she was thrilled. She had just gotten out of the hospital on Wednesday, suffering from malaria, and she was still quite weak. The wheelchair will be a tremendous help to her. I was so glad to be a part of this chain of giving -- a friend who knew of Mama's need and another friend who had a wheelchair waiting to give and an airline who brought it across the ocean. I haven't done any big things to make things better in Nigeria, but there's a lot of satisfaction that comes from being a small part of a chain of giving that makes one person's life easier.

The 251st good thing about Lagos: They take poop seriously

2011-01-26T05:55:00.000+01:00

I'm on the last week of my holiday vacation, finishing up some things in Houston before returning to Lagos. I've had a great time with children and grandchildren -- especially while I was in Boston helping to welcome a new granddaughter into the world. Welcome to the family, Natalie Grace! Here she is smiling at 2 weeks old! She's a sweet beauty.

So I've been around a new baby granddaughter as well as grandchildren recently toilet trained, in the process of toilet training and those in diapers, so there is a fair amount of talk of poop, inspection of diapers for poop and questions about the need for pooping. Poop is the word we usually use in the States when talking about "Number Two." In the US, it's not nice to use a word beginning with sh--, but in Nigeria that is the common word for excrement. It's not a swear word and if one were to refer to sh-- as poop, many people would not know what you were talking about.

Though I'm in the business of looking for the good things in Lagos, I have complained previously about the sorry state of plumbing in Nigeria. But many Nigerians don't have the luxury of any kind of plumbing, and there is business for those providing outhouse services. Lagos has one company who is very proud of their business in this service industry and they have a company slogan to prove it.

They are serious about this slogan on their tank truck -- really -- they are not trying to be funny with this.

But I laugh like crazy every time I think about it.

Thanks to my friend Kelsey -- I stole these pictures off her blog!

The 250th good thing about Lagos: Holiday activities

2011-01-01T07:36:00.000+01:00

There was so much going on for me in the short span of time between our return from our November trip and leaving for the States on December 9th -- hopefully now you can understand why I've waited till after Christmas to finally get to blogging about it! Before I left Lagos, the Christmas decorations were up all over town. Lagos has gotten better at decorations each year I've been there. On the way home from my charity visit, we drove by the National Theater with the large Christmas tree all decorated.

Most of the expat activity groups had some sort of holiday party or get together. This is a picture from the holiday lunch of the African Book Group. This is a really great group that I recently joined. We meet weekly and read and discuss books by Africans and/or about Africa. We've had some interesting discussions and I'm looking forward to many more with this diverse group of women.

My Bible Study group had a fun Christmas get-together with wonderful food and a Christmas program with carols and readings to get us in the holiday spirit.

Christmas is a great excuse for a celebration, but it seems like expats in Lagos don't need a big holiday to get together for good food and good conversation.

I hope you all had wonderful holiday festivities and I'll take this opportunity to wish all my readers a very happy 2011!

The 249th good thing about Lagos: Seeing a charity finally get into their new home.

2011-01-01T07:15:00.000+01:00

The day before I left Lagos for my Christmas trip to the States, I was able to make a trip out to visit one of our charities who had recently moved into their new location. Beth Torrey Home for the Handicapped had been in the process of building these new facilities for about 9 years. They could only work as they had donations come in to fund the building, so it took a long time, and I wondered if I would ever see it happen. I was so pleased to see them in their new home -- it was so much more spacious and comfortable than their old place. This home currently has about 18 residents and they now have room to have up to 25 residents.

I delivered our gift bags to the staff.

This is a classroom, used to teach living skills.

All the bedrooms were neat and clean and all the beds had mosquito nets.

This is the meeting room for the residents.

The pantry had the yams lined up on the shelves.

They didn't have a washing machine and so they had to wash the clothes by hand. I made a long list of furniture, appliances and equipment that they could use and ConocoPhillips helped them with a big donation. I wish I could have been there to see the excitement of the staff at getting some new things to outfit their new facilities.

The land was donated for their new facilities and they had much left undeveloped.

They were setting out breakfast while I was there.

Janice always has a big smile.

Some residents have physical disabilities as well as mental.

They had a lively song and prayer session before they sat down to eat.

Beth Torrey was the recipient of a donated vehicle from a raffle where the winner didn't claim their prize.

We had a wild time on the ride home from Beth Torrey trying to get through some gigantic potholes.

I thought this message on the back of this bus was helpful, based on the state of Lagos roads.

The 248th good thing about Lagos: Being a small part of a generous donation

2011-01-01T06:29:00.001+01:00

When I approached my husband's employer about using the vacant apartment above us for our charity gift bag project, the company facilities guy asked me about the American Women's Club and the charities we supported. I sent him some information about our charities and he said that ConocoPhillips Nigeria had a large storeroom of items that they needed to find a place for and they would like to donate things to some worthy charities. They asked if we could help them. I was quick to reply that we would be happy to link them up with some deserving charities. There ensued a whirlwind of activity in a week that was already very busy with the gift bag project and with getting ready to leave town. The final donation of items happened after I had already left for the States, but I was able to participate in the really fun experience of going through a couple of large storerooms with some charity representatives who were able to pick out appliances, kitchen equipment and other goods that they would find very useful. The company was very generous and helpful and it was exciting for us to help these charities get some things they needed.

The ConocoPhillips guy we worked with for this donation asked me if I would write up a news release telling of their donation. Here's what I came up with for the generally wordy Nigerian press:

At the holiday season, the thoughts of many are turned toward gift giving and how to bring a smile to the face of others. The smiles this year will be on the faces of many needy in Lagos who are served by a variety of charities, and on the faces of those who work throughout the year to help lift the burdens of the needy through those charities. Santa doesn't always take the form of a jolly red-suited, round-bellied elf with a hat and a ho-ho-ho. This year, Santa appeared as an oil company with a storeroom full of furniture, appliances and household goods left over from downsizing as expatriate employees left Nigeria. ConocoPhillips, Nigeria wanted to find a place for their surplus inventory and looked to the American Women's Club in Lagos to help them match up the charities they serve with items from the ConocoPhillips storeroom that they could use. Representatives from various charities made their wish lists and some visited the storeroom to choose from the items available. The charities benefitting from this donation include primary schools, those serving the mentally and physically handicapped, a charity that rescues and provides a home and education for street boys, a state-run center where homeless and destitute are brought from the streets, and a community center that trains women for employment. Items donated include cookers, refrigerators, freezers, washing machines, tables, chairs, shelves, a generator, electronic equipment, pots and other kitchen equipment, upholstered furniture and more. This generous donation will greatly benefit those who work at these charities and also the citizens of Nigeria that they serve. Smiles are now on the faces of those at the charities who look forward to benefitting from the use of needed goods, on the faces of American Women's Club members who helped facilitate the donation, and on the faces of ConocoPhillips employees who reduced their storage inventory while seeing that inventory go to a place where it can be used and appreciated. Generous giving brings smiles and happy hearts to both the giver and the receiver! Thank you, ConocoPhillips for your generous donation!

The 247th good thing about Lagos: We had a great time stuffing gift bags for charity staff

2011-01-01T06:14:00.000+01:00

I'm still acting chair over the Community Service committee for the American Women's Club and, again this year we faced the challenge of wondering if we could continue our tradition of providing a gift bag to the staff of the charities we support. This gift of basic goods is a small thank you to them for the work that they do all through the year. Again this year, the students at the American International School helped us fundraise so we could get what we needed for these gifts. We had a tight time schedule for these gifts between the fund raiser and when we needed to have the gifts ready to deliver the first week of December, but the experience of working this project for several years now served me well and things went together quite smoothly.

The big advantage this year was being able to use the vacant apartment a floor above mine. This allowed for convenient set up of the work space, without the hassle of trying to live around the accumulation of materials. It was ideal for our needs. We had an enthusiastic crew and everything went together quickly.

We divided up the bulk goods (beans, rice, and garri) into zip lock bags.

Other volunteers filled airline toiletry bags with other donated toiletries.

We organized an assembly line for stuffing the bags.

The nuns from one of our charities, who happened to be there, helped put tags on the gift bags.

We stuffed 100 gift bags!

The 246th good thing about Lagos: An opportunity to help a missionary get ready for service

2011-01-01T05:42:00.000+01:00

As a Mormon family, we raised our sons with the expectation that when they were 19 years old, they would take a break from their regular life -- college and other activities -- and serve God and the church for 2 years as a missionary. They weren't forced into this choice, but we were pleased when they decided to serve a mission. We knew that they would learn many important lessons through this service, about sacrifice, perserverance, and putting God first in their lives. Young Mormon missionaries don't have any choice where they serve, but both our sons were happy when they received their mission calls -- our older son served in the Czech and Slovak republics, and our younger son served in Portugal. They gained fluency in the languages of these countries and learned to love the people there. They gained a lot of maturity through their mission experiences and we feel that their mission years were well spent. The past couple of years we've had the opportunity to play a small part in helping another young man prepare for his missionary service, and we've felt very rewarded, because we know that Ben will also benefit from this time of service.

We got to know Ben a couple of years ago after he moved into our church congregation's area. As a young teenager, Ben had left his village in southern Nigeria after the death of a parent, when he came to Lagos to try to get a job to help support himself and send some money home to his family. He had converted to Mormonism in his village, and when he came to Lagos, some church members helped him find jobs and housing. His other parent died shortly after he moved away, so he felt more strongly about the need to help support his siblings back home. When we first met Ben, we felt there was something special about him. Though his life was very difficult, he was a hard worker, always optimistic, always on the lookout for an opportunity to help someone out and always had a nice smile. Ben had left school very early and we knew that before he could serve a mission, he would need to reach a level where he could pass a high school equivalency test, so we helped him by getting him into a tutoring program he could attend after work. He had long days with work and school, but the staff of the school always praised Ben and said he was their top student. Ben loved to learn about new things and enjoyed talking with Brent about government and economics. When Brent was helping Ben prepare for his equivalency test, we were amazed and worried when we realized how poor his vocabulary was. He just hadn't had exposure to many things that would expand his vocabulary -- though he is a very intelligent person, his life experience was very limited and, therefore, so was his vocabulary. Ben was very happy when he completed the preparatory work for his mission and he received his call to serve in the Calabar Nigeria mission. This is the area that covers his village, so he was excited to possibly return to see some of his relatives again. Most missionaries from West Africa also serve in West Africa, as it's difficult for missionaries from Western countries to serve in many of these countries. Ben left in late November for the Missionary Training Center in Ghana. He was very excited when he received his passport. His flight to Ghana would be his first time on an airplane.

During Ben's two year mission, the pressure and difficulties he faced in supporting himself will be eased as the church will support him during his service. Generally Mormon missionaries and their families pay a standardized amount toward their own support during their mission, but most Nigerian missionaries can't contribute much and are largely supported through church funds. Missionary service will give Ben some time to focus on personal study and giving of himself to others and he'll have relief from the worry about having money for his food and housing.

We helped Ben get some clothes and things he needed to bring on his mission, and also got some help from church friends in Texas, who gave us extra shoes and shirts for Ben. Ben was always so appreciative for every little bit of help we gave him. We encouraged and expected him to be self-sufficient with his basic support, but wanted to help him with the extra things he needed to be able to serve a mission.

This last picture is of Ben when we last saw him, just before he left for Ghana. We were so excited for him to reach this point. I know he will be a wonderful missionary and that he will gain so much from this experience. Brent and I both feel kind of sad that we likely won't ever see Ben again. But it's possible that he will be able to email us someday. When Ben returns from his mission, he will be eligible for the church's Perpetual Education Fund, where he will be able to get a low interest loan for his continuing education so he can better prepare for a career that will improve his position in life.

We wish Ben the best of luck as he serves his mission and goes on with his life.

The 245th good thing about Lagos: Thanksgiving dinner with expat friends

2010-12-31T06:35:00.000+01:00

This year was the first time we were in Lagos for Thanksgiving -- during previous years we would use this time to meet our college-age son somewhere for a trip. But this year he was out of school and working, so he lost his company travel benefits. So we invited some friends over to share the turkey breasts that we had brought into Lagos in our cooler. Some of the fixings were improvised from our typical holiday fare, but I don't think anyone went home hungry. Because Thanksgiving is a regular work day in Lagos, we had our celebration on Friday evening so the working folk could relax a bit easier. It was a challenge to fit everyone in our dining room, but we managed.

There was time for showing off of special talents....

and just enjoying being together with friends.

Some were disappointed that there weren't any football games on after dinner, but others were happy to play a game together. We're really grateful to share our life in Lagos with good friends!

The 244th good thing about Lagos: A taste of the good life on the Chevron compound

2010-12-31T06:16:00.000+01:00

We have friends with young children that live on the Chevron compound. Chevron has a great family "camp," they call it, which is a neighborhood like small town America. The only drawback about the camp is it is out of the way on the Lekki expressway which is notorious for bad traffic. So many Chevron expats just stick to life on the compound and don't leave it very often. Our friends will soon leave Lagos and when they needed to take their "look-see" trip to their new overseas location, they asked me if I would be willing to stay with their children for a few days so their kids could stay at home while they were gone. I was happy to get in some grandma practice and experience the good life at Chevron. I won't post pictures of the compound here, for security and privacy concerns, but for a week after my babysitting duties ended, I was frequently remarking to Brent about the joys of life at Chevron. Their houses are wired with both 220 and 110 volt outlets so you can operate US and other appliances without adapters and transformers. You can drink their water right out of the tap -- it never looks like this. They have houses with yards and garages and I could walk to visit other residents. They were even growing their own pineapples in their yard. (Caveat: I was warned by my friend that there were rats that had taken up residence under their porch, so she was restricting the children's back yard play time till that problem was resolved.)

I would go with the kids to the playground each afternoon -- and sometimes they would ride their bikes on the street to get there. (Caveat: I was told by the children that they couldn't go on to the grassy area next to the playground because there was a snake there and if it bit them, they would DIE. I learned from other moms that the week before some residents on a walk had encountered a black cobra about 4-6 inches in diameter and 12 feet or so long. It was threatening a dog they were walking and they also felt quite threatened by it. It had been captured and killed, but apparently these cobras go around in pairs and they hadn't found this one's partner. So many residents were operating on a high level of snake alert.)

There is a bus for the children to take to school, but because of the horrible traffic on the road, they need to leave at 6:15 AM. My friend has a wonderful cook/nanny who fixed great meals each night and would stay till after we ate to clean up the dishes. If I wanted to attend a social event, she was there to tend the young children. She had another woman who cleaned the house each day and her driver was available to do the shopping and he also did the ironing and other errands. So basically, as the mother of young children in this Chevron camp life, she could concentrate on mothering without all the other busy work. That's a REALLY good thing for her. She said that Lagos was a really good place for them at this time in their life.

Life isn't perfect at Chevron, but, for me, it was an oasis and a very pleasant diversion from the hardships of life in Lagos. I could get used to it, but I don't think I'll have the opportunity to do so.

The 243rd good thing about Lagos: My water doesn't always look quite this bad

2010-12-31T05:48:00.000+01:00

Occasionally at home in our Lagos flat, we have no water running through the taps, and generally we have no idea why it's not running. I have been known to take a sponge bath with the bottled water from the cooler that we use for drinking and cooking. When we recently got a notice that they would be cleaning out the water tank, I was worried that we wouldn't have any water running for a while, so I filled the tub with water to use for cleaning. When I saw the appearance of the water, I wondered how clean anything would get with this water. Usually our water looks quite yellow, likely from iron in the pipes, but this was an especially bad water day. You can see why I stick to showers in Lagos -- I've never taken a bath there. With a shower it's easier to ignore the color of the water!

The 242nd good thing about Lagos: sometimes it's helpful to have a security escort vehicle along

2010-12-31T05:39:00.000+01:00

When we go to our church's semi-annual Stake Conference in Ikeja, which is on the mainland, we are required to have a security escort with armed policemen. I always think this is overkill, but when we went to conference in November, it was helpful to have the extra vehicle when our vehicle got a flat tire. We left the policemen to change the flat and took their car so we were on time for conference.

I had to take a picture of my beautiful friend Sophie and her gorgeous little baby boy. Doesn't he have the most precious face?

Our expat friends with their 4 cute boys all dressed up in their Nigerian church clothes.

We stayed after conference for the baptism of another expat young friend.

I loved seeing the smiles and visiting with this matching trio of sister missionaries -- one is from Liberia, one from Ghana and one from Nigeria.

The 241st good thing about Lagos: Fun with other expats at the Marine Ball

2010-12-31T05:13:00.000+01:00

The weekend after we got back from our cruise, we had an evening out at the Marine Ball. Again, Brent's co-worker was honored as the oldest Marine in attendance. Every once in a while, it's fun to dress up and see others also in their finery. We had a fun time at our table, but I didn't get any great pictures of the ceremony, which is always a highlight of the Marine Ball.

Brent and some of his co-workers

The 240th good thing about Lagos: Another wonderful R&R adventure!

2010-12-31T04:52:00.001+01:00

I know I've used R&R trips away from Lagos before as a good thing on my ongoing list. But our trips are something that we wouldn't do, at least as frequently, without the subsidy that we get from our "hardship duty" in Lagos. I enjoy my life in Lagos, but it's always wonderful to get away, especially to somewhere as beautiful as Venice and other places in the Mediterranean. Here's some of my favorite shots from our trip.

Venice is such a unique and enchanting city. I went a few days earlier than Brent to visit some art museums at my leisurely pace, then we stayed longer after the cruise to see the sites together. We had a great time walking around, as well as getting around on the waterbus.

From Venice we sailed on the cruise ship to the interesting city of Split, Croatia, which has charming walking streets and the interesting Diocletian's Palace.

The Roman's really knew how to do vaulting -- the basement architecture is really great.

The Greek island of Corfu had more great walking streets, beautiful churches, and a neat fortress.

In Athens, we were just about blown off the Acropolis, but we still admired the elegance of the classical architecture. The New Acropolis museum is really fantastic, too.

We had a perfect day in Mykonos to enjoy the beauty of whitewashed buildings against the blue sky.

And from Mykonos, we took a short boat trip to visit the island of Delos, which has more classical ruins.

The next day our port was Katakolon, where we took a day trip to visit Olympia, the birthplace of the Olympics. Again, it was a perfect day and this site and museum had recently been spiffed up for the Athens Olympics. It was a very interesting place to visit.

We did a lot of walking, so it's a good thing I got those shoes fixed before I left Lagos!

The 239th good thing about Lagos: travelling shoes repaired quickly and cheaply!

2010-12-31T04:13:00.000+01:00

Well, I've been on an extended blog-cation and it's time I do some catch-up. The holiday rush is over -- I hope yours were as merry as ours -- and I have some time before I go on serious grandma duty, so I'm going to go through my pictures from the past couple of months and find some good things that I've neglected to write about.

In November we were leaving on our R&R trip and flying to Venice for a cruise. As I was packing on the night before we left, I pulled out my closed-toe shoes, which I never wear in hot Lagos, but just mostly use for travelling. I realized that when I wore them last, the stitching had pulled through the leather and they needed some repair. So in the morning, I gave the shoe to my driver and he brought them somewhere to some repair guy on the street and within an hour or so I had my shoe back, stitched up for just over $1. Now that's not going to happen in the States!

The 238th good thing about Lagos: once in a while, some great musical performances

2010-10-26T23:14:00.000+01:00

When we lived in Houston, I was enjoyed participating in the musical culture of the city and would frequently attend concerts, as well as performing with the Houston Symphony Chorus. That is one of the things I miss most about my life in Houston. But sometimes there are opportunities here to attend performances that compare to the best of what I've heard in the States.

The Musical Centre of Nigeria (the Muson Centre) is usually the venue for artists that are sponsored by some business or embassy and the concerts are usually free or at very low cost -- less than $13. They do need to improve their PR, because the concerts are really poorly publicized and, therefore, usually poorly attended. Recently I went to a concert there which had been advertised as a string quartet from South Africa. I went, expecting classical music. But I was equally pleased to hear a really great jazz quartet: piano, violin, percussion and a vocalist. Singing was Melanie Scholtz with the Buskaid Soweto String Project. They were really wonderful! I've included some clips so you can hear a bit.

Melanie has a smoky, velvety voice and each instrument did some killer improvisations.

They played some original music and also some classics, like "Summertime" from Porgy and Bess.

Tonight was a thrilling performance by the 24 year old Czech pianist Lukas Vondracek. He was one of the most talented pianists I have ever heard perform live. He played one of the pieces which he had performed last year for the Van Cliburn Competition, where he received a Jury Discretionary Award. He recently won the Hilton Head International Piano Competition in the US, and will perform a concert in Carnegie Hall next month as part of his award. It was such a shame that his appearance here was so poorly publicized. When the concert started there were only a handful of people there. More trickled in during the performance, but there were still less than 50 by the time he finished. And it was a free performance -- I'm sure that won't be the case in Carnegie Hall next month! I felt badly that he had such a small audience, but it was kind of nice that it was so intimate.

You can listen to a good recording of some of the Smetana Czech Dances that he played by following the link to the Van Cliburn Competition above. Below is a bit of the Rachmaninoff he played.

He was joined by "his partner," a Taiwanese pianist who is also studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. Yu-Chien Shih played a Chopin piece and also joined him playing some of the Dvorak Slavonic Dances for 4 hands.

I left the concert with my musical soul purring with contentment.

The 237th good thing about Lagos: the American School celebrates Nigeria's culture

2010-10-01T23:45:00.000+01:00

It was Nigerian Cultural Day at the American School this week and I stopped over there for some culture and to do a little shopping because there are great prices from the vendors they allow to come there.

They had a beautiful cake on display celebrating the anniversary.

And they had lots of displays of traditional Nigerian food. I had a sampling of roasted yam for the first time (those are their big yams in the basket in the picture on the right). It was palatable, though as bland as I had expected it to be.

And there were tables with women explaining the different Nigerian foods, which was very helpful.

The kola nut is used ceremonially as the traditional offering to a chief, but it has also been used in many West African cultures medicinally and to ease hunger pangs, because it has a high caffeine content.

Palm oil was the biggest Nigerian export and source of income before the discovery of oil here.

I had seen the fruit before,

but I found it interesting to see the plant that the palm kernels come from.

This young woman was dressed as a bride from Cross River State.

These girls were dressed for a festival in Calabar.

And, of course, it's impossible to have a celebration of Nigerian culture without some drumming and dancing!

The 236th good thing about Lagos: 50 years of independence and 50 years of American women

2010-10-01T23:13:00.000+01:00

Happy Nigerian Independence Day! It's been 50 years since the British handed the country's rule back to the Nigerians. When I was asking my driver what kind of official activities were planned for today, he said that many people felt that there shouldn't be any celebrating because the country has not improved in 50 years. Sadly, some militants agreed violently with this, as there were car bombs set off today in Abuja, the capital, near the official celebrations attended by Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria's president. 8 people were killed and 21 injured. In a CNN report on today's violence, Nigeria's Information minister said that "whatever happened, we were able to have a successful celebration." I kind of wonder how many would have to have been killed to make the celebration unsuccessful. But we had fireworks visible from our balcony at midnight last night ushering in the holiday, and there's been more fireworks tonight and I hear partying going on outside. So some Nigerians are managing to celebrate despite their country's failings. We gave our driver the day off to celebrate with his family, so we've had a quiet day at home.

This last week there was celebrating with the American Women's Club. We had our annual membership tea, where we celebrated the beginning of the 50th year of the club in Lagos. We had balloons celebrating the years....

A Navy band -- a quartet of saxophonists played some background music...

And I accompanied on piano a duo of cellists playing the US and Nigerian National anthems. It's wonderful to have two great American cellists here -- and hearing the National Anthem on the cello was a new experience for me.

There was food and visiting among the women present at the garden party.

I neglected to get a picture of our new US Consul General's wife, Kathleen. It was a pleasure to meet her and her husband, Joe Stafford. They will both be a great asset to the American community here in Lagos. She gave a very interesting introduction to her husband before he spoke to the women present, telling about their experiences together in the US Foreign Service.

I was fascinated to hear that his first assignment with the Foreign Service was in Iran and they were there in 1979 when the embassy was taken over. They were able to escape with a few other American diplomats and were hidden by the Canadians for several months before they were able to secretly escape from Iran. I found this interesting article online telling how the Canadians helped the US diplomats through this trial. I can't imagine what a tense time that would have been! Hopefully their experiences in Nigeria won't remind them of those months of hiding. The planned National Day celebrations at the American Club here in Lagos tonight were cancelled out of caution after the Abuja bombings earlier in the day and Americans in the country were urged to stay home. Let's hope for progress for Nigeria in the next 50 years and a lot less violence!

The 235th good thing about Lagos: less chaos on the roads

2010-09-28T22:58:00.000+01:00

It's amazing to me that it has been over 4 years since I first came to Nigeria and that Brent has worked here 4 1/2 years. We originally thought his work here would only last less than one year. But I know that when we finally leave Nigeria I will be quite sad to leave this country. I had a wonderful summer -- a memorable trip to Israel, time with grandchildren and opportunity to help my adult children with situations where I know I was really able to help them out, which is always a great feeling. But after all that, I was really ready to get back to my Lagos life. I have good friends here and fun activities and time and opportunity to do things that I don't do when I'm in my Houston life. So I'm glad to be back!

In our years here, we've seen great changes in the areas of Lagos where we live. Lagos State Governor Fashola has put a high priority on making improvements in certain areas in Lagos and I've seen evidence of this in Victoria Island and Ikoyi. When we came here, in those areas, I don't think there was a single working traffic light and now there's many, and most the drivers now follow them, at least during the day. There is still frequent bad traffic situations and many "go-slows." I left an afternoon activity recently and it took me 2 1/2 hours to get home. When I left the same place at the same time the following week, I was home in 20 minutes. But there has been an improvement in one element of traffic -- there are new restrictions on okadas (motorcycle taxis). These signs were put up as restrictions went into effect the first of September.

Okadas are now not allowed in some areas of Lagos, including Victoria Island and Ikoyi and the Lekki expressway, where I spend most of my time. There are still private motorcycles on the road, but they are fewer than before and my driver is very happy about the change. The okadas were notorious for their reckless driving and watching out for their erratic weaving through traffic was a constant challenge for car drivers. Many okada drivers considered themselves above following traffic laws, like stopping at red lights. I'm sure there are many workers who relied on okada transportation who are having a much more lengthy commute now that they have to commute on a bus. But my driver confirms without any reservations that this is a big improvement on the roads. But, as I've said before, I'm just extremely glad that driving in Lagos is a challenge for my driver and not for me! Sitting in the back seat relaxing while I listen to my ipod is one great benefit of my life in Lagos!

The 234th good thing about Lagos: a heartbreaking reminder to value life and give thanks for health

2010-08-04T10:15:00.004+01:00

I feel very far away from Lagos, as my time comes to an end in Boston helping my daughter and her family move into their first home of their own. We've been very busy with removing wallpaper and painting and moving their belongings -- their former rented home is only a few minutes away -- and now the critical stuff is finished. They will still be getting organized and settling in for a while and have many home projects awaiting, but they are ready to be on their own, I'm sure. I've enjoyed spending time with them and their wonderful, energetic young sons. My daughter is expecting her third child in January and they just had an ultrasound yesterday that indicated they will be having their first daughter. We're all excited about that-- though my son-in-law will have to change up his visions of having a golf foursome with his sons -- my daughter reminds him that girls can play golf too.

In the United States, though we know life gives no guarantees, we tend to have the expectation that things will go well with pregnancy and childbirth. In Nigeria, childbirth is often more of a risk to both mother and child. I was reminded of that last week when I heard some very sad news from Lagos. I got to know the beautiful bride Ugoma through our church congregation over a year ago after she married Chinedu, who was a stalwart church member. Chinedu had been taking his time finding a wife, and he got a lot of kidding about how no woman seemed to be good enough for him. But we were all so happy for him after we met the woman he chose to marry -- Ugoma was sweet and beautiful and always had a radiant smile as we greeted each other with a hug at church. I'm so sorry that I don't seem to have snapped a picture of her. We were excited for both of them when we learned she was expecting their first child. I missed seeing her each week after our church congregations split off and we were meeting in another building. Last week I learned that she had fallen ill with malaria in June and was hospitalized for that until she gave birth, which had to be with a C-section as she was so weak. Ugoma and Chinedu had a healthy baby boy, and they named him Joshua. But Ugoma never recovered -- Chinedu said her incision wasn't healing and she had some abdominal swelling, so I don't know if she had internal bleeding or an infection, but she passed away a month after having the baby. I'm so sorry that I knew nothing of this while it was happening, as I was away through most of the ordeal. I wish I had known so I could at least have been praying for her. Chinedu says he will try to raise Joshua with a help of a nanny, which is quite an unusual thing for a Nigerian father to do. I feel so heartbroken for Chinedu, who finally found a wonderful wife and had her for such a short time, and for Joshua, who will grow up without the benefit of his mother's care. I wish there is something we could have done to get Ugoma some better health care.

This heartbreaking loss has been on my mind for the past week, as I have spent time with my pregnant daughter and healthy grandsons and I feel so blessed by the knowledge that they will have access to good health care and if illness and emergencies arise, there are skilled doctors and sterile hospitals awaiting to help them. But I've grown to love the Nigerian people during my time there and I shed tears for them, knowing that they deserve this benefit as well, but they don't have it. At irrational moments when I rage about the unfairness of it all, I wish for the Gates Foundation or some other aid agency with lots of money to throw at the problem to come in and make it all better. But I know that no outside charity can solve Nigeria's problems for them. Nigeria has a huge disadvantaged population, but they also have enormous resources that have gone too often to benefit too few. This corrupt culture of selfishness starts at the top with leaders who stash huge amounts of money in overseas bank accounts and it goes down to the scam artists who envision schemes to bilk others out of their money as their way to get ahead. Nigeria needs leaders at every level of society who will consider the greater good of their country as a priority and it needs citizens who value individual life, seize honest opportunities, and demand better from their leaders. Joshua will grow up never knowing his mother's care, and he deserves better from his country. A hope for a better life and a peaceful future is my prayer for him, for his father, and for Nigeria.

The 233rd good thing about Lagos: A new church building with easy access!

2010-07-13T13:40:00.004+01:00

Our church congregation was divided recently, in the desire to allow worship closer to members' homes to save them the time and expense of travel. It's taken a while to actually make this happen (nothing happens quickly or easily in Nigeria), but finally in June our new meeting place was ready for use. This was fortuitious, as the road to our former church building can be treacherous during rainy season. The new building is a quick 5 minute drive from our house on roads that are paved and with minimal puddles. This is a great benefit that both we and our driver appreciate.

Many of the church members are now able to walk from their homes to church, and I know they are very grateful to be spared a lengthy ride on an okada to church. Our congregation is small, but we are always so glad to be together and I've enjoyed the opportunity to get to know the Nigerians much better than I did in a larger congregation. The past few weeks I've been the only expat woman there -- most of the other American women and children are away for the summer. The Nigerian members always make me feel very loved and valued and I'm going to miss them all for the next two months while I'm away. Our building was formerly an eye clinic and is just off a main road on the island of Ikoyi. Here's our main meeting room:

We were away the first week they met in the building, but I got this photo of the members (with some missionary visitors) the second week in the building.
There's always a good time mingling after services.

This is a photo of the Ekong family. They are such wonderful people and a real strength to our congregation.

I had to get a photo of the beautiful women in this family. Priscilla, on the left, is a former AWC scholarship student, and her youngest sister, Victoria, on the right, is a new scholarship recipient. She was home for a short time and left later this day to go back to her college town. Their father is a retired policeman and their mother worked for the government (and is still waiting for the government to give her the pension she was promised and she's been retired for several years). I've so enjoyed getting to know and love them.

The 232nd good thing about Lagos: Giving a life-line to street boys

2010-07-13T12:00:00.009+01:00

I had been hoping for a long time to be able to visit Child Life-Line, a charity that rescues boys from the streets and provides them a home and education so they can get a better start in life. We had been warned that the road leading to the charity can be impassable at times, so we were glad the rain held off till we were on the paved road home. There were still plenty of really muddy places, and other places where the road was like riding a roller coaster and the driver had to weave from one side to the other to avoid the deep puddles. I was glad we were in Ayoka's car that is higher off the ground and has 4-wheel drive!

I had to have the driver slow down so I could take a picture of this sign surrounded by garbage. It says: "Notice: Dumping of refuse here is prohibited. Offender will be prosecuted. Fine 10,000N. I wonder if they've collected any fines recently.

After a bit of searching and several phone calls and questioning local residents, which led to boys from the center coming out to the main street to look for us, we found the unmarked gate which led to a narrower muddy road.

And the muddy road changed to a grassy path....

until we finally came to the gate with the sign marking the charity. They said the trip would probably take around an hour. It took us three.

But we were glad to make it and see this well-kept area which provides stability to boys ages 8-18 who have been gathered from life on the street. They currently have 19 boys, but have capacity for 24. They have an outreach program which helps to find boys who need rescue and some boys hear about the center and arrive there hoping to be helped. The young adult men working at Child Life Line, who showed us around, said some boys end up on the street after running away from home, some were discarded by their families, often after a remarriage. Most of the boys were at school during our visit, but there were some boys at home. They had recently arrived at the center and it was too late in the school year to get them registered. They were quiet and hesitant to talk to us, but they finally opened up and answered our questions. After their leader mentioned that one of the boys was a good artist, he showed us his sketch book and some very nice drawings.

We sat with the boys in the dining hall while we visited with them. They get their own breakfast and there is a cook who prepares 2 meals a day for the boys. The directors said that they seem to consider this cook a mother figure and the boys are anxious to help her. She has challenges preparing food -- the charity's refrigerator and freezer are both currently broken. The kitchen was pretty bare and she said some donations of pots and dishes would be very helpful.

One building serves as a tailoring workshop to allow boys to learn the skill of sewing. They would appreciate donations of fabric to practice with.

They have some space which allows for the boys to have room to run. They are responsible for doing their own washing of clothes and also have chores around the center to help them learn responsibility.

This building is the dormitory.

The rooms were clean, but very spare in furnishing. Some bunks had mosquito nets, but they didn't have enough for all the beds. Some beds had bare foam mattresses with no sheets. We hope to get donations of sheets so all the boys can have them.

This building serves as a classroom for their art teacher, an artist who, I believe they said, was once a resident of Child Life-Line. The leader showed us some pictures of the art work the students had created and there were some beautiful paintings. We're hoping to organize an exhibition and sell some of their works. The proceeds would go to each individual boy, not to the charity as a whole, so they can receive some benefit from their creations.

There is also a very comfortable administration building that has a library, study room and computer work area. They said that after school the boys spend a lot of time in here doing their homework and reading. I asked the leaders how the boys got along -- were there fights? And they both smiled and responded, "Well, they are boys." They often come to the center pretty tough after their lives on the street, and certainly there are challenges as they learn to be responsible and to get along with others. But they try to make it as much like a home as possible and the boys generally respond so the stability and structure.

We left Child Life Line feeling that those 19 boys living there were in a good place. We hope to be able to support the center and get them some things that will make it even better.