Time

They say Lagos has a beat and rhythm of its own.  Time here in Nigeria is a funny thing.  It seems to go by faster than anywhere else we have lived, almost like it just disappears.  You see we have several clocks in our flat.  Some run only on batteries others are plugged in but have a battery backup, without the backup you would be resetting your clock 4 - 5 times a day.  The clocks plugged into the wall sockets gain time.  Sometimes it is just a few minutes a day, sometimes it is 15 minutes or more...so after a few days the clock is over an hour ahead.  So you find yourself never quite trusting a clock.  You have to get a 2^nd opinion just to be sure.  On the plus side there have been a few times that Joe has woken up in a rush thinking he was running late only to find that really he has plenty of time for a relaxing morning.

 

A soggy start to the day...

So this morning I got out of bed and Joe was just leaving for work...a bit late but I thought oh well, between the clocks not keeping time for some reason and Joe staying up late to fix a computer, early to work just hasn't been in the cards this week.  He said to me, "since you are up I have something to show you."  We walk into the room he uses as his office and I about wipe out and fall on the floor, because the floor was covered in water!  Great, my relaxing day at home was not to be.

The rainy season is upon us here in Lagos and up until last night we had not had any trouble with water getting into the apartment...people always seemed surprised that we hadn't had any trouble.  And now I understand their confusion!  Three rooms had water on the floor this morning.  One room was pretty much "flooded" with about a 1/4" covering the room.  Luckily we didn't lose anything other than cardboard boxes we had been saving from the move. 

I set about removing items from the waterlogged areas so I could start mopping up the water.  A Shopvac would have been really handy this morning!  Our driver called around 9am to say that he was stuck in a lot of traffic and wouldn't make it back to the apartment until 10:30, fine I said, not a problem.

I continue my clean up process and Godwin arrives back from taking Joe to the office.  He laughs at me because I am wearing my Wellies inside.  I smile and show him all of the water in the next room.  He then realizes what I am dealing with and springs into action!  He asks if I have contacted the Building Manager, I haven't.  So he goes off to take away some soggy cardboard and tell the Building Manager what is going on in our flat.

The next thing I know there are 5 people here to help.  One is evaluating the source of the water infiltration, 2 are mopping up the water...or pushing it into the floor drain in the bathroom, and 2 more are caulking around the windows suspected of leaking.  Godwin appears to be supervising all of them.  So what would have taken me another 2 hours to clean up is done in about 30 minutes.  It's almost like they have done this before. ;)  The floors are all dry now and the walls and curtains affected are drying out too.

I haven't put things back into the worst of the rooms just yet...I'll wait and see what happens the next time it rains.  I shouldn't have to wait very long...and I have a feeling this is not our last "flood".

So I wasn't so happy this morning to wake up to the mess we had with the water.  However, a little perspective is always in order.  Joe told me that Godwin's house was mostly flooded the last couple of days.  There has been a lot more rain to the north of here where his family lives.  And he doesn't have a proper roof on his house.  He has been saving money to pay to have it installed and the local fees associated with it.  But his house is another story for another day.

Banana Island: Nature Photos

Earlier this week Yogi and I had a nice morning to go to our favorite place for a walk, Banana Island. It is an area that is just being developed with big exclusive homes, condos, etc.  It is gated and we have a permit to go there as part of the "Exercise Club".  People who like to run, walk, bike can pay a yearly fee to use this area and the wide roads without much traffic to exercise and relax.  There are occasionally big chunks of sidewalk missing so you have to watch out for that but otherwise it is a nice, peaceful place near the water for a walk.  If you are out there after a rain storm you hear a chorus of frogs croaking at different pitches depending their size.  The large toads/frogs are the basses or baritones and the smaller frogs are a bit higher like a tenor.  It's amazing how much noise they make!

The rainy season has started and with it I have noticed more "wild" flowers blooming on the undeveloped land and loads of butterflies and dragon flies.  Here are some nature photos from our last walk.  It's a rainy morning here today, complete with lightning and booming thunder, not such a bad morning to wait for the air conditioning repair person!

 

Grocery Shopping

Grocery shopping here in Lagos is something of a challenge.  You make your list but it ends up being a revolving list.  You may not find things this week but in a week or two or three or four you may find the item on the shelf again.  I'm trying really hard to see grocery shopping more as a treasure hunt and not get too frustrated.  Although I will admit there are days when I really would like to just go to Kroger or Sainesbury's (where I shopped in the UK) and know that what I need is there, fill up my shopping cart and go home.

There are several decent sized grocery stores and a few smaller specialty stores.  Some people have the patience to go to 3 or 4 stores in a day in an attempt, but not a guarantee, to find what they are looking for...I don't have that sort of patience.  So I usually only go to 1 or 2 stores and take what I can get.  I do change up the stores I go to just because they don't all carry the same merchandise and you can find that "treasure" you have been in search of or didn't even know you wanted.

This week and last week the treasure came in the form of cereal.  Last week Joe and I both went shopping on separate occasions and came home with Cheerios, something that sells out quickly.  We both laughed that we had purchased the same thing without knowing it and were excited about it!  (Hopefully the experience here doesn't make us into huge hoarders!  But it has that potential.)  This week I found Fruit Loops, something I had not seen before.  I was looking at something on the bottom shelf and the girl stocking the shelves above me dropped the box of Fruit Loops so I picked it up for her.  I thought about it for 2 seconds and came home with the Fruit Loops.  :)

Milk & Cereal...the milk is in the blue boxes, UHT

So the lessons I have learned are...Thursday is usually when the stores get their shipments in so that is a good day to shop...if you see something unusual that you like, buy it!...and finally, be flexible.  I'm told grocery shopping is A LOT better now than it was just a few years ago so I am sure it will continue to improve.  And you just never know what you might find the next time!

Our Canine Ambassador

In Nigeria we have found that the majority of people do not have pets.  Any contact they have had with a dog has probably been with a barking guard dog behind a fence.  I have yet to see a random cat or dog just wandering around.  Our dog, Yogi, is a 40 kg (78lb) black Labrador Retriever.  He's a big guy.  But he is a really sweet dog.  He is older so he's relaxed and doesn't get too fussed about anything.  When we started walking him here people would cross the street to get out of his way.  Most people are extremely afraid of dogs.  But Yogi in his own goofy way is winning people over, especially the staff that work at our apartment complex.  Most of the gate guards are more relaxed around him and a few even pat him on the head.  They talk to him and are impressed by his "sit" and "shake" tricks.  It's really fun to see them realize that he isn't going to hurt them and is a friendly dog.  Most of the children that live here are also enjoying having him around.  As you can see from the photo, Yogi has a small fan club.  I think we are known as the people who live with Yogi.

However, every time someone comes to the apartment to fix something I have to put him in a back room and close the doors just so they will enter the apartment.  Yogi has been a very good sport about this, usually just continuing his nap in the bedroom.  For example, last Friday two men came to do the annual maintenance on the air conditioning units.  There is a unit in each room so at one point I had to move him between rooms so they could finish the last one.  They never actually heard or saw Yogi.  This morning when we were out for a walk they same maintenance guys were working at another apartment.  I saw them outside and said good morning...they just stared at Yogi.  We went around the corner and I caught one of the guys looking around the corner at him.  Maybe they assume he is a big guard dog but nothing could be further from the truth!


ps.  Coming from Scotland Yogi is adjusting to the heat/humidity just like the rest of us.  I am amazed that he still has hair with all of the shedding he is doing.  (Seriously the tile floors are a light beige color and show everything.  An hour after I sweep they are covered in black hair again.)  But he is doing good, even going out on the patio to lay in the sunshine, just like he used to in Houston, and comes back in only when he is completely shattered from the heat.

Building Construction

In a country where labor is inexpensive many things are done by hand that in Europe or America would be done mainly by machines.  Home construction here is a very human intensive event.  Just about everything is made from concrete.  Walls are made from made from concrete blocks.  The blocks are made onsite using sand, cement, gravel, and water.  The mixture is poured into forms and either manually pounded to prevent air gaps or made using a small machine.  The blocks are set out to dry on the construction site and when they have enough blocks they will start a wall.  The load bearing walls are made much like everywhere else, steel rebar is used to provide strength and wood forms are created to give the general shape of the building. As the walls go up, elaborate supports made from bamboo and some metal scaffolding are built to hold forms for the floors in place.  

In what can only be described as an amazing feat of humanity, the way concrete floors are poured is something to behold.  Almost everything is done by hand, the only piece of machinery is one mixing drum.  Everyone has a 5 gallon bucket.  The sand, concrete, water, and gravel are scooped by hand into the bucket and thrown into the mixing drum.  From there a line of people wait with their bucket to be filled with wet concrete.  They put the bucket on their head which I would guess weighs about 50 pounds (23 kg).  We saw people working on the 4th floor of a building this weekend, so that meant that they had to carry these buckets of concrete up wooden ramps to the top, drop their load and then walk back down again.  There were between 50 - 75 people, men and women both, carrying concrete to pour this 1,500 sq foot (140 sq meter) floor.  The floor must be finished in one "pour" for strength so they work from sun up until till the floor is finished, sometimes well into the night.  We passed by at 8:30 pm and they were still hard at work.  I really can't fathom how tired you must be after doing that for 14 hours straight! 

In general the daily wage here is 1,000 Nair (about $6).  A week's worth of groceries for a family of 4 is about 5,000 Naira.  The pay for a day's labor doing this is around 2,500 Naira.  This is well above the average daily wage but this is work that will age you quicker than most any other job.  I truly admire the hard work these people do in order to feed their families and send their children to school.  A few weeks ago we saw a truck with a concrete crew of about 15 women, 4 men, and a cement mixer at 10 o'clock at night.  They had just finished work and were headed home, with any luck they would make it there by midnight.

The Flower Man

Last week, as a special treat, Joe took me to buy plants for our patio.  I love plants and actually recognized some of what is commonly grown here as it is similar to south Texas.  We went to The Flower Man.  His business is along a major road and the land was given to him by the government.  The land can only be used as a plant nursery, no buildings can go on it.  He was very knowledgeable and helpful.  He told me that most plants have a medicinal purpose.  And as he ate the leaf of a hibiscus plant explained that it could be used to help with male infertility.  He said the leaves could be used to make a tea but then he started talking about Palm Wine to go with it.  Now I have not tried Palm Wine but it is apparently the Nigerian version of moonshine.  So perhaps little of the liquid courage to go with the hibiscus tea?  

Joe asked if we could take his photograph.  He was very nice and let us, posing by the plant of his choosing.  He asked us to bring back and copy of the photo for him.  So when we go back to purchase more plants, as I'm sure we will, we will take the photo to him.

After wandering around looking at the plants we purchased a hibiscus, bougainvillea, and a couple of others I am trying to identify...if only I had my plant books.  He told me how to plant the bougainvillea, as the roots are very sensitive to a change in environment.  Now I just need to find the pots and some extra soil in which to plant them.

This bougainvillea "tree" was amazing...

Market Photos

Last Friday I went with Godwin to pick Joe up from work.  Before we got to the office we drove through the main market in downtown Lagos.  Please forgive the quality as the photos were taken from inside a moving vehicle.  The fact that some of them came out at all is a miracle!  (Also, I am just learning how to incorporate photos into the blog.)

The yellow vehicle is called a K K Matowa here.  It is a little three wheeled car used as a taxi for short distances.

Motorcycle taxis are called Okadas.  They are a inexpensive form of transportation, but dangerous with so much traffic.  Some states have outlawed them completely.

This photo is my favorite because it shows the most commonly eaten food here, yams.  They are the large tubers in the center and far right of the photo.

Back to the beginning...Jen travels to Lagos

The next stop in our adventure takes us to Lagos Nigeria.  I arrived the evening of 20 April 2012.  For a number of reasons Joe come a month earlier, which had its advantages; the apartment was moved into, the driver had been worked out, there was wine in the fridge.  But before I got on the plane I had to close out our home of 4 years in Aberdeen.  I had packed all that I could fit into 3 bags which became 4, which became 5 bags plus a pile of stuff left in Aberdeen and set out for Lagos.  A very nice but way way out of shape taxi driver helped me load, unload, stack, and roll down the ramp all five large bags plus my carryon.  I have never traveled with so much luggage and I was doing it alone.  Chivalry may be dead but lucky for Joe he wasn't there because he may have been too. 

I was there early (Joe would not be surprised), first in line.  Everything was checked in without any trouble.  It was unsurprisingly overcast as I looked out the airplane window to fly to Amsterdam to make my connecting flight to Lagos.  I think it was at the gate in Amsterdam that it really hit me that I wasn't in Kansas anymore.  The KLM announcement for priority boarding began a free for all that was less line and more triangle for everyone could to push their way on to the plane. 

The flight over the Sahara was amazing!  It looked like a big sand box that someone had drawn in with a stick to make hills.  And you would occasionally see a group of trees, especially along a river.  All was going well until they announced that we were on our approach for Lagos.  That's when my panic attack started in full force.  Joe had told me to follow another European person who looked like they had done this before...but I was supposed to be one of the first off of the plane.  Um that won't work for me, everyone else can go first, the flight attendant couldn't understand why I wasn't departing.  Much to the relief of Joe and the flight crew I did get off of the plane, but don't think the thought didn't cross my mind to stay on the plane.  Following closely behind my designated experienced traveler I entered the "everyone else" line at immigration.  There are 3 immigration desks and I'm not sure but I think the sole purpose of the 2nd one is to make you stand in an additional line because all she did was hand it to the 3rd person.  From there I was off to find my mountain of luggage.  Luckily I was given a very nice porter who with the two trolleys helped me find all of the bags.  With that much luggage and a look of please don't stop me I was a prime target for the lady from Customs who wanted to know what was in all of the luggage and how long I had been in Nigeria.  Maybe it was the look on my face or the fact that I said it was my first time entering the country she gave me the free pass to go on... she did this by looking away in a "are you still here" sort of way.   Then a nice man asked to see my yellow fever vaccination card. 

Meanwhile the very nice porter was talking me through all of this, I'm sure my nervousness and fear were obvious in almost humorous (to everyone but me) proportions.  Finally we were through the exit and the porter finds the company representative that was there to meet me.  I gave the porter a $2 tip (which to be clear is the daily wage in Nigeria is $5.80) and he hurried back to see if he could help another person.  Joe was there about 2 minutes later and the luggage train made its way to the car.  Here is where I met our driver Godwin for the first time.  Since they like to freak out the new girl we also had a police vehicle escort with four armed cops.  Traffic in Lagos is a world unto itself.  We found ourselves in several traffic jams along the way.  Out of what can only be described as boredom it seemed that if the car hadn't moved for 5 minutes the police behind us would just lay on the siren.  Which in a traffic jam oddly does nothing but amuse the police.  I found that if I didn't look outside or try to watch the road the driving seemed just fine.  As we neared the house we drive down a 4 lane divided road.  Normally in the US or Europe that would mean traffic going 1 direction would use 2 of the lanes and traffic going the other would also use 2 lanes.  But this is Lagos and there was a greater demand going the other direction than us, so 3 lanes were going 1 direction and our lane was going the other direction except for the constant stream of motorcycles that made the 4 lane road more like 5 lanes.  (Actually Joe wrote the part about the traffic, it was dark and I was too freaked out to notice exactly what was going on with traffic flow.)  : )

In almost record time we made the 30 mile journey in like 75 minutes and arrived at our new apartment.  Joe thanked the police escort in the Nigerian way (wink wink) and then we unloaded the bags.  Yogi was happy to see me and I was very happy to see him.  Now to see if I can sleep for the next 4 years, or at least till tomorrow afternoon.

Glasses

I have been in Lagos now for almost two weeks and just got the blog started.  I was going to start at the beginning but something really great happened today so I'll start with that.

We have hired a driver, his name is Godwin.  He is a very nice man, very religious, has a wife and three children.  He uses glasses to read (the only book he reads is the Bible) but has never been for a proper eye exam.  After a little research I found an eye doctor and today we set out to have an eye exam for him.  There are no appointments; they just see people first come first serve.  He didn't have to wait long before seeing the doctor.  They determined that he needed glasses, bifocals.  So he chose some frames and the glasses will be ready next week.  I think I was just as excited as he was about it!  I can't wait until next week to see how much of a difference the glasses make for him.