Last Days in Lagos

Organized by one of our teachers Cristiana, who is always a great planner of activities, we checked out the school bus and headed on a final tour around Lagos before the school year ended.

You can see the classic Nigerian pottery and lizard, Bar Beach (a beach right in town that is a good place to buy vegetables), Balagon (where you we experience an amazing soccer mathes). It was actually several soccer games all going on at once with a variety of ages and abilities. This was all done in a parking lot, and the organization was quite amazing.

You can also see the lovely unforgettable power wires, a small version of Home Depot, and a post office that I didn't now existed. After that we headed to Lekki Market one last time to say goodbye to people there, saw a man making suya (traditional Nigerian meet on a stick), and headed in a boat across the water to eat at the GQ. You can also see a picture of a boy holding a grasscutter. This is common meat in Nigeria. This picture was taken by another teacher.

It was a great day to drive around Nigeria and to appreciate it. There are so many things that I see every day and don't take the time to think about and appreciate. It was especially nice on a Sunday without traffic.

Goodby Parties

Here's a few pictures from our AIS goodbye party. There were several goodbye parties over the last month. Living in an expat community, people are always leaving. You can see the picture of the "leavers" as well as one of our workout group with our coach Josh. There is also a picture of Jeremiah, Sunny, and I. Sunny is my driver this year and Jeremiah was last year. We were attempting to bar tend at the party.

ESL

I taught adult ESL after school this year. Interesting learning experience that was fun, but ended up taking a lot of planning time. The ladies were great though. Here are a few pictures from our goodbye party. They were joking around with the graduation hats. They each brought a dish from their home country, so you can see all of the yummy foods.

Beach

Here's a few pictures from my final couple of Sunday trips to the beach. We rode a boat about an hour up the creek from Lagos to get there.

Baseball

One of many AISL baseball tournaments.

SeaCamp

Here are a few pictures from SeaCamp. We took 57 kids from all different countries to the camp in Big Pine Key (near Key West) Florida. Besides the planning and airport times, it was a great trip.

Lawrence

This is my wonderful steward Lawrence.

Drumming

Sayed (who goes by the name "Cheap Cheap" made almost all of the wood furniture that I’ll be brining home. In this picture he’s teaching me how to play a Nigerian talking drum. This was the day before my flat was packed. Now, it’s completely empty and my stuff is either sitting at the Lagos port (most likely) or on it’s way back to Tacoma!

My TA Made Me a Cool Skirt!

Check out the Christmas present that Adeola made me!

Spring Break Part 2

Republic of Benin

7 of us decided to borrow the school van and drive to Benin. Sounds easy enough, but the experience is quite indescribable. We got our Visas, including a Visa for the car as well as lots of other paperwork. We hired a driver to take us who is from Benin so that he would know the way and then be able to see his family while we were there. We also were required to have to "Mo Po" security from the Embassy behind us on the Nigeria side of the border.

The border is the part that can't really be described. I think everyone but us was able to walk by or drive right by. We were stopped and told to pull over. This seemed normal to get our passports stamped, but we didn't realize that we would be there for 3 hours, being told that we basically needed to pay for all of our papers again. For example, since it was the cars "first time over" it needed extra papers. Our armed security was by us the entire time, wishing that we just had diplomatic plates so we could drive by the many people who had created jobs for themselves holding up sticks so we couldn't get by. Basically, the border experience was a one time thing for me that will make me think twice about road tripping it through West Africa again.

The resort that we finally made it to was beautiful. Check out the cool beach. It was safe feeling with good food and friendly people. It was a ways from the town so after being in the car so long already, we mainly just enjoyed the beach, the kayaking on the lagoon, mini golf, etc. So beautiful!

The way back went much smoother, although we did put a little dent into the back of the school van when our "Mo Po" ran into while taking care of an "incident". I'm glad that I did some more local activities for my last Spring Break in West Africa. I really enjoyed the experience. Check out the pictures of the drive and of the beach.

Spring Break

International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA)

For the first half of Spring Break I headed off to IITA with a few other teachers here, Jon and Nisse, and with Jon’s mom who was here visiting from Iowa. IITA is about a 3 hour drive from Lagos. It was a long a crazy drive through many oil tankers, but IITA was an interesting place. IT was nice to get out and walk around

Catch Up

Here are a few more pictures from Turkey and Amsterdam way back from my Christmas trip there with Jessie and TJ. I got sick around this time of the trip. I completely missed seeing anything in the Prague, so I guess I will have to return there at some point.