Nigerian Culture Day: Take 2

This day is a celebration of Nigerian Independence.

There are three main ethnic groups in Nigeria: The Yoruba, the Hausa, and the Igbos.

This years Culture Day focused on the Igbo tribe and included a reenactment of the daily life in an Igbo village.

More information about the Igbo people can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igbo_people.









It is amazing to watch the transition that the school goes through to get ready for this day. You can see the amount of students and parents in the courtyard and the village scene that was built the day before.

The tennis courts were transformed into a market place and the basketball court became a restaurant with all of the traditional Nigerian foods.








My class really enjoyed the day. The learned how to play traditional instruments, how to tie a head wrap (although I still can’t do it), listened to a storyteller and they even got henna tattoos.

Back to Lagos!

I’ve been back in Lagos now for over a month! Being back a 2nd year makes me feel like I’m in a completely different place.




I can’t fully explain it. I think part of it is now that elections are over it really is calmer here.




More so then that, it’s that I’m used to things and comfortable. It’s so weird.




I feel like the grocery stores carry more items, that the traffic is not as bad (an hour sitting in the car to go 5 miles doesn’t really phase me anymore) and the everyone seems so much nicer.




Last year I really tried to deal with things and accept them.




This year, accepting has become a natural process and everything just feels happier.



Now, this is not to say it’s still busy. I’ve helped put on orientation the week before school started and already finished a month of school.




I moved apartments (long story) and also somehow seem to work all the time.




Here are some random “learning to love Lagos” (title of a book that I need to buy) pictures from a Sunday beach trip on a rainy, flooded day (check out the roads)!



It’s been a ‘hit the ground running’ welcome back to Lagos. Especially after a wonderful summer I’ve been missing home quite a bit, but it’s a much easier feeling then it was at this time last year.



I could spend hours writing attempting to describe it here and I think it would still be impossible...

Summer!!!

Too fast!!!




As expected, my goal for sitting on my parents deck and and relaxing this summer didn’t happen quite as often as I had originally planned.



But, summer ended up being an incredible combination of friends and family and even a tiny bit of relaxation.



Summer started out with Gina’s wedding and then the next weekend I flew down to California to see relatives.



From there I fit in a trip to Portland to see college friends, 3 more fun weddings and time with Lucy, family and friends.



You can see flower pictures from my parent’s yard, a kayaking trip with the family, Lucy and Koty, and other random shots.