The 77th good thing about Lagos: Getting paid to play with kids

I had a fun day today subbing for a Pre-K teacher at the American school. There were 20 kids and I had 3 assistants who took the kids to PE and recess and did all the busy work and clean-up. So it was a great student-teacher ratio and it helped to have the assistants there filling me in on the routine. During free play time, I got a laugh at the boys who lined up all the vehicles on and heading off the play mat and made a traffic jam.

That is something we have too much experience with here. With the minimal traffic going to school, it takes about 15 minutes. Going home today it took almost an hour. When I was subbing last week in a 5th grade classroom, the kids that came on the Chevron bus were 45 minutes late for school. And I know that their bus leaves their compound (which is out the Lekki Expressway -- a road that's seen too much building along it--just past where our church is located) almost 1 1/2 hours before school starts! That's a long commute for those kids! At least on my ride home, Jamiu is doing the driving and I'm in the back seat with my I-pod on and sometimes snoozing, sometimes shaking a "no, thanks" to the vendors who pass by in the "go-slows" trying to get me to buy their snacks or phone cards or gum or water or whatever else.