The 229th good thing about Lagos: quiet time in the summer rainy season

I haven't spent much time here in Lagos in the summer in the past few years. This year I've had four weeks here (divided by a wonderful 2-week trip to Israel) and it will soon come to an end as I return to the States for a couple of months to help children and play with grandchildren. But I've enjoyed being here when things are less busy and I've had more time for projects and leisure. Before I moved to Lagos I was worried about being bored here -- now I worry about finding time for all the things I would like to do. I've had time this summer to work on piecing a quilt top. There's a fun quilting group with some experienced quilters who are helping newbies like me.

I don't know why sometimes I am unable to take a clear photo with my point and shoot camera, but here's a blurry picture of Teresa marking her quilt top for quilting. Notice her cute dress that matches her quilt, using some of the same fabric.

Patty (with friends), holding up her quilt top. I really love the African fabrics here. My quilt top is in progress and it's not turning out quite like I had envisioned. It won't win any prizes and definitely will not be restful on the eyes, but I'm reserving judgement on it as yet. Pictures will be forthcoming.

There is also a beading group that I hope to get involved in when I return. The market is full of interesting beads and finding ways to use them for jewelry and home decoration is another creative outlet that many expat women enjoy here.

I've had some opportunity for tennis playing -- between rain storms -- and went to a book launch the other day. There's also still a small group of women to continue with our Thursday card playing, but many of my regular activities are on haitus while the majority of expats are away for the summer.

Summer is rainy season in Lagos, so many days we have some pretty hard rain. We had a big storm on Wednesday -- the floor inside the car got wet as Brent floated through flooded streets on his way to work. But Thursday was dry and Friday morning looked clear, so I decided to try to get to Lekki market to get some gifts to bring back to the States. The streets around the market are often flooded after a rain, and the carpeting inside the car got wet again as we made our way through these puddles.

The challenge is always knowing how deep the puddles are. Usually my driver waits to see another car make their way through to see how deep it is and which side of the puddle they choose to go through.

We saw some children coming out of a school along this street and many of the kids had on wader boots, most of them adult sized, so they came up to their thigh. I wish I had been fast enough to get a picture of them!