tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-321436492024-03-13T18:42:46.374+01:00Looking for good in LagosI'm a empty-nester mom of 3 and wife to an oil-company executive who is working on a project in Lagos, Nigeria. All many people hear about Lagos is bad stuff -- I'm here looking for the good in Lagos.Caroleehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17394159982927568966noreply@blogger.comBlogger369125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32143649.post-21430926747113488402012-11-05T22:01:00.001+01:002012-11-05T22:18:02.752+01:00The 336th good thing about Lagos: learning to tie the Gele<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Many Nigerian women regularly wear something to cover their hair. It's an easy solution when facing a bad hair day, and it's also an attractive way to accessorize an outfit. Recently the American Women's Club had an evening activity where we learned to tie a head tie, sometimes called head wrap -- the formal head-dress is called a "gele." I'm always in awe at the big gele that you see on the heads of Nigerian women at dressy events like weddings, and even church services. Before weddings, the female guests are often given a gele of a certain color when they indicate they will attend. The fabric may be different depending on if the guest is a friend or family of the bride or the groom. But this practice of dressing alike, called aso-ebi, is sometimes manifested in guests from a particular group all using the same fabric to make their clothing, and sometimes it is women all wearing gele of the same fabric. But even when the fabric is the same, the styles can differ wildly.<br />
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I have been to a gele wrapping training session before, but it was time for a refresher course. <br />
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Our Nigerian trainer was delightful and really knew her stuff. She could tie the gele on others or on herself and it always looked good.<br />
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The necessary item under the visible scarf is a hair net -- more sturdy than what a food service worker would wear. It holds all the hair in and also gives the gele something to grip onto.<br />
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She first showed us how to do a casual everyday head tie, with this turban style wrap using a soft scarf like a pashmina.<br />
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I think this always looks great on black women and it sometimes looks good on white women, but not as consistently. I would love to use this style, but I don't think I look very good with it.<br />
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We then practiced wrapping the formal gele. The fabric that is used for this is very crisp -- I don't know if they use starch or something else. But wrapping it around is very noisy and it almost feels like paper. But it will hold the fold and can spread out very large and hold its shape for a long time. <br />
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I think these large and elaborate gele are so great -- I love to see all the different styles.</div>
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The process can be difficult for the beginner.</div>
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And the finished product often looks a little odd on a white woman, in my opinion.</div>
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But some women look great with a gele. Here she is using the ase-oke cloth -- a traditional fabric that is made from narrow strips sewn together. It's not as stiff as the other silk-type fabric.</div>
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It was fun to practice and experiment, but I doubt I'll be wearing a gele for an event any time soon.</div>
Caroleehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17394159982927568966noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32143649.post-49012844708867208272012-11-05T20:08:00.000+01:002012-11-05T20:08:10.688+01:00The 335th good thing about Lagos: making lasting friendships<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Anyone who has been in Lagos and involved with the expatriate community as long as I have has said a lot of goodbys. There is something that forges strong friendships when people live in a "hardship" location like Lagos where everyone is away from family and other support systems and has to look to other expatriates to network and learn how to cope and survive. Often people leave during the summer, and I missed plenty of goodbys when I was away, but I returned this fall to still more. This is only a small percentage of the farewells, but a few that I've been a part of in the past month. All these women (and their husbands too, I'm sure) have made huge contributions to the expatriate community here and they will be missed.<br />
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There are different elements with each goodby party -- some have shopping and pool time, all have gift giving and food and the group photo. In random order, here's some photos from recent farewell celebrations.<br />
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Goodbye Jane, Wendy, Marilyn, Teresa, and all the many others that I've bid farewell to during my time here. I've met so many wonderful women here who have enriched my life, and the good thing is that with Facebook and email, we can keep in touch even when we will live great distances apart.</div>
Caroleehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17394159982927568966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32143649.post-34480526095100799752012-11-05T17:19:00.001+01:002012-11-05T17:19:39.918+01:00The 334th good thing about Lagos: road improvement<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Although I would guess that we all enjoy roads that <em>have been</em> improved, but would agree that dealing with roads that are in the process of <em>being</em> improved is not anyone's idea of fun. That's been the case with the busy road that runs in front of our apartment building. They tore it up during the summer and are working on one side of the road at a time as they resurface and widen it. It certainly needed to be worked on, but I wish they would just hurry up and get on with it. Days go by without any sign of progress and I don't know if we will see the day when both sides of the road will be functional. Roads are really horrible in much of Lagos, but I have seen some progress while we've been here. The road to Lekki peninsula used to be a nightmare of traffic delays, but since it was finished and made a toll road, it is usually passable, though sometimes with delays at the toll plaza. I recently read an in<a href="http://www.oyibosonline.com/cgi-bin/newsscript.pl?record=11802">teresting article at "Oyibosonline"</a> which stated that there hadn't been any proper maintenance of roads in Lagos for the past three decades. "The chairman of Nigerian Society of Engineers, stated that government at all levels must be blamed for the poor state of the nation’s road network because they (the government) keep awarding road construction contracts to quacks." Witnessing the condition and constant deterioration of Lagos roads, I believe this.</div>
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One day a few weeks ago, I looked out to the construction area outside our flat and saw that a big dump truck had driven right into the hole in the street. I don't know if it was driven by a guy who was inexperienced with how a dump truck should actually dump its load of dirt, or just by someone who wasn't watching where they were going. But it stayed stuck in this deep hole for almost two weeks. I would occasionally see men out there looking at it, like they were trying to figure out how to get it out, or maybe they were just curious as I was as to how it ended up there. I was disappointed when I drove by and saw that it was gone, because I wanted to see how they actually managed to pull it out. But if this is indicative of the level of expertise of those working on the road, I don't hold out a lot of hope for it getting finished any time soon. Still, road improvement is a <em>good thing</em> -- I keep telling myself....<br />
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Caroleehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17394159982927568966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32143649.post-27298089529749597602012-11-05T16:52:00.002+01:002012-11-05T16:52:46.568+01:00The 333rd good thing about Lagos: Nigerian Cultural Day at the American International School <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I always enjoy going over to the American School when they are having their annual Nigerian Cultural Day. Each year they choose a specific part of Nigeria to feature with cultural displays and this year it was Lagos' turn. So they had a demonstration of the Eyo, which is the traditional Lagos masquerade. When an Eyo festival is held, it is to commemorate the life of a prominent Lagosian who has passed away. The Eyo are symbolic spirits who go through the streets of Lagos to cleanse the city of all wickedness. They carry sticks to ward away evil and evil doers. It was fun to see these characters again with their leaping and spinning. <a href="http://lookingforgoodinlagos.blogspot.com/2012/02/290th-good-thing-about-lagos.html">Attending the Eyo festival</a> will always be a lasting memory from my experience living here. Luckily I don't have any lasting bruises from the swat I got, even though I had removed my shows and I wasn't doing anything inappropriate that would signify disrespect. But I'm kind of glad I took a swat, because it makes the memory and the story-telling more interesting!</div>
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These Eyo did some charging at the crowd and some waving of sticks, but, of course, they didn't do any swatting of the school children. They were on their best behavior.<br />
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Besides the Eyo demonstration and the music, there were food displays. some shopping with great prices,</div>
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and I always enjoy seeing all the school children and teachers dressed up Nigerian. I love the vibrant colors and patterns of Nigerian dress and the richness of Nigerian culture.</div>
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Caroleehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17394159982927568966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32143649.post-27777187533497037542012-11-04T20:00:00.002+01:002012-11-05T17:29:37.042+01:00The 332nd good thing about Lagos: A new beginning at AWC<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The American Women's Club got off to a great start to the fall season with a fun opening tea held at the Lagos Yacht Club. It was a beautiful day and there was a great turnout of women joining the club and signing up for activities. Some expat women have large company organizations here to network and get support, others with children at the American School build a support system with other parents, but I don't have either of those options. I'm so glad that this organization is around to help provide me a network and support. I've been here long enough that I'd be okay without it, but I'm glad it's still around. It's gone through some difficult times recently, but this year there is a new spirit and excitement and energy.</div>
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Being part of The American Women's Club -- Uniting Women in Lagos -- is a good thing!</div>
Caroleehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17394159982927568966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32143649.post-45151128213003157752012-10-25T23:07:00.003+01:002013-02-05T20:12:36.056+01:00The 331st good thing about Lagos: Seeing a bit of Ibadan<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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(Just noticed that I wrote this last fall, but never published it. It was listed as a draft in blogger. So here is my delayed blogpost about our trip to Ibadan.)</div>
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Well, I'm very glad that I've finally caught up with my blogging to the current season. I'm only a little over a month behind! I had been back in Lagos just a week in September when we joined a Nigerian Field Society trip to Ibadan. I had driven through Ibadan before, but hadn't seen any more than the crowded streets. The objective of this trip was to visit a few of the historic buildings in Ibadan. It was an architecture tour, really. </div>
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We started out meeting in Lagos in Freedom Park, which is a nice new park which is built on the site of a historic prison. I hadn't been there before, so it was nice to get a look at it. </div>
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These are reconstructed prison cells that are now used when they have market days as stalls for the vendors.</div>
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This is one of the old gates.</div>
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There are sculptures, green areas, ponds and fountains, a history museum and an amphitheater. It's really quite a nice oasis right in the middle of a very busy part of Lagos Island. </div>
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The drive to Ibadan was scheduled to take 1 1/2 hours, but actually took almost 3. We finally made it to Mapo Hall, a public works building and former city hall that dates from 1926. It was kind of incongruous to me to see this Greek temple architecture in Nigeria.</div>
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Inside it's now used for public events. The blue is from the plastic panels they are using in the roof skylights.</div>
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There was a great view of this huge city from Mapo Hall. At the time of Nigeria's Independence in 1960, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibadan">Ibadan</a> was the largest city in Nigeria and the 3rd largest city in Africa, after Cairo and Johannesburg. It is now the 3rd largest city in Nigeria, after Lagos and Kano. It is the capital of Oyo State. The University of Ibadan was the first university in Nigeria and is still an important educational institution.</div>
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This Saturday was a busy market day.</div>
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Off in the distance we could see Cocoa House, the tall building where cocoa futures are traded. Wikipedia says it was the first skyscraper in Africa.</div>
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At Mapo Hall the guide there got out some of the ledger books from the early days at the city hall.</div>
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The ledger had correspondence in Arabic and English. I thought it was interesting that all the letters I saw were headed with "My Good Friend,"</div>
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The roads were tight and crowded and we drove through a lot of very primitive looking and run-down areas. </div>
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At one stop we went by boys who were getting water from the local faucet.</div>
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Many roundabouts had monumental sculptures surrounded by neglected landscaping.</div>
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We next visited Bower Tower, a tower built in 1936 to commemorate Captain Bower, the first colonial resident. It was used for military surveillance.</div>
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The hall next to the tower had some nicely carved wooden doors.</div>
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The tower had a very tight double helix staircase inside. One side of the helix was for going up and the other for going down.</div>
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I forget the name of this church, which was right next to the historic home which was our next stop.<br />
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We visited Hinderer's House, the home of early missionaries, from around 1853.</div>
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Although the home is a heritage site, it's now privately used,</div>
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and seems to be quite neglected. I wouldn't want to go up in this shed part hanging off the end of the 2nd floor!</div>
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This was an old barracks building next to Hinderer's House.</div>
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I always enjoy seeing the alphabets painted on the walls of schools. "R" is always for "rat" on these alphabets. That's not the typical choice in alphabets in schools in the US!</div>
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We were told that this tree was there before the house was built on this land and they believe it's around 300 years old. It looked like it was in a lot better shape than a lot of the newer sites in the city.</div>
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There's a lot more to be seen in Ibadan, but that was all we had time to do on a day trip -- the drive home took even longer than the morning drive to Ibadan. As we left the city there was a downpour and the streets were flooding. We passed through some very muddy places and saw trucks tipped over on their sides after they had tried to go around traffic jams and didn't stay upright. The traffic on the Ibadan expressway is notoriously awful. It's always an interesting adventure to get out of Lagos!</div>
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Caroleehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17394159982927568966noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32143649.post-66479121874439720842012-10-25T22:00:00.000+01:002012-11-05T16:54:59.334+01:00The 330th good thing about Lagos: Living far away makes summer get-togethers very precious<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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When we first moved to Lagos we only had one grandchild. We now have seven. Of course we love visiting our children, but spending time with grandchildren is extra special. Undoubtedly the hardest thing about living so far away from family is missing out on so many occasions, special and everyday with our parents, children and grandchildren. So we were very glad to spend lots of happy times together with them this summer.</div>
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We made it back just in time for Owen's graduation from preschool. He's now the biggest kid in his kindergarten class and he reads at a 3rd grade level.</div>
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I love that our oldest grandchild, Elise, is enjoying learning to play the piano. She did a great job at her piano recital.<br />
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We spent LOTS of time in the pool over the summer. Here I am with Spencer and Austin, grandsons that live in Boston. I'm so glad they could spend a couple of weeks with us in Houston.</div>
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Maggie likes to make funny faces.</div>
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We had a fun couple of days in Sea World in San Antonio. Here's my daughter Lindsay with the 5 grandkids who could go on this ride. It was so fun to get all the grandkids together!</div>
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At the Aquarium at Sea World</div>
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We took some walks in the park.</div>
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Story time at the library.</div>
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3-D movie.</div>
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Electrifying times at the park.</div>
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Playing veterinarian at the Children's Museum.</div>
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Lindsay and kids at a play at Miller Outdoor Theater.</div>
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The cousins loved playing together at the jumping fun place.</div>
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And a fun trip to Galveston Beach.</div>
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And, of course, there were plenty of days of just playing hide and seek and games and the stuff that doesn't get captured in photos. We are so blessed to have 7 healthy, smart and beautiful grandchildren and we love them all so much and are grateful for their wonderful parents who do such a good job teaching and caring for them.</div>
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Brent was in Houston for the beginning of the summer vacation and then again at the end. In early August we met up in Seattle where we enjoyed celebrating my nephew's wedding.</div>
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Then we drove with my parents to Vancouver, where we met my aunt (dad's sister) and went on a cruise to Alaska. I loved our dinnertimes on the ship because I learned a lot of new things about my dad's life when he reminisced with his sister.</div>
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We saw some beautiful scenery -- wonderful glaciers!</div>
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My aunt is so great -- I'm so glad she could come along.</div>
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And my parents had wanted to go to Alaska for years and had never been on a cruise before. It was a dream come true to do this trip -- I'm so glad we could do it together!</div>
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And it was such a literal breath of fresh air for Brent and I to get away from the dirt and noise of Lagos and enjoy beautiful nature and cool breezes!</div>
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In Anchorage we met up with my cousin -- who I hadn't seen for almost 30 years -- and met his wife. He's a fighter pilot with the Air Force and she quit the Air Force and is flying planes for Fed Ex. They live life in the fast lane! We enjoyed getting to know them better.</div>
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We had a couple of the most beautiful days in Denali National Park with two days of the most clear views of the mountain. It was wonderful!</div>
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And on a trip down to Seward, we stayed in a yurt on Resurrection Bay and this eagle greeted us when we got up in the morning.</div>
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We watched the sea otters play from the deck of our yurt.</div>
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It was a wonderful trip to Alaska and a wonderful summer!</div>
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Caroleehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17394159982927568966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32143649.post-81203581598690145812012-10-25T20:38:00.001+01:002012-11-05T16:55:11.843+01:00The 329th good thing about Lagos: quilting time<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I've had a fun time in Lagos learning about quilting. I've been a part of a fun quilting group and we've had some expert quilters who have shared their expertise with many of us beginners. I love the vibrancy of African fabrics and I've enjoyed using them in some pretty wild quilts. I'm definitely not into traditional quilts. Here's pictures from some of the quilts I've worked on during my time here.</div>
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This one is a baby quilt that I made for Natalie, my granddaughter.</div>
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This quilt is from a pattern called the "Steps to Freedom." It's one that many of us in the quilting group have made. It's a relatively simply pattern and it's a fun, scrappy quilt which showcases a variety of fabrics. We share fabric scraps in the group so we can get a good variety of fabrics for this quilt.<br />
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I made some quilts using blue fabrics for presents for two grandsons. They're pretty wide and crazy.<br />
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My daughter-in-law is as new as I am to quilting, but she has a real gift both for composing and creating quilts. My quilts are amateurish compared to hers. She also was really productive, at least until the baby she's holding in this picture (my youngest grandson, Mason) got mobile. And she has 4 young children! I couldn't believe how many beautiful quilts she was able to finish. She was very nice to quilt these two large blue quilts on her mom's long arm quilting machine.<br />
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My latest quilt, which I finished piecing over the summer is one called a "stack and whack" or a "one block wonder" quilt. The quilt top is made from using just one fabric, but the pattern is made from how that fabric is cut and put back together. The quilt top is composed of hexagons made up of triangles that are exactly the same pattern, cut from stacking 6 pieces of fabric on top of each other. Because the triangles have sides of equal length, each hexagon can have 3 possible variations depending on when corner is in the center. <br />
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The the hexagons are organized into whatever seems to be a pleasing pattern. This next photo is the hexes arranged on a "design wall." When they are sewn together, it is done with half hexes sewn in strips, so that part isn't as hard as it may look. I loved doing this quilt. It looks like a kaleidescope. It also wasn't that difficult, though it looks pretty complicated.<br />
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I used some of the original fabric around the border of the quilt on the top.<br />
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And I also used the original fabric, with some yellow border fabric on the back, so you could see what the fabric looked like in the original state. My daughter-in-law is also going to quilt this one for me. I'm excited to see what the finished quilt will look like!<br />
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Caroleehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17394159982927568966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32143649.post-1667706220632271162012-10-25T19:18:00.001+01:002012-11-05T16:55:53.917+01:00The 328th good thing about Lagos: Children's Museum Day<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Last May on the day I was leaving Lagos for the summer it was Children's Museum Day at the National Museum. I had been there for this celebration before and I really wanted to come because the kids are so cute, many of them dressed up or costumed for the occasion. So I made sure I had my bags packed and ready to go so I could stop over for some of the program. </div>
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When I got to the museum, the program was already in progress and prominently in front of the performance area was this car. I knew there was a "big man" there....</div>
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The license plate on the Rolls told me who it was -- the Ooni of Ife. I knew that later in the day at the Museum they would be opening an exhibition of the Art of the Ife. It is a great exhibition that had travelled to museums around the world, including the British Museum and I had seen it at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. So the King -- called the Ooni -- was there, I'm sure, because of the exhibition opening. He certainly gets to ride in style. </div>
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Don't know which of these guys is the Ooni, but there were lots of "big men" there.<br />
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<br />There were lots of dancing performances from different Nigerian cultural groups.</div>
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These dancers with all the coral in their dress are from Benin City.</div>
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I got some pictures of cute kids in costume waiting in line for the toilet.</div>
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Nigerian children are all so beautiful!</div>
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Caroleehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17394159982927568966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32143649.post-1955110340201274522012-10-23T21:52:00.001+01:002012-11-05T16:56:07.687+01:00The 327th good thing about Lagos: a nice guy making good ceramics<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Charles is a potter who is enjoyed and supported by many of the expatriate women in Lagos. He's from Ghana and got a leg up on his business by the American Women's Club and by some expat women individually. I don't know if they still do, but I know women who have shipped in materials for his glazes when he couldn't get what he needed here. He's a nice guy who really appreciates and recognizes the help and his business has grown into quite a good enterprise. I stopped by his place of business one day to pick up some pots that I had asked him to make for me and he gave me and my driver a demonstration of his work. He's also started doing classes for people to come and try their own hand at making a pot. </div>
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I've always been amazed at how easy potters make it seem to build a smooth pot on a wheel. I've tried it and it really isn't very easy.</div>
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He also has someone now who is making glass beads for jewelry and the decorative strands they have here. It was interesting to see how these are made, because I certainly have been an regular customer of glass beads here.</div>
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Here's his little shop. He makes pots large and small and lamps and dishes -- decorative as well as functional items. He really does quality work. He makes dishes with green glaze or a beautiful dark blue glaze. When I'm buying for myself, I get the green glaze. <br />
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Here's some examples of things I've bought from him. I asked him to make the berry bowl for me, as I saw one in the States and I thought it was nice, to have a bowl with holes so berries could breathe and not get moldy. I don't have fresh berries much here, but I thought it would be useful back in the States. The little shallow bowl is a nice size for a dessert dish. Some of his dishes are glazed on the outside and some are left unglazed, but decorated with designs. If any of my US friends are interested in getting some of Charles' pottery, let me know what you want and I will bring it back for you when I come at Christmas. His ceramics are quite reasonably priced, and I'd love to give him more business.<br />
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Caroleehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17394159982927568966noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32143649.post-38741036212303510452012-10-22T22:53:00.000+01:002012-11-05T16:56:45.153+01:00The 326th good thing about Lagos: Getting to know the Sister missionaries<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I have to post a picture of these beautiful women we've enjoyed getting acquainted with. In our Mormon church congregation we've had assigned to our area 4 young women to do their missionary service. The sisters (as they are called) change out periodically, but we like getting to know them and have them over for dinner now and then. The sister missionaries always have come from West Africa, most from other parts of Nigeria, but also from Sierra Leone, Benin and Liberia. The sister on the right in this picture is Sister Dean, and she has been my favorite (though maybe I shouldn't so publicly state favorites, but I don't think any of them will ever see this blog...). She's from Sierra Leone and she has a really fun personality. She's comfortable enough with us to make jokes about our cooking. I was sad when she got transferred to another area.</div>
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The result of having beautiful young women like this doing missionary work in our area is a plethora of young single men joining the church. I hope they're joining for the right reasons.....</div>
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Caroleehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17394159982927568966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32143649.post-49030206966921707612012-10-22T22:41:00.001+01:002012-11-05T16:56:45.156+01:00The 325th good thing about Lagos: Stake Conference choirs dress up<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
In the Mormon church, twice a year we have a Stake Conference -- the local congregations who are part of a larger organization called a stake meet together. The Ikoyi Ward, where we meet and worship each Sunday, is part of the Lagos South Stake, which is made up of 8 congregations from different areas. Lagos has 3 Stakes and the South Stake Center is in Festac. One thing that I always enjoy about the Stake Conferences is the choir. The singers are not especially well trained, but they practice hard and always sing with spirit and enthusiasm and they always look good! I don't know if it's the Nigerian penchant for dressing alike -- they really seem to enjoy this -- or if the church members here see how the Mormon Tabernacle choir dresses alike and feel like they need to follow suit. But they come up with different matching outfits each Conference. On Saturday the women had jaunty little hats attached to the side of their heads (how DO they do that?), bow ties, and white and black outfits.<br />
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For the Sunday meetings, the women were in pretty blue long dresses. Not very Nigerian looking, but they looked very nice.</div>
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The guys had these matching beaded ties.</div>
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I took these pictures when they were rehearsing outside before the meeting.</div>
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This is Israel, one of my piano students. He's a very talented musician -- very good at playing by ear.</div>
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This is Eddidiong Patrick. He likes to go by Patrick or Eddie. He was also a very talented piano student of mine and is now a church missionary in Calabar.</div>
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I took this picture when they were singing some postlude hymns after the meeting. </div>
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This is my good friend Blessing and her darling daughter Emmanuela.</div>
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Here's some of the Ikoyi Ward expat women. Love these ladies!</div>
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Caroleehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17394159982927568966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32143649.post-1955648079714245212012-10-22T16:43:00.003+01:002012-11-05T16:57:24.125+01:00The 324th good thing about Lagos: artists focusing on the issue of water<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Last spring I went to a very interesting and unusual musical performance and photography and art exhibit which had been travelling to many venues in the country. It was titled "Water No Get Enemy" after a famous <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fela_Kuti">Fela Kuti</a> song. Fela is probably the most famous Nigerian musical performer and was a pioneer of Afrobeat music. But the exhibit really didn't have anything to do with him -- they just used the title of his song as a title and theme. The organizers of this exhibition wanted to generate a consciousness about water and the problems of water supply and usage now and in the future. The availability of a clean water supply is a huge problem in Nigeria, especially in the overpopulated metropolis of Lagos. The infrastructure is not there to supply many in the population with running water at all -- many people are forced to buy jerry cans of water from sellers on the streets who pull them loaded in trailers. And, of course, that water is just for cleaning. We all have to buy purified water for drinking and cooking. Many Nigerians buy plastic bags of water for drinking, while those with more means buy water in bottles, large and small. Of course, this creates a huge increase of waste from all these bottles too. Anyway, they had this exhibit of art with water as the focus and the concert I attended was really wonderful. It featured a Dutch pianist, Marcel Worms, who chose piano works of many styles and periods, that were composed with water as an inspiration. He performed these works while a slide show of water photos were scrolling on a nearby screen. It wasn't a super high-tech display -- that doesn't happen much in Lagos -- but it was still effective. He spoke a bit to help interpret the works he would play.<br />
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Of course, I live a life of privilege in Lagos, but we still have issues with water. Bad plumbing causes many breaks and ensuing floods. Our water out of the tap is often brownish or heavily chlorinated, so I sometimes cringe to even wash with it. And now and then, often with no explanation, we have no water coming out of the taps at all. But for the most part, we have bottled water deliveries that take care of our need for purified water and I can use that for a sponge bath if my faucets are dry. We are blessed to be spared the problems that many of the Nigerian poor deal with daily. I remember when I was doing interviews for the AWC scholarship program and a college student was telling about the overcrowding in the hostel she lived in (what we in the States refer to as a dorm room). She talked about how often the other girls in her room would use her bucket. This bucket of water was what she used to wash with each day. I'm sure college students in the USA would have a very difficult time adapting to those living conditions. And I know in rural areas access to clean water is often a very troublesome issue. I know it takes more than artists raising consciousness to deal with these issues. I hope government officials are watching and will start working to address these challenges.</div>
Caroleehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17394159982927568966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32143649.post-58066226287443544072012-10-21T21:49:00.002+01:002012-10-21T21:50:24.979+01:00The 323rd good thing about Lagos: a chance to visit the capital of Nigeria<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I've lived in Lagos for 6 years now and had only seen the capital, Abuja, from a stopover at the airport. Finally last spring I had the opportunity to take a quick trip where I actually left the airport. I really didn't see much of the capital city, but I saw enough to confirm what I already knew -- it was not a typical Nigerian city. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abuja">The capital</a> was a purpose-built city because they wanted a capital in the center of the country. It was built mostly in the 1980s and became the capital of Nigeria in December 1991, replacing Lagos. So Abuja is a much newer and more functional city than Lagos. The flight from Lagos to Abuja is only about an hour. I was going to Abuja with my husband and other COP employees to celebrate ConocoPhillips "Day One" celebration, which was a worldwide party in all the company's offices to commemorate the company splitting into two companies -- ConocoPhillips and Phillips 66. The new spinoff company now covers the downstream end of the business -- the refining and marketing parts. My husband has been with Conoco through many forms -- from when it was an independent company, when it was purchased by DuPont, when it was sold and independent, when it merged with Phillips, and now this. I don't understand why it's such a good thing to split apart -- it seems like now they will have to have more redundancies of staff in many departments. But I'm sure someone made a lot of money from the split. Anyway -- we got a trip to Abuja and a party out of it.<br />
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From the airport, we passed through this gate welcoming us to the capital. There was a lot of construction on this road and many others in Abuja, but no one was working very hard on this day, as it was May 1st -- the Labor Day holiday.<br />
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A big and fancy mosque.</div>
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Really all I saw was the drive from the airport to the Hilton hotel, which is the (reportedly) the nicest place to stay in town.</div>
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View from our hotel window</div>
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The hotel was really lovely, with a great pool. I wish we had more time to enjoy it. I really would have liked to stay longer and just relax there.</div>
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In the evening with had a lovely reception and dinner party.</div>
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Well, the company split up and on Day 2 it didn't seem different to the employees and their families on the fringe of the company culture here in Nigeria. We just got on the bus back to the airport and flew back to Lagos. But it was fun for me to get a peek of Nigeria's capital city, Abuja. </div>
Caroleehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17394159982927568966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32143649.post-73105420169390747292012-10-13T23:41:00.000+01:002012-10-13T23:44:34.666+01:00The 322nd good thing about Lagos: New sights of odd things in the Abeokuta market<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Last April I had an opportunity to visit Abeokuta with a group of girlfriends. I had been there before (blogged <a href="http://lookingforgoodinlagos.blogspot.com/2009/04/175th-good-thing-about-lagos-day-trip.html">here</a>, <a href="http://lookingforgoodinlagos.blogspot.com/2011/10/277th-good-thing-about-lagos.html" target="_blank">here.</a> and <a href="http://lookingforgoodinlagos.blogspot.com/2011/10/278th-good-thing-about-lagos-market.html">here.</a>) But I like the place, and it's always fun to have a day trip with friends. We had a great day and I ended up having some new adventures. <br />
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We started out visiting Olomu Rock, and the area where people hid out for years during various wars.<br />
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We greeted the women at the shrine behind the rock and gave them a financial offering.</div>
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This time, instead of taking the easy stairs to the top of the rock, I took the ancient route, which began with some ladders between the rocks.</div>
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It had some walkways,</div>
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and a final scramble up the side of the rock. Fun!</div>
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Made it to the top!</div>
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Some kids who were up on top looking for opportunities to "help" knew how to make an effective pose for photos.</div>
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Some fun dancing with one of the children up there.<br />
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One friend had family visiting from the States and so they took a picture on top with our entourage for the day. Along with the policemen, I thought it was cute how the company security guys dressed up for the day looking very dapper in suits and ties. Ladies don't travel unaccompanied in Nigeria!</div>
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Down from the rock, we headed to the market. </div>
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There was normal stuff on the street, but then we headed back into a different market. I had never been to this part of Abeokuta before. We found the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juju">ju-ju</a> market! </div>
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There was some normal stuff, vegetables, gourds,</div>
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some stuff that looked kind of normal, but I wasn't sure what this was....</div>
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and then lots of weird stuff. These are things that are believed to have some magical powers.</div>
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Dried lizards and other animal parts,</div>
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rocks, powders, natural soaps,</div>
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bells and blades,</div>
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and lots of rats on sticks. Not sure what they were used for. I failed to get a picture of it, but I have a good mental image of a little girl standing in a doorway holding a cellphone to her ear, with her other hand holding a rat on a stick.</div>
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skulls of monkeys and who knows what else,</div>
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lots of animal skins and parts,</div>
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and then there's onions and other normal stuff right next to the strange stuff.</div>
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Need some dried frogs?</div>
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They had this pan covered up with the cloth, smoking something and the woman lifted the cloth to let us see what was inside: rat on a stick! Yum! We declined to purchase any.</div>
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shells and horns</div>
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not sure what these spiny things are -- we asked them, but I didn't understand what the guy said.</div>
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and then some normal looking dried fish</div>
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and gourds.</div>
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Ready for a nap?</div>
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We decided to take a quick peek back at the fabric market. This is my favorite building, the maternity center with the anatomical painting on the wall. Of course we had to buy some fabric -- can't go to Abeokuta without fabric shopping.</div>
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And on the drive back we stopped along the road at the place where they sell yam pounders. I've already got a couple of these. They're kind of fun decorations -- never pounded yam in them, though.</div>
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Some serious bargaining going on.</div>
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Successful negotiations! And then back to face the traffic back to Lagos on the drive home.</div>
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Fun day!</div>
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Caroleehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17394159982927568966noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32143649.post-88284066397571876042012-10-13T16:02:00.000+01:002012-10-13T23:44:47.838+01:00The 321st good thing about Lagos: organizations that help girls in trouble<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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During my time in Nigeria, I have been blessed to associate with a great group of Christian ladies. We meet for Bible study each week. This last spring our group leaders organized an opportunity to put our Christian values into action. We had previously done some support and fund-raising for <a href="http://www.freedomfoundationng.org/genesis-house.htm" target="_blank">Genesis House</a>, a shelter and rehabilitation home for young girls who had been involved in the sex trade. Their stated mission is to "re-orientate, rehabilitate, educate and empower displaced women and enable them to fulfill their potential." It is a really good thing that places like this exist. We had earlier watched a video that had been produced about Genesis House, and it left us all in tears as we saw the depths that these girls had come from and the way their countenances changed when they were able to live in a place where they had some hope for a better future. </div>
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,<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QIa7-u2J-N4/UHl9h20UpQI/AAAAAAAAPNM/7Uj_xV1zNzw/s1600/IMG_2515.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QIa7-u2J-N4/UHl9h20UpQI/AAAAAAAAPNM/7Uj_xV1zNzw/s320/IMG_2515.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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We decided that our efforts this year would be to do some remodeling and painting of a room that was going to be used as a study room for the girls. My husband's employer was downsizing their offices about this time, so I was able to get some donations of office furniture and shelves and assorted storage furniture for the facility in general. I hope it has come in handy for them. On this day, we traveled to Genesis House to do some painting.<br />
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This sign was taped up in their entryway. A good reminder!</div>
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Here's a "before" picture. </div>
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We said hello to the girls, who were in a classroom next to the room we were painting. I didn't take pictures of them to preserve their privacy.</div>
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We moved the wall shelf and table leaning against the wall,</div>
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and got to work cleaning and scraping the walls.</div>
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We painted the room a bright green.</div>
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I always enjoy painting a room because it's such a quick and dramatic transformation of the space.</div>
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We had a bunch of other ideas and plans for furnishings and decorations. I'm not sure what was done later in the spring, as I left town shortly after this work day. I'd like to return for a visit to see how the room looks now. I hope as the girls in Genesis House spend time in the room, they are able to feel our love, concern and hopes for a better life for them.</div>
Caroleehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17394159982927568966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32143649.post-45753044680342108522012-10-06T02:07:00.000+01:002012-10-13T23:45:21.527+01:00The 320th good thing about Lagos: visiting a master's studio<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Onobrakpeya" target="_blank">Bruce Onobrakpeya</a> is probably the most celebrated living Nigerian artist, and likely one of the best known and respected in all of West Africa. So I jumped at the chance to visit his studio when the outing was organized by the Nigerian Field Society last spring. Meeting Bruce and hearing him speak of his life and his artistic philosophy was a wonderful opportunity. He was very generous with his time and the access he gave us to his studio.<br />
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Bruce's son Mudi welcomed us as well. They were getting ready to ship many artworks to Dakar, Senegal for an international exhibition.<br />
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Bruce just turned 80 years old, but he seems much younger, mentally and physically.</div>
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Above is one of his prints that he was going to bring to Senegal. Many of his very famous works are sculptural relief works similar to the one below.<br />
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The bottom floor of his house was chock full of works by Bruce, as well as cultural objects that possibly he uses as inspiration in his artwork.<br />
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We would have loved to buy one of his works out of his home, but they're pretty pricey, and this visit wasn't really intended for shopping.<br />
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Quite a variety of objects in every corner.<br />
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Bruce gave us a catalog from one of his previous Harmattan workshops. His foundation runs a workshop in Delta State where each summer artists come to study and work together, learning from formal presentations as well as from creative collaborations. Onobrakpeye is an artist who gives back to others -- he has contributed much to the development of art and artists in Nigeria.</div>
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Lots of art on the stairs up to his workplace on the top floor.</div>
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The studio area upstairs is a jumble of art tools and materials, old works, works in progress, pieces from old prints, drawings, casts from relief works. He uses many varied techniques in creating his art, and the studio reflects the array of different materials.<br />
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a printing press<br />
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lots of areas just looked like an artist's still life....<br />
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Onobrakpeye actually developed many innovative printmaking and sculptural relief techniques, requiring a variety of tools, chemicals and materials.<br />
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Group picture at the end of the visit. Thank you Bruce and Mudi! It was great to see where the master does his work!<br />
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Caroleehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17394159982927568966noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32143649.post-39298506541324657592012-10-05T18:41:00.000+01:002012-10-13T23:45:33.653+01:00The 319th good thing about Lagos: girls can play jazz<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Last April, just looking for something to do on a Saturday night, we went over to the Muson Centre (The Musical Society of Nigeria) for an advertised concert. We knew nothing about the groups, but the bands were advertised as 5YZ Men and Girls Rule. We learned that most had been students in the Muson's music school. We heard some some quite good jazz, as well as R&B. My experience has been that the majority of jazz groups, especially in Nigeria, are made up of men playing the instruments, sometimes with a female vocalist. But it was a nice change to hear a jazz band that was all women -- girls really -- just out of school. Yes, you could tell they were young, but they really showed some promise and had some quite talented musicians. </div>
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Ok, you could tell the girls were female -- the "look" was important to them. For their second set they added wigs, changed the clothes and came out singing some covers of Jackson Five and the Supremes.<br />
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The guys in 5YZ Men were older and had more experience. They had even played at a Jazz Festival in Ohio. The program said that they had all received acceptance and partial scholarships to the Berklee School of Music in Boston, which is a great jazz school, but, as of yet, none of them had been able to raise the funds needed to attend there.<br />
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Nigeria is a place with some great musicians!</div>
Caroleehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17394159982927568966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32143649.post-49836867413519183182012-10-04T23:50:00.000+01:002012-10-04T23:53:01.966+01:00The 318th good thing about Lagos: experience Pecha Kucha<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Have you ever heard about <a href="http://www.pecha-kucha.org/" target="_blank">Pecha Kucha</a>? I hadn't either. That is, until last April when the Goethe Society was sponsoring a Pecha Kucha night and we decided to see what it was about. For those that won't bother to follow the link to the Pecha Kucha website, I'll quote what they say about it: <br />
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"PechaKucha Night was devised in Tokyo in February 2003 as an event for young designers to meet, network, and show their work in public.<br />
It has turned into a massive celebration, with events happening in hundreds of cities around the world, inspiring creatives worldwide. Drawing its name from the Japanese term for the sound of "chit chat", it rests on a presentation format that is based on a simple idea: 20 images x 20 seconds. It's a format that makes presentations concise, and keeps things moving at a rapid pace."</blockquote>
You may have heard about <a href="http://www.ted.com/" target="_blank">TED </a> -- well this seemed like some mini-TED presentations, but with an emphasis on the artistic or creative, and not on technology. And it went so fast -- with each presenter showing 20 slides, each for 20 seconds and talking about their work, there was never time to get bored by anyone.<br />
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It was a really fun idea and a really fun evening. One thing that was neat was the venue. We were on the roof of the city hall. They said they didn't really have approval to be up there, so hopefully no government busy bodies are reading my blog and no one will get in trouble. Because it was a really great place to do this: a big open flat roof with a view of the city around, a nice breeze and removed from the noise of the city.<br />
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This is the lobby of the City Hall -- it has some pretty neat wood carvings decorating the walls.<br />
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There was quite a nice variety of presenters at this Pecha Kucha night: painters, sculptors, dancers, a film-maker, photographers. We enjoyed getting acquainted with the work from some new artists and creative people. There was some nice visiting time, too. Most of my photos ended up too dark to share, but here are a couple.<br />
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To put on an official Pecha Kucha night for a city, you have to be an approved leader by the Pecha Kucha organization and probably receive some kind of training. But it seems like a simple enough idea that if you have a powerpoint projector and some creative people who want to talk about their work, or even people who want to show off their photos from their last vacation, or their recent crafting projects, or their unusual collection -- how about just getting together to "chit-chat" or "Pecha Kucha."<br />
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Caroleehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17394159982927568966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32143649.post-43498780436229374492012-10-04T23:46:00.001+01:002012-10-05T16:59:36.904+01:00The 317th good thing about Lagos: Meeting the First Lady of Nigeria<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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In April I was able to go with some women from the American Women's Club to a special dinner and event celebrating the women of Nigeria at the Eko Hotel, where the honored guest was the First Lady of Nigeria. It proved to be quite an interesting cultural experience.</div>
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It started before the event when we showed up at the time requested on the program and the doors to the venue were still closed. No surprise here -- I am always caught off guard when things start on time here because it happens so rarely. There was a long line of impatient women crowding the steamy lobby and things were getting kind of heated in the crowd in the hour or so we were waiting. The women were all dressed to the nines, but that didn't mean they were acting with decorum. There was pushing and shoving and shouting at the guards. It was a relief to finally get inside and find our table.<br />
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There was a lot of preliminary action before the First Lady appeared, of course. Lots of live, loud music. An opening prayer that was, as is typical here, very Christian, even with a call and response kind of "Thank you, Jesus" thing that made me feel very uncomfortable for the many Muslims that were a part of the crowd. It was a prayer that wouldn't have been politically correct in many places. I couldn't help but wonder that if the intention of the gathering was, as stated, to bring women together in advocacy for peace and unity in Nigeria, that it was a little insensitive to have such a blatently Christian prayer that excluded so many in the audience, especially in light of the prevelence of Christian/Muslim violence in the country.<br />
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Below is a photo of the room. It was a packed and beautifully decorated ballroom and, though this picture doesn't really showcase it, the bright colors of really dressed up women made for a very vibrant scene.<br />
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Here's the women moving to the music:</div>
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One really big eye-opener for me was that when Dame Patience Jonathan was speaking, the ballroom didn't quiet down. People continued their conversations, their phone calling, their eating. The room was noisy! I was so surprised! I know if I was at an event where Michelle Obama was speaking, there would be respectful silence while she was at the podium. It was difficult to hear her and especially to focus on what she was saying with so much noise in the room. I was able to shake the hand of the First Lady when she walked by our table. She had quite a fancy outfit on...<br />
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After she finished her speech there were many of us who needed to leave, as it was quite late by that time. We got to the door just as the guards slammed it shut and said that we couldn't leave. By the time I got there, there was quite a crowd of women behind me. I asked the guard if there was another door where we could exit and he said that we just needed to wait until the First Lady left. Many of us said that we needed to leave and we couldn't wait and would he please direct us to a door where we could exit. By this time, the guards were holding back a crowd of angry women who were going to exit the room no matter what the guards said. They pushed their way through the security guys guarding the door and forced the doors open. I said something to the security guy next to me about how there's no stopping a crowd of empowered women. I guess it was a show of unity, though not quite one of peace....</div>
Caroleehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17394159982927568966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32143649.post-25075904022560018072012-10-04T20:29:00.001+01:002012-10-04T20:29:16.802+01:00The 316th good thing about Lagos: they tell it like it is.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Hi! I'm still alive! I've been on an extended blog-cation. I went back to the States for the summer with a list of my spring blog posts and I intended to use some of my free time to do blog catch up. Well, when away from Lagos there are plenty of pleasant diversions and I never got around to blogging. So now I'm faced with some very old news with my lists of posts, but I'm going to try to be diligent about writing about this old stuff so I can eventually get more current. This blog is my journal of my time here, so I don't want to leave out months of activities.<br />
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So I'll start with an easy one. My previous post was of the Lagos carnival. As we were leaving the carnival, we saw this tank truck that would be servicing the outhouses lining up outside the stadium grounds. I <a href="http://lookingforgoodinlagos.blogspot.com/2011/01/251st-good-thing-about-lagos-they-take.html" target="_blank">blogged about this company before</a>, with the slogan "Sh__ business is serious business."<br />
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The sign on this truck is certainly blunt, but my favorite one is in my other post: "To you it may be sh__, but to us it's bread and butter." You just don't see this stuff in the States.</div>
Caroleehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17394159982927568966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32143649.post-59311686931590155952012-05-14T00:32:00.000+01:002012-05-14T00:32:05.832+01:00The 315th good thing about Lagos: The Lagos Carnival!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Usually we travel out of Nigeria around Easter, so we haven't been in Lagos to view the colorful celebration of the Lagos Carnival, which has happened in the past few years on the Monday after Easter. So I didn't feel too bad about staying in Lagos this year with a packed weekend of activities. I had a friend from African Book Group who was handing out VIP tickets for the stadium. Carnival consists of two parades -- one for youth and one for adults. They take different routes, both of which end up at Tafewa Balewa Square, the same big stadium where we enjoyed seeing the <a href="http://www.lookingforgoodinlagos.blogspot.com/2012/02/290th-good-thing-about-lagos.html" target="_blank">Eyo Festival</a>.<br />
This parade was not quite as unusual as that celebration. Carnival was full of vibrant color from bright costumes. The parade organizers had prepared 12,000 costumes for the parades! I don't know if it was different for the adults, but the youth in various groups just paid a small registration fee and were given a costume to wear. The costumes were really quite elaborate and I can't imagine the work the committee had to do to get all of them designed, sewn, and organized.<br />
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The result was an overpowering visual feast and I had a hard time deciding what photos to post here and so I decided to just show you a bunch, to give my readers a sense of the visual overload, without a lot to say.<br />
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There was very little live music during both of the parades, most of the marchers just danced to the recorded music broadcast through the stadium.</div>
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Just to reassure you -- I took many more pictures that I'm not posting here. And though I was busy snapping away, I was also frequently being snapped. I was among a small group of fewer than 10 white faces in the crowd and many, many people wanted to take pictures of us and with us. It was kind of weird. </div>
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They really enjoyed it when we jumped into the parade to pose for a picture.</div>
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And after someone thrust their baby at me to take my picture holding him, I handed my camera to them so I could also record the moment.</div>
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Shortly before we were going to leave, it was getting crowded down on the parade level, so we decided to go up in the stands to get a view of the crowd. It was amazing to see how many people had assembled!</div>
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We really had a fun time marveling at the costumes, but one thing that surprised me is the scarcity of food vendors in the stadium. There was a small booth selling schwarmas and drinks and one other small food booth, but neither were very busy. There just wasn't much food at all being sold inside and not many people eating (very different from a typical American celebration). But when we left the stadium and went outside, there were plenty of food options there. We guessed that getting a license for a concession inside was expensive, probably making the food more expensive, so Nigerians were getting their snacks outside.<br />
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<br />We didn't try the boiled eggs.... maybe at next year's parade.</div>
<span id="goog_1846444227"></span><span id="goog_1846444228"></span></div>Caroleehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17394159982927568966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32143649.post-20350668255824964542012-05-06T21:55:00.000+01:002012-10-04T23:52:18.671+01:00The 314th good thing about Lagos: meeting a first class Oba<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I have had some photo-heavy posts that I have been unable to publish because my internet connection has been having problems. I hope finally I will be able to do some catching up!<br />
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I need to start this post with a disclaimer: There WERE some animals harmed at this festival and there are some disturbing images in this post. Read no further if you don't want to know that the sacrifice of live animals still does occur in ceremonial rituals in Nigeria.</div>
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On Saturday, the day before Easter, we repeated our drive of the day before and went out Lekki peninsula, past the town of Epe. While going through Epe, we made a couple of stops to look at some buildings that illustrate the history of the town. This building shows the Brazilian style of architecture:</div>
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And this second building illustrates Sierra Leone style architecture. The expat leading the trip said that when the British came in to colonize Nigeria, they were looking for some mid-level managers and they brought in people from Sierra Leone to manage some operations. They brought with them their own style of building, which is two matching sides with a recessed center entry. Both of these buildings look a little worse for wear, as do most of the buidlings in Epe.<br />
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We drove on a ways past Epe to the village of Odo-Naforija to attend the Ebi Festival. We were greeted by lots of kids.</div>
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We were asked to wait in the "throne room" of the very modern palace. It was quite a nice building and outside was still in the process of construction, but this room was finished.<br />
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We were greeted by the village welcoming committee.</div>
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And then the king's aide came and spoke to us. He gave quite a philosophical speech, trying to introduce us to the things we would be seeing. He introduced his family and said that he had lived in Houston and came back to his village because he wanted to support this new Oba. He said the Ebi Festival was one that typically would occur at the start of the planting season to make offerings to the gods with pleas for a good crop.</div>
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Some of the chiefs eventually came in to the room,</div>
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and then we finally met the Oba, who was described as a "first class Oba," they explained, because of his lineage leading back to some important Oba in the past. There were four royal families associated with the village and, upon the passing of an Oba, the new Oba is voted on from among those families by the ruling chiefs. They choose the one they feel most likely to be a good leader. Our excursion organizer has a close relationship with this Oba and says he is a very good leader of the village. <br />
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And he has a pretty cool hat/crown!</div>
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The aide demonstrated how we would approach the chief -- men do a kind of push-up bow and women just kneel down to bow. Thank heavens for that!</div>
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We all got to greet the Oba and have a brief conversation with him. Some men were very impressive with the push-up bow!</div>
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This is our group organizer, who is good friends with the Oba, so he was a little less formal.</div>
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I had a nice chat with the Oba. He has a daughter who lives in Sugarland, so he's been to Houston and he is friends with Bill White, the former Houston mayor.</div>
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After we all greeted the Oba, we had a little procession to the area where we would undergo the ceremonial rituals.</div>
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There was some time spent laying guns down in front of the altar area. They wiped them with grasses and painted them with chalk and red palm oil.<br />
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The men making the offering painted their hands, as well as the guns, with white and red markings.<br />
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Some people laid money down in front of the altar.</div>
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The items used for the sacrifice were laid kind of haphazardly around the ground. I thought it was amusing a couple of times when the chicken got loose and it was stuffed behind the pink backpack.</div>
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Here's the now head-less chicken carcass being held up to the stalk to drip its blood on the grassy stalk. Yes, chicken bodies do still move around long after they lose their heads. Somehow, cutting off the chicken head was not as gruesome as when they did it to a dog.</div>
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This poor dog alternated between fighting and yelping for freedom and placid resignation to its fate. </div>
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Before the sacrifice, the executioner with machete in hand bows before the Oba and other chiefs.<br />
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This following one is the video to miss if you don't want to see the sacrifice -- though it really is hard to see what happens. Right as the machete came down, someone fired off a Dane gun, so I jumped and my eyes closed and I really didn't see the moment the machete did its work. But then they took the headless carcass and held it up to drip blood on the altar.<br />
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After this we went in for a lunch they had provided for us. I was glad that the meat was recognizable as chicken -- and I knew it couldn't be from the sacrificed chicken carcass still lying outside. The paste in the plastic bag is moi-moi, a seasoned bean cake. It's okay tasting, though kind of spicy.<br />
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After lunch we went outside for the masquerade.</div>
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The Oba had changed into another outfit and first he watched the action.</div>
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Then the villagers and visitors loved it when he joined in and showed off his drumming skills.</div>
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And then he showed off his dancing skills to a very appreciative audience. I'm sure it's things like this that make him a very popular Oba.</div>
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After the dancing, the Oba retreats to his seat under the tent to relax.</div>
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An argument breaks out between the village women over some cash that was sprayed on the dancers.</div>
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The children get in on the dancing action.</div>
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And there are observers young,</div>
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and old,</div>
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and black and white together.</div>
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And always time for the posed group photos.</div>
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Despite (or maybe because of) the gruesome sacrifices, it was a very interesting cultural experience.</div>
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Caroleehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17394159982927568966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32143649.post-78130251158449489582012-04-14T17:28:00.002+01:002012-10-04T23:52:43.866+01:00The 313th good thing about Lagos: visiting the Epe fish market<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
After our pleasant canoe trip last weekend (see the previous post), we drove a little further out on the Lekki peninsula to visit the fish market at the fishing village of Epe. It was a little late in the day, so it appeared that many sellers had already finished for the day, but there was still plenty of interesting things to see, like these enormous snails. I don't know if I would ever dare to eat them, but a friend who had them said her cook would just cut them up and saute in butter and they just tasted like escargot. Maybe I could eat them if there were someone else doing the cooking....<br />
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Other wildlife included this tied up lizard, which they said was a monitor lizard.</div>
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There were lots of smoked fish -- like these tiny ones,</div>
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The seller offering these demonstrated how to eat these just taking a bite of everything but the head. I didn't try them, but someone else dared to.</div>
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You could buy fish still alive swimming around in baskets in the water.</div>
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There were fish strung together beautifully arranged on the smoker.</div>
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And lots of kids interested in looking at the oyibos.</div>
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There were some kids having some races with a little toy they made from bottle caps hooked together with a stick to make an axle, and then attached to another cap with a long stick handle stuck through. This made a little push toy and they would race them along the path. It really was a very creative toy from found objects.</div>
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The hairdressing salon was closed for the day.</div>
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Right outside the entrance to the fish market was this big growth of bamboo and some chickens in a cage and wandering around was a big turkey.</div>
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Some in our group purchased a few things at the market, but I didn't find anything to bring home, but it was still an interesting stop on our day trip.</div>Caroleehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17394159982927568966noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32143649.post-63783012627480445932012-04-12T23:51:00.000+01:002012-04-12T23:51:55.053+01:00The 312th good thing about Lagos: a Good Friday canoe trip<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Every other Easter weekend we've lived in Nigeria, we've made use of the long weekend and traveled somewhere. I was feeling pretty deprived that it wasn't going to work out to get away this year. But then the weekend shaped up beautifully with some day trips and I was glad that I was in town. On Friday a friend organized an outing to the village of Ibeju where she had a contact who organized canoe trips on the waterways around the Lekki peninsula. We had gone on a <a href="http://lookingforgoodinlagos.blogspot.com/2009/02/160th-good-thing-about-lagos-canoe-trip.html" target="_blank">canoe trip before</a>, but this was in a slightly different place, and though there were many similarities, our village visit on this trip didn't come with a masquerade performance. But it was still a thoroughly delightful and relaxing day and it was so nice to get out of the city and enjoy nature. We drove out Lekki peninsula for about an hour and parked the cars near this big tree which seemed to be a nice meeting place for the men of Ibeju.<br />
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We were greeted enthusiastically by the children of Ibeju, who crowded around and loved to have their picture taken.<br />
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I liked the Palm Sunday cross this child wore.</div>
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I decided to "hold it" rather than take advantage of the toilet facilities that were offered us. Although private (if someone was holding the cloth over the doorway), there wasn't even a hole in the shelter -- just a crack in the concrete, and you would be dodging everyone else's splashes.<br />
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When we walked through the village to the waterside to get the canoes, the children followed and several grabbed Brent's hand. This has happened before and it always surprises me, because it seems like most children in the States are scared of him -- probably because he's such a big guy -- but African kids seem to warm right up to him. None grabbed my hand, but maybe that's because I was busy using the camera.<br />
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We got to the water and our guide got us each into our own dugout canoe. The canoes were different sizes and he tried to match the canoe size with the passenger size. There were a couple that we rejected because they seemed to be about to sink.<br />
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Some of the boatmen were really built, like this one. I was commenting on his muscles to the woman who rode in his boat and she said she was looking forward all the time and didn't even notice -- at least that's what she told her husband! </div>
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We passed quite a few boats that weren't going to be going anywhere soon -- or ever.<br />
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After paddling down the narrow canal, we came to a wider river.</div>
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We passed some other local boys having fun on the water.</div>
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Lining up for a picture.</div>
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And our boatmen treated us to a song, though I don't think the little girl in the canoe of the boatman dancing along with the song really appreciated it. She seemed kind of nervous.</div>
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We did some canoeing down some narrow canals that were really pretty and we seemed like we were in the jungle and away from civilization. At least, it seemed remote until the boatman in the canoe in front of me got a cell phone call and paddled with one hand while he talked on the phone.</div>
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And there were other evidences of civilization. The boatmen were not above product placement, though I don't know that he had a sponsorship deal.</div>
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We took a break from the water to visit the village of Iba-Oloja. We had to walk carefully on this raised plank platform from the dock to the land. Our guide said during the rainy season, the water would get up quite high, almost to the plankss.</div>
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We had lots of children greeting us here too.</div>
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Most of the village seemed quite primitive, but they did have a solar power system, with a sign crediting a Lagos State rural development initiative, with a reminder to pay their taxes.</div>
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I was told that this contraption is designed to heat water.</div>
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We were led to the village store, owned by our guide's father, and encouraged to purchase something to support local business. We bought a few packets of cookies and crackers and were surprised at how cheap they were -- much cheaper than at the stores where we shop.</div>
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We stopped in a room behind the shop and the children sang us a couple of songs. One was about the "oyibo" (white person) and what it basically was saying was that they hoped the white people would bring them something of value. So it seems they are teaching the kids young to look for the white people to give them stuff. Not the lesson I would be teaching them....<br />
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We walked through the agricultural area of the village and there were cassava fields and areas with large termite mounds and these piles of sticks. They had a water or soda bottle strung up on a pole above each pile. Our guide said it was voodoo -- they would put these bottles on the pile and no one would dare to steal the sticks because then they would be cursed from the voodoo. I guess whatever works....</div>
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Next we visited the village school.</div>
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And some kids were there playing soccer and other kids followed us -- there were LOTS of kids in this village! We only saw a handful of adults,</div>
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but we saw older kids were taking care of little kids.</div>
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We didn't see evidence of books or other supplies, but there was a locked door with a sign designating the "library." But there was this "passage reading" on a blackboard that I thought was interesting.</div>
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There's a big lack of books and other learning materials in Nigerian schools, so the children tend to learn a lot by rote and by reading from the blackboard.</div>
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We got back into our canoes and headed back to our starting point.</div>
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I wasn't able to get pictures of the pretty water birds we saw, but we didn't see any monkeys. There were some pretty water lilies.</div>
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Back in the village, we were greeted by more kids.</div>
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This boy was having fun playing with a live beetle tied on a string.</div>
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These kids were hard at work making some tomato puree.</div>
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Our guide took a few minutes to give us a demonstration on raffia making, which seems to be a village activity, based on the piles of raffia around. He said this one stalk would generate about 150 pieces of raffia.</div>
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It's always a good thing to get out of Lagos and get a different view of life in Nigeria.</div>
</div>Caroleehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17394159982927568966noreply@blogger.com2