The 227th good thing about Lagos: Back in town just in time for Democracy Day!

I had a very smooth return to Lagos yesterday with no trip delays from volcanic ash clouds or anything else. While the United States celebrates Memorial Day today, we're having our own holiday in Nigeria. May 29th is Democracy Day in this country, and since the date fell on a weekend this year, the government decided to declare Monday the holiday so office workers could celebrate with some time off from work. Democracy Day commemorates the return of democracy in Nigeria on May 29, 1999 when Olusegun Obasanjo took office as President of Nigeria. President Obasanjo was the first elected and civilian head of state in Nigeria after 16 years of military rule.

During the time I was away Nigeria got a new official president. After several months of President Yar'adua being out of the country for medical care, and not seen or heard from at all, and then back in country but too ill to conduct any duties, he finally passed away. Former Vice President Goodluck Jonathan was then officially declared the President. I'm sure Yar'adua's family was sad at his passing, as well as were his henchmen who benefited from him being in office, but many in the country were just relieved to have this time of government inaction over with.

While this was happening in Nigeria, I was having a great time back in the States. We were able to travel to Utah to attend the graduation of our youngest son, Jordan, from BYU. He graduated magna cum laude in accounting and we're very proud of him!

In Utah, we stayed with my parents, who retired not far away from the BYU campus and they've been a great help to us and support to all three of our children who are now BYU graduates. Thanks, Mom and Dad!

Our daughter, Lindsay and her two sons travelled from Boston for the graduation and it was great to have them there.

Kids are great, but grandkids are even better. This is Spencer (3), sitting on the steps during the graduation ceremony.

Outside during the picture-taking after the ceremony, Austin (16 months) was trying to scale the big rock that Spencer, just a few minutes later, would climb up and fall from, resulting in some big facial scrapes. Good thing we got a good picture of Spencer before the fall!

Back in Houston, we enjoyed some time at the park, where Owen (3) showed off his monkey bar skills.

I was able to attend a wonderful princess party where we celebrated Maggie's 2nd birthday,

and Elise's 5th birthday, which are a day apart. They were beautiful princesses and all 5 of my grandchildren are wonderful! I LOVE spending time with them. We also had lots of fun swimming in the pool together, but I didn't get a single picture of that.

Being at our home in Houston in the springtime was great. We enjoyed some wonderful weather and I was there just in time to see some beautiful flowers blooming in my yard.

I'm just here in Lagos for a week now before we meet Jordan in Israel for a last trip together before he starts his new job. I'm missing being with kids and grandkids, but I found it interesting that as I arrived back at our apartment here my feeling was "it's good to be home," exactly the same sentiment I felt when I arrived at our home in Houston six weeks before. It's nice to have two places to feel at home!

The 226th good thing about Lagos: More than one way to get out of town

More often than not when we're flying to and from the States, we travel on one of the airlines that goes through Europe. But for our travel home this weekend, Delta happened to have the best prices when we were checking, so we got tickets with them -- and we are certainly glad we did! Never before have we ever considered the volcanic activity in Iceland to be a factor in our travel plans, but it is currently affecting the travel of so many in Europe. We were able to leave Lagos on Friday night, but many who were planning to fly on one of the European airlines were stranded in Lagos after their flights were cancelled with the closure of European airports. Thank you, Delta, for flying a direct route from the States to Lagos and back. We're enjoying the green and flowering beauty of spring in Houston for a few days, with the added attraction of 3 beautiful grandchildren, before heading up to Utah to attend our son's college graduation and a visit there from our other 2 grandchildren and their mother. Yes, I know I've previously counted the opportunity to leave Lagos for family celebrations as one of my good things, but never before has an alternate route around Icelandic volcanic ash factored into the equation!

The 225th good thing about Lagos: An opportunity to see more of West Africa with a trip to Senegal

Living in West Africa gives us opportunities to see places that we would likely never travel to were we living the States. Even from here, Senegal wasn't on our radar screen until we looked at pictures from the trip taken there by a friend and we immediately decided that Dakar would be a great destination for our Easter 4-day weekend. Little did we know when we booked the trip that we would be travelling there on a historic weekend, when Senegal was celebrating 50 years of independence from France. We were there while they celebrated Independence Day.

And it was a special weekend for the country, as they celebrated the inauguration of a new enormous statue which towers over the city. I'm sure this work will become a symbol of the city like the Eiffel Tower is a symbol of Paris. There were already the kitschy souvenier momentos of the statue in the shop at the base. This statue is titled "African Renaissance." There were protests going on about the expense of the work, which is made of copper and huge. To give an idea of the size, in the man's hat, there is a restaurant. Some people also thought the figures were indecent and not "African" enough. But, like it or not, it's there and will be a symbol of Dakar. Many world leaders were in attendance at the ceremony inaugurating the statue. We saw crowds gathering, and traffic building but didn't try to attend, though we did see a report on the ceremony on CNN that evening.

Senegal is majority Muslim and French is the main language spoken, along with Wolof, the tribal language. There are mosques everywhere, the small and simple rug in front of a beach front shack, and this splendid beach front mosque with a great view of the sea.

We enjoyed the markets, they had beautiful fish and produce and African handicrafts at better prices than Lagos.

There were flowers everywhere -- lots of beautiful bougainvillea. This was the view from the corniche right beside our hotel, looking at Goree Island, which was my favorite part of the trip.

We took a short ferry ride out to the island, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It's a peaceful and beautiful pedestrian island.

The island was used as an exit station for slave trading and there is a small Slave museum.

There is the "door of no return."




Goree island has brightly painted buildings and lovely colonial architecture. When I saw the pictures of this island before our trip, I thought it looked like the south of France.

It was a very charming place -- it looked like France with an African touch.

There were remnants of a castle, and also a French fort on opposite ends of the island, which was easily walkable.

On Easter Sunday, we got a driver for the day and left Dakar for the countryside. I wanted to attend a service at a monastery that was listed in the guidebook as having great music, a combination of chant and African style. After some difficulties finding the place, we arrived late, but still heard some beautiful music at the Keur Moussa monastery. We sat in the overflow area just outside the sanctuary.

The music was accompanied by drum and some large kora, a stringed African instrument.

It was a very memorable Easter Sunday service.

Just down the road was a tortoise sanctuary, where we had an interesting tour and got acquainted with some of the different varieties of tortoises they were trying to breed and protect.

We got up close and personal with some of them.

Then we made a visit to Lac Rose, a salt water lake that gets is name from the pink color it takes on when the light was right.

It was kind of reddish when we were there.

You can get in and float, like in the Dead Sea, but I just got my feet wet.

We took a 4x4 ride around the lake and visited the salt mining activities on one side of the lake. They go out in boats and use tools to break apart the salt on the bottom of the lake and scoop it up.

They sort and clean and bag it.

We then visited an agricultural village where the chief's son took us on a tour.

After buying a few things in the village shop to help support the hospital the village was trying to build, we went dune riding and driving along the beautiful beach, before we returned to Dakar and had a wonderful dinner in a lovely restaurant. What a memorable Easter Sunday!

There were some very nice beaches, as well as restaurants in Dakar. We enjoyed the ocean view while eating some delicious grilled shrimp.

Here I am at the westernmost point of the African continent.

Our final stop before leaving Monday night was at a beach where we were advised to arrive in the early evening when the fishing boats were coming in.

Boats were met by eager people who helped off-load the day's catch and bring the boat up on shore.

There were plenty of boys ready to pose for the camera.

Then fish were dumped in tubs and boxes and right on the sand and crowds gathered to buy and sell.

There were lots of varieties of fish available.

The vibrant color of the boats and clothes and fish were beautiful.

This is part of the beauty of West Africa that I've come to enjoy so much.