The 63rd good thing about Lagos: At times, you can feel like a celebrity

I'm home in comfortable Houston, where I can brush my teeth with water from the sink. Such things you learn to appreciate after living in Lagos. My trip home was long (about 28 hours door to door) but without incident. Traveling to the airport in Lagos was the most nervewracking, where we encountered some quite extensive "go-slows." But I traveled in comfort and style, unlike most of the other travellers on the road that night. In Lagos they do have some public buses like what we are accustomed to in the US. But most people taking public transportation travel in vans that in the States would hold a maximum of 12-15 passengers. In Lagos these often appear to be near to falling apart and they are usually crammed and bulging with travellers. They generally have 5-6 rows and people at least 4 across, and sometimes with a second layer of people on top of those. On the road that night I saw a number of buses (what we call vans) with the door open and people hanging out as they drove. (These pictures were taken earlier -- I was traveling to the airport at night).

I was the only company person going to the airport that night, but I had 6 men accompanying me: the driver and an accompanying security guy in the armoured car I was in, and an escort car with 4 men (I think one was a company driver that needed a ride....) and I don't know how many machine guns. It was useful at times to have the escort car with its police lights that encourage other cars to move over and let us through. The drivers also make liberal use of their horns. But in some kinds of traffic, even police lights and horns won't help you move. There's an intersection approaching the airport area where there is a road to the domestic terminal that crosses the road we were on to the international terminal. The roads each have probably 3 lanes in each direction (though traffic lanes here are very flexible), so there is at least 6 lanes of traffic crossing another 6 lanes. Although there was a booth for a traffic policeman, he was off duty at the time, and there was no stoplight or any other traffic regulation. The intersection was hopelessly gridlocked with cars facing every which way and it seemed that no driver was willing to give any ground to anybody else. I was really wishing I had access to my camera at this moment. One of my security guys finally got out and held cars back with his hand and got others moving so after 10-15 minutes of just sitting in place, we were finally able to creep through the intersection. I'm very grateful that I can travel to the airport in style and comfort!

The 62nd good thing about Lagos: a new apartment with new furniture

We've been in our new apartment for a few weeks now and it's starting to feel a little more like home. New construction here in Nigeria presents some challenges. I'm sure I'll have occasion to write about some of them in the future.

The company hasn't had many expat families to equip here, so getting us into these new apartments (we christened them the "Flamingo Flats" -- have I posted a picture of the outside yet?) sent them into uncharted waters.The company didn't have established procedures in place for how the process of choosing furniture would take place. At first they presented us with pictures of furniture on a CD and it seemed like we would have a choice as to how they would furnish our apartment. Then they decided that procedure gave too much control to individual expats. So they just chose and purchased the furniture for each flat, to standardize the furnishings. That was fine with me -- they were paying for the furniture, so that was their right to choose it. It would have been better if at first they hadn't given us the idea we would have a choice, because I certainly wouldn't have chosen some of the things we ended up with. But we can live with all of it. The upholstery on the couches and chairs is neutral and liveable and it looks good, but when you sit down, you realize that here they use extra-firm foam in the cushions. There's no squish -- it's kind of like sitting on a board with a bit of padding.

The furnishing I get the most "what were they thinking?" mileage out of are the horse lamps that we have beside the bed in our guest bedroom. Come to visit us and these can light up your nighttime reading, setting you at ease as you are transported to the Wild West. I guess as they chose them some Nigerian facilities person was thinking, "all Americans like horses, right?"

The 61st good thing about Lagos: Being a person with keys

There's a time when a person moves overseas which I've experienced before when you've sold the car and the house and you are a totally key-less person. It's kind of disquieting and freeing at the same time. Because we still own a house and a truck in Houston, we never really went through that with this move. But after moving into our new apartment, we are entering the key-holder phase like never before. With the exception of the bathroom doors (which have a turn-latch lock), every room entry door and closet door has a keyed lock, with 3 keys provided. Even the swinging door between the kitchen and dining room has a keyed lock. I counted 26 separate keyed locks. This was convenient when we were moving over here in stages, we could put items we moved over in closets and lock the doors and bring the keys with us, so we didn't have to worry as much when workers were here and we weren't around to supervise. Now mostly we carry around our entrance key (we only use one of the keys for the front door -- the other one is a lock that doesn't really function correctly because there's no hole for the bolt to go into the door frame), and I carry the keys to a couple of closets where we keep valuables. We should probably carry the key to the back door (bottom picture), which also has a security gate with a lock on it because it's a glass door. But that would be two more keys. We have security gates over all the windows to the balconies that are sliding doors. If those gates were really to function properly, we would put locks on those as well, but that means 10 more keys (or combinations to remember if we use that type of lock -- even more difficult). I don't know if we're ready for that level of security!

The 60th good thing about Nigeria: A temple here for the Latter-Day Saints

The LDS temple in Nigeria was dedicated in 2005. We won't be able to travel there while we're here because it's located in Aba, which is down in the delta area where it really isn't safe for us to travel. It's the part of Nigeria where there's a lot of kidnappings of foreigners. But it is a blessing for the Nigerians to have a place to go to receive temple blessings. My dad just sent me a link to some pictures and the experiences of some Saints from Cameroon when they made a trip to the temple in Nigeria. Their trip was pretty incredible. I thought I'd post the link here for those of you who hadn't already seen it. We face traffic when we attend the temple in Houston, but there's no competition for who has the more difficult journey!

http://www.bsmarkham.com/mission/Africa/Aug%2005/aba.html

The 59th good thing about Lagos: Stake Conference time again

Home from the cruise for almost a week, I'm still working on getting my pictures organized, so that blog post will have to wait. First I'll write about today. Though I haven't really spent that much time in Lagos, I was able to attend my 3rd Stake Conference (held twice a year) here today. We managed to convince our company transportation and security people that we could travel without the trailing security car, so we just had our driver in the bullet-proof vehicle and one security guy with a machine gun riding literally "shot-gun." We got to the meeting about 40 minutes before the start, and the chapel was already full and members were half-way back into the overflow area, and the choir was already singing. We were ushered up to our reserved spot for "visitors," though we insisted that we were members of the stake, not visiting and it wasn't necessary -- they wanted all the white people to have seats in front. It kind of makes me feel bad -- I hope it's not interpreted that we think we deserve special treatment. The choir sang for at least 45 minutes before the start of the meeting. They were great, as usual. The women had lovely matching lavender outfits (different dresses from the previous conferences) and the men had matching ties and lavendar handkercheifs out of their jacket breast pockets. The choir director even had a matching top with her suit. It was pretty amazing. Notice the beautiful cascading floral arrangement down from the pulpit. Their main church exposure here is General Conference and I think they really look to that meeting as a model for their conferences. They see the Tabernacle choir with their matching outfits and think that's necessary for the choir. But also, clothing and appearance seems to be quite important to Nigerians. They can live in conditions that would be considered a shack to most Westerners, but dress each day very nicely -- formally by Western standards. But anyway, I'm always very impressed with the amount of music prepared by the choir and the enthusiasm with which they sing. The other impressive thing was that the Stake Presidency (that's the back of the President's head you see in the picture of the choir) was sitting on the front row for at least the 40 minutes pre-meeting that we were there (I don't know how long before we got there they were sitting there), listening to the music. They weren't running around completing business or getting things organized for the meeting, they were just sitting reverently. At the time for the meeting to start, they took their places on the stand. I thought that was pretty neat. The meeting was very good. The mission president mentioned how this conference could have taken place anywhere in the world. He quoted Ephesians 2 where Paul spoke about us being "no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God." (As he quoted Ephesians, I was thinking about being at Ephesus just over a week ago and seeing the theater where Paul spoke to the Ephesians -- a quite amazing experience!)

After the Conference, we were invited to have a meal with the senior missionaries. This was a fun opportunity to visit with these adventurous couples who have volunteered their time and money to come help support the church here and provide service to the community. Their life is more difficult than our lives as expatriates -- they don't get trips home or shipments of goods. One mission president's wife today compared her life here to being in prison -- she's serving her time. She was only partially joking. They served us a wonderful meal and we had a great time

visiting together.

In the group picture here, the

mission presidents of the two Lagos missions and their wives are on the outside, President and Sister Evans on the left and President and Sister Dyering on the right. The couples are, from left to right, the Rawlings, Wadsworth, and Griggs. They deal with the challenges of missionary life in Lagos with very good attitudes and spirit. I admire them all for being willing to take on those challenges.

The 58th good thing about Lagos: Insightful gospel teaching

It was a pleasure to return to church again today to the Victoria Island ward. Getting there was a challenge, as there was rain overnight. The dirt road that leads to the church off the main road gets very rutted with deep puddles after rain. It's hard to judge how deep the puddles are and cars and the okadas (motorcycle taxis) zig-zag down the street trying to stay as close to the edges of the puddles as possible. We managed to not sink too low in any puddles or get stuck. I was very grateful to have a car to negotiate the hazardous street. So many of the church members come down this street in okadas and must get splattered and muddy. Others walk the kilometer up the road up to the main street where they can catch a bus, and have to slog through the mud and the debris lining the road. I hope it won't be long before the ward can qualify for a new building that will be closer to public transportation.

I had heard that one of my young piano students had been doing a great job accompanying the hymns while I was gone (using the Hymns Made Easy book). When I arrived he was at the sacrament table and said I should play the keyboard. The keyboard power cord was broken, so it was running off batteries, which had a poor connection and went out several times. When we started the closing hymn, I couldn't get the keyboard power to work, so the chorister started the congregation singing acapella. Shortly into the first verse, the keyboard started holding power so I decided to just start playing, expecting the group to adjust to the key from the keyboard. But they were settled into the key that they had started singing in and so it was quite an amusing musical clash as I was playing in one key and they were singing in another. They continued it through both verses of the hymn. That takes talent! My piano students had been practicing and were pleased to see the new hymnbook with simplified accompaniments that I brought back for them. I think Patrick at least is very ready to step up to this new level.

We had a wonderful lesson today in Relief Society (our women's organization). Our teacher was the former Relief Society President, who had recently been released when her husband was called to be our new bishop. (After the class I asked to take her picture with her object lesson props.) They are a wonderful young couple who will be great leaders in the church in Nigeria. Her lesson was based on Elder Bednar's talk from the last General Conference -- the wonderful talk that had the "pickle parable." While I was in Houston, we had a Relief Society lesson based on this talk where the teacher brought cucumbers and jars of vinegar and displayed the object lesson that Elder Bednar used comparing the process of pickling cucumbers to the process of being born again. But our Nigerian sister adapted this lesson on being born again to an object lesson that was familiar to her Nigerian class. She started by placing some objects on the table that were familiar to everyone except the two Americans in the class. These are palm fruit and a bottle of palm oil. (Though petroleum products have taken over as Nigeria's major economic resource, palm oil used to be its primary export and resource.) Our teacher asked a member of the class to relate the process required in getting the palm oil out of the palm fruit. She talked about cleaning the seed and scraping the surface and then putting the fruit in water on the fire and after heating it for a certain amount of time, you would take out the seed and put it in a mortar and pound it and then boil it some more and siphon off the oil. Our teacher discussed the steps of this process of producing palm oil and used scriptures to compare them to the process in our lives when we are born again. Our spirits need to be prepared and cleansed. Then we go through the refining process compared to the boiling and pounding and filtering of the palm fruit. Then she showed her bottle of palm oil and talked about putting the oil in a clean container and sealing it so it would stay pure and clean. Throughout the lesson the class members contributed some wonderful insights to this process. They talked about how mothers teach their daughters this process of producing palm oil comparing how we teach our families through precept and example how we can live our lives to draw closer to the Lord. They talked about how when the fruit is not used within a short time, it loses its value. And when the boiling is not done thoroughly and correctly, there is a "poison" in the fruit that can be very harmful. The process must be done completely to make a usable oil. It's only through the process of producing the oil that the fruit becomes valuable and when the oil is ready, it can be added to a soup and its influence will be expand to a much larger extent than the small amount of oil used in the soup. The teacher concluded by saying that we all know (well, it was news to me) that palm oil is a great source of vitamin A (the wikipedia article said that it is the betacarotene in palm oil that gives it the orange color), which helps us with our eyesight and vision. She said we need this sight and vision in our lives as we strive through this goal of becoming born again. It was inspiring to see this masterful teaching experience as Sister I. adapted this lesson to something relevant and understandable to her Nigerian sisters.

The 57th good thing about Lagos: Returning and having it feel somewhat like home.

It's been a long time since I've posted anything on my blog. I really did intend to keep it up while I was away from Lagos. But life got busy and it didn't seem a priority. We've been back for a week now, and it's time to start updating the blog and journaling some experiences here. A lot happened while I was away: I got a new grandson, who continues to grow and develop wonderfully. It's so rewarding to see a daughter learn to be a great mother. We also had great times with our other grandchildren, who are also beautiful and continue to get more fun and amaze us all the time. I had a wonderfully fun European tour with the Houston Symphony Chorus. It was a real pleasure and privilege to take part in that. We had such wonderful concerts in the fabulous cities of Prague (performed as part of the Prague Spring Festival, one of the world's great musical festivals), Budapest (we sang in the Liszt Academy, a fabulous hall), and Vienna, where we performed in the beautiful gothic cathedral of St. Stephensdom. On the trip here we stopped in London for 6 days while Brent had business there. So that was a treat to have another chance to explore that wonderful city.

This was my third time arriving into Lagos and it continues to amaze me every time. Leaving the airport, feeling grateful that all our bags arrived, we go outside the airport doors and are met with a huge crowd of people waiting for other travellers. I'm always so very thankful for the company security people who assist us with our luggage and in fighting our way through the crowd. We walk down to the parking area on a street where cars are parked on both sides and we dodge other cars driving up the street. I'm always so amazed that there are no provisions for pedestrians leaving the airport. It's a security and safety nightmare, in my opinion. We dodge the cars and beggers and money traders and I get as quickly as possible into our safe vehicle away from the people accosting us for handouts. It's illegal to take pictures in the vicinity of the airport, but I'm always tempted because this experience is such a view of a totally different world.

While I was away from Lagos, Nigeria had its first peaceful transition of power since independence. The election itself was criticized greatly as being corrupt, but there wasn't the widespread violence that some had feared. And Obasanjo did step down (many questioned beforehand whether he would) and Yar'Adua (his hand-picked successor) is now in power. The cabinet is not yet chosen and it remains to be seen whether anything in government or the functioning of the country will really change. But one can always hope for the better. Most Nigerians seem to be pretty apathetic about it. The country also survived a wide-spread strike which lasted for about 5 days. I wasn't sorry to be away during that. Some expats said they were getting worried because they were low on bottled water and the company was unable to get any deliveries during the strike. There continues to be talk about the rebel groups in the delta area coming to agreement to stop the violence and kidnappings of oil workers, but the kidnappings continue. And there seems to be increased violence with robberies here. So we need to be very vigilant and careful.

We came back expecting to move right in to our new apartment, thinking that the company was anxious to get us out of our present visitors flat to free it up for someone else. But our first view Tuesday morning of our new flat was pretty discouraging. The owner had decided that he wanted security gates over all the balcony doors. So we were greeted with a filthy apartment, with holes in the concrete walls and concrete debris all over. The workers did their welding right on the tile floor. Now that most of the concrete mess is cleaned up and holes are patched, there is still paint and welding debris and marks all over the nice new tile. They also just piled up the new furniture and expensive new drapes and didn't protect them from the concrete dust and debris, so there's a lot of cleaning to do still. They need to get new brackets to rehang the drapes that will fit over the security gates. What a mess! We're hoping to move in early this week. But when we went through the apartment to check things this week, about half the sinks were leaking from the drainpipes, the clothes dryer and dishwasher were not functioning, half the lights weren't working and we had many other things on the list of things to be fixed. The workers also really marked up the walls and the paint used here comes right off on the cloth when you try to clean a spot, so there will need to be some touch-up painting. Some of this will certainly happen after we move in, but hopefully they will get going on things tomorrow. We've started moving some things over to the new flat, wanting to do as much as we can ourselves. We haven't heard good things about the care that movers take here. Brent's boss said that when he moved to a different apartment, his goods were loaded in the back of a dirty cattle car. The other thing we've been busy with this week is scheduling an R&R leave, for which Brent is very overdue. We've both been away from Lagos so much that we really don't need a break from here, but Brent needs a break from work and we need a vacation together. I found a great deal on an Eastern Mediterranean cruise out of Rome, so we fly out for that on Saturday. Hopefully this week we'll be able to get settled in the new apartment and then we'll be ready for a week and a few days away.

For right now, though things are frustrating with the mess they've made of this new flat, I look around me every day and realize how very blessed I am. I see people living in impossible conditions and see so many people horribly crippled without hope of getting healed. My frustrations come from having much and coming from a life that has programmed me to expect things to work and function. My life is so very easy compared to the majority of people here. Living in Lago gives me a constant reminder of my many blessings.