The 302nd good thing about Lagos: Small World 2012

When it's February in Lagos, it's time for Small World, the biggest expatriate run charity event in Lagos.  The preparations for this event run almost all year -- there is a very dedicated group of women in the general committee who give untold hours organizing the evening.  This year there were over 30  women's organizations, representing different countries, who set up and decorated a booth, prepared a sample of food representive of their country to serve around 1500 people, and many also prepared a portion of the entertainment.  I helped a bit this year with AWC's booth.  The theme this year was "Circus Spectacular."  The entertainment and decorations were supposed to celebrate the circus tradition within each country. 
We had a group of very talented and creative women working on the decorations for the American Women's Club booth.  I came to a work party and spent a bit of time following their instructions -- something I am capable of doing when someone else is doing the creative thinking!

We made some cute clown costumes for our booth workers.  I tried one on so we could see how they looked.  Pretty fun!



On the Saturday evening of Small World, we entered the area on the grounds of the British school, passing down a road lined with posters highlighting the participating country groups and the charities they had nominated to receive their portion of the proceeds from the event.

Here's the USA's poster.  Our nominated charity was an organization that is renovating a building in a crowded market area.  The building will be a center for occupational training in the arts.  They will train people in lighting, makeup, dance, music and related fields.  The building will hold a community library and they will have classes to help those that need literacy training.

The circus theme led to some fun costumes, booth decorations and dances.

The American booth was really fun.  I sewed all those stripes on the tarps for our tent.  It took a lot longer than what I had expected when I volunteered for the job, but I was glad to do it to help out.

Our decoration team was good at recycling:  the stuffed figures that became the clown, ringmaster and trapeze artists were used in previous Small World booth decor, and the line of wooden little people cutouts that here represent children going to the circus, in a previous year illustrated the international nature of the United States.

This year our booth served food we might eat at the circus:  mini corn dogs, popcorn and caramel corn, lemonade and other drinks and an assortment of candy.  We also had a supply of red clown noses to hand out.  Over 3000 people come to Small World, so it's a big event.  Brent and I took a shift serving food at the booth, but we had plenty of time to sample food from many of the other country booths.  We always end up with full stomachs before we've made the rounds.

The program at the end was fun and nicely done by many of the countries.  My camera doesn't do well in the dark, but with this picture of the American performance, you can see that we had a team with some great costumes.  They did a good job and said they had a fun time practicing for it.

Best of all, Small World this year earned over 37 million Naira (around $235,000) for Nigerian charities.  That's a really good thing!

The 301st good thing about Lagos: A street boy got a life-line

I've written before about Child Life-Line, a charity that has a residential center for boys that are rescued from the street and also a drop in day center for street kids.  We visited both centers on Valentine's Day, brought them some cookies and brought a couple of new American Women's Club volunteers to see their facilities.

I took more pictures, but there's not a lot different from my earlier visits, so here's just a couple: 

Here's their dining area,

 and some boys looking at the the fish tanks, which they had recently restocked.  They will use the fish for food when they get bigger.

We had an interesting discussion with one of the older boys who was there during our visit.  I won't mention his name for privacy reasons.  But he told us how he came to live on the street.  He was 8 years old and he wanted to go to a friend's party which would be going very late.  His father said he was not allowed to go to the party and said that he if went he would beat him so hard he would kill him.  I guess this father did have a history of abusive behavior and the boy believed him, but he still decided to go to the party.  The party was over around 2 in the morning (yeah, I'd be pretty angry if my 8 year old was out till the middle of the night at a party without my permission!) and he decided that he would just run away from home rather than go home to have a beating.  So he just left.  He migrated to a different place in Lagos and started working as a bus conductor (at 8!).  The "bus conductors" ride on the mini buses like the one in this picture, usually hanging out the door, collecting money from the passengers as they cram inside the bus.  It's really kind of a dangerous job, as many times they end up falling out of the bus.  I can't imagine an 8-year-old doing this job.

He slept under the bus at night and every once in a while would pay a little money to wash up at a public bath house.  He lived like this for 3 years and when he was 11 he got tired of this life.  He had heard of Child Life Line from somewhere and he was able to get a place there.  They sent him to school, helped him get in touch with his family.  He talks to his father regularly now and says they have a pretty good relationship, but he doesn't want to go home to live with them.  He says he has better opportunities living at Child Life Line.  He is currently 16 years old and is working at an apprenticeship for a printer.  He enjoys his work.  He has another year and then he will have to move out on his own, but he feels he will be ready.  He seemed like a good young man and I'm glad that this charity organization was there to give him a life line to help him get off the streets.

The 300th good thing about Lagos: Valentine's Dinner with friends at the GQ

Wow!  I've reached 300 good things!   It's hard to believe we've been in Lagos over 5 years now -- for Brent it's almost 6!  We're still enjoying our life here (mostly) and still have no idea how much longer we'll be here.  Living in limbo seems to be our fate.

Valentine's Day is pretty big here in Lagos.  In the morning I was outside Lagos in the country to visit a charity.  The road was under construction and we missed our turn, so we stopped to ask for directions from some teachers who were with their students in an open classroom that was just beside the road.  They were all dressed up special in red -- students and teachers -- and looked to be getting ready for a party.  After giving us directions, they called out "Happy Val Day!"  They were so cute -- I wish I had taken a picture of them.

We're kind of old married folk and a romantic Valentine's dinner for two doesn't sound as much fun to us as joining with friends to have some good conversation around the table. The American Guest Quarters, known as the "GQ," or "American Club" had a special Valentine's Day menu which was delicious. We had a very nice evening after we made our way through some very bad traffic to get there. It seemed like all of Lagos was on the road going out for "Val Day." I remember getting our picture taken that evening, but it seems it wasn't with our camera. But I have pictures of nice friends with whom we shared the evening.

It was a very nice "Val Day."  Hope you had the same!

The 299th good thing about Lagos: Harmattan seems to be over

Because of our return to Lagos later in January this year, we missed the worst of the Harmattan.  Before we returned there were lots of pictures and complaints from friends in Lagos during the strike, who were dealing, not only with being homebound, but views like this from their windows.   I took this picture from a friend's apartment on the island of Ikoyi, which has more trees than our neighboring Victoria Island.  The view from my window is not of dusty green trees, but dusty city street. 

The Harmattan is a seasonal weather pattern where the winds come from the north and bring dust from the Sahara.  The haze blocks the sun, so the temperatures tend to be cooler.  But heavy dust in the air brings breathing problems.  Trees and everything outside keep a coating of dust until the occasional thunderstorm clears the dust away for a short time.  Harmattan was still here through most of February, but we seem to be mostly past it now.  The temperatures are heating up and we have clearer skies.

We did have a really freak storm a couple of weeks ago that seemed almost like a tornado.  It had very strong and tightly concentrated winds.  Banana Island, which is an extension of Ikoyi, was heavily hit.  Friends had windows blown out of their high rise apartment.  A neighbor was hurt by flying glass.  Roofs were blown off, trees were knocked down, someone had their patio furniture blown away off their balcony and never to be seen again.  There were some fatalities -- people on a boat and someone being hit by a falling light pole.  There was crazy damage in some areas, but, though we were very close as the crow flies, we had maybe a sprinkle of rain and no wind disturbed the light resin pool furniture.

Crazy weather all over the world right now it seems, but for today in Lagos it is hot and calm and I'm off to shop at a charity bazaar.

Hope March's weather is more lamb-like than lion-like where you are! 

The 298th good thing about Lagos: a peaceful day at the beach

Going to the beach on a weekday usually makes for a very relaxing day.  It's always a fun group of women and we play games and chat and read and relax.



It starts with a nice boat ride.

We always pass lots of barges with men loading them with sand.

 The beach is empty -- no vendors and usually no one else after we pass by the busy school in the village.

 A really nice day!

The 297th good thing about Lagos: Strikes in January were difficult for many, but gave us a little longer vacation

Hurray!  I've finally caught up to 2012 in my blog posting and very soon I will be up to date!  As I said in my last post, we had a great Christmas holiday and then we were busy getting ready for our return to Lagos when Nigeria erupted in unrest.  At the beginning of the year the country suddenly decided to stop the fuel subsidy that had been in place keeping the prices of gasoline artificially low.

I have a friend that writes a very interesting blog about Nigerian cultural issues and in her post on the strike she explained it very well.  I'll quote her here for those of you who won't bother to go to the link to read her entire blog post:

What happens is this. Nigeria produces crude oil, sells it on the international market, and then buys back, at international prices, refined products. Petrol is then sold nationally at a low price and the government takes the loss of the difference in price. As of January 1 of this year, the Government has removed this subsidy and the price of petrol has subsequently more than doubled.The government has decided to scrap the subsidy because they are expensive and were not allocated in the budget for this year. They have also been a source of corruption: for instance, cheap fuel is smuggled across the country’s borders and sold at large profits that benefit only a handful of people. And apart from the benefit of ensuring low petrol prices for Nigerians, the subsidies have hindered development and economic growth in the country. Nigerians understand this: they know that these funds would be better used to provide roads, sanitation, running water, and especially a steady source of electricity. So why three days of strikes with no end in sight?
I think it is in part a question of trust. Will the government really invest the money as they say they will? Nigerians have been bitterly disappointed in the past. Many people point to the fact that government overhead (things like salaries and equipment such as private jets, computers etc) is among the highest in the world. Senators are said to earn USD 1 million per year as a base salary. Had the government first announced (and shown) a programme of austerity at the top, Nigerians would possibly have stomached the rise in petrol prices. Like one friend said, ‘We are used to suffering’.
In other words, Nigerians have the impression that ordinary people are being asked to pay the price for improving Nigeria’s economy when there is room for savings and belt tightening at the top. Tackling corruption and improving efficiency should, they feel, come first. The large group of Nigerians at the bottom of the pyramid have no savings and no social welfare net to lean on. A significant portion of the population buys their dinner with what they earned that day. If they were already living hand-to-mouth, how will small businesses and petty traders afford to run their petrol-run generators for electricity and pay transport costs to get themselves or their produce to market? Many honest, hard-working people live on N10,000 (about Euro 50) a month. From this they send children to school and feed them. At my friend’s hospital one worker had to quit because she could no longer afford the transportation costs of getting to work – rental costs in Lagos are so high that many people live far from their workplace.
So the strikes go on. Some have described it as a blinking game – who will give in first: the government or the protestors? Can the government afford to back down and negotiate? Can people demonstrate rather than earn their daily living?

Well, the formal strike started just as Brent was due to return to Nigeria, so he was told to stay in Houston until things calmed down.  We really didn't have a choice as most international flights were cancelled.  During the strike which lasted about 1 1/2 weeks, most offices were closed and expats in Lagos were told to remain at home.  So we got a bit more vacation time in the States (though Brent did go into the office in Houston most days) and missed out on enforced house arrest in our Lagos apartment.  Brent ended up staying a couple of weeks longer than scheduled and I delayed my return by a week, so instead of a staggered return, we ended up coming back together.  The Nigerian government blinked and made some concessions -- they returned half of the fuel subsidy, so gasoline prices went down, but still up around 50% more than they had been last year.   Prices in the grocery store and the market are up to cover increased transportation costs.  But one pleasant thing is that since we've been back in Lagos it seems there are fewer cars on the road -- the traffic is sometimes less congested.  I do feel for the people who have been hit hard by the raise in fuel prices.  Most Nigerians don't have much cushion in their budgets, so I know there are many who are finding the increase very difficult to bear.  I know gas prices are up in the States right now as well.  One really nice perk we have here is that our car, driver and fuel costs are covered by the company.  So we have no personal impact (beyond increased food costs) with the increase in fuel prices.  Right now I'm thinking that's a very good thing!

The 296th good thing about Lagos: Holiday trips home

Well, it's not totally fair to say that a great thing about Lagos is leaving it to go home. Lagos certainly feels like home to me now and I enjoy my time here. But still we miss our family and treasure our times together, so our trips back to the States are especially wonderful.
We did something different for Christmas this year -- usually we stay at our home outside Houston. But this year our son and daughter-in-law invited us to come with their family to Disney World. They had rented a house near the park with room for all of us. Our daughter and her family were off in Colorado at her inlaws, and we missed seeing them this holiday season, but our son, Jordan, was on break from his law school studies and he came along as well.

We had a wonderful holiday vacation! It was fun to see the excitement of our grandkids as they visited Disney World for the first time.

We enjoyed going on rides with the kids,

and also enjoyed it when it was our turn to have fun with Mason while others went on the rides.

The kids enjoyed bonding with Uncle Jordan, and he enjoyed being with them too!

 Last time we were at Disney World, our kids were teenagers and past the stage of being interested in posing with Disney characters.  It was fun to see our grandkids so excited to meet them and get their autograph.

 The girls LOVED the princesses and Belle was especially nice to the girls.

 These princesses are so perfect for their job!

 The grownups also posed for pictures, though I regret not getting good pictures of our older son and daughter-in-law.  Lots of photos of their children, though!

The grandkids enjoyed spotting African animals in the Disney version of an African safari.  Maybe sometime they can go on a real one.  See the crocodile?

The kids enjoyed swimming in the rental home's pool when we weren't enjoying the magic of Disney,

and the grownups took turns having a day without the kids at Universal Studios, where we joined the throngs in line in Harry Potter World.

Of course, we managed to have Christmas in there too, using a potted plant for our unconventional Christmas tree.

 We had a memorable Christmas Day at Hollywood Studios, where (after urging from my husband and son) I auditioned and was chosen to be on stage for the Disney American Idol competition.

 I sang a holiday favorite, (don't know what the "DA" is for....)

 but didn't get into the finals (I was relieved about that!) 

It was fun, but I'm a little past the American Idol age.

 The kids got their faces painted for Christmas Day.

 and we were dazzled by the lights at night.

After attending some of the evening action at the parks, it was good to have plenty of adults on hand to help get the tired kids home to bed!

But always at the end of the day, on the tram heading for the car, it was a "thumbs up" for a great day!

It's late to wish my blog readers a Merry Christmas, but even though it's now the first day of March, I'll wish you all a Happy 2012!