With the holiday season approaching the traffic is getting worse and worse. Yesterday I spent a little over 4 hours in the car, traveling to see a friend, and back (a total distance of maybe 7kms)! The beauty of the go slows here is that you can buy almost anything while stuck in traffic. A cool drink, newspaper, sunglasses, complete guide to Shakespeare, toilet seat, hair shears, office chair, Halloween masks, dolls, engineering mathematics, three month old gossip columns, and fruit and vegetables. Most days it is a bunch of people selling a lot of the same thing, other days (my favorites) is when you see a huge variety of stuff. Although they are out trying to make a buck, the go-slow vendors often cause the traffic problems. I guess they need to ensure they have some customers.
I am starting to get used to the police checks. Every night usually after sundown the Nigerian police set up road block/check stops. At first I was really nervous about them, because they carry big guns, automatic assault rifles, but now (it is funny how it wears off) I have learned that they mostly just want money. They will wave you over, (because they see foreigners in the car) and say that your driver did something illegal, and you need to pay. Or they will just ask straight out "something for the boys?".. My driver usually just drives away. The first time I was like "whoa! What are you doing, they have guns". Nothing ever comes of it, they just wave as you drive away. Completely ridiculous. Now that the holiday season is coming they are hitting up people hard for extra doe. Our driver is really good at dealing with this sort of thing.
Our driver has Sunday off. To spend time with family and go to church. The roads are usually pretty quite so Ryan doesn't mind driving. A few weekends ago we were on our way to the beach and were pulled over for no reason. The police officer saw two foreigners in the car and thought he could make some extra money. Ryan pulled to ol' "don't understand you," card and drove away! When we arrived at the beach to meet up friends, we said we were late as we got pulled over and a good friend of mine said " Yup, Sunday, or I guess you can call it get whitey day!" The Nigerian government is trying its best to stop corruption, and according to some, has had some success over the past years.
The beach we went to the other weekend is about a 30 minute boat ride outside of Lagos. The beach house/hut is quite nice and the actual beach is big and clean. It is the "Mobil" beach house, and any employee has free access to the boat and hut. We went with a crew of about 20 and it was really fun. Lots of great food, and a really nice leisurely day. When you arrive to the dock, there are a bunch of people from the village waiting to carry your things. They are glad to do it for some extra cash. One of the women's club here actually raised money and built a school for the children of the community. When we arrived, Church was in session, and the sounds coming out of the building were amazing. All the families inside singing and dancing. As we walked I thought "wow, that SOUNDS like Africa". The village there is small, and most of the families, either fish or do some sort of crafts, trade that they can sell. The children are so cute, and always seem to have a smile on waving and laughing. Mid-day vendors usually visit the beach and sell different goods that either they have made or someone they know has made.
--DDQ
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