Jan Kara Market

Tuesday morning (February), myself and a few friends, headed out to a Nigerian market (an actual locals market). I know many of you are thinking I've been here for months and haven't gone to a market? Well that isn't exactly true, I frequent a market almost weekly. The one near our area is mostly frequented by expiates and wealthy Nigerians, so it is very very different. They sell a lot of things for your home, masks, wooden sculptures, beads etc etc. But let me tell ya they see you coming and don't really like to bargain. Anyways, the market we went to on Tuesday was a "locals" market, and I thought it was amazing! We first arrive and parking is an issue, because most people with cars don't go there. Then we walk through garbage, ditches, more and more garbage ditches and you name it to get to the market. When we get there, smells of cooking mystery meat, naked babies, some putrid smells, and loads of people. It was great! We passed by a lot of people and they kept shouting "AWEEEEBO.... ...A..WEEEEEEE...BO!", through the market. Aweebo means "whitey" in Yoruba. It wasn't meant in an offensive way, they were just surprised to see us there. So we pass the meat "department", then the JuJu area (full of monkey heads, skulls, other dead animals, and herbs for voodoo potions) and went to the fabric area. I was able to obtain loads of amazing fabrics for dirt cheap (a yard or two for less than 50 cents) of hand woven things. It was a breath of fresh air for me, to interact with locals who were interested in interacting with you. They were very kind and easy to laugh, and would bargain fairly. One of the drivers helped translate, some people at this market only spoke Yoruba. A bunch of the women selling fabrics would respond to our polite thank-yous with an "I love you!". It was a gas. I would just say "i love you too!" Here are some photos I took with my phone. There aren't very good as I don't have a flash, but I am definitely going back with Ryan.

Monkey Attack

Here are some photo's of a monkey named Kemi. She was rescued from a market... here is the "before" photo of her at the market:



You can't quite see the chain, but it was a sad sight! So, a friend of Desiree's named Roxanned adopted this little monkey (Kemi means 'take care of me' in Yourba). And has been nursing it back to health. Here is Kemi grooming Roxanne's hair:

International Institute of Tropical Agriculture

Nigeria has 2 major religions - Christian and Muslim.
Fortunatley, they give public holidays for important days in both religions! Recently, we had 2 muslim holidays in the middle of the week, so we decided to head out of town and see what Nigeria has to offer!

We went to a place called the IITA (International Institute of Tropical Agriculture). It is a large facility with research farms working on breeding new varities of maize, bananas, rice etc for growing in Africa. It is sponsored by the world bank, UN and about 40 governments around the world. As such, there are researchers there from all over, working on adressing food shortage issues in Africa by improving food production systems.



The Campus feels like a university anywhere in the world with a large conference centre, residences and lecture halls/classrooms etc. There is also a nice pool, restaraunt and 9 hole golf course. There are even hiking trails through the forest and around a small lake (with fishing). We stayed in a nice hotel room, and spent most of our time wandering around and enjoying the open space.



After a couple months in Lagos, the feeling of walking in open space without traffic was very enjoyable! It felt like a breath of fresh air, surprizing considering how much garbage was on the highway leading from Lagos to Ibadan where the IITA is located!

We did go on a walk in the "jungle" which was organized by the IITA. Our fearless guide turned out to be a "kitchen attendant" who quickly lost his way in the forest and got scared! He kept telling us about all the 'wild' animals which lived in the forest... worst he came up with was an antelope (we didn't see anything, not even a monkey!) It didn't help that a group of young Indian men who were at the front of the group scared the shit out of the guy when they started running back down the trail screaming their heads off. Poor guy didn't know what was happening... he figured that some vicious animal was chasing them down the trail! Really quite amusing. Luckly, Desi's keen sense of direction kept us on the trail and she led us back to the car - this also got the guide a good bit of ribbing.

All in all, it was a nice trip and a great chance to get out of the city and away from the traffic and people, even if it was just for a couple days.
RQ

Gone Fishing

went fishing in a boat in the ocean
it was hot
kinda boring
all we caught was 3 plastic bags
Ryan's was biggest
got a sunburn
drank some beers
ate some chips
saw tankers and container ships at sea
and lots of garbage
I don't think this fishing is for me