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
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