Cajuns, Turkey and Shitrocks continued

Ryan and I were very fortunate to experience some real creole cajun food just last week. Our friend Todd invited us over, and he cooked an amazing meal for us (and about 15 other guests). I don't think I had ever eaten "real" cajun cooking like that, and man I am hooked. Todd is from Louisiana and is here working as a consultant. He was just recently home, and brought back with him all the necessary food and spices to cook some real hometown, cajun food. We had a really great time and were able to meet more people our own age! Believe it or not this is a challenge in Lagos. Here are a few photos of the evening.







Now was requested (I will leave you anonymous!) Photos of shit rock. Shit Rock is well if you haven't figured a shit rock. Ryan's work window looks out onto the lagoon, and well the place where many men like to do there business. You can see the rock if you look just above the billboard. The photo quality isn't all that great because it was taken with Ryan's phone.




While playing cards at a neighbors one day I discovered do doo rock numero 2 (pardon the pun). The women I play cards with were out with binoculars looking at the construction workers (who sometimes work-out naked), when I discovered shit rock #2, this place is where well, they like to take care of business. If you can see on the side of the photo, the building being constructed it quite the deal. one is more fancy than the one outside Ryan's work, they have gone to the extent of building a platform. The building next door is built completely out of concrete. They use wooden tressles instead of scaffolding.

Cajuns, Turkey and Shit Rocks

Although a little late, I figured I would post the photos we have of our first American Thanks-giving. It just so happened to be celebrated in Nigeria! We attended the function at the American Embassy's guest quarters. The food was very good. They actually had butter ball turkeys flown in for the occaision! They served the whole works, even pumpkin pie. Rumors where flying about last year people not getting any pie as it was all eaten by the time they got to it in line. Ryan thought he would take precautionary measures and went straight for the pie, and took one of the largest pieces of pie I've ever seen. There were about twenty or thirty of us there, mostly people Ryan works with.

Traffic Nigerian Style

It has been about three weeks now, and I am starting to feel settled in. My days are filled with all sorts of different things, like cards, market shopping, meeting people for lunch etc. There have been many different functions with the holiday season coming up. We have put up a few lights and bought a few ornaments for the house to make it feel a little more festive. I am surprised how many buildings are decorated, it looks really nice.

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

James Caddell

This will just be a short note about friends we met in Vietnam. When we met them, James and Tara were on their way around the world on a 3yr honeymoon after taking a sabbatical from their positions with the Canadian Government. They had just left East Timor after doing aid work there for several months. After we left, they went on to the Himalaya for Christmas before delaying their trip to head to Sri Lanka to help with the Tsunami relief efforts. They are amazing people.



Last week we got a note from Tara, she is heading to Pakistan to assist with the Canadian Relief Foundation. Sadly, Tara is going to Pakistan alone as she recently lost her newly wed husband in Bolivia. James died of complications arising from altitude sickness in Tupiza, Bolivia on the 16th of October. Though we knew James for only a short while, his compassion and dedication as a humanitarian are traits that we will remember always.

A fund has been set up in James' name, 100% of the funds go directly to a Scholarship for Orphaned Children: The James Caddell Memorial Scholarship Fund

Desiree's First Week

My first week here has been very busy and interesting. When first landing in Nigeria I was feeling a little stange, being the only white woman on the flight. There were a lot of American men who work with Ryan on the plane and they were very kind - telling me I was brave to come! First few days were just spent getting over jet lag and unpacking.

As though moving to Nigeria wasn't enough stress, Ryan and I volunteered to care for a fellow expat's dog, named Buddy. We expected that Buddy would be a nice house dog that could keep me company during the day. When Buddy came to us, he looked like he had been living on the streets for months, smelt like it too! He was missing hair, scabby, thin and full of fleas... his owner had left him in the care of his staff while he was in the USA and he wasn't well cared for. Ryan and I tried our best to bring Buddy back to good heath and house dog status by washing him, cleaning the mites in his ears and tending his wounds. Unfortunately, Buddy was in great need of a Vet and in Nigeria, a Vet costs an arm and a leg. Needless to say we were not sucessful in fixing Buddy up and we elected to return Buddy to his owner after only 1 week. It took another week to get rid of Buddy's aroma in our flat!



Over the weekend, Ryan and I attended a Yacht Club Party themed "Sail around the World." It took a little over 2 hours to travel about 5kms because the traffic was so bad. We eventually just jumped out of the car and walked! The party was set up with booths from different countries around the world, serving drinks and food common to those countries. The Scottish had Single Malt Scotch and haggis and the Dainish had european wieners and some Jagermiester type of liquer. The Canadians even had a booth and no, the didn't serve beer and clam, much to my disappointment, instead Rye and Coke. For food, the Canadians had mini pancakes with maple syurp and smoked salmon. We met a few more Canadians and we are hoping to attend a pot-luck in the coming weeks. That night I learned that the expat community here is big (3000+) and very strong. Most people ar very friendly and quick to show me around.

I started tennis lessons with a local named Nelson. He learned to play tennis as a kid and because he was good, he was able to go to a tennis academy. He said that when he was young, it was affordable, but now with so many rich Nigerians playing, Tennis is too costly for the average Nigerian. That is only one example of the HUGE gap between the rich & poor. For instance, the vehicles on the roads are either mercedies benz, Land Rovers, big Toyota SUVs (nice expensive imported cars) or junky chinese motorbikes called Okadas. The yellow cabs running around are old and dirty, but other than them there is no vehicles in between - like how there is no middle class in this country.

I have been to the market a few times already to buy fruit, veggies and other things for the house. Things are cheaper if you are able to bargin, but I still pay more than the nigerians because I am white, understanibly. It is very strange being a minority - Caucasians don't have a good reputation here either. I guess I'm not accustomed to segregation. It is very difficult to integrate with the average Nigerian - it seems as though they feel uncomfortable with us in some circumstances & they would prefer to just deal with themselves - For instance, our driver will say 'No Madam, you don't go there' as if that place is 'below' me. There might be a bit of a language barrier there too which makes it difficult to integrate. I guess it is tough because in Canada we don't have segregation on such a large scale due to class or colour.

Over the past week I have learned so much already. All of my expectations that I had before coming over have been thrown out the window. We are so fortunate in Canada, in so many ways. We do have great healthcare - here if you get in a car accident and you are injured, you will lie there and die, because there is no good samaritan laws here. If you help someone, you take financial responsibility for their health care and burial if they die! That is a burden most people can't handle, so the injured person just lies there waiting for family. The traffic is so bad that the ambulance (looks like a 1970 stationwagon) can't even get there in a reasonable time.

I am still surprised with how quick everyone is to become a friend. In Canada is it not common to meet someone in passing, either on the street, grocery store, or bar, and exchange numbers and become good friends. The expat community is very strong here. It is very easy to meet other people and go too many different functions.
This first week has been pretty eventful and from what I am seeing, that is the way the social life works here.