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

Creative Nigerian Marketing Strategies

I must say, I still love driving in traffic and waiting to see something completely unexpected. I was in a go slow with a friend the other day, on our way to the grocery store. She was sitting in the back seat with me (as usual), and someone approached her side of the car attempting to sell something (as usual). He was holding up a string with some dead critters on it. I said "Is that?". My friend turned to see and said "RAAAATTSSS!! AHHHHHH!". It was hilarious, he waited for her to calm down, them held up another string. No dead rats this time, instead it was a string of bright coloured boxes with dead rats on them, called the Atomic Bomb. He was selling rat poison. I must say I thought that this kind of marketing was very very clever. You have to remember this is a street vendor! We then watched him go to the other cars and scare the living heck out of other people stuck in traffic. Sorry I didn't get a chance to take a photo, my girlfriend was freakin out, she didn't find it nearly as amusing as I did.

While at a Chinese market one day, I discovered a non-discrete door, selling bathroom use. The ladies got a kick out of it. So I snapped a photo with my phone.

Compliments of the Season

Christmas in Nigeria 2006. I must say the day itself turned out to be a lot of fun. Ryan and I cooked the traditional meal, for a few friends, also in Lagos for the holidays. The preparations, up to Christmas day, not so fun. A week before Christmas, all the grocery stores closed down, the only thing we could buy were fresh fruits and vegetables at the market. The rumors where that the government was hitting up the store owners to pay huge tariffs on their products being imported, (most are smuggled in). Rather than pay the government the stores closed. If they opened without paying they risked being thrown in jail. So here I am, trying to cook my first Christmas dinner, running around town, trying to find ingredients. I did manage to buy a turkey though! One of the store owners opened up really early in the morning (seven o'clock), and the word was out that if you needed a turkey, show up at that time, no later than seven thirty. I show up to the store, it appears closed, a guard comes to the car to see who is inside, and opens the gate. It felt like I was there on some shady drug deal! I did manage to get all the ingredients through the kindness of the ladies in our building (they have stock piles like you wouldn't believe). We did have a back up for the turkey, at Ryan's work , in the parkade, you could purchase a live one. The turkeys showed up in a back of a van, about five days before Christmas. When you purchased your turkey you would take him home (live) with a bag of food. I guess so you could fatten him up! This was my LAST LAST resort. Here are a few shots of the meal and friends! After we ate, we went and spent the evening drinking and socializing with our building mates.Fireworks where going off all night, across the beach we face. It was really cool.






Compliments of the Season is what everybody says here. Not Merry Christmas, not happy holidays. Just the very Hallmark "Compliments of The Season!". When you say Merry Christmas back, most people laugh or look at you a little funny. The streets and building were nicely decorated, our guards even decorated our gate! People were shooting off fireworks throughout the holidays, it was really amusing. At first we thought it was gunfire, then you could see the flashing in the sky.
Along with decorations and Christmas cheer, came out the creatures. One day after dropping off Ryan at lunch, my driver and I pulled out of the parkade. He said "Madam, Madam, Hyenas and Baboons!" I thought he was going crazy, then I saw them. A group of men where marching some baboons, and hyenas down the street, beating a drum and singing. I quickly told my driver to turn around so we could see them. The hyenas were big, much bigger than I imagined. The whole scene was amusing, but very sad at the same time. They had put pants on the baboon and would make him walk on two feet to the drum. The hyena was more stubborn and wouldn't move around as freely. The men were wipping him, he was bleeding from his ears, it was really sad. The group was looking for money (I didn't give any, not wanting to promote this). Unfortunately, me just stopping to look, promotes it.