Nigeria in the News

Recently there have been several excellent articles written about Nigeria in the mainstream Western media. If you have some time check these out:

MegaCity - Decoding the chaos of Lagos. This is a bit of a long read, but it is worth it if you have time. This was in the November edition of The New Yorker. Moms, remember we live in a nice house, not in the slums of Lagos, so take this with a grain of salt!

Blood Oil - Written by Sebastian Junger (wrote The Perfect Storm) it is an insight into the fight for the Niger Delta region. Locals have been largely ignored for 60years and tensions are now reaching a climax with groups such as MEND organizing to fight for what they believe to be theirs. There are some really good photos on the site too!

Nigerian Oil, Curse of the Black Gold - National Geographic. Again focusing on the Niger Delta region, but has a fantastic video clip which is a must see!

Now, keeping in mind that I am close to the oil industry in Nigeria - I really don't think it is wholly the oil companies who are at fault - what the Delta residents are fighting for is mostly money. The government makes the bulk of the income from the oil wealth and it is so poorly managed that the people who need it most, see it least. There are so many levels of local and traditional government that by the time the money reaches the villages, there is none left for schools, hospitals, roads, power, water etc etc etc. Right now, there is no incentive to change the political system because those who are benefiting financially from the oil, control the government. It becomes a financial caste system where the rich and powerful, living far away from the Delta region grow bigger on the backs of the poor fisherman and farmer-woman in Bayelsa State. Anyway - you get the picture.

The environmental damage is staggering, but keep in mind that the bulk of the spills are caused by vandals (organized crime syndicates) damaging pipelines in an attempt to bunker oil from the pipeline. That said, it is up to the oil co's (including the Nigerian National Petroleum Co) to route / bury / protect the pipelines such that they are not a target for vandals! I find it disturbing to see the people fighting for financial reward for the environmental damage - again, it seems they are looking to be rewarded for the damage done, rather than either preventing it or cleaning up the damage done. Anyway - that is my two cents.
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SSSSwing Batta

American International School softball tournament! Slugger at bat, the rally line in force!

Baby Q

Surprise!!

Sorry to all the people that we didn't get a chance tell in person, but we are expecting a Baby Q!

Des is right now just over 3 months pregnant, so we will be expecting to deliver in July sometime. She is doing very fine, lots of morning / afternoon / evening sickness - but we hope that will stop some time soon. She will likely be back in Canada around the end of May to settle in and I'll be back to help her out for about a month.

We just got the first ultrasound done - so all the Grandparents to be can see the new baby!

Benin

Happy New Year Everyone!

We celebrated the New Year in the Republic of Benin. This time we travelled by boat, so crossing the border was much much nicer. We started off the trip with an early morning boat ride. It was actually cold, because of the fog and harmattan. Something most of us are not used to here.

The boat ride was a very nice way of travelling, here are some of the sites on the way.

tug towing small boats loaded with sand collected from the creek - used to make concrete

We had to stop in Porto Novo rather than Cotonou as the water level was too low and we risked getting stuck in a sand bar. When we approached the boat jetty, there were two big boats full of people. They were all singing, clapping and beating drums. It sounded so cool. A woman on the shore told me that they've just come from mass and were still celebrating.


We hired a couple of cars to take us to Grand Popo and were on our way! Along the way we saw so many goats either for sale to be slaughtered, just slaughtered or on there way to be slaughtered. I guess in West Africa you eat goat to celebrate the New Year. We ate seafood. This goat was still alive, we think he was on his way to a New Year's dinner.


We also saw a huge Boa Constrictor for sale on the side of the road, but sorry folks, didn't get my camera out on time.



We brought in the New Year with games, booze, a plate full of sea food, an african drumming band and of course friends.



The hotel manager planned this big party for New Year's that none of us were expecting. New Year's eve they anounced that that evening we would ALL participate in different games. Each team of five were to compete for prizes. The first game was a slip and slide set up on a ramp. Each team had to run up the ramp, fill a bucket, slide down the ramp and try and fill a bigger bucket, then pass off to the next team member.

Ryan trying to beat a little girl!

Little girl beating Ryan up the ramp!

The second game was the ol' spin around the bat and run to the pole .

Check out the VIDEO!





The third game was a little harder. It involved getting wet. One team member had to swim to one side of the pool and pick up the raft, swim with the raft and pick up the remaining team members. One team member had to be standing on the raft while swimming back. We did really well at this one and I still believe that we were cheated in our times.



Here are the festivities that took place pool side that night!

PEACE OUT DUDE!

Christmas Party Nigerian Style!

No this dog is not dead just had too much eggnog and harp.

This year we spent Christmas day on the beach with this dog and many other friends, who hopefully had as good of a time as this little guy. Thanks to all those who joined us on for Christmas day. We had a nice day, relaxing, swimming and of course eating. Merry Christmas everyone.