Our Lagos Home

As promised, here are some photos of our apartment. I meant to post these last week two weeks ago but a major "link" went down (says our Internet Service Provider) and everywhere in Lagos was experiencing extremely slow internet, supposedly. Things have gotten better but I just haven't found the time to sit down and put the proverbial pen to paper to get this posted.

The apartment is still looking a little institutional with our bare, white walls and general lack of coziness. But it's getting there, slowly but surely. I need to venture out to a local market soon to pick up some decorative items and get some artwork framed and hung. And we're still waiting on a few more pieces of furniture (like a desk and entryway table) to arrive.

Our welcoming foyer....  I heard phones on the ground are gonna be the next craze in interior design. 

To the right of the front door is the dining area. Right now it's serving double duty as an office too. 

Our living room furniture. 

We certainly didn't intend for every piece of furniture to be brown. I think throw pillows will help tremendously to tone down the brown. Pillows will also help with napping as the couches don't have much give. Definitely no flopping down on these bad boys after a long day.  I think they kind of look like brown plastic outdoor furniture, but they are slightly more comfortable than plastic. The foam here must be very, very dense.

Also, part of a desk can be seen in the picture above by the window. Hoping to retrieve the rest of it sometime this week.

Another view of the living room.

Not pictured: a new-to-us red rug under the coffee table.

The short hallway on the left in the photo above leads to the guest bath and kitchen and the open door on the right leads to the bedrooms. 

Master bedroom

We don't have much storage here so Ryan and I have separate closets, the one in our bedroom is mine. 

Master bathroom featuring a never-before-used- jacuzzi tub.

Not pictured in the bathroom is the button for the hot water. I've never encountered this feature, but apparently it's very common in places where water and electricity are scarce. About 20 minutes before showering you hit the switch, enjoy the piping hot water, and then turn it off when you're done. It was a little inconvenient at first, but we've gotten used to it now. 

Guest bedroom 

Spare bedroom + Ryan's closet. When our couch arrives from America it will go in this room.

On the other side of the apartment, we have the guest bathroom and kitchen. 

 

Guest bathroom

The kitchen. This was taken before we had shelves in the pantry to store food.  

The other side of the kitchen. That weird contraption is a drying rack because our washer/dryer combo doesn't do a great job of drying in a timely manner. 

Washer/dryer combo and our only source of potable water. We use that water for drinking, making coffee, cooking, and teeth brushing. 

The most interesting part of our apartment is the view out of the back windows, especially the window above the sink. Here's the view:

The corrugated metal on the left of the photo is a toilet area. I'm actually not sure what's behind the metal, and I don't intend on checking it out, ever.  However, not everyone chooses to use that spot. Many people just go behind a bush, against the wall, or squat down in the field on the other side of the wall.  There's a dock to the left of us and I've seen people just go into the water too.

To the left of the "toilet" is a very popular hangout spot. I even see some oyibos there in the evenings enjoying pepper soup. We walked over there once to buy a loaf of bread but they wanted to charge us something ridiculous so we didn't buy anything. 

Beyond the "empty" lot is what I've been lovingly referring to as the cinder block factory. Guys are out there 24/7 making, carrying, and hosing down those blocks. Sometimes trucks come and pick some up. 

What you can't see is the big wall that separates us from the lot next door, complete with barbed wire and electricity. When we were choosing apartments, we never thought to really study the activities that we'd be seeing out our windows before making our decision. Next time, we definitely will. Saturday morning I was cooking breakfast and we saw a teenage boy, totally nude, showering in the middle of the lot. Just a couple of buckets of water and absolutely no attempt at privacy. I know it's a cultural thing, but a need for privacy is so engrained in us that seeing others' blatant dismissal of it is shocking. 

Luckily, the living room windows have a nice balcony that looks out over the pool area. 

So that's the grand tour! As you can see, we have plenty of room for visitors.  If you've got extra cash lying around for the plane ticket, visa, and required immunizations, we've got ample free lodging to offer! 

Mama Said

Let me start by saying this past week has been the most exciting since we arrived 6 months ago. I just wish I could have enjoyed it more.  But these have been some tough days for us. We are finally in our beautiful, shiny apartment (pictures are coming soon)! However, it's been a difficult transition to living (somewhat) on our own after 6 months of hotel life.

We've both been sick with severe sore throats this past week. It started with Ryan and spread to me. It's just a cold, but even those seem to be a bit more brutal over here. And then I got conjunctivitis (awful). And I haven't been able to sleep due to the aforementioned ailments, the absolute silence, and our hard-as-a-rock mattress. And the stress of moving and unpacking and shopping and cooking. And well, it's just been a rough few days. Plus, unpacking is really lame.

I'm struggling with cooking here.
1. Our apartment is far from all the grocery stores. Traffic is awful. Once inside, the stores are crowded, noisy, foreign, and, of course, cash-only with the biggest bill equaling about $6. Checkout is slow and often manual.
2. I have to go to 3-4 stores per trip to find the stuff I'm looking for, which takes hours. Hopefully, I'll start to get a better idea of where to buy what in the near future.
3. The prices are outrageous. I find myself gawking at the price of things and just refusing to buy high-priced things I may want/need. And we have limited cash here.
4. I forgot what I used to cook all the time! Every dinner idea I come up with I conclude will be tricky here. Or ridiculously expensive. And, I'm  really just struggling.  Plus I have the added pressure of providing lunch for Ryan every day at work. There's always ramen-type noodles, but I can't do that to him yet.
5. All of the "yellow" onions I bought, are in fact, red onions. What the heck!
6. Non-American produce is filthy, bruised and ugly. It must be incredibly wasteful to only get the pretty stuff in American grocery aisles, but man is it more appealing.  The stuff over here appears to have fallen out of the tree or off the truck. Our best produce markets are on the side of the road (or under a bridge) and during rainy season, it isn' t a cleanly venture.

I did make a grilled cheese sandwich today that was just about the most glorious thing I've tasted in 6 months.

I've seen numerous people using the bathroom in the empty lot/local hangout area outside my kitchen window. Which is obviously very, very unfortunate. And I don't just mean #1. Wish we would have spent more time checking out the view before choosing this particular flat. Gotta keep the blinds closed.

Today I unpacked all of the toiletries we packed, and I really don't know what I was thinking. We have SO MUCH toothpaste and deodorant  Both of which can be easily found here (albeit at higher cost).  And why, oh why, did I pack ALL of our towels. And why do we even own so many towels to being with? I wish I had less of that stuff and more personal items like framed photos.

There's a weird leak in our kitchen. We can't figure out where the water's coming from because it isn't near the sink and it's not coming down the walls. It's just a puddle in the corner behind the door??

I've realized that some things are missing from our air shipment: my sewing machine, an over-the-door mirror, and some dvds. Boo. Hopefully they aren't lost and will turn up on our doorstep soon.

I'll post again soon and it'll be happier. I really am relieved to be out of the hotel.

Arrested Development

It's been over a month since my last update. I wish I could say that's because I've been so busy moving in to our apartment.... but that's not entirely true.  I'm writing this now from the exact same hotel room I was in a month ago, but we have made a lot of progress recently. In the past few weeks I've spent a lot of time waiting around inside my apartment for things to be fixed, curtains to be hung, and cable guys to show up.

Here's the progress:

• We have staff! We now have our own driver and stewardess. Both of whom we really like a lot so far.

• We have electricity! Someone finally paid our "service charge" to the complex and the electricity in our apartment can be kept on even when we aren't home.  It's really luxurious not to have to wait for our apartment to cool off every time I arrive with boxes. Cause, ya know, it's hot in Africa.  This means we can start putting things in our refrigerator and making ice cubes! 

• We have appliances! A refrigerator, a microwave, water dispenser, and a currently-broken washer/dryer combo.

• We have cooking gas! This was another several day process that concluded on Monday. I'm new to cooking with a gas oven with actual flames at the bottom, but I think I'm getting the hang of it. The only thing I've baked in it was a Pillsbury funfetti cake that I brought to Ryan's office Monday, and, since I've had 0 reports of food poisoning, I'm calling it a success! Thank you to the person who advised I bring a Fahrenheit oven thermometer over!

• We have entertainment! We have a working tv in our apartment, a satellite AND wireless internet!

• We have curtains! They are beautifully uneven at the bottom, but who's looking down there other than people sitting on the floor (I've been sitting on the floor a lot lately since we didn't have furniture). 

• We have a car! Well, actually we've been driving around in a used SUV with a cracked radiator the past few weeks. But our permanent car finally arrived today! Apparently, Nigeria has been fresh out of Toyota RAV4's until today. Hooray!

• We have OUR STUFF! Our air shipment arrived last week and it's been really exciting to look through all the stuff we packed up last year. Thankfully, once it finally got the "okay" to leave Houston, it made it to Lagos and into our apartment in  < 2 weeks. Can't complain about that! Everything arrived in perfect condition, with the only exception being my special french press for iced coffee, which I dropped while taking it out of the box. Whoops! It's weird to see things that we thought we'd need over here, and then to realize that we don't really need any of that stuff after living without it.  But it is nice to have frivolous stuff again!

• We have 1 couch, 1 love seat, and 2 living room chairs! The rest of the furniture will supposedly arrive next Wednesday, supposedly. 

I'd been harboring grandiose plans to move into our flat tomorrow, but after our disappointing furniture delivery today, that clearly won't be happening. Tonight is American Night at the hotel and I was really hoping we could make it our last meal here. No such luck! To say that we're incredibly frustrated doesn't even begin to describe this ordeal. From the beginning, we've said that all we need to move into our apartment is a mattress, electricity, a fridge and tv/internet. We are so, so, so, close to getting to that point. We just need that darn mattress!

Italia!

As promised, here are some envy-inducing pictures Ryan took while in Italy on a business trip. The town he visited, Colico, is located northwest of Milan on the beautiful Lake Como. Cue jealousy!

View from the plane

The Alps!

Not a bad place for a meeting....

Lake Como

Unfortunately, he didn't have much time for sightseeing, so a lot of these were taken early one morning before he went to work. He actually had bad weather for most of the week he was there and only this one day of blue sky.

Town of Colico

Lake Como + Alps 

Espagueti com Frutos do Mar (Spaghetti with Seafood)

Fancy Tiramisu

The food was delicious, as one would expect from a trip to Northern Italy. Pictured above is dinner from the hotel's restaurant, Restaurante Risi. Since he was right on the lake, they ate seafood and fish with every meal.  He now refuses all tiramisu that doesn't have a chocolate swan drawn on top.

View from the Restaurante Risi overlooking Lake Como and the Alps. 

Update: Makoko

One step forward, three steps backward.

The Lagos State government announced plans to demolish the new Makoko Floating School. An authority claims the school is, and always has been, illegal. I hope this isn't coming as a total surprise to the community leaders there; they were so invigorated and proud of the new building.

P.M. News Nigeria: Lagos To Demolish Makoko Floating School

Sad news for the Makoko community.

Ishahayi

On Monday I visited a small Yoruba school with a group of American women. It was my first trip to the school, but I hope to go back again soon. The school was on holiday while we were there, so there were only a few kids hanging around. However, the main point of the trip was to check progress on the construction of the new building being funded by the Ishahayi Beach School Foundation (IBSF).

Currently, the school houses it's 160 students in one small building; I have no idea how they all fit. IBSF is raising funds to expand the school to accomodate more students, as well as provide them with a better learning experience (such as electricity to power fans for the hot, dry season, and lights for when it storms) and school supplies. The school itself is located in a fishing village outside of Lagos. It takes about 40 minutes, by boat, to get to the school from Ikoyi.

It's the only school for miles.

Inside the new school building. The roof was just built!

Half of one of the old classrooms.

The other half of an old classroom. So small!

Old school buildings.

The library and the drum set.

The computers are used for typing practice and for the teachers to create worksheets. Internet is set up, but currently not working.

View of the old school with the new school right behind it.

Classroom for older kids.

Papaya tree, locally known as "pawpaw".

Shade.

Our group, plus security, meeting with the headmistress.

View of the village, it's very spread out so this is only a part of it.

 

The beach. 

Almost paradise!

Our lovely beach lunch spot.

Cassava plants, a starchy potato-like root that's very popular to eat here. I just learned that tapioca is made from cassava.  Nigeria is the World's largest producer of cassava (thanks Wikipedia)!

The dock with  Badagry Creek in the background. 

We had an interesting trip out to the school. I've mentioned before that everything takes about 3x longer  to get done here than it would in the states. Our trip to the school was no exception. It took 3 boats to get us out there because our charter boats kept breaking down! We had to make 2 boat-to-boat transfers without the stability of a dock. Normally, this would just be exciting, but because we're in Lagos, there's the threat of severe illness should you fall into the water to go along with the adventure. There was some debate that falling into the water may actually bring super powers, or, maybe if you're lucky,  immunity from all diseases, rather than imminent death. But I'm hoping not to find out.

Interesting wiring situation. Surprisingly, this was inside the working boat. 

This was the best picture I could get of these guys. There were lots of crews out on boats like this. Some men were clothed, some were not. But they were all diving off the boats with buckets, scooping up sand at the bottom of the river, and dumping it into the boat. When the boat starts sitting low in the water, they head back to shore and the sand is turned into concrete bricks for construction. Talk about manual labor!

If you'd like to learn more about the Ishahayi Beach School Foundation, please visit their site: www.ibsfnigeria.org.
To make a donation to the Ishahayi Beach School Foundation, please visit their page on GlobalGiving.org here.