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.

Makoko Village

Today I had the extreme honor of visiting the fishing village of Makoko here in Lagos. The entire village is built over Lagos Lagoon with housing built on stilts and canoes for cars. Currently considered a slum, the village has existed for over a hundred years, and not much has changed in that time. Last year, Makoko made international news when the local government came in and knocked down dozens of houses, intending to destroy the village in an effort to clean up the Lagos waterfront. The residents put up a fight and most of the village survived. Most of the people living in Makoko were born here, and will spend their entire lives here.

We drive by the village on our way to and from the airport but I never expected to actually get to visit. We were invited to see their exciting, new floating school. The new school was designed with climate change in mind, and stays afloat upon 256 oil drums, not stilts, like the other structures in the community. The smart design also utilizes solar panels to provide some electricity to the school so that the children are able to continue working even when it's dark. Right now, the school is still waiting on furniture to be fully functional, and for now serves as a meeting place and community center.

New School

Classroom on the second floor

Toilet

View from the top, the open air design keeps it breezy and cool inside

During our visit, we were also invited to visit with the village Chief in his house. While the Chief didn't speak english, his brother, Noah, served as our translator and tour guide. Noah was a great host and very passionate about improving the education system within their community. He was happy to show us around his village, often welcoming us and repeating the phrase, "We Are One".

Truly a fascinating, unbelievable place.

I thought these were hammocks but now I think they're nets. I didn't see any hammocks...

Brave companions in our tippy canoe

Chief's house

I was terrified of falling into that water

Every pollutant you can imagine

Third Mainland Bridge, we take that bridge when we go to the airport

My pretty friend, Andi!

Making a net

Goods for sale

These pretty girls loved having their picture taken.

Avocado sales

The haze above the houses comes from the fish being smoked inside.

Estimated population is between 90,000 - 250,000

Looking toward Lagos Island

Looking toward Lagos mainland

CNN recently visited the village and compiled this short documentary as part of their Inside Africa series : Part 1  Part 2  Part 3