Sand Boats

Posted on by

Image

Image

These boats collect sand from the bottom of the lagoon and sell it to make concrete. This is crazy. Humans swim to the bottom with A BUCKET and scoop sand, swim up, dump in boat and back down again. OMG. Of course my first question is how does the boat not sink whilst collecting sand?! It will. Eventually. That’s why these boats are everywhere! This is a pic of a sand boat full. See how low it is to the water? There’s like an inch break from the water to the rim of the boat… It is known courtesy to slow your boat to no wake when passing sand boats.

Image

Sand boats pre sand. Big difference!

 

En Route

Posted on by

ImageImageImageImageImageImage

It was a 45 minute boat ride of intriguing scenery. Beautiful greenery mixed amongst shacks and also nice houses being built. The water remained less than desirable. I prayed the whole time the boat would not capsize..I would clearly die of at least 13 diseases. You cant see it very well in the pictures, but this water was more green than blue and had a lot of garbage in it (the garbage wasn’t just at the shore it was throughout the entire waterway). 

I’m On A Boat!!

Posted on by

ImageImage

 

*side note: this lagoon is NOT the water I get my fresh fish from! 

ImageImage

An identical boat that had all our donations in it! That’s how much stuff we brought to them! 

ImageImage

And I got my flippy floppies! We clearly had a totally sick ride out to the school. #baller  Patience is another virtue I’ve learned here that I did not possess before I came here. Everything here, and I mean EVERYthing, is on ‘Nigerian Time’. Literally, it’s a thing. When someone tells you a time, don’t you dare count on that time being accurate. Our boat was supposed to arrive at 9:15am, it showed up at 10:35am. When I need anything fixed and/or serviced in the house (it’s so annoying, I’m not allowed to even change a light bulb!) I have to call the WCC and there’s a crew that does all that stuff. #nationalemploymentobligations  They come when they come. I have no say in it. And unless Elizabeth is at my house, I have to be home. Waiting. Grrrrrrrrrrr! Ok, I’m getting side tracked, back to Beach School adventure…

Trip to Banana Island

Posted on by

Image

On Tuesday, Pam, myself and a group of women from the AWC (American Womens Club) took a trip out to the Beach school. What a remarkable experience it was! This group of women visit the school once a month to play with kids, read to them, etc. but this time we brought Christmas! This is the result of the Kitchen Shower I went to last month. We came with TONS of kitchen supplies and food. Lady, (the matron/founder of the school) cried with joy. Which made us all cry! Doing this and seeing the result of what the sponsors have done for these teachers and children have given me a genuine awareness of what it is to truly GIVE. These people have no idea what they have given ME.

 

 

Market Under the Bridge

Posted on by

ImageImageImageImageImage

This place is AMAZING. It is THE place to go for fresh fish. When I first heard that the “market under the bridge” was where you go for fish I tried not to cringe. Being from Seattle, the freshest of fresh is the only acceptable way to eat fish and I would not have it any other way. #spoiledbrat #blameitonseattle Some people that I’d go grocery shopping with would buy frozen fish from the grocery store and it took all my strength to not be like Um, EW. Why are you buying that? Especially in Nigeria, like who knows how long its been frozen for?! Groceries are sketchy as it is. But some of these women are actually scared to go to the local markets and think the food will be bad. Think about it though, the markets are the best way: it’s organic without having to pay for it (like Africa can afford pesticides/growth hormones/anything artificial!) and you can massively negotiate the price whereas at the grocery price is as it is. Now you still have to be aggressive with bartering which I’m still personally working on. A white woman is given a price that is on average twice as much as a local would be given. It feels terrible to knock them down that much but THEY are good at making you feel bad. If you walk away paying the initial price they asked, the second you turn your back they are like “sucker! can you believe she paid that!” and you’ll never recover from it. Negotiating will be even harder from there on out. So I still bring my driver or stewardess with me and having them helps a lot. They assist my arguing and tell them to stop being ridiculous! They also help me understand them. Ya, it’s technically English that is spoken but it is VERY hard to understand. There is an insane amount of fish here that is all caught the same day. I bought the jumbo prawns and bbq’d them that night. I’ve never had prawns like this. It was like biting into a piece of tender steak. HEAVEN. Next I want to buy the red snapper, it looked fantastic. Ya, there are flies everywhere and it doesn’t smell good (half of that is from the people, not the grungy market) but I’m cooking it so it’s all good! Can’t wait til my next fish fix.  

 

Aside

A terrible thing has happened. Africa killed my phone. The only reason I’m upset about this is because I was going to write this fabulous post about one of the village schools I volunteered at last friday with lots of pictures and VIDEOS of the kids that I recorded… with my phone. I didn’t want to bring my nice camera in to the school, so I used my phone instead and saturday afternoon it just died on me. I’m SO upset!! I should’ve uploaded the pics right away… I’ll be going to the school one more time next month before they are out for the summer so I’ll just take more pics and videos then. Experiencing a true village school was life changing for me. Nothing has made me more grateful for everything that I have and being born in America. Yet these children still had huge smiles on their faces and laughed and sang all day, despite the extreme poverty they live in, day in and day out. One little girl walked up to me and reached out to hold my hand and said very shyly “you’re beautiful”. I cried a little inside! How precious!! They all love having their pictures taken, they think they will be famous someday! (ya, famous on my secret blog!) It was a crazy day, I had sweat dripping from every pore, and more attention from kids than I have ever had (and ever desire, really..) but I will go back for more. The physical and emotional challenge of being in a place like that diminishes when you see how excited these kids get when they have “guest teachers” come in. They are on their best behavior, call you by your name with a Miss prefix (it was so adorable hearing them call me Miss Tara!) they are beyond candid when camera’s come out and vigorously wave and blow kisses at you when you leave! They think they feel famous? Other way around kiddos!! I look forward to next month already, and I WILL have pictures and videos to post of it next time!

Aside

Image

Ok so I made it in to THE chicest african flat EVER!! This is a two story penthouse apartment that this woman from the AWC lives in. It was to die for!! I didn’t take any pictures of the inside, obviously, cuz that would be really creepy of me, but I sure wanted to!! She hosted a Kitchen Shower last Friday. The shower was to collect kitchen items/food to donate to one of the Beach Schools that we’re visiting on wednesday. For some reason I didn’t think much of it and thought it would be at some random conference hall or something and not be very nice…couldn’t have been more wrong. I was being picked up at 9:15am and I decided at 8:00am to slip in a quick run. Got back at 8:35, finished sweating by around 8:45 and just jumped in the shower and then threw on jean shorts, a cotton tank and left with wet hair. #lowmaintenancetara #onlyinafrica

WELL, we pull up to this amazing apartment, and I’m already like oh great..this is not as casual as I thought..I walk in to her beautiful residence and all the ladies (and there were about 7 women there that were right around my age!!..in any given place I’m usually the youngest one by about 15 years) are dressed in gorgeous sundresses, heels, jewelry, make-up and hair done, the food spread is a work of art and then my frumpy ass strolls in looking like I just came from Wal-Mart. I died inside, and almost turned around and just walked out. Like OMG! I have like 3 super cute outfits that would have been perfect for such an event! I walk straight over to the mimosa stand and pour a drink to try and erase my embarrassment and not care. Right, easier said than done. Well, nothing I could do about it, so I just introduced myself to people, pretended in my head that I was dressed entirely different and had a great time. Everyone is pretty nice, however a few were a little stand off ish. But I don’t blame them, they were the cutest ones and they probably were like “who is that in worn out denim shorts, FLIP FLOPS and wet hair. Um, ew.” I have a lot of recovery to do and I will NOT disappoint next time!! I know you all know how this kills me to not be stylishly on point in all social and professional situations. Til next time..

 

Aside

Image

Chic African flats. I can’t specify where exactly we are in Lagos, but this area is considered middle and upper class. There are even nicer places than these, I just haven’t been there yet. I will soon though! We are going to an event at the US General Consulates home soon. I can’t wait! Details and pics to come from that! Wish I brought some dressier outfits…(I can’t get started again on my luggage situation!!) SO,  guess I’ll just have to have Victoria the seamstress custom make me a dress. Oh darn. Sorry Ryan, I’m still high maintenance even in Africa.

Image

hehehe

Image

I think these are the baller homes. But I’ll let you know if I’m way off when I am able to broaden my exposure. These very well could just be pimp/drug dealer/brothel/rich ass american/my drivers house. Who the fuck knows. I’m on it though.