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!

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..

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.

hehehe

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.

On my way to the grocery store last Tuesday. These are some pics of what my route looks like. It’s only a 10-30min drive from camp depending on traffic. 

#africanyardsale

It’s almost a KFC!! Ryan says we should totally try it. I told him over my dead body. 

Truly, NO laws here. I can’t stand seeing things like this!! I don’t understand why he just doesn’t wait for the next taxi van! Mom, I promise I am ALWAYS inside my vehicle, with my seatbelt safely fastened. 

Almost there, just have to get through this annoying traffic jam. There is currently a massive shortage of gas here so only a few stations have gas and the lines are ridiculous. They also just go out into the roads completely blocking perpendicular approaching traffic. WTF people?! It took us 20 min to break through this. I almost lost my mind, but Emanuel (my driver) kept me calm and played some sweet local jams on the radio. I offered to just get out and walk because the store was literally about 400 yards past this madness #capablewoman. Emanuel did not support this desicion one bit. #smartman. We’re a great team, he and I. 

Ok, so I just died when I saw this little field trip happening at the grocery store!! Are you kidding me?! SO adorable. 

Done with the actual grocery store, now on our way to the local market for all my produce. 

My face was glued to the window as we were descending into Murtala Muhammed International Airport. I hate to say it but I was like, where are all the buildings?! I can’t see anything! To give myself some credit, this airport is a good 1.5 hours w/o traffic outside of the city of Lagos, so we were kind of out in the middle of nowhere..but still, it’s not like there’s sky scrapers here! Getting off the airplane was literally painful. It felt like I just walked into an oven set to BROIL. side note: LOS is listed as #1 on the worlds top 10 worst int’l airports..great news.  I changed right before we landed into lighter weight cotton leggings, a tank and a sheerish short sleeved over thingy and sandals (exposing leg and arms in this airport would not have done me any favors). Within minutes I could feel sweat trickling down my legs, back and between the girls. It actually only took us an hour from landing to leaving the airport. ALL of our bags came!!!! Let’s be honest, I was half sweating for fear of my entire life being stolen. Someone met us at the airport to guide us through the shadiest version of immigration EVER and then take us to our driver. Our bags got loaded up into a police truck and then we were loaded into another vehicle. Ummmm… why am I being separated from my luggage???? I had my eyes darting back and forth from the scenery of my new surroundings to this truck excorting us from behind. I sure as hell better not loose sight of that truck, I’ve made it this far already!!!

The drive was mind blowing. It was a saturday so traffic wasn’t too bad but the mayhem on the road was insane. There are no lanes, no laws, horns act as blinkers/last second warnings, and most vehicles didn’t have doors.. in fact, it was hard to consider some of these moving objects as vehicles at all. I couldn’t take pictures at this time but I will take pictures of the roads where I am now and it will give you a slight idea of what that route looked like. Ryan and I sat in silence. This was nothing new to him having spent two years in the middle east, but I could tell he was just letting me absorb everything. The police escort (the truck that had my luggage) really helped push us through swarms of bottle necked jams and 4 lane round-abouts that made my palms sweaty. “Safety First” is clearly not the motto here!

1.5 hours later we arrive to the camp. My very first thought was that security didn’t seem too secure…we like drove right in pretty much with a few waves of a hand. Then Ryan had to remind me that we were arriving via THE SECURITY. Oh, right. Blonde moment #1. Second thought: this place looks like the Darma Initiative from the show Lost. Tropical setting and everything! The trees are beautiful, the yards are uniquely manicured, houses and buildings are a neutral color and made of cement, thick cement walls/fencing topped with barbed wire, and armed guards everywhere strolling around. Oh, and LOTS of lizards! They’re so cute though! Big ones, small ones, colorful ones and gray boring ones. The birds sound like baby pterodactyls. They don’t look nearly as weird as they sound, but all I’m used to are damn crows. It was quite the site to take in. I like, live here now… Home Sweet Home!

Our flight to Lagos was absolutely delightful. We flew first class, and now I’m ruined. I’m never flying coach again! Right… 

I was worried the 11.5 hour flight from Houston would feel like 20 hours despite being in the fancy part of the airplane but I could not have been more wrong. I slept the whole damn way!! Full on stretched out as I would be in my normal bed at home and snoozed like a baby for about 7-8 hours of it. #score #whatjetlag. The other 3 hours were filled with 3 course meals, wine, champagne, almost one full movie and a really funny flight attendant. We got along swimmingly. Between this and The Fairmont, I almost forgot I was on a one way flight to Nigeria…

On January 6th my husband told me we are moving to Lagos Nigeria in 8 weeks. Um, excuse me?!?! But, okay! Let’s do this! My head hasn’t stopped spinning since that day. It’s taken all my strength to not be a total basket case in the process of moving, and I think I was just mildly successful. To live here you have to be very open minded. I’ve been here only 10 days now and my mind has been OPENED.

This blog is about me (sure my husband too, but he’s like working a lot..so consider him just a side dish in this) and a bit about my travels getting to Lagos, my daily life here and then also some whining about missing things and people and my cats back home. 

Side note: this is my first blog and really any kind of writing and social media presence so just be wary of that…