Food For Thought...You Do the Dishes.

Last night, we went to our first Lebanese party in Nigeria. Strange as it sounds, there is a very large Lebanese population in Nigeria, mostly consisting of wealthy businessmen and their wives and children. Our school board President is Lebanese and we happen to have his oldest son in our 7th grade classes. Earlier this week, we got an invitation to attend their holiday party at their house and gladly accepted, mostly on the basis that it would be nice to get off the compound for awhile. So we arranged our ride with Mr. and Mrs. Shearer and headed off...dinner was to be served around 10:30 P.M.. Wait a second...dinner served at 10:30 P.M.? Yeah, I was thinking the same thing you're thinking right now...who eats dinner at 10:30? The answer is pretty simple...the Lebanese. So we left here around 10:00 and it was a quick drive to the school board President's house. We pulled up and it was heavily guarded and of course had a huge, iron gate at the front. There were security guards with baton's there to get our door for us, and as we walked in, I gawked at his sweet motorcycle (I think it was a Ducati, but it was too dark to tell.). I remember thinking to myself, "wow, that's one expensive Okada." Anyways, we walked in, and left Lagos, Nigeria at the door.

This house was pretty amazing. Archways, marble floors, high ceilings, and a very large living room. They had a full bar just outside of their kitchen, a really large table, and enough seating to fit 40 or so people on plush couches. The music was loud...and they had three, what looked like the old Slurpee/Icee machines, set up next to their bar filled to the top with Margarita's...I vowed I would only have one if they came with the cool slurpee spoon/straw. They didn't have any, so Kara and I stuck to champagne. There were servers coming around with amazing hor'derves (I have no idea how to spell that) and the mood was very nice.

Once the music was blasting, the guys came around with huge cigars, giving them out and I didn't take any. They looked at me like I was crazy, and I stuck to my guns. The party was getting pretty fun when all of the dancing started. Kara danced with the Greek Ambassador's wife for a bit, and I sat back and watched as the dance floor became dominated by 20 or 30 women...no guys. Where were these dance floors in college? I asked Mr. Shearer and he had no idea...this kind of ratio is unheard of in the United States. I told him, no dancing for me without some Dr. Dre, and before I knew it, I was being drug into the middle of the dance floor by my student's mom sans Dr. Dre; that's kind of an awkward thing; not the dancing to non-Dr. Dre, but the dancing in the environment we were in. Matter of fact, never in my life, would I have imagined hanging out with a school board president, his wife, the Superintendent and his wife (Mr. and Mrs. Shearer), and a bunch of my student's parents and school board members, in a drinking, smoking, party-like environment - as Mr. Rainbolt would say, "Gin and Tonic and Snickerdoodles."

Anyway, we hung out and ate, and laughed, and talked until about 12:30 and then came home and went to sleep. The night was amazing, but here's the real reason I'm writing this blog. I began thinking to myself last night, why did I have to come to Nigeria to meet Lebanese people? I didn't know much about Lebanon, and still don't, other than they are a rival of Israel and, from the way they are depicted on CNN, they are slightly terroristic in nature. The people we met last night were so friendly, accomodating, and just plain nice to be with. But it's so amazing, how meeting a few people can determine your thoughts on an entire culture. You can watch CNN and make a judgement based on some video footage they got from the Middle East like I did. I had pre-conceived notions before meeting the Lebanese. Everybody reading this can go to the Nigeria Daily and read about all of the crime here, and think to themselves, "I'm never going there, it's too crazy." And completely judge the entire place by one or two accounts. Anyways, I'm off on a tangent, but this is food for thought, I'll let you guys do the dishes!

T-Minus 6 days and counting! We'll be home for Christmas!

Our Attempt to Explain the Impossible to Explain

Thanksgiving weekend was a little different this year. Quite frankly, I feel like the ending of the weekend should have had a black screen with the words, "The preceding program was sponsored in part by the Discovery Channel." written on it. It has taken a few days to digest, and to be honest, I'm not sure if what we experienced will ever be completely understood by anybody who was not in attendance this weekend, but nevertheless, I will attempt to explain our holiday weeekend.

We left VI around 9:00AM Friday morning and set out for the town of Osogbo (pronounced Oh-sho-bo) in Osun State, Nigeria. The trip would take nearly 4 hours and was fairly smooth with a few huge potholes doing little to slow our driver Fidelis down. I thought for sure we would blow a tire out, but he didn't seem to think the craters were all that big of a deal. The GPS was out most of the time and we were going faster in some points than I was comfortable with, but hey, what can you expect in Nigeria? We did see some pretty cool sights along the way including some pretty funny billboards and a really old Mosque that is still in use.

We also saw a huge accident involving a tanker truck (I couldn't get my camera up fast enough to take the picture) and what would Thanksgiving be without a Santa Clause sighting?

As we pulled into the town of Osogbo, and after seeing Santa, we headed for our digs for the weekend; the Nike (pronounced Nee-kay) Guesthouse. Nike is a famous artist from Osogbo and was gracious enough to let us stay in her nice guest house. When we arrived, we all staked a claim to our rooms (there were 11 total people: Ken, Jena, Duncan, and Jesse Marks, Jon and Conny Cain, Joseph and Mary Teague (Joseph would love to see his name first so that's why I put it that way), Betsy Lafontant, and of course Kara and I.) We took our five rooms and then got back on the bus and headed for the Nike Gallery and workshop.

The photo to the right is of Kara and I at the Nike workshop where they put this weird Kasava wax stuff on fabric and then dip it in Indigo dye. It sounds like they don't really use the indigo anymore substituting a chemical safe (washer-proof) dye for the process. They call it Batik (I think I butchered the spelling). Anyways, it was a pretty cool experience and pretty amazing watching the artists whip out the designs on the t-shirts/fabric.

Below you will see some pictures of the Indigo leaves and Kara playing peek-a-boo around a hut at the Nike workshop. The indigo leaves were pretty cool as they were green until you rubbed your hands with them, and then after a few minutes, the dye would set in and you'd have a little blue spot on your hand.


From the Nike workshop we went to the Nike gallery and it was just okay. I wasn't very impressed as it was kind of like a art gallery with stuff that we've seen at the various markets around Lagos. You can definitely tell that the artists often make their way to Lagos to sell some of their material and that material makes it way into the markets, and then somehow makes it into our hands for an exorbitant amount of money; however, it was really cool to see where the work originates from and this is one really long sentence for a Humanities teacher to be typing so I'll just end it here.

From the Nike Gallery we made out way out to one of my favorite places in the whole world, and that was the Fulani village. Now the coolest part about this village was the fact that a month ago, my Geography students read a chapter on the Fulani of Nigeria and I didn't realize that a month later I would actually be meeting some Fulani. They are nomadic herders (no they don't herd nomads Pasley...that was a good one though). Anyways, the Fulani are the primary group responsible for spreading Islam into North Africa. The village we went to had a bunch of kids who were very fascinated by the cameras we were using to take pictures of them with. I think it may have been one of the very first times that they had a picture taken of them and then saw it the second after it was taken. They would all celebrate and look at themselves on the camera afterwards as depicted in the picture above.

Kara made a best friend almost immediately and I snapped a few pictures before being told I had to wait for the chief to give us permission to take pictures. This little girl thought Kara was the coolest thing since sliced bread (not that sliced bread is super cool to the Fulani or anything). But anyways, she held Kara's hand everywhere she walked, and played paddy cake with her for awhile. She was absolutely beautiful!


The kids had the most amazing smiles. It was so fascinating to me how happy they were with the very little they have in their lives. It just goes to show that people are inherently good and as long as they have the important things in life, they have a lot to be happy for. The Fulani children, and later the Ido-Osun people had the most real, sincere, smiles I've seen in the short time I've been in Nigeria.

We finally got permission from the Chief to take pictures of the village, and then I figured while we were at it, we might as well get pictures WITH the Chief of the village, so here it is! Pretty cool huh? That's not his hair either, he was wearing a hat.


As we were making our way through the village, we ran into a newborn infant. When I say newborn, I really mean NEW born as in born 8 hours before this picture was taken. The craziest part was mom looked like she was 12 and she was walking around like she didn't just give birth 8 hours before. Amazing stuff! This picture is of Conny Cain holding the infant.

Before it got too dark, we asked to have our picture taken and this amazing picture turned out. I think my favorite part about the picture is the kid who is right in front of Kara and the way he is looking at the camera. This picture speaks more than what I can express by writing so I'll let you stare at it for awhile and draw up your own thoughts.


Before we left, I took this picture of the Harmattan sunset. Once again, I'll let the picture do the talking.

After an unbelievable night, we came home and had some great home-cooked Nigerian food including Suya pepper on Fish...ooh it was soooo good! The cooks also prepared 3 whole chickens and those were very delicious as well. We had a HUGE pot of Jolloffe (spelling?) rice and that was amazing as well. Our conclusion was that they made so much food for us that we had no way to eat it all and so of course the Nigerian's staying with us would have no choice but to finish the food we couldn't fit into our stomachs. They ate well. That night...the power went out. And unlike here in VI, it stayed out. My estimate is that it was out for about 5 hours, and in Nigeria...that means it's gonna get hot. So we woke up around 2:30 or so, but not because we were hot. The air conditioner was off, and because it was off, we could hear any noise from outside. Well it just so happens that on Friday nights, they have this middle-of-the night church service using loudspeakers. Every 10 minutes or so, a crowd of what seemed like hundreds would just burst out chanting stuff, and I swore that they were outside of our compound ready to take us out. This was, of course, before I knew it was a church service. Anyways, the next morning, our cooks informed us that it was just church, but for an hour or two, Kara and I hypothesized that it was either a hostile group trying to get us, a sacrificial group that was sacrificing people and were trying to get us, or that it was just a village having a darn good time in the middle of the night. We were glad it was just church.


The next morning we woke up and made our way to the Sacred Grove of Osun. This was a really weird experience as there were all these really weird carved statues that were representative of the Goddess Osun. It was a really surreal experience and one that you'll have to see when we get home and show you the hundred or so pictures we took of the place. For now, I'll show you this picture of what it looked like walking down the path to get to the carvings...this picture looks like something you'd see in Lord of the Rings or something and nothing has been done to digitally enhance the photo...this really is what we saw! Later there were monkeys jumping from tree to tree...pretty cool huh?

From there we went to the artist who made all the weird Osun statues. Her name was Susanne Wenger and she's a 91 year old woman from Austria. She moved to Nigeria in the 1930's and built her house in the middle of Osogbo (talk about one old, brave, Oyibo). Anyways, her story was pretty amazing, but her house was just plain weird. Plus, you all know how buildings in Nigeria fall down every now and then, try going up 4 stories to see her, climbing stairs that didn't feel too sturdy. We were a little tripped out, but we made it safely. Check out her house!

After we went to the Sacred Grove, and to Wenger's house, we came back to the Nike guesthouse and took one heck of a nap!! When we woke up from our nap, it was time to head out to the Ido-Osun kingdom, which was just about 5 minutes away from where we were staying. When we got to the kingdom, there was a bugeler announcing our arrival. He had this code he played that told the King where we were coming from, and how many of us there were so that when he came into his chamber to greet us, he would know how many people to expect. The King's name was Oba Adeen, Oba meaning King. He lived in New York city for 20 years and drove a Gypsy cab. This was straight outta "Coming to America" I swear. Could you imagine getting a call in NYC, "Hey, it's your turn to be King, come back to Nigeria." His Majesty made the return, not before becoming a World Bank representative. He was one of the most knowledgeable, charismatic people we've met to this point in Nigeria and he will do amazing things in the times to come. For the time being, his reign over the Ido-Osun people is well-received as he took us around to demonstrate. We had a crowd of about 80 or so people by the time we made our way around the village. The people of Id0-Osun make about 100 Naira per day (roughly 70 cents) yet their smiles could light up a city the size of Seattle. The Oba had people bowing to him and his Grandfather even bowed at one point which was pretty cool to see.

That night we slept well...no crazy chanting or anything like that to wake us up and the power stayed on all night (thank you NEPA).

The next day, we went to the JuJu markets and saw some things that we won't discuss in this blog because we figure kids read it. Before we went out to the market, we had to get the "go-ahead" from the High Osun Priestess. She didn't give us a very comforting approval and the concensus is she cast some weird JuJu curse on us. That's okay though, we figure the blessing from the Oba the day before supercedes the curse from the High Priestess so we're not trippin'.

We left back for VI, exhausted, and not feeling too well rested around 12:30. The ride home was nice, and yes, Pot-Holey (if there is such a word). But we made it safely and didn't hit too many go-slows. Overall, it was one of the more amazing life-experiences we've had to this point. I think I'm going to get going as I'm pretty sure I've added to the likelihood that I'll be getting Carpel tunnel at some point in my life by typing this blog. I hope you enjoyed and this should keep you busy for awhile! We'll see you in a few days as our vacation is quickly approaching! Talk to you soon.

A Colorful Thanksgiving

Well, in trying to figure out how to incorporate a few different and random topics, I decided to use the theme of the visible spectrum of light... interpreted: the rainbow, or as some of us know it as: ROY G. BIV.

Red - The color that most of my 7th grade kids are putting somewhere on their volcano posters in class. We've learned in class how volcanoes can form, the different types and other book-type info. The kids got to pair up and choose a famous volcano and become a "Volcano Hazard Expert" on that volcano, presenting information about the book-type information, as well as the more interesting info about the devistation it created, pictures, etc. AND red is the color of our "new" car and Bryan's new Adidas shoes that he got for N4,000 ($31 US)... which were actually free because we got gift certificates from the school board president to use at the Adidas store here for coming to AISL.

Orange - The color of the sun in the morning when the dust from Harmattan gives it an eerie, hazy glow.

Yellow - Kara's new karate belt color!!!!!! Yup, I passed the test and am officially no longer a white belt. Now onto the orange...

Green - The color of the leaves of the trees that are interspersed with the street vendors. The color that we miss seeing on real trees back home.

Blue - The color of our couch cover and our bathrooms, which feel like jail cells. The color of the pool just outside of our flat.

Indigo - The dye that is a part of the economy in Oshogbo, the town we are going to visit this Thanksgiving weekend. It is located in the Osun State (north of us), that is home to many Yoruba peoples (one of the three major ethnic groups in Nigeria... the others are Igbo and Hausa). Some of the sites we're planning on seeing are the Enchanted Forest, a forest that has carvings hidden throughout it, the house of Suzanne Wenger who created the enchanted forest carvings, the Nike gallery and the Fulani village. If you go to http://www.blackartstudio.com/Oshogbo.html you can see pictures of some of these sites, as well as the guest quarters that we will stay in. Bryan and I might even have a white shirt dyed indigo during this adventure.
Also check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osogbo or http://www.osogbocity.com/ to learn more... until we can come home and tell you of OUR experiences.

Violet - All I can think of for this one is African Violets, which I have yet to see in Africa (maybe in Kenya) and my mom because she loves African violets.

Hope you enjoyed the colorful array of African living! Until next time... and Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Happy Thanksgiving?

We are approaching Thanksgiving and it's starting to hit home. We had our Thanksgiving Dinner on Sunday and will be having another one this Thursday, but there were some changes in our Thanksgiving traditions that really made it feel like we were a long ways from home.

1)On Sunday, it was 90 Degrees outside and not getting dark at the normal time it gets dark out on Thanksgiving.
2)We were the only ones from our family in attendance.
3)There was football on tv...but not Thanksgiving football with the Lions and the Cowboys and you had to drive to the GQ to catch any of it (AND the Seahawks lost which is a touchy subject so I don't wanna hear about it.)
4)The potential for crazy storms and windy weather was at like negative 50 unlike home.
5)Even though I hate cranberry sauce (Kara likes it), there wasn't any at the Thanksgiving feast because it's almost impossible to find cranberries over here, and that was weird.
6)Today is Wednesday, and if we were in the States, we'd be going home from work around 10:30, but instead, we go home tomorrow at 11.
7)The Mashed potatoes were very good, and the gravy was good too, but it wasn't "mom's".

Anyway, the list goes on and on. Don't get us wrong, we really enjoyed the feast on Sunday; we just miss home a bit. We have great surrogate family over here in the Rainbolts and we get hugs from Emily and Jacob anytime we go visit which is awesome. Our decision to stay here for a third year will definitely be impacted by what their decision is. Mr. and Mrs. Shearer are almost like our parents. Mr. Shearer stops by every now and then to make sure we're doing okay which is pretty cool and Lori is a lot of fun to talk to about her sons Brett and Matt. Every Saturday I go over to Mr. Shearers office (sometimes at like 3 in the morning) and set up the PC laptop for him to listen to Matt play football for the University of San Diego and it's a lot of fun watching him and Lori listen as proud parents. Sometimes Kara and I will go over to his office before the game is over just to watch them listen and of course will play with Libby under the guise of, "We thought the game would be over by now." Anyways, there are things over here we do to remind us of home, but for now, it's a little rough. We miss the entire family, and really miss our Neices, Nephews, and King a lot (no offense to everybody else but seriously...Skyping with Anna, JB, Jessie, Benjamin, and King might just be our favorite thing to do over here.)

Anyways, I gotta get going, I have students coming into my classroom in about 5 minutes. See ya soon and Happy Thanksgiving!

Smitty, Tennis, Fantasy Football, Drivers, and Slay-Torr

I figured since it's been awhile since I've blogged, that I would take some time to discuss how everyday life has been for me (Bryan) lateley.

Here's a picture I took a few weeks back that sums up some of the contradictions Mr. Rainbolt talks about in his blog. So in this picture, you will see a man in a Nigerian suit, changing a tire on a brand new Mercedes Benz, in the rain and mud, but he's taken it upon himself to put out a reflective triangle just in case we didn't see him in his bright white suit, and then to top it all off the smiley face air freshener there to remind us to be happy.


I'm sitting here on our couch right now, listening to Kara sing along with Smitty (Michael W. Smith). I have my headphones on listening to NFL Field Pass on NFL.com, watching Yahoo Stattracker to see how my fantasy football team is doing, and I'm happy as a clam. For the record, I can hear Kara singing overtop of the football game I'm listening to and through the thick headphones I'm listening to the game on; I would venture to say she's happy as a clam as well.

It hasn't been raining as much recently, although we had an amazing lighning storm the other day (See Carrie's blog for some of the pictureI took)

So we hired a driver today. His name is Sunday, and he's probably one of the kindest Nigerians we've met thus far. He's very respectful and ready to drive our car (I know, pictures are on the way don't worry). Anyways, he starts work on December 1st and comes highly recommended by his current employer who is leaving Nigeria at the end of this month.

Tonight, we went over to the Rainbolt's and had some Thai food with them and as always, thoroughly enjoyed being with them. Jacob's hair is growing pretty long and he claims he will let it grow down to his shoulders. Emily was talking to a good friend of hers from Tacoma on Skype when we got there. Which brings me to my next point.

How great is Skype? I can't imagine living in Lagos, Nigeria without it. If you haven't moved into the Skype world yet, you're missing out on free Worldwide long distance and of course, missing out on good conversation with The Slaters (thesl8ers is our Skype name so if you don't have it yet, download the program, go to Best Buy, and purchase a cheap headset for 15 bucks, 1800 Naira, and get to Skypin'.)

I'm getting pretty good at Tennis. Mr. Rainbolt and I had a pretty rough week on the practice courts though. He hurt his calf and I sprained my ankle the next day at my lesson. My ankle's healing fine and I was out there yesterday practicing my serve...and sneezing every 4 minutes or so. Rainbolt is recovering nicely and is listed as Probable on this week's AISL Tennis injury report.

Why have I been sneezing so much? Harmattan is here...sorta. There is a haze that has begun forming over the VI Skyline that initially looked like fog, but turned out to be the Sahara desert. That's right, we're several hundred miles south of the desert, but the duststorms are kicking up the sand high into the atmosphere and carrying it down here to us and then dropping it. I've been sneezing ever since. I guess it gets really bad in December reducing visibility to a few feet.

My team is getting stomped in Fantasy Football right now as we speak, Carson Palmer is having a field day against San Diego and Ladanian Tomlinson has scored 4 touchdowns (both guys play on the guy I'm playing's team)...sorry for the distraction, but it is relevant because we'll be coming home in a month and a few days (I'm not keeping track...seriously, because I want my days to go fast and if I start counting minutes, the school days will drag on). Anyways, we will be going to the Seahawks game against San Diego on Christmas Eve and their defense isn't looking as good as it did earlier this season so it should be a fun game for us and the Hawks better win.

Kara is still singing. She's been at it for about 2 hours now...and I love it. Our cockroach kill total is probably in the 30's now. We have this great Cockroach killer spray called Mortein that is like anthrax for Cockroaches. The other day I played a killer narrator as I spotted a cockroach on the kitchen floor (Not related to Mefloquine I promise). I grabbed the Mortein and broke out my best Slay-Torr Judgement Day voice and wreaked havoc on our kitchen floor and all bugs within a 15 foot radius. After I killed Roachman, Slay-Torr's Arch Nemesis, The Ant News (K-ANT News) showed up to document the carnage and got caught in the melee as well. When all was said and done, Slay-Torr had wreaked enough havoc in Flat 11 to make the scene war-like in appearance (As I was writing that, I saw myself in slow-motion for some reason so I hope as you read it you saw the slow-motion effect as well). I stood amongst the haze, hands on my waist looking into the sky like Mel Gibson in The Patriot when all was said and done. All I needed was a flag and my victory would have been complete.

We ate lasagna for dinner this weekend. They don't have cottage or ricotta cheese here, so it's not as good as the lasagna from home. We'll make up for it when we go to Italy on our field trip this March I'm sure.

Well I think I've rambled enough. I thought about themes for this blog but I decided we didn't really have a good ramble blog yet so I've satisfied that! We hope you are all doing well and please Skype us! Talk to you soon!

You dey chop?

Okay, for those of you who don't know Nigerian Pidgin English, that means "are you gonna eat?" So, of course we eat, but what do two Americans living in Lagos eat??? Well, really it's not too different from what we have back home. Our meals include tuna or pbj sandwiches, salads, spaghetti, pizza, rice and chicken stew, baked chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy, scrambled eggs (a weekly event) and an occasional evening out to a restaurant such as the GQ (Bryan's favorite spot to watch football games). Something unique to Nigeria is IndoMie and is very similar to Top Ramen back home, but with a little more kick... Bryan loves it for his lunches and our students love eating it uncooked. For those of you who like spicy foods, as Bryan does, you would LOVE a food here called suya. Suya is basically a mix of spices and it can be used to flavor barbequed meats, seasoned peanuts... or groundnuts as they call them here, etc. Bryan actually has a favorite stand a couple of blocks away from school called "International Suya" that sells suya beef on shishkabob sticks. Every time we drive by it, he says "International Suya" in some new and crazy accent.

The fruit here is AMAZING!!! Our favorite, by far, is the pineapple. It is the sweetest, juiciest we've ever tasted. The sour ones here are pretty close to the best ones from back home. Pawpaw is a type of fruit that's pretty good, but not our favorite. Pawpaw tastes like a cross between papaya and canteloupe and looks like a huge (14+ inch) papaya. Keep reading for the really good stuff...

Now, the more important question is "what's for dessert"? I would say that we have three main desserts. The first one is due to Bryan's creativity. All of the grocery stores around here sell these funky, geometrical shaped juice boxes. We freeze them and have ourselves odd-shaped popsicles that are fantastic after being out under the hot African sun. Another sweet treat we enjoy are frozen m&m's. We don't necessarily freeze them because we like icy chuncks of choclolate, but we are greedy and don't like sharing them with our community ants (same goes for our cereal, flour, sugar, dried fruits, fig newtons... I think you get the point). Soft serve ice cream covered with chocolate and/or nuts is another favorite of ours. Chicken Lickin is a local "fast food" joint that isn't so fast and always seems to be out of small naira for change (coincidence or, as Bryan says, "the oyibofactor"), but makes for a nice outing with friends for a sugar boost. We could buy ice cream from the grocery store, but can't really justify spending $30 for one gallon. Last time we went to the store, we actually saw one of those large plastic ice cream containers being sold for N6,700. That's $51.54... and you thought a gallon of gas was expensive!

Well, now that you've been reading about food for so long... you dey chop!!

Chalk Talk

I have to give a shout out to Mt. Tahoma because it was there that I learned, through Critical Friends, a way to facilitate discussion without actually talking. The protocol was called, "Chalk Talk", and the premise is basically the chalk does all of the talking, everybody else just sits silently while reading, and writing the questions that are being written down on the board. I kind of adapted this protocol to fit the classroom for a review session. In my Geography class, we are preparing to take the Unit 7 Exam. This is a big test, and I promised the kids that I would let them help me design it if they wrote down good questions. So we started filling the white board. This is it in progress: Check out their progress!




Pretty amazing stuff! Anyways, I thought you might like to see what my students are doing right now, I'm very proud! Alright, back to work! Bye

Read the Rainbolt's Travel Diary

Two Thumbs Up.

In the words of Forrest Gump, "That's all I gotta say about that."

The update

Alright, so I promised that I would update the blog last weekend, and I didn't. But I must say that in my defense, our internet was down for the last part of the weekend, so there...that's my defense. I'm sitting in my classroom right now, as Mr. Rainbolt is doing a tremendous job of teaching my 7th graders how to write great topic sentences (using the bare, drab walls in my classroom as the subject), looking out of my window, and I now have found the inspiration I needed to begin this blog. Mowing the lawn...in Nigeria.

Two guys are at the neighboring school, mowing the lawn. They are using machete's to do it; just bending over and chopping away at the grass. Now I don't know about you, but I feel like I just messed my back up simply watching these guys hack in one foot increments.

So I also promised to talk about the following things:
1) Our first car in Lagos (complete with pictures) - Alright, so I don't have pictures yet; although I did get lens tissue for the camera lens so I can take non-hazy pictures again. Kara found some microscope lens tissue in her classroom, so I "borrowed" some of that! About the car: I think it's a 94 or 95 Honda Accord (there is no real official paperwork on the car other than the fact that it was imported through Benin). That's pretty much the standard here, you buy a car that nobody knows the history on for several thousand dollars and you don't argue about it because it's a moot point. It's only a moot point because they tell you that. Who am I to argue? There are 15 million people in this city, and nobody cares to explain the origin of various vehicles! The battery is supposedly new; however, if you don't start the car at least once a day, you're stuck jump starting it. I told one of the drivers I was bringing a Die Hard back from the states and that was that. He asked me to bring him back one and I said sorry, they're too heavy and luggage is valuable!


2) Paying for our first car in Lagos (Complete with Naira totals) - I mentioned earlier that the cost of the car was several thousand dollars. For you Naira savvy folks, it was 670,000 Naira. You do the math. Anyways, because there is no Post Office here, there is no billing. When there's no billing, there's no option to pay the car off using a payment plan. So that means that you have to pay straight up, essentially walking around with several thousand dollars in cash, taking it to get converted to Naira, which then means I was walking around with several HUNDRED thousand Naira. Scary stuff!! But we made it and have a car...that sorta runs well...for a 94 or 95 Honda.

3) Bryan's first test-drive in Lagos - Before we bought the car, I test drove it. It'd been at least 3 years since I drove a stick-shift vehicle, but it was fun. I'll let Kara explain the experience from her spot in the back seat. I don't think either of us took a breath the entire time!

4) Our first Parent Conferences in Lagos - 87% of the parents showed up and 87% of those were with their spouse at the conferences...just a little different than Tacoma!

5) Bryan's first tennis lessons in Lagos - I look like Andre Agassi out there (only because I'm bald). I serve like Jamie Moyer pitches...very slow (but my changeup is wicked!)

6) Kara's karate lessons in Lagos - What can I say, she's testing for her yellow belt before Christmas break and that scares me!! Just kidding, but really, she's tough and is learning Karate very fast and well!

7) Eid-el-Fitri and other Nigerian Holiday customs - Once again, last week we were told at the very end of the week that we would have a holiday on both Monday and Tuesday! We very much enjoyed our holiday and got a lot of much needed rest and relaxation.

As far as receiving Madden 07, I have nothing new to report other than it got here and it's a great game! Well worth the wait I might add! But the ordeal to get it here is a story amongst itself and will have to wait until I get enough motivation up to type it, or you just ask me yourself in person when we're back over Christmas break.


On another note, we had another tremendous storm here the other night. I did happen to catch a lightning bolt on camera, so here you go! On our next installment, more of my Mefloquine dreams(and this next one is a dooozy!)

We're still alive!

On a side note, we miss our dog and cat!! Looks like Kingston is trying to find a way over to us!

Sorry everybody, for the delay in posting our blog!! We have been so incredibly busy that we just haven't had a whole lot of time to get to telling stories about our life over here, but we promise that this weekend will be a ton of new information coming your way. If you want a sneak preview, here's what you can expect to read about:

1) Our first car in Lagos (complete with pictures)
2) Paying for our first car in Lagos (Complete with Naira totals)
3) Bryan's first test-drive in Lagos
4) Our first Parent Conferences in Lagos
5) Bryan's first tennis lessons in Lagos
6) Kara's karate lessons in Lagos
7) Eid-el-Fitri and other Nigerian Holiday customs (we have Monday of next week off...so far...possibly Tuesday...but we're still waiting for the official word on that. Which reminds me...
8) The official "official word giver" in Lagos
9) Why Macbooks are not our favorite computer in the world.
10) Bryan's Madden 07 arrival (part of the reason the blog has not been updated recently).
11) I think that's everything

So we promise that there will be a thorough blog posted over the weekend. We have had conferences all week, and the week before that we spent getting ready for conferences, so needless to say, this weekend will come as a much needed break! You'll see what we mean! Our last conference time is this Saturday (that's right, we work on Saturday's here...I guess that's what not having a union gets you!!) Anyways, we work from 9a to 11a and then we have the rest of the weekend to rest! Talk to you then!

We were sleeping

When all of a sudden...

WABANG. Kara and I sat straight up in our beds. I'd be lying if I said I didn't expect anything less than US Bombers to be carrying out some super secret mission to destroy 1004 estates, but nevertheless, Kara and I were a little shook by the huge explosion. We both got up to make sure everything was still in order, the clock read 9:30 AM (So we slept in a little.), and I think we both expected 1004 to be gone.

Everything still stood as it was before we went to bed. It was pouring down rain, and we thought to ourselves, there's no way that was thunder? Sure enough, about a minute later, lightning bolt...and huge explosion. Now don't get us wrong, we've been through our fair share of thunderstorms. Thunderstorms in Belize, thunderstorms in Miami, thunderstorms in Louisiana and Cleveland and Louisville, but ladies and gentlemen, this was not your everyday thunderstorm. I'm going to do my best to describe this thunderstorm.

You could hear the absence of air before the gigantic thunder clap. That's what the "wa" is up in my description of the sound. And then the explosion hits and you could literally feel the waves rolling underneath our feet. Not only that, it wasn't like Washington thunder in that you hear it echoing for quite some time, it was a continuous rumble, nothing like we've ever heard before. I have to tell you, I'm getting tired of this, "Hey, let's wake the Slater's up while they are in a dead sleep and litereally make them think they are meeting their maker" vis a vis the Tippy Ship and thunderstorm stuff.

"Oooooh, that one was" BAAAAAAAANG...Brrrrrhhhgghhghghhhhhhhh (Huge sound waves blast through our flat) "Bright". That was Kara as she described a large bolt of lightning that was probably a 1/4 of a mile away. The windows shook and you felt the thunder. It's so weird, you can hear the thunder coming before it gets to you, almost like when a jet-fighter comes whippin by you at 500 mph and you can just barely hear it coming and then it goes past you and Waaaaaaaoooooooowwwwwwwww. Very similar to that. Anyways, I think I'm getting a little too descriptive now, but that's how our morning has been...so far!!

We'll keep you posted if anything cool like that happens again. We are totally fine and still amazed at the power of mother nature. I found a few good articles on thunder here and also here,if you're interested. See ya later.

Nigerian Culture Day and The Beach!

This weekend was definitely a busy one. Sunday was Nigeria's 46th birthday, but since that wasn't a working day, the government decided to make Monday the official day off for the week. The problem is, the government didn't decide to make Monday the official holiday until last Wednesday...so that meant we got a mid-week Nigerian Birthday present...no school on Monday!! Friday was the school's official celebration of the Nigerian Holiday and wow was it a big celebration indeed. We had to have tailors custom-fit us for traditional Nigerian clothing earlier in September so that we could be a part of this special occasion. We have about 12 pictures to go through, so without further ado, let's get to the fun stuff. Before I forget, go check out Carrie P's AISL blog (The link is on the right), for more pictures as well of both the beach and of Culture day. I'm sure the Rainbolts will have pics up too really soon.



The picture above is Kara and I in the school's courtyard on Friday, Nigerian Culture Day. You will find Kara in the stunning crimson top with matching skirt, and Bryan in the black on black traditional suit worn by the Igbo people in Nigeria. Bryan is sporting a hat made from the finest Nigerian leaves and his suit was hand stitched with white embroidery. Kara is wearing a traditional head wrap that she learned how to tie herself...pretty good stuff!



After a long and exhaustive Nigerian Culture Day, we went out to eat at a restaraunt called Cafe Bombay, Indian Food. It was bomb.com/indian food. We had butter chicken, with rice, and about a million other appetizers. We enjoyed the food and the company of Jason and Tina, another couple from Tacoma. We had a blast and are really enjoying getting to know another couple here on a more personal level outside of work. After dinner, I went to the neighbor's flat to play poker with the guys...it was a 3000 naira buy-in and I broke even...not too shabby for being a really bad poker player. Saturday we decided to take it easy, plus, Mr. Shearer thought it would be fun to up and move three teachers in a triangle formation. I move to Mr. Vincent's room, Mr. Vincent moved to Mr. Rainbolt's Room, and Mr. Rainbolt moved down to my room, the Rainbow room. I always had a weird feeling that Mr. Rainbolt belonged in the Rainbow room, not quite sure what gave me that feeling, but when I figure it out, I'll make sure and share with you why I feel it was fate. So I moved classrooms on Saturday, which makes it my 4th move in as many years for classrooms. Brutal. Sunday we were invited out with a huge group of AISL'ers to Alekko beach...not sure if I spelled it correctly, but whose keeping track? Here are some pictures of the beach. We figured if you took this property, and put it in California, or Florida, it becomes worth millions of dollars.


The photo above is of the hut we were staying in at the beach...it was pretty cool. The people you see lined up outside of it are all Nigerian's, trying to sell us stuff for, "cheap cheap." Typically they start at about 3 times the going price, so ya gotta bring your A-Game bartering skills with you if you don't want to get hustled. We got some cool stuff, minus the hustle of course!



So above is a photo of the little mini-shelter that's out in front of the hut. Out there, you're pretty close to the water, and of course right on the beach. It was, like I said, a little bit like paradise. Warm weather, warm water, and of course, very warm and friendly people.



Here's a picture of Kara, Carrie P., Melody Vincent, Jake, Gina, and Emily Rainbolt. They were up on the second level of the hut looking out towards the Atlantic Ocean.



Nigerian's "got mad skills" when it comes to balancing things on their heads. The workers at AIS carry tables and various other heavy things on their heads. I tried it the other day moving tables around in my new classroom and must say that it is very effective, but painful if you have no hair on top of your head. Often times, they use towels, or some other cushy device to soften the load on their head.



Above is just a cool picture I took from the second floor of the hut looking up the coastline.



Where's Waldo? No really, there is a crab in this picture that I named Waldo, can you find him? I took this picture for the kids to try and find the crab. There are literally millions of these little crabs that blend into the sand so well that you can't see them until they move. It was a pretty cool effect walking up the beach and seeing all of the crabs scurrying along the sand.



Here's a picture of Kara sitting next to our latest bartering acquisition. Yeah, that's right, there are 50 hand carved nigerian guys in that canoe that is litterally longer than Kara's legs. It took the artist a month to carve each of the pieces on the canoe. He wanted 10,000 naira for it...after about an hour of haggling, laughing, talking in Pidgin English, claiming I was Igbo, then changing to Yoruba, and finally admitting I was a white man, the transaction was made for 3,000 Naira. Not too bad eh?



Last week i promised Driving in Lagos, well here you have it. Some random pictures from the trip home from Alekko. It was about a 35 minute drive from the beach, and about halfway home, it started to poor down rain. We drove past some random fires on the side of the road, a market, and of course, a few million billboard advertisements. (Note the okada's in the picture above.)



Here's a typical market in Lagos. Note the flooded street and hundreds of people. That's normal.



Finally, here is a picture of a stretch of highway with what seems like an advertisement for everything! Just take a look at how the people up ahead are driving. That's what I'm talking about when I say no lanes and even if there were, nobody would use them. We've seen a few stoplights now, but they are mere suggestions, you don't really have to stop when the light is red. Also, look at the air freshener hanging from the mirror, I intentionally included it in the picture for my mom, and Kara's dad, reminding them to smile...we are well taken care of over here so don't worry, be happy (I've been whistling that tune the whole time I've been typing this blog!) We enjoyed our weekend. Another thing we experienced was our first multi-cockroach killing spree (2 in 2 days!). We sprayed one with RAID and it took it a good hour to die...yeah, they're like little mini-Terminator's. The internet has been majorly slow, so we haven't been able to make too many calls like in previous weekends. We definitely miss everybody and are getting really excited to come home for Christmas. We've decided not to go to Ghana for Thanksgiving and plan on setting up our webcam and eating Thanksgiving Dinner with the families, so get your webcams and microphones ready! Alrighty, time to go! Byebye.

Hard Drugs Kill you Softly

Last night I thought it might be fun to go out and take some pictures at night. So I went managed to find a tripod and away I went. I ended up with a few cool shots; here you go.



Oooh, had to sneak off the compound to get this picture...not far though, just across the street. This is the front of 1004; you can see how desolate it appears. The lighting was really cool for this shot as there was a combination of flourescent, mercury halide lamps, and incandescent lighting (Wow, those big words make me sound really smart!).



Hard Drugs Kill you Softly. Need I say more? Not really, except that this sign points right at the exit to AISL from the flats. So everytime we drive off the compound, we are reminded that hard drugs do indeed kill you softly...just in case you forgot.



So after you look left and are reminded, as upstanding citizens who teach, not to smoke crack, shoot up heroine, huff glue, or snort cocaine, you look right and this is what you'll see! (I'm still trying to figure out why the sign points so purposefully at our entrance. I mean it literally just screams, "Hey teachers...don't do drugs.")



I thought this picture pretty much sums our experience up. The entrance to the Private Residence...gates...steel bars...protection...imagine that! I feel safe...do you?




So this is the top of the gate that you drive out of before you're reminded that Hard Drugs Kill you Softly. I'd imagine those spikes hurt, so I guess if anybody wants to get cute and climb the gates instead of the walls, they meet these spikes instead of razor wire.

So the moral of todays lesson is Hard Drugs Kill you Softly...so STOP the habit. The advertisements are classic around here, and as I get more confident with the camera, I will take more pictures of many of the others including, "Get pregnant in just THREE months!" Yes, that is a real sign, and yes we pass that often as well. Anyways, hope you enjoy, talk to you soon.

Our Flat

Here is a picture of our flat as the side I've pointed out faces South. As mentioned in the blog below, the marked spot on the picture is where I took the picture from in the blog post, "Lagos at Dusk." It gives you an idea of the size of the building we live in as well as an idea of how big the compound is.



The picture to the left is of the north side of the flat. Our flat is on the first balcony in the picture. There are two more floors above us.

For more information on our day, scroll down and read about Saturday Soccer at AIS. I've also added two new links to our blog on the right side, one to the Rainbolt's blog and the other to another teacher, and good friend of Kara's, who came here from University Place, Carrie's blog. Together, we hope that we can give you some perspective on our experience here. Enjoy!

Saturday Soccer...with a dash of Lagos.

"Ah wegoooooooo, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah wegoooooooooooooooooooooo hoooooooooo."

At about 9:30 this morning, Kara was making some eggs and suddenly, from outside of our flat, we heard what sounded like the Mosque's daily prayer (The Rainbolts will argue it's an hourly occurence, even through the middle of the night). Kara says, "What is that?" I said I thought it might be the Mosque, but she says, "No, that's too close to be the Mosque." So I check outside, and there, below our balcony, was a kid, probably in 3rd or 4th grade, yelling into a bullhorn. Ah, it must be a Saturday morning at AIS!



So I grabbed my camera and snapped a picture. The funniest part was he was completely separated from the playfield, as if he had somehow comandeered a bullhorn, found his way away from the field, and then found out how to work the thing. He was well hidden, so it took a good 10 minutes for anybody to actually find him; by then, he'd figured out how to work the siren on the bullhorn. He was very stealthy and kept checking around the corner to see if mom or dad was coming after him yet. Kara and I were very entertained!

Speaking of the Mosque, I have to give credit to the Rainbolts, they are woken up every morning by the prayer and are still maintaing a little bit of sanity. Here's a picture of it.



So during Saturday Soccer, I decided to take a stroll around our relatively small compound and listen to the sounds of kids playing soccer. I found a number of things to take pictures of. Here's Mr. Lizard, one of the resident lizards that has the run of the place. He let me get up pretty close to take a picture of him. They do this thing with their heads, kind of like bobbing up and down, looks like they're dancing.



After my encounter with Mr. Lizard, and several of his family members, I took a stroll down the track, heading West, towards the Victoria Island skyline.

"Hello...my friend."

I looked around to see who was saying that. "Hello...my friend, I be up here." I turned around to see who was saying that because I wasn't near anybody. Sure enough, standing up on the other side of our compound wall, was a security guy for one of the neighbors. He was just standing there, watching the kids play soccer. Nigerians are some of the friendliest people in the world, and they genuinely love happy things. I talked with him for a few minutes. He wanted me to get him a job at AIS...every Nigerian wants to work here, they pay well. I told him I couldn't, and that I didn't have that kind of power. I was definitely testing out my Pigeon/Broken English on him and was doing very well as he responded immediately at my, "Waitin D' Happen Na" with "Nutting D' Happen Na," and a laugh. He asked then if I could take his picture. I told him of course, but that I couldn't do anything with it unless he had an email address. Of course he didn't have an email address, but I snapped a picture of him anyway. It was a proud moment for him. Here's the picture.

Oh, apparently it won't let me uploade anymore pictures, so I guess you'll just have to wait for those later. Just Joking!! Got it working.



As I made my way around the fields, I stopped and talked to a few parents. By the time I made it back to the entrance to the field, I made one last look to see if the Security guy was still there and sure enough, standing and watching, poised...a fan of the game apparently. I snapped a few more pictures of the flats from out on the field. I will have the picture in the next blog as this thing is not wanting to upload it right now. I photoshopped some text into the picture so you can see where we live. The spot I've marked is actually where I took the picture in the blog post "Lagos at Dusk" and in that picture, I was facing the direction that I took this picture from.

I hope you enjoyed your "photo tour" of AISL's Saturday soccer. Next week, "Driving in Lagos." Have a great day!

NFL HQ: Lagos

Okay, so yeah, I have some bad dreams; that's better than Malaria. And from what I've heard, there are much worse side-effects possible with this stuff than bad dreams!

We've purchased cool Nigerian wood-carvings, both legit and illegitimate dvd's (although I won't formally admit to knowing about the latter at the time of the transaction), and some really good food. But I don't think anything compares to the purchase I made this evening; NFL Field Pass on NFL.com. I bought this for 39.99, and yes, it is only radio broadcasts, but right now, I am listening to the Seahawks playing Cardinals on one computer, listening to the Chargers play the Titans on a second computer, and Chiefs playing the Broncos on a third. Add on to that, my fantasy football !Yahoo stattracker loaded up on the center computer to keep track of how my fantasy players are doing. I'm a few tv's short of being in NFL heaven right now, and all of this for just 39.99! I've listened to 6 games today...there are 15 more weeks left in the NFL, if I keep this pace up, I will have listened to 90 games by the end of the season. You do the math, that's like...well I'm not a math teacher so who cares, it's pretty cheap football! So I'm doing well!! Kara is enjoying my fanaticism; she's watching a ton of Harry Potter DVD's and getting work done.

On Saturday morning, a couple of the guys and I went on a quest to find Madden 07 for the XBox360 and were very unsuccessful. Nothing but PAL here. I have a copy of Madden 07 in my possession, but it's the PAL version, we don't need to go into that story because I'm still recovering from the severe disappointment. However, on our quest, I noticed the number of baby Goats, I think they call them kids? Anyways, I asked Jon Cain, also known as Obi John Cainobi to us newbies, what the deal was? I said, "These goats must be pretty smart because I haven't seen a single one get hit by any cars out here." He said, it's not that they're any smarter than dogs, it's just that all the dumb ones are dead. I'm still laughing about that one, but seriously, there are sooooo many goats running the streets here!

Alright, well I need to get back to operating NFL HQ: Lagos, Nigeria.

Never a Dull Moment

This posting is just going to be a random assortment of stories.

This Friday Bryan and I went to a bar a few blocks away called, "the Thistle," with a huge group of teachers from AIS. Because there were so many people there, it was pretty fun... and quite loud. We stayed for about three hours, then thought it best to leave before things started getting crazy. Since it wasn't dark yet, we thought that we would venture out on our own by walking back to the compound. Although the walk from the Thistle back to the compound was only about 5 blocks, I think it was somewhat of a turning point for Bryan and me. What I mean is that it was extremely encouraging and freeing for us to feel comfortable enough to be able to walk around in our own back yard OUTSIDE of the compound and feel safe. We did have to dodge the puddles in the street, but that was about the most challenging part of the mini-adventure.

Alright, now about the Mefloquine. It is astonishing to me that a drug like this is legally prescribed. I understand that it prevents malaria THANKFULLY; however, when you find information on Wikipedia that "like many other drugs, mefloquine has adverse side-effects. It is known to cause severe depression, anxiety, paranoia, nightmares, insomnia, vestibular (balance) damage..." I think you get the point... reading the side effects alone are enough to make a person paranoid!! So, let me tell you briefly how they have effected Bryan. I, myself, am not taking Mefloquine (not to worry, I am taking another type, which is supposed to make me sensitive to the sun, which I've done fine with thus far), yet I think I am getting the short end of the stick when it comes to these stinkin' side effects. (As a side note, this medicine is taken once a week.) For example, a couple of weeks ago Bryan "woke up" late at night, panicking about who knows what, when he looked around asking "Where am I?" several times. He was standing up, looking around our room and seemed to not recognize me, which really freaked me out. So I asked him who I was and he just kept asking where he was. Aaaarrrgh!! Look at me and let me know that you remember that I'm your wife! All of a sudden, he looked at me and started giggling as he said, "what are you doing, silly?" Wow. We then talked for quite a while and finally went to bed. The next day, Bryan had no recollection of his dream OR our conversation. If that doesn't convince you how crazy this medicine is, here's another story for you. Last night Bryan took his medicine again. I woke up in the middle of the night to him standing on the bed, freaking out about something. It seemed like he didn't want his feet to stay in one place, which instantly made me fear for the wellbeing of my limbs. As he was running around on top of the bed, I grabbed his arm to pacify him and get him to lay back down. He told me this morning, after remembering the situation, that he thought that something (maybe snakes?) were trying to get him and when I grabbed him, he thought that the "thing" had gotten a hold of him. Oops on my part, but at least he didn't jump on my legs and break them... and he ended up laying back down and eventually falling asleep. I'm realizing that it sounds a bit silly when I retell the stories, but it is very bizzare and somewhat scary when it's occurring. Needless to say, we plan on getting a different prescription for Bryan when we get back at Christmas.

Today was a great day. Why? It was the first day without rain in about three weeks!! We actually saw some blue sky! I thought that coming over to Nigera, being only a few degrees off of the equator, we would be melting from the heat. I guess that we just managed to bring that Washington weather over with us. So, the sun is nice... for now. Another nice thing about no rain is that, beyond brightening our moods, it also helps dramatically with the traffic. When it rains, it rains hard + there is no drainage system + the roads are made out of dirt = you do the math on what this does to traffic.

Enough for now

First Birthday... in Africa

28 years old, but Year 1 in Lagos, Nigera. Today has actually been a great day! I started out by heading off to school and getting a visit from Bryan's and my surrogate neice, Emily Rainbolt, and her mom, Gina. They came in my classroom with a homemade card and a pair of really cute earrings. Since my planning period was the first part of the day, I had time to check my emails and was happily surprised to find several "happy birthdays" waiting to be opened.

I am not the type of person to tell the world that my birthday is coming, just because I like to keep it low key and not make a big production of it. HOWEVER, I am married to a wonderful man that doesn't quite work that way. He made sure that all of the students that we both have knew about my birthday in advance. So...

When my ninth graders got to the end of class... AFTER the bell had rung, they all stopped where they were and looked at me (which kind of freaked me out), then started singing "happy birthday" to me! They all wished me a great day, THEN went off to lunch. These kids CAN be SO thoughtful!

Bryan brought me my lunch, then gave me a hint that my seventh grade kids had something in store for me. And they did. A couple of students came into my room a couple of minutes before lunch was over and, as they were laughing hysterically, tried to convince me that I missed a "library" meeting. Maybe it's just me, but I've never heard of a library meeting. Anyways, as the kids were trying their hardest to get me out of the room, the other science teacher came over to meet with me in his room, where he informed me that he was trying to stall for the kids. :) When I went back to my classroom, the door was shut, I could see that the lights had been turned off, and there were no kids in sight. I opened the door and heard some whispers and someone say, "she's here!" Then, all at once, the kids jumped out from behind the lab stations and yelled "SURPRISE!!!" Several of them came up to me and gave me hugs, cards and gifts as they wished me a great day. Then the consumables came out. One student brought a cooler with enough bottles of pop for every student in the class, several kids brought Pringles (one of my girls asked me the other day what some of my favorite snacks that you can buy in Nigeria are and barbecue Pringles was on the top of the list) and there were even chocolate cupcakes. The part that I found most amusing was that when the food was opened, it became survival of the fittest and I didn't even end up with a cupcake... until I pointed that out to the students and then there seemed to be some "extra" cupcakes. One sweet girl, while I was visiting with the class, went up to my desk and put a pile of barbecue Pringles there for me, and later gave Bryan a really nice leather purse and insulated coffee mug to give me. It was nice to be able to inform these kids that theirs was the first surprise birthday party I have ever received from students. They were pretty proud about that.

After school, Bryan brought me over to his classroom and gave me parts of my presents. First, he gave me a collage of us that he had made on a comic-making program, fully loaded with comments. He also had a beatiful cake made for me by one of our students' moms. It has periwinke blue frosting on the sides and flowers on top with a message that says, "Happy Birthday Kara." Next to the cake and collage, he had his computer set out with the internet opened to the Melting Pot page. He let me know that he will be treating me to a nice evening there upon our return in December. On top of that, he is taking me to a Swiss fondue evening HERE in Lagos on the 23rd of the month, which is put on by a Swiss club in the area, of which another parent is involved!

Finally, Bryan had asked our steward to find some good tiger prawns to fix up for dinner, which he did and he did well! The prawns were HUGE and were breaded and fantastic! After we watched "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" (yes, I am a huge HP fan, for those of you who don't know) and ate dinner, we had the Rainbolts and a few other friends over to celebrate and eat cake. So, it's been a good day for me.

As Bryan says, "we're in Nigeria, so things will be a little different this year," but I have enjoyed Year 1 birthday in Lagos. I have felt quite close to home (relative to being over 7000 miles away), extremely appreciated by my students, very well taken care of by my amazing husband and simply loved. Overall, it's a great birthday!

The NFL on AFN

This weekend was quite eventful. I'm going to do my best to recap what happened in the short time that I have on lunch!

Friday:
During the school day, we were informed that a parent of one of our students had passed away. He was misdiagnosed with having typhoid fever when infact he had Malaria. By the time the hospital had realized this, it was too late and his kidneys had gone into failure mode. With little time left, they tried dialysis (sp?) but were too late. So Friday was a pretty somber day, but the kids were supportive of both students who lost their dad.

At the end of the day, we had our first school dance and that was hillarious! It's been about 11 years since my last jr. high dance, of course that being my 9th Grade dance. So I forgot how divided the dances are, mostly guys on the left side, girls on the right. They don't dance together!! It's so funny, so we went from Mt. T. where it was, "If you bend your dance will end", to AISLagos, where it's, "Are we gonna dance?"

That night, after the dance, a bunch of us went out on the town in Victoria Island. There are police checkpoints every mile or so. You have to remember that the power is out here more than it is working, so there aren't any streetlights. There aren't any stoplights either, I think we've seen one since we arrived. The police just hang out at these checkpoints and wave a flashlight at your driver. The driver then pulls over and they flash the light into the vehicle looking for any suspicious activity. That being said, when they see Americans, they think $$! So we have to pretend that we're sleeping when we pull up to the checkpoints so that they won't harrass us or tell us to get out of the car. They reach into the vehicles when the driver rolls down his window, so you have to be cautious about that as well. Always keep the door locked and pretend your sleeping! Our pretend sleep faces are pretty funny as we demonstrated for each other after each checkpoint.

All was well at the dance clubs, minus the prostitutes and old guys with them. We were treated like royalty at most of the spots we went to, not having to pay cover at any of the places. We went upstairs at this one club and hung out with the owners! Saturday morning came soon, and they had soccer tryouts here on the fields. Every student at AIS pretty much plays soccer. I call it, "Your Football" when I'm talking to them about soccer. They'll say things in class like, "My favorite football team is..."and they say something like Arsenal, or ManU (Manchester United). I then have to remind them that that's "their football", not "My football".

Speaking of Football, How bout those Hawks? A win is a win...any way you look at it. I miss being able to watch them. We were stuck watching the Panthers v. Falcons game here at the General Quarters. Vick looks pretty good! Anyways, The 10 AM games we're used to start at 6 PM over here. Before we went to the GQ, we went out to Lekki Market where I made my biggest bartering purchase yet! I got the guy down from 15,000 Naira to 4,000. That's like dropping the price from almost 150 dollars, to 25. Pretty good stuff! I'm a little nervous for coming home, I'm so used to bartering for everything!! My parents better look out, they thought I was a little feisty before coming over here, just wait!

Anyways, the memorial service was Sunday morning for the gentleman who passed away. That was sobering, and definitely a reality check for those of us who thought Malaria wasn't a big deal. So we're being safe and still taking Mefloquine. In our next installment on the blog, I should tell you about some of the dreams this stuff is making me have. Maybe I'll have Kara explain as she's typically the one who's waking me up from them! That was our weekend ,if I left anything out, you might find the filler in Mr. Rainbolts diary as listed below! Talk to you soon!