Behind 1004 Federal Estates

The address system in Lagos, Nigeria is quite different than that of the United States. They don't actually have a numbering system, they use a landmark system. For example, our address is, Behind 1004, Federal Estates. What is 1004 Federal Estates you might ask? That's it in the picture. It is 1004 empty apartments! The apartments were occupied up until a few months ago, most with extended families. The elevator system has been broken for years, so the people had to climb the stairs all the way to the top. Could you imagine moving in and out of a place like that?

A few months ago, at four o'clock in the morning, the Nigerian National Guard raided the apartments and evicted every tenant. "The building had been sold, and the tenants had to leave." Imagine being woken up, at 4 in the morning, with guards armed with machine guns telling you to get out of the place. I guess the people just filed out in droves. The army then began throwing all of their items and belongings over the edge of the apartments. The building has been purchased by one of the oil companies over here and will be used to house some of the employees after the renovations and cleaning is done! This is just one example of how the government gets things done over here. Pretty interesting stuff huh?

In the meantime, things are going well for us. We've just completed our fourth day of classes, only 176 left! We're learning that middle schoolers are a lot of fun, and still have a lot of growing up to do! The weather was rainy on the day the picture was taken, so please forgive the grayness! It's been beautiful for the last few days.

Lagos at Dusk

Bryan was walking home from work this evening to the sounds of the local Mosque's evening prayer and this sunset! He took a picture of it because it was a beautiful sunset! Lagos isn't that bad, is it? You can see the baseball/play fields in the picture as well as the perimeter of our compound. The weather was cool enough to take a jog so Kara was out jogging at the same time the picture was taken.


On another note, Bryan introduced Kara to Peter Frampton Comes Alive this morning. She'd never heard him make his guitar talk..."Do you feel...Do you feel...Like We Do?"

Some Stories

Being here in Lagos is a HUGE change for us. The roads have lanes, but nobody drives in them. The taxis are actually volkswagen buses filled with 12 people, 3 of which are hanging off the side of it. Helmets are not required for motorcyclists, also known has Okada's and they will fit 3, sometimes 4 people on each bike and ride in between cars during the "Go-Slows", or what we would call, bad traffic. The pollution is pretty bad, and every so often, you catch a whiff of some sort of burning smell, often times plastic in nature.

As far as stories go, we already have a ton to talk about! On Kara's first day of school, she overheard two students trying to figure out how some students could possibly not enjoy math. Bryan had a few students in his African Studies class discussing the distance from Cairo to Capetown in both miles and kilometers and talking about all of the countries they'd been to in between those two points.

In other words, the students here are just amazing people! They are world travelers, having been to more places than Kara and I will probably make it to in our entire lives. We have students from Lebanon and Israel, Iraq and the United States, Korea and Japan, all sitting next to each other as friends. We find ourselves learning as much from our students, as they learn from us...and we've only just finished our second day of teaching.

When Bryan was asked what teaching here was like, he said it was, "Utopic." Mrs. Trawick then informed him that Utopic was not a word and he replied with, "Utopic is a word in Utopia". This place is what you make it, and the environment could really use some help outside of the compound, but inside is amazing!

Yesterday, after class, we all got together and went to a place on the beach called, "The Shack". It was pretty awesome, the weather was mild, very humid, but not so warm. It reminded us of what the Pacific Ocean looks like in Washington, pretty gray. The undertow was unbelievable. The slope into the water made it so that the waves would stack up on each other and then break. The momentum would then come swooshing up and could easily take you right off of your feet. A lot of the teachers here have kids that were playing in it. At one point, Mr. Rainbolt, our resident lifeguard and amazing English teacher, had to go rushing in to swoop a few kids up that got a little too brave in the rushing tow.

Today, on our way to the Commissary (sp?), we drove past a police checkpoint on the other side of the road. The police had a man outside of his car and were beating him for some reason. They had a gun up to him and were pushing him around. The other cars were just stopped waiting for everything to clear. Who knows what happened but we weren't too surprised. We've adjusted to the speed of life, and uncertainty of every minute pretty well.

As our first weekend after school has begun approaches the halfway point, we are pretty tired, but nevertheless, enjoying ourselves. We will continue to update this blog as our fun continues! See ya later!

Our African Adventure Begins!

We figured instead of emailing everybody in mass form, that what we would do, was periodically post blogs from our encounters in Lagos, Nigeria. Every so often, we will post pictures and tell of random stories that we have come across or experienced in our time here. We hope you all find this enjoyable as we have had a great time so far here in Nigeria! Please email us if you have comments! Talk to you later.