"You are what you eat." I've never quite figured that figure of speech out...but if that's the case, last night we were spaghetti. We enjoyed a nice evening dinner with the Rainbolts last night. David and Gina are fellow Tacoma School teachers with us over here. Kara and I teach the 9A kids with David and he comes down on Thursday and Friday to help my 7th Graders with their English skills. He truly is an English Guru. They have two kids, our surrogate niece and nephew, Emily and Jacob. If you enjoy our blog, you would really enjoy their blog as well. Here is the address:
http://rainbolttraveldiary.blogspot.com
Their most recent blog does a great justice to traffic here in Lagos.
We are doing well today! I think for the first time in my life, I missed the opening game of the NFL season as it was 2 AM when it started. So that's what I'm struggling with right now, Kara seems just fine though! I've been using my giving up my season tickets to the Seahawks as leverage with the parents over here to help explain how committed I am to teaching their children! So I need to get back to that as my students are finishing up their presentation preparation for their explanation of the ongoing conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan. Yes, these kids really are THAT good! Talk to you soon.
Friday, September 08, 2006
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
Just an idea
Here's an idea of how hard it was raining yesterday! Look at how huge the splashes were from the raindrops!
Monday, September 04, 2006
And He said, let there be...Rain?
Today, Kara and I got a taste of Nigerian rain. Wow! It poured. Bryan ran from the school to the flat, was outside of cover for a little over 10 seconds, and pretty much got drenched. It's rained all day long, and it has been pretty remarkable! This is definitely not the, "rain showers" we've grown so accustomed to in Washington; this is an all out down-pour.
Anyways, things are getting better over here; Bryan is healthy again and school is running smoothly. We have our back-to-school night this Wednesday and are getting pretty excited about that. We will have pictures uploaded as soon as we can get our camera hooked up to the Macs.
We hope everybody enjoyed their holiday break; apparently, Nigerians don't think Labor Day should be observed over here! So we worked, and will continue working through June! Anyways, we'll be back!
Anyways, things are getting better over here; Bryan is healthy again and school is running smoothly. We have our back-to-school night this Wednesday and are getting pretty excited about that. We will have pictures uploaded as soon as we can get our camera hooked up to the Macs.
We hope everybody enjoyed their holiday break; apparently, Nigerians don't think Labor Day should be observed over here! So we worked, and will continue working through June! Anyways, we'll be back!
Saturday, September 02, 2006
Just Don't Die
Today, we went out to the GQ (General Quarters) for lunch. Both Kara and I had a club sandwich, and wow were they good! It was nice to get some American food cooked at an American location! Anyways, things have been good over here. It's really starting to warm up outside as the cloudy skies are parting and the equatorial sun is shining bright. I took my Geography kids out GPS'ing the other day and that was a blast! We are just a few degrees north of the Equator, and East of the Prime Meridian, so that's cool! After looking at my GPS all that time in the US, it was funny to see the coordinates actually say, East longitude.
The subject today is, "Just Don't Die", inspired from a bumper sticker we saw on the back of a taxi carrying what looked like 20 people inside. One of the saddest moments we've had here so far happened today when we were on the bridge going from Ikoye Island to Victoria Island. A little girl about a year or two older than our niece Jessica, was running along side of the car and trying to hang on to it as we were in the "Go-Slows". It was so sad because our driver just kept speeding up as she was trying to get us to roll down our windows and give her money. It was pretty crazy how she was hanging on for dear life. Kind of freaked us out a little.
We opened up the morning with AISL's, welcome back bash! I think every parent that has a student came to the bash! It was pretty amazing and we got to meet a lot of really cool people. The Vice-President of Nigeria's kids go to this school, as does his assistants children. Kara and I have two of the assistant's children in our classes as well as a couple big-wig oil execs kids. So we got too shoot the breeze with them today and that was pretty exciting. Other than that, my stomach is feeling a little weird, still trying to adjust to the new food I ate at the function.
Kara is having "ladies night" tonight with some of the girls that work here. She's really enjoying the company of some of the girls here and they are sharing in their home-sickness together. I think everybody is getting a little homesick, but the compound as a whole is very supportive of each other. It's funny, because when we go out on the weekends, you see other expats and it's like an instant bond! It's pretty cool. I played my first game of tennis yesterday and really was not good at all!! I'll get better as time goes on, but it's nothing like pickleball in high school; I used to be so good at pickleball!!
A co-worker of ours got pulled over a few days ago and the police made them get out of the car and they did (which you're not supposed to do unless they have guns). So the cops flattened the tires because they wanted money and our co-worker wouldn't give it to them. So she called the Consulate, which sends what are called React vehicles out. The marines came with weapons and the situation was resolved shortly thereafter. But pretty scary stuff! We gotta make sure we're really careful over here because the initial reason they were pulled over for was pretty bogus!
That's pretty much it for now. We'll be on Skype this weekend looking to talk to some folks, so if you're on, give us a ring! Talk to you all soon!
The subject today is, "Just Don't Die", inspired from a bumper sticker we saw on the back of a taxi carrying what looked like 20 people inside. One of the saddest moments we've had here so far happened today when we were on the bridge going from Ikoye Island to Victoria Island. A little girl about a year or two older than our niece Jessica, was running along side of the car and trying to hang on to it as we were in the "Go-Slows". It was so sad because our driver just kept speeding up as she was trying to get us to roll down our windows and give her money. It was pretty crazy how she was hanging on for dear life. Kind of freaked us out a little.
We opened up the morning with AISL's, welcome back bash! I think every parent that has a student came to the bash! It was pretty amazing and we got to meet a lot of really cool people. The Vice-President of Nigeria's kids go to this school, as does his assistants children. Kara and I have two of the assistant's children in our classes as well as a couple big-wig oil execs kids. So we got too shoot the breeze with them today and that was pretty exciting. Other than that, my stomach is feeling a little weird, still trying to adjust to the new food I ate at the function.
Kara is having "ladies night" tonight with some of the girls that work here. She's really enjoying the company of some of the girls here and they are sharing in their home-sickness together. I think everybody is getting a little homesick, but the compound as a whole is very supportive of each other. It's funny, because when we go out on the weekends, you see other expats and it's like an instant bond! It's pretty cool. I played my first game of tennis yesterday and really was not good at all!! I'll get better as time goes on, but it's nothing like pickleball in high school; I used to be so good at pickleball!!
A co-worker of ours got pulled over a few days ago and the police made them get out of the car and they did (which you're not supposed to do unless they have guns). So the cops flattened the tires because they wanted money and our co-worker wouldn't give it to them. So she called the Consulate, which sends what are called React vehicles out. The marines came with weapons and the situation was resolved shortly thereafter. But pretty scary stuff! We gotta make sure we're really careful over here because the initial reason they were pulled over for was pretty bogus!
That's pretty much it for now. We'll be on Skype this weekend looking to talk to some folks, so if you're on, give us a ring! Talk to you all soon!
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
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.
Sunday, August 27, 2006
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?"
Saturday, August 26, 2006
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!
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.
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