Another look at Nigerian life...

I have taken several pictures this last week of things that you don't normally see in the US...

We will start with Staff Busses.

I know that this one isn't the best picture, but both of those are semmi type trucks that have had the trailers modified to "carry people". They just stop on the side of the road and people run and climb into them.
This is also a staff bus. I guess seat belts laws don't apply if there aren't any seats.

Roy and I weren't exactly sure what to make of the phrase on the back of this bus...I guess this guy wanted to have God as his mechanic??

These are some workers that we saw out our apartment windows.



The fellers on the left are mowing the grass there on the side of the road. They don't have lawnmovers. It is hard to see in this picture, but they are cutting the grass with machetes. Then they gathered up the cut grass into piles and burned it. The guys on the right are working WAY off the ground on this huge billboard that has been going up for about 3 weeks. Notice the safety gear they are using/wearing. Oh wait you can't see it either!! Exactly there is NONE. They are several stories off the ground with no safety ropes or harnesses or anything!! Crazytalk!

This next picture was just funny and very typical for Nigeria.
The green sign in the middle of these fellows says "OKADAS (that means motorcycle taxi) No waiting, No stopping, No parking, No Drop-Off" And it was SURROUNDED by Okadas just waiting for their next rider!

This next picture is the state of the road on the way out to church. Once we turn off the "highway" the road quickly deteriorates. They say it will be filled in after rainy season. But these really are becoming car swallowing holes and the road is ALMOST impassable. (In other holes on this road they threw in bags of quickcrete to help fill them in some. Now they are just huge holes with bag shaped boulders in them!!)

And lastly... This picture is for my mother who keeps telling me that I need to learn where the locals shop and go there.I think I will keep going to the meat counter at the supermarket!! Thanks anyway!

Wednesdays at the Library

Every Wednesday I volunteer at the American Women's Club (AWC) Library. You can tell it's a library just by lookin', huh?


It is a rented house that is set up to be a library. All the books, magazines, and movies were donated by people who have passed through here.


This is a view from the front door. There are enough books to fill several rooms and we even have a room just for kids books. And there is also a thrift store upstairs. The library is usually open on Wednesday and Saturday mornings. It is really nice to get out and talk to people. After we close the library, we usually go out to lunch.

This was the view out the car window on the way to the library today.

The man on the ladder is either splicing into the power lines or repairing them. But my favorite part of this picture is that the ladder is not leaning against anything while he is working in that tangled mess of power lines. The three guys on the ground are the only thing holding the ladder upright. And where are the hard hats, gloves, safety ANYTHING that would be required in the US????!!!! Just another day in Nigeria.

Stake Conference

August 5th was stake conference. It was my first time going to the stake center. We were able to convince security to let us go in just one armored land rover with just one armed guard, instead of having to take the armed land rover with a security person and a chase vehicle with at least three armed guards (sometimes more). Anyway, traffic wasn't bad that Sunday so it didn't take us that long to get there. But I learned that the only things Nigerians have to model stake conference after is General Conference. And they really to their very best to pull off a mini version of General Conference. They have a choir with members from several of the wards and they all wear matching outfits. They try and even lay out the format for the meeting the same as General Conference. Luckily they don't make it the same timetable. When we got there, they had ushers seating everyone and they shuffled all us "white folk" up to the very front two rows. They said they had reserved seats for visitors and special guests. We REALLY tried to tell them that we were just regular old members, not anyone special and we didn't need any special treatment. They shuffled us to the front anyway. After it was over Roy snapped off a quick picture of the view behind us.



It was a pretty good meeting. Deffinately interesting. After the meeting we went over to the missionaries house for dinner and fun. It was nice to hang out and socialize.

Weber, Oh how I missed thee...

It was so great to visit the Weber again! I hadn't been there since I was 14. I had forgotten that there is a little piece of heaven on earth!


This is a cabin that belonged to my great great grandfather and is now owned and maintained by the family organization. It isn't anything big or fancy. Just a nice small cabin with running water and electricity. No phone and no cell phone service. It's great! I was able to spend 7 days here with my family this year. It really was a wonderful week. The weather was great, it rained everyday, which kept the temps down. And of course the scenery was FABULOUS!


There was lots of great hiking...


Some fun creek play time...


And of course some good old fashion kick back and relax time...

Oh and we learned not to get between a pregnant woman and her food!! Love you sis!!

Mitchell Reuinion

I love reuinions. Sadly they only come once a year and, even more sadly, it isn't easy to get to them every year. BUT, this year I was able to get to both of the reuinions. It was so good to see family and have fun. (It really was fun!) We camped at this little RV park just north of Manti. It was really cool to look up and see the temple all weekend.

It really was a cooshy camping trip. The bathrooms were really nice. There were showers. (I even went back to grandmas to take a shower, because we were that close.) The weather was wonderful. Not too hot. There was even wireless internet access and electricity so that I could talk to my honey over the computer!! But really the best part of the whole weekend was spending time with family! (Oh and Kit was way excited that Harry Potter 7 was finally out!!)