Is your pool ever supposed to resemble skim milk?

I couldn't see past the top step of the ladders! Who knows what could be lurking in the depths of this pool!! It is actually starting to look much better today and maybe by the end of the week I will feel that it is safe to venture back into its watery depths. We'll see.

Market Shopping

We went out to the market again today and found some great new things.


This is one of the first masks I've seen that I REALLY like.

This pic shows the size.


I also found this wall hanging.


And this table runner.


They are both reverse applique. I love them!! I think I will be visiting that shop again regularly.

Tasty Deliciousness

I like pancakes. Who doesn't? But the same as with any food, I am perticular about the pancakes I like. Not just any old pancake will do. I really don't like bisquick style pancakes. They are thick and heavy and taste.... floury or something. Not a fan. BUT the pancakes mom would make when I was growing up... now THOSE were tasty pancakes. They were a thinner style pancake. Great for making huge STACKS of pancakes. Anyway, I have that recipe, but it calls for buttermilk. Something that just doesn't seem to exist in Nigeria. So sadly all I have been able to make are the "bisquick style" pancakes. We haven't had pancakes very often. But, once again, oh happy day!! In my fabulous farm journal cookbook I found an AMAZING recipe that tastes pretty much the same as mom's but without the buttermilk!!


The recipe is for "Sour Cream Pancakes" and is as follows.

Sour Cream Pancakes

1 c. sifted flour
3 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tblsp. sugar
1 egg
1 c. milk
1/4 c. dairy sour cream
2 tblsp. melted butter
1/2 c. blueberries (optional)

~ Sift together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.
~ Beat together egg, milk and sour cream.
~ Pour milk mixture over dry ingredients and blend with rotary beater until batter is just smooth. Stir in butter. (Fold in blueberries)
~ Pour 2 tblsp. batter onto hot griddle for each cake. (Pour 1 tblsp. batter on to hot griddle for each cake if you want silver-dollar-size pancakes. If you have the time this is a festive way to serve them.) Brown on one side until golden. Turn and brown on the other side. If cakes brown too fast, lower heat. Serve hot wih butter and maple syrup. Makes 12 pancakes using 2 tblsp. batter, or 24 silver-dollar-size pancakes.

If you have leftover batter, cover and store in the refrigerator. It will keep 2 or 3 days, but it will thicken. When you are ready to use it, add 1 to 2 tblsp. milk in which you dissolve 1/2 tsp. baking powder for each cup of batter. Bake as directed.


Man these have made me happy this week!! And eating them with Log Cabin syrup is perfection on a plate!! YUM Oh and as a slightly healthier side note... I completely forgot to add the melted butter last time I made these and I couldn't tell a difference. With non-stick pans these days I don't think it really needs it.

OH HAPPY DAY!!

You would not believe the drama! Then again, maybe you would. When Roy and I went looking for a new washer/dryer, we measured the old ones, and measured the openings (closet door, the space it will fit in, etc.) We knew we had limited space and mobility getting a new machine in the pantry closet. So we were all proud of ourselves for measuring and remeasuring and making sure that the model we picked fit in those size requirements. But alas.... we didn't check the turning radius with the stupid corner of the wall in the way!!! UUGGHH.


So, my new washer/dryer has been here for 2 days but not installed, because we couldn't get it in the closet. It seriously needed less than a quarter of an inch of space to make it through!! Seriously frustrating!! Needless to say, if I was in my own house in the US I would have already pulled the door frame loose and the thing would be installed!! But the maintenance manager said he didn't want to risk messing up the door frame and would rather notch out the corner of drywall and rebuild it at an angle. I just groaned and said whatever! Luckily for me the facilities group at the office wouldn't approve the cost of rebuilding part of the wall... so this morning, after trying to file the sheet rock corner down enough, they pulled off the moulding and shifted the door frame! (I'm telling ya... I REALLY MISS MY TOOLS!)


And now I have a brand new washer/dryer combo machine that is OH SO QUIET and amazing!! It does everything that it is supposed to! Oh Happy Day!!


And so at least for today I am happy... content even. And I'm not going to let the fact that I noticed that the master bathroom toilet has started leaking when you flush it, and the fitting that connects to the hose that runs to the filter for the washer is totally rusting through, not gonna let it bother me... at least until Monday.

I really could have used a dryer this week...

We still haven't gotten our broken washer and dryer replaced yet. They said it would be delivered by the 1st. That's tomorrow. I'm REALLY hoping they actually stick to what they said this time. (Doubt it's gonna happen though.) ANYWAY... I really could have used a working dryer. On Thursday all heck broke loose in my flat. Mostly because the hose on the water heater in the office broke loose!! There was water everywhere. I was VERY lucky that my steward, Grace, and a maintenance guy were already back there when it happened. In the short time that it took the maintenance guy to turn the water off the office and my bedroom were flooded. If it had happened while we were sleeping or on vacation, it would have been a complete disaster!!

This is the hallway in my flat, specifically the back half of my flat. My bedroom is on the left and there are 2 smaller bedrooms on the right. The front small bedroom we use for the office and back one is guest/storage.


There was water all the way to my bed in our bedroom.


There was enough water that they were scooping it up with dustpans and pouring it into buckets to dump down the drain. They were also using the sheets Grace had just taken off the bed to mop up the water. (Luckily it was clean water, as clean as you can get here, and it was the hose feeding the water heater so it wasn't hot.)

But what worried me the most was all the water in the office.


We pulled Roy's computer up off the floor out of the water. (It was on at the time.) We also quickly pulled the plugs out of the wall, but it did no good. The UPS took over and everything was still getting power.


And of course the UPS was on the floor between the 2 desks. I had to pull the desks apart enough that I could lean in and hold the power button on the UPS to turn it off. What I didn't notice at the time was this.


This is a splice in the cord that runs from the UPS to the power strip that everything plugs into. IT WAS IN THE WATER!! The entire UPS could have discharged into the water on the floor if it had shorted out. We were VERY lucky that it didn't happen.

This is the offending water heater.


The space beneath the water heater is about 6 inches deep... it was full of water AND my flat was flooded. They had to scoop the water out of the hole with a cup and then we had to mop the rest out. Now we have a fan blowing in there to dry it out. (I really hope that it didn't leak into the flat below ours... sorry if it did!!)


Anyway, we found out from the maintenance manager that the flexible hose they used to hook up all the water heaters and toilets is "substandard". The fitting on ours had completely rusted through and the hose broke loose. (The building isn't quite a year old!!) So we asked him what the plan was to fix them since they know about it. And he said "We will replace them as they fail." I'm really glad Roy was there. (I had called him as soon as it happened and he came straight home from work.) I was FLOORED!! I didn't know how to respond to that answer. We were standing in water hoping our computer wasn't ruined and he had the nerve to say, we will replace them when this happens again. Roy immediately told him that was unacceptable and that they needed to schedule replacing every single piece of flexible hose in our flat because we were not going to do this again. (Isn't he a wonderful hubby.)

Once it seemed that things were under control as far as cleaning up the water and getting all the electronics where they could dry out, Roy went back to work. The maintenance guys were still working on getting the water heater repaired though. For some reason, they decided they needed to completely disconnect the water heater and empty its contents in the sink in the bathroom. That normally wouldn't be a problem, but the guy didn't check to see if the power was off to the water heater first. IT WASN'T. When he put his screwdriver to the screw to remove the power... well you can guess what happened. He was standing on a wet floor... He was very VERY lucky that he didn't die. He did however get a big shock and scared the crap out of all of us. There was a huge flash (lit up the whole closet.) He dropped his screwdriver and jumped/flew out of the closet. He was ok, no permanent injury. That was when he decided to make sure the power was off. This whole incident scared the heck out of me. I am deathly afraid of electricity. I don't even like to hook up the jumper cables to jump a car. Scares me terribly. So I was REALLY shook up when that happened. Even dreamed about it that night. Ugh...

But it seems everything is ok now. The water is all cleaned up. The closet is drying out, slowly. All the flexible hose got replaced on Saturday. And it seems that everything that got wet, dried out ok. We were VERY lucky this week. Just thinking about everything that "COULD" have gone wrong with this adventure, makes me want some tomato soup or some mac and cheese!! Anyway, as I said... I really could have used a dryer!! Wet towels... rugs... sheets.... Maybe we'll get it tomorrow. Maybe.

Sometimes it's the little things in life that bring us joy...

If you know me, you know that one of my sadnesses has been the severe lack of Colby cheese and tomato soup here in Nigeria. Two of my most beloved comfort foods. But during the last couple of weeks we have made wonderful discoveries!!


A couple of weeks ago Roy found Colchester cheese and decided to give it a try. IT TASTES LIKE SLIGHTLY SHARP COLBY CHEESE!!! Heaven!! And then the last time I was out shopping, I stopped in at one of my favorite little grocery stores here and they had Campbell's tomato soup!!!!!!! I bought every can they had (about 8)! And, if there is more when I go back again, I will buy EVERY can again! Because tomato soup with Colby cheese and grilled cheese sandwich is very much a comfort food and for now.... I am happy! (And yes... if you look closely the price on the cheese is N2616.15. That is about $21.80 for approx 2lbs of cheese. That is pretty normal for here. And worth every penny for the delicious colbyness!!)

DELICIOUS

CARNAGE!!

Yes... sadly this is my kitchen. Oh, the carnage. And even more sadly, I made most of the mess myself. We had guests over for dinner today. I made yummy Cuban pork. And thank you mom for the advice!! After leaving it in the crock pot for about, oh, 14 hours, it was fall apart tender!! (Meat here can be a little tough.) And it was quite delicious. We used Lebanese flat bread to make soft tacos or wraps with it. Lots of fresh veg... (which means soaking it all in Milton to sanitize anything that isn't cooked thoroughly.) Anyway, we took a piece of flat bread and layered up the Cuban pork, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, avocado, olives, cheese, salsa, and ranch dressing or sour cream. Then folded it all up and ate it like a soft taco!! DELICIOUS!! I will have to blog the recipe later with a picture! We also had homemade refried beans, Spanish rice, and jello with fruit. Also I made a dessert. I took a boxed white cake. Made it according to the directions. Then scored the top and took a can of raspberries and blended it all up and dumped it on the top and let it soak in. Then I spread a can of chocolate fudge frosting over the top of it. Raspberry chocolaty goodness without too much work. But I think by the end of dinner, every piece of silverware was dirty, most of the cups, most of the knives.... etc. And now the kitchen is CARNAGE!!

BUT... I have a wonderful husband who saw how tired I was after all that prep and told me to sit down and rest.


I think he is just planning on loading and running the dishwasher. But as you can see by the size of it... it's going to take SEVERAL loads to clean up this chaos! (But, isn't he wonderful!!)

I know I haven't posted for a while...

The only real excuse I have is that life threw me for a loop and I was just trying to keep up. Roy and I went back to the US around Christmas/New Years time for vacation, to see family, and to get in those pesky yearly doctor visits. It was a really hectic trip. We were constantly traveling to fit everything in. But it was a good trip. The day after we got back to Nigeria, my mom called and told me that her father had another heart attack and they weren't expecting him to recover from it. Two weeks later he passed away at home surrounded by loved ones. That was the longest/hardest two weeks I've been through. I have been very blessed and have had all four of my grandparents alive and healthy. (I am 31 years old.) He is the first to pass and I wasn't sure how to react. Luckily, for me, the company my husband works for covered the expense of a flight home so that I could go to the funeral. It was hard to say good bye to my grandpa, but it was so good to see and visit with all my mom's family. Everyone was so kind and loving on this trip. Going out of each others way to comfort and help each other. It was nice. And it helped provide some closure. But it still hurts... it probably will for a long time. I love my grandpa and miss him very much. But I know that when I need him, he will be close and watch over me.

Anyway, I was only in Nigeria for two weeks before I left for the funeral. And I was home sick with a BAD cold those entire two weeks. Then I was back in the US again for six more weeks. I stayed at my parents house for four of those six weeks. And in the last two weeks I was there, I ripped the paneling off the upstairs hallway, patched up the sheet rock, retouched the stairwell and downstairs hallway walls, primed it all and painted it and the ceiling. And kept it a secret from my dad for the first whole week. He would get up and go to work every morning and I would get up and start working. About four each afternoon I would stop. Clean up my mess, stash all the supplies in my room, take a shower and plop down on the couch just in time for him to get home. (He had specifically said, "I don't want to take down the paneling upstairs. It will be to much work to fix the sheetrock behind it." But mom specifically wanted it off!!) And since he NEVER goes upstairs, he didn't notice. But once he did find out, he STARTED to get mad and raised his voice and stomped up the stairs. But once he got up there and looked at the job that I did... he couldn't keep yelling. I am pretty handy. At least I think so.

The last two weeks I spent in Houston with Roy while he was on a business trip. We had a great time. We went shopping, to the aquarium and the zoo. We ate out at lots of great restaurants and specifically went to Taste of Texas for my birthday. It was REALLY good steak and they gave me dessert for free. (I need to scan the picture they took and then I will post it here.) I was REALLY glad to be with Roy again. I had missed him so much.

When we finally got back to Nigeria, we had a surprise waiting for us. We got home on a Saturday and I looked into the pantry to see what food was left (Roy doesn't shop much when I am gone.)

This picture is looking straight into the pantry. Around the corner to the left is my washer and dryer. This is what I found:


YES, not only was the door completely OFF the dryer, but the glass was TOTALLY broken. On Monday, I asked Grace (my steward) what happened. She said that she had put the blanket off the bed in the washer and started it and later heard a crash and the door to the dryer was on the floor.





I believe her. These machines have been pieces of @#$%@#$% since we first got them. One problem after another. So we sent an email to the facilities people to let them know that we were going to need a new one.

Then the next day I went in to measure the dryer to see how big it was, when I noticed that the washing machine looked funny. There were clothes in it and the door was shut, but it wasn't. The latch was still engaged, but the hinges had snapped and it was hanging open slightly from that side. UUUGGGHHHHH!!


GINORMUS PIECES OF JUNK. Seriously the hinges of both doors on both machines both snapped within seven days of each other. SERIOUSLY! Another email to facilities. BLAH....

They emailed us back and said, what brand do you prefer. And I said, "Good question." If we were in the US I could tell you exactly what I want. But those don't plug in here so good. (And if you just jam the plug in the outlet, it makes sparks and stuff... not good.) So they told us 3 different stores to go and look at and see what we liked. I found this:


It is a Samsung 7.5kg air wash 3-in-1 combo. It washes, dries and "air washes" all in one machine. It will mean that I can only do ONE load at a time. But it makes MUCH more sense space wise. That pantry closet is SOOOOO small and cramped. We wrote down the make and model and sent the information to our facilities department. They wrote up a requisition and it is waiting approval, I think. Anyway I am HOPING that sometime next week, I will have a new washer/dryer. I just have to keep borrowing the neighbors until then. BLAH.

I think that mostly covers it.

Scary moments....

No pictures for this post. Just a very real reminder that we live in a place that CAN be dangerous.

The other night, around 9:30 or so, Roy and I were in our room reading "Opening the Seven Seals: The Visions of John the Revelator". We aren't very far into it yet, but it is pretty interesting so far. Anyway, our bedroom faces a main street here. Sometimes the traffic and noise from outside can be quite loud. While we were reading together, we started to hear shouting. This isn't and uncommon thing here. Buses stop and pick up and drop off people right below our balcony and sometimes people will get into arguments while they are waiting for the bus. Usually the shouting ends about as quickly as is starts. This time was different though. The shouting wasn't stopping, it was starting to get louder. Then we heard a load bang. Again not to unusual. Cars are always backfiring and all week people at the Indian High Commission (just down the street) had been lighting firecrackers for some celebration. But the shouting was continuing and then there was another bang. I was starting to get really nervous and asked Roy if he thought those bangs could have been gunshots. He was starting to be a bit concerned as well. He slipped quietly out onto the balcony to try and see what was happening. At the gate to the boys quarters there was a large crowd of about 20 people, and there was a MoPol (mobile police) truck. We couldn't tell exactly what was happening. At first we thought maybe there had been a wreck with the truck and an Okada (motorcycle taxi). This happens a lot and when someone hits an Okada, all the Okada drivers swarm to defend the injured Okada driver. It can often get quite violent and out of hand. But we didn't see any Okadas in the area and no motorcycle layed out on the ground. As we were watching about 1/2 the people piled into the back of the MoPol truck and the last one in the back lifted a gun (FN FAL 308, for those gun savy folks) over his head in a triumphant sort of way and cheered and the truck drove off. The rest of the crowd started talking excitedly and using their cell phones and a flash light to look for something on the ground. At that point Roy said, "Whatever it was, it's over and I can find out what happened in the morning, because that's Chris (our driver) right down there." I told him that he should try and call him RIGHT NOW and find out what happened. At this point I was very unsettled. But Chris was charging his phone, he has to take the battery out to charge it, so we couldn't get through to ask him what had happened. I would have to wait till morning to find out. I had Roy to protect me tonight and hopefully that would be enough to help me sleep. I did manage to sleep that night, but it took awhile. The next morning Roy IM'd me with the whole story.

Apperantly, someone tried to mug someone outside the gate to the boys quarters. The crowd we saw was everone in the area ganging up on the robber (including Chris). It seems that here in Nigeria people don't take too kindly to robbery. It used to be that when someone was caught stealing, a mob would form and the person would either be beaten to death by the mob or they would tie him up and shove a tire or two over his head and light it on fire and watch him burn to death. Now days, with the economy being down and times being harder, more people are turning a blind eye. But not everytime. This was one of those times. The crowd had started beating up this mugger when MoPol happened to drive up. MoPol ended up shooting the mugger twice in the leg, (that was the bangs we heard), partly to stop him from running and to get the crowd to back off. That was when we started watching. MoPol loaded the mugger into the truck and left. The reason everyone was looking on the ground was because when they shot the guy in the leg, it broke his leg and a piece of the bone flew out. GROSS. And all this happened right outside my flat. Four stories down and on the other side of the security wall.... but still.... RIGHT OUTSIDE MY FLAT. Oh, and Roy also said that he saw a guy getting mugged on the way home from his bishopric meeting that same night. Other expats here said that robberies and things like this always increase around the holidays. I really glad that we will be home for the holidays!

Had a fun weekend!!

Julia and I decided to celebrate Halloween this weekend. We made smores...


Watched "The Brothers Grimm" and "Sleepy Hollow". Two very good movies for a Halloween weekend. We also used the new grill!! Woo hoo!!


FYI... That cuban pork roast recipe is fantastic for chicken on the grill!! YUM
Then, Ola the table cloth guy visited my neighbor downstairs and we went to look and see what he brought. I bought a few things this time. I think after being married for almost 10 years, I should own at least a couple of nice/fun table cloths!



So... all in all... it was a good weekend.

I looked out my window and what did I see??...

I was talking on the phone to my friend Julia and glanced out the window and saw this.


I just had to take a picture. Here is a closer view...


That little black spec in the middle of the first picture is a guy that free climbed that radio tower. I think he is working on it and I think he is probably going to climb higher. I am so glad that I don't have to do things like that!!

How do you move a mountain of dirt and rubble?

If I was in the US, I would expect to see an earth mover of some sort. Maybe a front loader, back hoe, a ditch witch maybe. But not in Nigeria. Here it takes 5 earth movers with shovels and buckets!


I watched them stand around for a while, I think the guy in the white hat was just supervising. The guy on the far left was shoveling straight into the truck, but only about half the dirt was actually making it into the truck. And then the guy on the right with the shovel would fill the pans with dirt and the guy in the blue hard hat would lift them to the guy on the blocks who would hand them up to the guy in the back of the truck. It takes so many people to do anything here.

FYI... I was standing in my tub taking this picture out the bathroom window. I'm sure I looked pretty funny!!

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.