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 know this is a silly thing to post, but I was proud of myself!

Today I successfully french braided my own hair. Never in the history of me have I been able to french braid my own hair. I have done french braids thousands of times for sisters and friends, but never on my own head. Woo hoo me!!


And it stayed all day! I took these pics in the evening after I had been out all day long and it is still up... nothing fell or slipped out!! Woo hoo me!!

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!!

Which Jane Austin heroine are you?

Take the Quiz here!

:: E L I N O R ::
You are Elinor Dashwood of Sense & Sensibility! You are practical, circumspect, and discreet. Though you are tremendously sensible and allow your head to rule, you have a deep, emotional side that few people often see.

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.