Our Experiences While Living in Lagos Nigeria

All Good Things...

2009-06-22T03:03:00.002-05:00

There comes a time in each persons life where one chapter closes and another begins. That time for us comes at the end of July.

We will be relocating back to Houston.

We are also moving blogs our new blogs is:

www.allgoodthingslang.blogspot.com

If you would like access to the new blog send me an email at:

dal8974@sbcglobal.net

We have really enjoyed this adventure and enjoyed sharing this adventure with others. We are also looking forward to the new challenges and opportunities to come

London For A Day

2009-06-20T07:19:00.009-05:00

We took the bullet train from Paris to London, it only took like 2 and 1/2 hours and we were there.

With so much to see and only one day we decided the best bet would be one of those goofy red double deck open top bus.

The timing could not have been better. We got to the palace just in time for the changing of the guards. They do this once a day, and it is quite a production.

They get the whole palace in on the operation, the guys (or girls) in the fuzzy hats, the guards with guns, the horseback guards. It is quite a production.

Since there were thousands of people there the best way to see was to get up on the wall. (Only allowed on the outer wall quite far back from the actual palace wall.)

The Princess Diana memorial walkway.

Buckingham Palace, In case you were wondering we did not photo shop our selves into this picture. It actually was that beautiful of a day while we were there. We could not have orders more perfect weather if we tried.

The House of Parliament is quite amazing to see.

A picture with Big Ben, more perfection of the hold your arm out picture.

The giant observation wheel. In America we call those things faris wheels, but I guess its sheer size makes it an observation wheel. It has 32 compartments and each one holds up to 25 people, and reaches a height of 135 meters (about 440 ft)

A nice cruise around the river. It seems like every where we go we find a way onto a boat. (Its a good thing we like boats)

Cruising under the London Bridge. This is the 5th London bridge in case you were wondering.

The Tower of London. This is a huge structure and I understand that it has had many different uses over the years.

We had fish and chips and a pint in a pub in London. How cool is that, I have to say it was pretty good.

A London phone booth, these things are really neat looking.

One of the open top buses, We had a really great time while there.

Disneyland Paris

2009-06-20T00:22:00.009-05:00

Before we went we purchased tickets to Disneyland. The weather tried to stop us but we weren't about to let a little monsoon keep us from having fun. Turns out the lines to everything are a lot shorter during a downpour. (Who knew)

At the entrance, notice all the umbrellas and ponchos.

The castle, the whole hold your arm out picture doesn't work so well with umbrellas.

Suzanne's favorite, its a small world after all...

Small would dancers, you knew she would have a picture of dancers.

The Mickey parade near the end of the day

Ah the castle, the rain did let up a little later in the day. This was a really fun experience.

We'll Always Have Paris

2009-06-19T03:06:00.010-05:00

A quick stop in Paris on our way back to Nigeria. We had a really wonderful time there. We had a nice clean hotel and the people were very friendly the whole time we were there.

No trip to Paris would be complete without the Eiffel Tower. It is quite spectacular, and when it gets dark out and it is all lit up is very stunning.

We had pizza at a very good very small eatery. You see how small and how close the table are, they had to pull the table out just for Suzanne to be able to get in.

Walking around I found a wall that said Paris on it so I took my picture next to it. I know, I'm a dork, but Suzanne loves me anyway!

Notre Dame de Paris. We discovered an easier way to hold your arm out and take a picture. If you set the timer on the camera then you can push the snap button and then position the camera however you want without having to position your hand where you can reach the snap button. I'm very fascinated by this discovery.

We asked a nice lady to take our picture with the Notre Dame in the background. Can you see it? It is off to the left behind the tree.

Suzanne is so cute in all the pictures!!!

Walking down one of the main streets in Paris.

This is the big Arc de Triomphe that is the same little arch in the previous picture. We walked a long way.

The Seine river, this is the place where Isadora Duncan's children were in an accident and fell off the bridge and drowned. (See Suzanne you only thought that I wasn't listening ;)

We didn't have time for the Louvre, but we did get a chance to go to the Musee d'Orsay where they have impressionist art by the likes of Van Gogh and Degas. Look at me I'm all artsy now

One of the ballerina dancers. Suzanne likes these painting (I wonder why?)

Dinner the second night there was fondue, we really like fondue. We even tried som escargot, Suzanne even ate one.

Dinner in the Latin Quarter of France, we had a really nice couple of days.

Corpus For 2 Days

2009-06-18T09:29:00.004-05:00

I was able to go to Corpus for a couple of days, Suzanne was busy and couldn't make it :(

The main event for our time there was an evening of domino's.

There were 5 of us so we drew up a round robin bracket so everyone got to play with everyone else, how PC we are :) This is a picture of us trying to figure out how this should work.

Some burgers and sausages were quite delicious.

I was supposed to spend a whole day with Ram, until he had to have his stupid knee surgery boo. I did go by and see him in the hospital after, he looked good, sounded good, I hope he starts feeling better soon.

Playing domino's ahhh, much fun!

Nigeria Again

2009-06-18T04:08:00.002-05:00

So we are back in Nigeria again. We had a wonderful trip. I will post pictures soon.

In Paris

2009-06-13T05:13:00.002-05:00

So we made it to our hotel in Paris. We will blog more later. The keyboard here has a lot of the letters in the wrong place, it makes it weird to type. Talk to yall soon.

Wine Time

2009-06-05T15:50:00.006-05:00

Back in Houston after a mere 6 months away. We got the opportunity to go to a little wine bar for a wine tasting, I swear we were only "tasting."

The beginning of the night, not much tasting done yet. A hair cut and a shave and Dave looks almost like a respectable human being again.

As the night wore on we "tasted" a few more! We had a really good time and expect to go back again.

Closer to the end of the night...

Suzanne and Jack

2009-06-02T09:31:00.003-05:00

Suzanne was able to spend a few hours in Austin with Rebecca, Jeremy, Sydney and their new addition to their family Jack.

I thought this was a really cute picture.

42

2009-05-21T02:11:00.004-05:00

Anyone who know me knows that I really like to play 42 but I don't get the opportunity very often. Turns out there are a couple of other people here that also like to play 42.

A quick refresher for those who haven't played in a while.

Donna and their chef preparing some food for the occasion.

It was also Eds birthday but we won't tell anybody (Happy birthday Ed)

Enough with the breaks and finish up the explanation we want to play!

2 Weeks until R&R

2009-05-16T00:46:00.005-05:00

So R&R is coming up, this time a quick stop by home and then off to Paris on the way back to Nigeria. Not really much to talk about. I started watching the TV show 24 so that's occupying my time. Other than that I can put up some of our pictures from here in Nigeria.

Out to dinner with Moody, Christine, and Ana.

Dinner at Churrascos again.

Dave with two really hot girls!!!

Again out to dinner with our friends.

Just hanging out having a good time together.

More Small World Photos

2009-05-08T08:40:00.005-05:00

So here are some more pictures of the small world event.

Hanging out eating some food before the show

The show is beginning.

Suzanne in her dance.

Some of the other dancers.

Simply relaxing and enjoying time out and about.

Random Photo Time Again

2009-05-04T10:53:00.005-05:00

So nothing new to talk about again so how about more random photos

Kevin Fowler concert?? I can't remember exactly who we saw this night? Some concert in Corpus, Eric could tell you who exactly it was.

Dallas, Texas. Baseball game between the Astros and the Rangers!

The bridge climb in Sydney. This was the one free picture that came with the deal. The others were like 100 dollars or so. I would have spent like 10 or 15 but 100...

Ram the Fire Man!!!

This was the flight from Houston to Kazakhstan, I'm telling you its tough when you have to fly business overseas.

Slow Blog Month

2009-04-28T09:44:00.005-05:00

So it has been a pretty slow month for blogging. Suzanne is in the States so I'm here alone. I don't tend to do a whole lot when I'm here by myself. When I get home I'm usually too tired to blog, and I like to sit in front of the TV and not have to think very much.

I guess I could put up a few more random photos from our trip.

This was the first night in Nairobi. We ate some good traditional African food, I'm not really sure why we have been in Africa for over a year now. I guess things just taste better while on vacation.

Sunset on the Mara. I like to watch the sun set and now I have a camera that can take pretty good pictures of it. It's crazy there is actually a setting on the camera called sunset, what a novel idea.

Another sunset, this time on the Nile river.

The Citadel in Cairo. We went to see many religious establishments while in Egypt and this was by far the largest and most celebrated.

Happy Birthday Reza

2009-04-11T19:17:00.004-05:00

Today is Reza's birthday. We like birthdays, it gives us an excuse to go out and have a good time.

We had dinner at one of our favorite places here.

A drink or two is always nice.

She is always so cute.

Having a good time sharing a drink.

I think he had a good time on his birthday. I know we did.

More about SPAN

2009-04-03T04:34:00.008-05:00

My older ballet girls. There were a few missing because of Spring Break.

Learning pas de chat. Look at Emma in the background trying to be like her older sister. Emma is in my younger class.

Working on 3rd position and tunr-out.

Changement! Point your feet in the air!

Releve

Creative Dance class

Leap Frog!

Every class we have the same routine. I am obsessed with structure! After our waterbreak half way through the hour, the girls line up for across the floor. I took this picture because they lined up on their own without me or my assistants reminding them where to go. Pretty good for 3, 4, and 5 year olds!

Monkey Dance from the Wiggles!

Circle stretches and "Surprise"!

Plies in first position.

I have had so much fun with these classes and hopefully some of the strategies I have used will be passed on for next year in SPAN. The tuition paid from these classes benefit the public school kids and several orpanages around Lagos, giving kids the opportunity to dance who would not ordinarily get to.

Post 100

2009-03-31T11:16:00.006-05:00

After Just over a year of posting we have reached the 100 mark! This milestone deserves some of the most beautiful creatures on earth.

In my opinion lions are really cool. I'm just glad we were in the car and not on foot.

Another shot of the little cubs.

You can see already blending in with the grass.

It is quite amazing how much they really blend in. Can you spot all three in this picture?

How about this guy? He's pretty hidden.

A couple of young males staring down the buffalo.

A nice silhouette as the sun is starting to go down. They like to hunt the most in the dawn just as the sun is coming up or in the dusk just as it's going down because that is when they blend in the best. You can almost walk right up next to them and not even know they were there.

These two were resting after their meal.

A couple of female checking us out seeing if we are ok to hang out next to their cubs.

Babies

2009-03-29T06:57:00.005-05:00

Who doesn't like looking a baby animals?

The cutest one had to be the baby elephant. Our guide said that this one was about 4 days old. How cute is that.

Can you see the baby hippo hiding behind his mama?

A couple of baby gazelles learning where to go and what to stay away from.

The antelopes called Topi.

A family of warthogs. These guys are very skittish. They did not like anyone getting close.

Another baby zebra. This guy is such a cute little zebra.

A family of mongooses. These guys were fast, and hard to catch on the camera.

These were not exactly babies but they were a couple of young cubs learning how to hunt.

This was a tiny hyena that hasn't gotten his spots yet along with another baby that was a little older and has started changing colors.

Little baby lions, they are so cute. They didn't really care much for us hanging around so they decided to walk on down the way. The mama wasn't far behind so you didn't want to get too close, but they were just too cute not to stop and take a look.

Maasai

2009-03-29T06:08:00.005-05:00

The Maasai people are nomadic people that live in the Mara of Kenya and the Serengeti of Tanzania. Their native language is called Maa and sai means speaker or one who speaks, so Maasai means the speaker of the Maa language.

This guy was a chief in training, he told us all about their culture and heritage.

A group of Maasai warriors performing one of their tribal dances.

The guys will jump to impress the ladies. The one who can jump the highest impresses the most. (Guys are all the same everywhere, it's all about impressing the ladies)

A nice group photo, the Maasai colors are red, they really like red.

The stick I'm holding is the chief stick. (Me big chief!)

The Red Sea

2009-03-28T02:21:00.006-05:00

Near the end of our trip we took a couple of days to relax on the beach. I never really thought of the red sea as a beach destination but take a look at some of the photos, The place was beautiful.

This was the entrance of the resort

Here is the view out our window of the room we stayed in for two nights.

This one shows the different colors that you can see of the water.

Relaxing on the beach. We thought Suzanne's dad would be proud of the straw hat with the big brim to keep the sun out.

Between the resort and the little town we found some nice flowers to take a picture beside.

We got the opportunity to go para sailing while we were there. This was a really neat experience.

We got the person reeling out the rope to take some pictures while we were in the air.

This rope was 100 meters long. For those who don't think in meters that's about 300 feet high. That is really high. It was quite amazing looking at the sea and the beach from high up.

Touching the water. If the boat driver times it right you can touch the water and then get back up.

After our flight, hanging out in the boat in all our gear.

Temples

2009-03-27T09:12:00.006-05:00

There were so many temple here I could post a whole photo album and not cover them all, but here are a few of the highlights.

This is the temple at Abu Simbel, with the giant statures of king Ramses II. This wasn't initially on our itinerary, but we were instructed by our friends that it was a must see and it was really cool.

This one gives a little perspective on how large this temple really is.

This is another section of the Abu Simbel temple.

Here is the outer court of the temple of Isis.

The inner court of the temple of Isis. The columns and the carvings on the stone is really breathtaking.

A column at the temple at Kom Ombo. This one dedicated to the Crocodile god.

Another of the temple of Kom Ombo. This one shows a place where they would keep a crocodile caged up.

This picture shows how they would draw in red "ink" on the stone before carving. This one they didn't get to finish and erase the red.

Dave and a statue of the god Horus.

The temple of Queen Hatshepsut who ruled without a king, until her son took over and tried to erase everything she had built.

This was quite interesting it was a listing of different cities being presided over by king Ramses II.

You can't leave out the obelisks can you?

The temple of Karnak. The largest ancient temple in Egypt. 2800 meters away from the temple of Luxor, with a row of Sphinx's all the way from one to the other.

The wonderful temple of Luxor, with it's beautiful mosque right in the middle.

This one is not really one of the temple. It was taken while at the temple of Kom Ombo. I just thought it was a beautiful sunset on the Nile and wanted to capture it on the camera.

Hot Air Balloon

2009-03-26T10:08:00.008-05:00

One thing we have wanted to do for quite some time is ride in a hot air balloon. Until now we either haven't had the time, or the place wasn't right. However there is not much of a better place to go in a balloon then in Kenya.

Early morning, pre-sunrise getting fired up. It was a little chilly in the morning but close to the burner was quite warm.

Both of us looking cool pre-flight.

Sunrise on the Mara!

Can you see right in the middle, the Giraffe? We were pretty high up at this point.

Some elephants roaming in the forest. Still pretty high. It was a little difficult to get the camera to focus. It took a couple of tries but I think we go some pretty good ones.

A lot of Zebras and Antelopes called Topi. Remember this was pre great migration time. I can only imagine what it is like during the migration.

I had to do the stretched out arm picture again, from the balloon with the beautiful Mara in the background.

The Pilot had a camera on a string so that he would be able to get a picture of all of us, I think it turned out pretty good.

A nice smooth landing.

Enjoying a wonderful time. We had breakfast and a game drive to compliment out balloon trip.

A nice glass of champagne by the rivers edge to toast a beautiful morning.

Fun with Pyramids

2009-03-25T07:00:00.008-05:00

The Pyramids really are one of the true wonders of the world. Just the beauty and genius and sheer size created so long ago by some truly amazing people.

The step pyramid in Sakkara, really demonstrates the evolution of the pyramids. This beautifully preserved specimen, claimed to be the very first pyramid ever built.

The pyramid to the left is called the bent pyramid. This is where the builders started at an angle that would not support the entire weight of all the bricks and needed to change the angle midstream.

Truly a great pyramid. The great size and amount of blocks that went into building this pyramid is simply astounding.

Here is another angle where you can see all three of the great pyramids. This is from quite far away but in order to get all three in the picture it requires being far away.

A camel ride was quite interesting. Suzanne refused to get on the camel so she got to stand next to him.

View from the other side where you can see the great sphinx, another one of the amazing things to see here in Egypt.

Us and the sphinx! Way cool! Yes Eric I was wearing my hat again. In case you didn't know its really sunny in Egypt. You know the pyramids were a little easier to capture in the pictures, they don't move quite as fast as some of the animals :)

Maasai Mara

2009-03-24T05:40:00.006-05:00

Following are just some samples of the animals that we saw on this trip. It is really awesome to see all the animals not caged up but just running free and natural.

No safari would be complete without the king! This guy and 4 of his buddies were staring down a Buffalo. We didn't see them actually chasing after him but it was obvious what they were after.

This guy would take more than just one Lion to take down but he could feed a whole pride for about a week if they got him.

Here is a family of Elephants trekking to their patch of forest for the evening. If you look closely you can see a 4 day old baby. we got several pictures of him hiding behind his mama.

This fella shares the waters with the Hippos. He is just slipping along waiting for his chance. The water was pretty low at the time so the Crocs were well exposed and the Zebras could tell where not to cross at this time.

The Hippos just basking in the sun and bathing in the water. They pretty much stick to themselves unless you try to get in their area of the water.

This was a very beautiful Impala looking out making sure nothing was coming his way. He is so perfect he looks almost like a statue.

A lone Wildebeest trotting along. The time that we went was several months away from the great migration time. This means that this guy and a couple others got separated from the herd, leaving them vulnerable to the many predators in the Mara.

A Hyena and a Vulture sparing over a piece of scraps left by the Lions. The Vulture was there first but the Hyena decided that the meal should be his.

Look at the little baby Zebra right in the middle. Since it was a few months before the great migration time, it was about time that the animals were having babies. We got to see several baby animals.

A picture just for Sydney! There were many Giraffes there. This was a big male with several more of his family walking with him. The pictures that we have with all of them they are walking away, this one is a better view of the animal.

A mama Cheetah teaching her two growing cubs how to hunt. The cubs came back empty handed but it was cool to watch them try.

A couple of Homosapiens. They are very elusive and hard to catch up with, but we found a couple of the good looking ones!

1475

2009-03-22T12:17:00.003-05:00

The number of pictures that we took on this trip. I'll upload a lot of them eventually but that may mean that I'm blogging about this trip for quite a while.

This was at the temple of Isis. This was a beautiful temple on an isle. There were so many beautiful temples and relics. This was a really cool trip!

Society of the Performing Arts

2009-03-05T08:14:00.015-06:00

Dance Teachers in Training

This year I have been working with SPAN, which is the Society of the Performing Arts of Nigeria. It is a nonprofit organization that uses tuition paid from the wealthier students as well as outside donations to fund programs in public schools and orphanages around Lagos. Before SPAN, there was no actual training in ballet, jazz, or ballroom dance in Nigeria. I started a teacher training program for young adults who are interested in becoming dance teachers for SPAN. We have been focusing on a ballet and jazz technique and choreography. They are nowhere near perfect but they have improved so much since the summer, especially since I am traveling pretty often out of Nigeria. Each of them has become a real friend to me and I am so thankful that I have gotten to know them.

Jazz class

I also teach several creative movement classes and regular ballet classes for kids. These are some of the little ones doing their butterfly dance. Josephine is one of my assistants and a member of the SPAN teacher training program. I don't have very many pics because I always get too caught up in their classes to remember to take pictures. I will post more later hopefully.

Visit to school and ophanage

2009-03-04T05:29:00.006-06:00

This morning I joined one of my friends and we visited a local maternity clinic that is also a school/ orphange. The school is one of the organizations supported by the American Women's Club. I met the lady who runs the school- everyone calls her Mama Teresa. Apparently she inherited some property and uses the rent income to fund the clinic/school/orphanage. There is a section for babies and children whose mothers cannot care for them. When we were there we met a two day old baby girl whose mother could not keep her after having her in the clinic. She was so cute and slept the whole time we were there. Dave almost got a surprise to come home to tonight!

I taught them a few songs and dances. This was the older kids doing "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes." They seemed like they were having a great time.

They are doing some coloring. To donate, I took some children's books that I shipped for the purpose of giving them to people who would use them. The teachers were excited to recieve new books for the school.

Here are some of the younger kids. They are all between 2 and 4. I had so much fun with them and I will bring some music with me next time I visit to teach them some more dances. Most of the day they are crammed in a really small room so I think they really liked to get outside and move around.

Small World

2009-02-21T18:28:00.003-06:00

Once a year here in Nigeria there is a presentation called Small World, where people from a lot of different places around the world come together and raise money for a lot of different charities. They have a bunch of different booths set up where people showcase their different ethnic foods, and then there is a dance by some of the people form the different places.

This is us getting there at the beginning of the festival.

The girls looking cute as always.

Reza and I looking cool!

A shot of some of the booths set up with the good food and drinks.

Amy and Suzanne in Holland!

Our group sitting around, eating, having a good time.

Relaxing before the dance.

Suzanne was in the dance put on by the USA!

There theme was a superbowl presentation.

They were really cute and put on a good show!

2 Years in 2 Weeks

2009-02-19T23:23:00.005-06:00

In two weeks, we will have been married for two years.

Look how pretty this girl is!

We still like to dance from time to time.

This is our profile picture taken on our honeymoon in San Francisco, California.

Look at us in front of the Golden Gate bridge, just the beginning of our many adventures together. We look forward to many more to come!

Happy Valentine Day

2009-02-15T02:05:00.003-06:00

This Valentine's day we spent here in Nigeria.

Suzanne got some flowers, I think she like them.

Suzanne in her pretty new dress.

We went out to a restaurant called bottles. It was good Mexican food.

Trip to Lekki Market

2009-02-07T08:47:00.009-06:00

After Christmas our house was looking a little bare because most of our decorations went home as Christmas presents. So we went to the Lekki market to re-decorate our apartment.

Two new statue items, man and woman heads, and a wood carving of people.

One of the paintings that we got this time.

Suzanne wanted everyone to know that Dave chose this one, she had nothing to do with this one.

The new item here was the bowl with the animals on it on the table next to the Chair.

The third new painting. We are not quite sure on the final placements of the items but they are here to start.

Next R&R Planned

2009-02-05T10:47:00.004-06:00

So it is actually four weeks away but you have to plan early. We decided to stay in Africa this Trip. The plan is Kenya first and then a little time in Egypt. I got a little preview of what we plan to see.

On the Kenya safari we should get to see some Zebras.

Elephants are really cool.

Pyramids are really too awesome to miss. Since we are in this part of the world we really want to visit some of the really cool stuff here.

We were told that Abu Simbel is a real highlight of Egypt and a real must see if we are so close.

Party at our place

2009-02-01T04:23:00.003-06:00

We had a little party at our place this week.

All of us sitting around having a good time.

The guys all looking cool.

The ladies looking beautiful as always.

Some Random Photos

2009-01-28T12:27:00.003-06:00

Heather's little game inspired me to put up some random pictures that we have on our computer. So here goes in no particular order.

The first night on the cruise ship we had a very nice dessert. Since it had been quite a while since we had a good dessert we took a picture of it.

These are some of the trees at the beach in Nigeria. We had a really good time both times that we went to the beach.

Just before we got married we took some "Pre-wedding" pictures.

Here is the winery that we went to in San Fransisco. Speaking of that we still haven't opened the bottles that we brought back. Maybe we will drink some when we get back.

Dave in Kazakhstan. I don't really know what this statue is of but it looked cool so I took my picture in front of it.

Tag

2009-01-28T08:50:00.007-06:00

This is for Heathers tag game. It is a picture of Dave and I in Pisa on our trip to Italy last summer.

Here are the people I'm tagging:

Becky- one of our very favorite people in our family

Christine- one of our good friends in Nigeria along with her husband Moody

Jenn- has been one of my BFF's since I was one year old

Can I also tag Heather or has she already done it??

Here's how it works

*Go to the place on your computer where you store all your pictures and open the 4th folder.*Open the 4th picture.*Post the picture and give an explanation of what it is.*Tag 4 people.*DO NOT CHEAT!! You cannot edit or crop the picture!!

Have fun

Playing with my new camera

2009-01-24T00:34:00.006-06:00

Suzanne bought me this fancy new camera for my birthday, and since then I've been playing with it to see what all I can do.

Here we are trying out the automatic timer feature. Our previous cameras had the auto feature but we never took the time to figure out how they work, but this one was fairly simple.

Dave pretending to know how to play the guitar. Suzanne bought this for me last Christmas, and since then I've learned how to play an E Chord a G chord and a D chord. Soon I'm going to learn how to switch between them.

We went out to a place called the Piano bar.

The owner of the place also got on stage and sang some of the songs.

Here I'm testing out the Black and White feature of the Camera. I like my new toy!

The four of us having a good time as usual.

We danced to a Willie Nelson song. We are in Nigeria, doing the Texas two step to a Lebanese man, singing some Willie. How cool is that!

Friday

2009-01-23T06:09:00.007-06:00

"Oh, and remember: next Friday... is Hawaiian shirt day"

So last time there were complaints that Dave was the only one wearing a Nigerian outfit. This time there were a few more of us with our traditional outfits on. From left to right Lukman, Dave, Ihuoma, Badru, and Mathew. These are some of our expediters.

Here is a shot of our Materials group. Shijoy, Jess, George, Emeka, Wale, Dave, and Nnamdi.

More B-Day Pictures

2009-01-19T12:23:00.008-06:00

Amy got me a cake. (flash back to July) We have now both celebrated our birthdays here.

Suzanne in here beautiful dress for the evening

We taught them how to play the bean game. It was fun. (Thanks Rebecca and Jeremy)

We had cake and tea. We started drinking hot tea now, we really are becoming international!

Dave's Birthday in Nigeria!

2009-01-19T03:31:00.005-06:00

Luckily for Dave his beautiful and brillant wife came back to Nigeria just in time for his 29th birthday. Can you tell who is writing this blog post?? Anyway, Dave and I and our good friends Amy and Reza went to a seafood restaurant that was wonderful, even by U.S. standards. Then we went back to Amy and Rezas house for cake and played games. Amy was so sweet to get a cake for Dave and I am very thankful to her. We had a great time and enjoyed spending the evening with our friends!

Happy Birthday to Me

2009-01-18T19:23:00.000-06:00

Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday to David, happy birthday to me!

Yeah my wife is getting here today. This makes me a happy man!

New helmet law in Nigeria

2009-01-09T23:43:00.007-06:00

So I'm not sure if it is really a new law or the enforcement of an already existing law but as of Jan 1 all Okada (small motorcycle) drivers and passengers are required to wear helmets.

The penalty for not wearing a helmet is the seizure or your motorbike. Therefore most of the riders have some kind of head protection. I've notice a lot of people with construction hard hats, some with bicycle helmets, and some are wearing actual motorcycle helmets. Some however like this guy in the picture, either can't afford to procure a correct helmet or have decided to make a statement that they think this particular law is not in their best interest. Most of the people here think (not incorrectly) that every new law is simply a way for the police to extort money off the local population.

Some of the riders simply refuse to wear helmets testing if the police will actually seize the bike. I heard somewhere that in Lagos there were in excess of 1000 bikes taken on Jan 1. I'm not certain if that was truly correct but it makes sense because every time I go out I see at least 2 or 3 being confiscated along my trip, and I don't go very far.

A lot of the passengers don't like to wear them (for good reason) because so many other passengers have worn them and it is quite unsanitary. Some refuse to wear them because they think that the driver has put some kind of spell on the helmet and it is going to cause them bad luck if they wear it. Some just don't like it.

I think if they continue to enforce this law then most people will eventually get on board with it. The riders will buy their own personal helmets and they will become safer but if they don't continue to enforce it then it simply turns into another law on the books that they police can use to get money off of the local people, but I guess only time will tell.

Pictures from New Years in Nigeria

2009-01-06T07:29:00.003-06:00

We didn't take a lot of pictures but we got a few

Bill fixed some nachos. Here is Bill and Christine enjoying some of them

This is Smatt with Christine and Anna hanging out having a good time

Dave and Bill. Doesn't Bill look excited. This was getting later in the evening and we were getting a little tired. Oh well I guess that what happens.

Happy New Year

2009-01-01T15:35:00.002-06:00

Happy New Year from Nigeria! We had a little get together here with those from work that are around at this time. There were fire works and all the usual stuff! All day today there are still those with fireworks probably all night tonight as well.

Poker Party

2009-01-01T10:30:00.003-06:00

I like to play poker, even if I don't win all the time.

here are some of the poker players!

Family Christmas

2008-12-30T11:43:00.006-06:00

I went a little picture crazy this year but I think I have at least a picture of everyone.

The baby of the family (The Lang family) my little brother Noah

Pete on the left, Isaac on the right

from left John, My lovely wife, and little David (Jennifer's son)

Justin and Natalie (Tasha's boyfriend and daughter), Kitty (Mom's sister), Dad, and Ben

John, Isaac, Mom, and Joe

Isaac, Dave and Tim

Me, Suzanne, her parents and Rocky

The rest of the group. Ben (front left) Nick, Kay, Grandpa and Joe (back) Alana, Jennifer, Tasha, Justin, Natalie and Kitty (front right)

Playing Games

2008-12-26T16:54:00.009-06:00

We were able to spend a whole day playing games with Rebecca and Jeremy. They are very good at a lot of games and I'm just a tad bit competitive so it works out pretty good when we get to play!

Here is us all playing the Streetcar game, having quite a good time.

Here are the four of us all looking cool!

We brought Sydney a giraffe and we think she liked it!

More pictures of friends

2008-12-26T14:32:00.005-06:00

We were able to spend an lovely evening with Steve and Lindsey and their kids

Suzanne and Lindsey next to the tree.

Dave and Steve looking cool!

They have the Guitar hero game, and we got to try it out while there.

We had the setting on easy so I rocked!

If you look close enough you can see the little Texas A&M's on the tree ornaments.

Trying to visit everyone

2008-12-24T10:54:00.003-06:00

One way to visit lots of people when you don't have much time is go to a party where a lot of you friends are going to be.

Suzanne with a couple of her friends from "Back in the Day" :)

Hey look that's me, with my beautiful wife!

Hanging out having a good time.

It seems like everywhere we go we find a way to get a fire involved.

Ode to Ram

2008-12-23T01:19:00.004-06:00

Rammy!!! We love you man!

I heard that Ram was bummed that we said that we went to Corpus to visit Eric :( We by no means meant that we didn't go to visit Ram. We got the added bonus of not having to go somewhere else along with Corpus to visit Ram. Ram we would have gone to the moon to visit you as well but were able to have a great time with you as well as Eric! It just wouldn't be the same without Ram!

Here's to Ram the best darn fire builder in all of Texas!

Dave likes fire!

2008-12-22T12:16:00.003-06:00

Maybe it's a carry over from the Texas Aggie Bonfire, but Dave and his friends rally like to play with fire!

Ram was the master architect starting with a center pole and working around that.

Dave got in on the act, helping put some of the wood on the fire.

Dave and Eric next to our finished product.

Here is Ram getting it going.

Starting to catch!

It really got going pretty strong.

I tried to run and stand next to it to get my picture. It was really hot. I ran over there and said hurry take the picture I gotta get back away.

Ram trying to get close enough to roast a marsh mellow. Did I mention that it was really hot.

Me and my wife having a good time by the fire.

Fire, dominoes, beach, it doesn't get much better than that!

Corpus Christi Tx

2008-12-21T15:14:00.004-06:00

While home we took a couple of days and went to visit our friends Eric and Ram in Corpus. We had a really good time while there.

We went to the Surf Club the first night there. There was a Roger Creager concert that evening.

Creager always puts on a good show. I don't think there is a time that we have been to a Creager concert and not had a good time.

Here is Eric with us having a good time.

This pictures of the band turned out a lot better than I expected.

Our other friend that lives in Corpus, Ram with Eric and Suzanne. The Surf Club has tables that are surf boards.

Traveling Fun

2008-12-17T12:59:00.002-06:00

Traveling is always fun!

Our luggage is continually getting more ware and tare and our carry on has decided that it didn't want the handle to go up and down anymore. This makes it where you can either carry it without rolling or squat down and roll it. After a while it gets rather heavy, so I decided that it would be easier to carry on my head, but it was hard so I put a pillow under it.

The day before...

2008-12-11T12:24:00.005-06:00

So now it is the day before we go on R&R. We'll be back in Houston this time catching up with people we haven't seen in quite some time. We'll dust off the old cell phones and hopefully they will still work :)

As promised: Suzanne in her new dress

Some of the Dutch kids Suzanne has been teaching dance to

A Christmas basket from the office.

SPAN Christmas show

2008-12-07T10:17:00.004-06:00

Some of the girls that Suzanne has been teaching were in the Christmas Production put on by SPAN

This was some of the younger girls.

Smiling for a picture

Here are some of the older girls

Practicing before going on stage

The older girls

Getting ready to preform.

New dress

2008-12-06T05:36:00.002-06:00

The other day Suzanne went to the fabric market and bought some nice fabric. She is currently having a seamstress make it into a dress. When we get it back we'll put up a picture with her in her new dress.

Random Pictures

2008-12-02T09:27:00.005-06:00

I thought maybe I'd put up some random pictures that we happen to have

Here is Dave playing with a spear. I think I was better with the boomerang than the spear but they were both fun.

A nice peacock from one of the places that we went to.

This is a nice view of the rainforest's trees from above. The gondola ride was really spectacular.

We really had to get a picture of one of the licence plates saying Australia!

This was a weird looking tree so I took a picture of it.

Mixican Restaurant in Australia

2008-12-02T09:06:00.003-06:00

While we were in Cairns we found a Mexican food restaurant to visit

The food was pretty good for being so far away from Mexico. We had some chips and queso. I think it is illegal to go to a Mexican food place without getting chips and queso. It is interesting to me to taste the different variations of the same foods in the different parts of the world. It is kinda funny that the chips and queso in Mexico City tasted weird because it was actual Mexican food and not Tex-Mex. Mmmm... Tex Mex I can taste it already, we will be back in Houston in less than two weeks and that is definitely going to be one of the items on the agenda. :)

A comment about the beach in Australia

2008-11-28T01:42:00.009-06:00

We decided that it would be nice to spend a day at the beach while we were in Australia.

We got to the beach in our swimwear and towel in hand. The water was beautiful, the sand was really nice, but we noticed there wasn't a single person in the water.

I of course seeing a nice beach go run to at least put my feet in the water, because it's so clear that if there is anything there you can see it. Then down the beach comes running this life guard telling us not to get in the water.

If you look at the sign you can see the reason no one was in the water was that there was a crocodile in the area. We actually saw him but he was too far away to get a picture but still too close for comfortable swimming.

Therefore we decided that it would be best to just enjoy the beautiful scenery

We took a stroll down the beach area.

There were nice palm trees and sand and water, it was really a gorgeous beach

ThanksGiving!

2008-11-27T14:54:00.007-06:00

So this year we spent thanksgiving here in Nigeria. Ed and Donna were so sweet to invite a lot of people to their home for a lovely dinner

Chatting before dinner. Suzanne made key lime pie and green bean casserole.

The guys

The ladies, all dressed in fall colors.

SPAN Dance production

2008-11-27T01:22:00.004-06:00

The dance group SPAN (Society of the Preforming Arts Nigeria) (where Suzanne has been teaching Jazz and Ballet classes) put on a production the other night.

Here is the Lady that runs the place, with some of the preformers on stage.

Dave of course was concerned with the food

Any and Reza came to the prefomance as well. (Ed and Donna came as well but I didn't get thier picture)

Suzanne even got in on the act, her students did a Jazz piece, and she joined them for a couple minutes. It was kind of dark for the pictures to come out well, but they did a really great dance.

Marine Corps Birthday Ball

2008-11-23T05:14:00.003-06:00

We got invited to go the the Marine Corps Birthday Ball, there was a nice ceremony, dinner, and dancing.

The Marines with the cake. From what we could tell there were about 8 marines stationed here in Lagos.

There was some dancing at the party.

Getting a picture with one of the Marines here.

We got all dressed up. I think we looked pretty good!

The ladies in their beautiful dresses.

Weekend get together back in Nigeria

2008-11-15T18:08:00.003-06:00

Our friends had a little get together down by the pool. Amy made really good food, and we had a great time

look at all the food!

here's the girls looking cute as always.

Us looking good

Some of the guys having a good time

Everybody waiting on the meat to finish cooking.

some fun in the pool.

We played some cards

It was late so not much background shows up but nice anyway

another of Suzanne and Amy!!!

Rainforrest

2008-11-15T10:27:00.008-06:00

We took a scenic train ride into the rain forest. It had a very old time feel to it.

on the dock waiting for the train.

One of the scenic views from the train

There were some nice waterfalls along the way.

A walkway to the village once we got off the train.

Welcome to the little village.

The local aborigine with their show of preservation of their culture

Some views from the gondola rides across the rain forest

A view of the river below.

Desert and Mountain

2008-11-12T13:21:00.009-06:00

We Spent an evening up in the mountains, and then a couple of days in the desert.

They call this peak the three sister, can you make out the three points, again another story about yada yada yada...

I picture out the gondola, I guess most of the picture is covered with a reflection off the glass, oh well it was still a nice pic.

This was their version of the Grand Canyon. It wasn't quite as large but it was still pretty amazing. One of the striking differences is their canyon has many more trees then the Grand Canyon.

Dave of course needs to climb things.

We had a nice dinner at the hotel in the mountains.

There is a nice red dirt desert in the middle of the continent.

How cute is this girl!

Here is another picture of Ayers Rock as the sun is coming up. It was early but we had some coffee so we were OK, it really was a lovely scene and surely worth getting up for.

Lots of animals and plants

2008-11-12T13:00:00.017-06:00

While in Australia we went to several wildlife preserves. They have some really incredible animals there.

Here is a lizard a lot like the one I used to have as a pet.

Koalas just hanging out.

We were allowed to feed the wallabies

And what do you have for me???

This guy is just relaxing pretty good.

This was a wierd looking bird.

This was the state flower of New South Wales, they told us all about it but you know how much of that kind of stuff sticks...

They had some really nice plants.

There were Eucalyptus trees all over the place.

Sydney was so much fun

2008-11-11T13:55:00.020-06:00

Our first stop on the trip was Sydney. I have to say it was a really long flight. 7.5 hrs to Dubai, 6 hrs in Dubai, 6.5 hrs to Bankok, 1.5 hrs in Bankok, 7hrs to Sydney. By the time we got there we really didn't care about much except sleep. We left Lagos 4:40 PM Sunday and got to our hotel about 10 AM Tuesday. We go to check in and the lady at the dest told us that our room wouldn't be ready until 3 PM, boo on the Grace Hotel in Sydney. Once we finally had an evening to sleep we were ready to see the town.

We took a lunch cruise that sailed around the harbor. It seems like everwhere we go we find a way to get on a boat somehow, but it was really cool to see the harbor and all the fancy houses around. It was pretty cloudy that day but this photo of the bride and the opera house turned out pretty good

We had to get a shot next to the really big sign.

hey we can pretend that we were on the real world (are we the only dorks that watched this show, I don't know but we really like it)

A nice view from the Sydney Tower. I like to be really high above things.

We did the bride climb, it was cool. We weren't allowed to bring our camera on the climb becasue we were directly over traffic and cameras could very easily fall and hit oncoming traffic. they could just make sure you have it on a strap but then they would be able to sell thier own pictures to anyone (they wanted like 60 bucks for 2 photos, we didn't buy the pictures we just have the good memories)

If Eric was on the trip with me this sign would be hanging in my living room right now

Suzanne fell in love on the trip (can you make out the sign four floors of shoes)

We stopped at a little diner by the beach. They had a pretty good breakfast.

I got some tea while I was there because they drink tea there so why not. After a while we started to get used to drinking tea, but I think now back in Nigeria we'll be back to coffee

You can't say you've been to Sydney without a picture of the Opera house in the background. We got a bunch from many different angles

More than one city in Australia

2008-11-11T13:02:00.004-06:00

Sorry Becky, I just couldn't help it (I just had to rip off your blog name.)

We actually went to three cities in Australia. We definitely saved the best for last. Our last stop was Cairns, and one of the days there we went up to Port Douglas and took a boat out to the Great Barrier Reef. This really was one of the coolest things ever

Here is me, ready to jump in the water. The water wasn't really that cold but the wet suit was cool!

Look at Suzanne with her pink flippers.

We got some really amazing shots underwater. We almost didn't rent the underwater camera but now we are really glad that we did.

There were so many different types of fish and coral, just really cool.

Here is proof that Suzanne did actually get in the water. She actually got pretty good at the snorkeling.

I really like the striking difference of the fish with the coral as the background

Some of the pictures almost look like fake desktop background pictures

Some more really cool coral, there may be a fish or two hiding in the mix

Hey look that's me

We were able to get one of the other snorkelers to take our picture together, I think this one turned out pretty good

Back in Dubai ( some Australia pictures)

2008-11-09T20:09:00.006-06:00

We are on our way back to Lagos. In Dubai at the moment. I thought I'd put up a couple of pictures while waiting for our flight.

This was probably the prettiest picture of the trip. It was sunrise at Uluru Ayers Rock in the middle of Australia. We got up really early to see the sun come up over the rock. See next Picture.

Here is the Rock. The Aboriginal people have lots of history and beliefs around the Rock

Here is us on a lunch cruise with the Sydney Harbor bridge and the Opera house in the background.

This was a picture from one of the wildlife preserves. We thought it was a cute picture of a Wallaby family. Can you see the little baby in the pouch?

Here is a shot of us getting ready for our snorkeling. We tried to sign up for the scuba diving but with her asthma and my collapsed lung (from 5 years ago) we were rejected, but we still got some really cool pictures underwater.

A picture of some fish and coral in the Great Barrier Reef. I really think we got to see just as much snorkeling as we would have scuba diving we just couldn't stay underwater as long. Here are just some sample pictures of our trip, more to come later.

Blogging from Dubai

2008-10-26T18:41:00.003-05:00

So we started our journey to Australia, and our first stop was Dubai. We found a Starbucks with wi-fi so we took a couple of pictures and thought we would share.

Suzanne was excited that there was TP in the bathrooms here because there was none in the airport in Nigeria.

We are going to go find a Burger King and get some food. There are stores and all sorts of good stuff here.

We have 6 hours here then off to Sydney. Our plane to Sydney stops in Bangkok and then after Sydney goes on to New Zealand (maybe we should just stay on the plane and go see New Zealand)

We tried to use Skype to call people but it wouldn't call cell phones.

This past couple of weeks have been quite interesting and stressful leading up to our trip. Suzanne did all of her class stuff early so that she wouldn't have to do it while on our trip. Then we got the professor to open the test early so that she could get that finished as well. So she started the test and 5 minutes into the test her new laptop decided that it didn't want to work anymore. So we spent the next two days tying to figure out what went wrong and best we can figure is that the hard drive simply went bad. Therefore the past two days leading up to our trip have been emailing her school to allow retakes and re-downloading her school classes and redoing all of her assignments. But luckily we have my computer and we were able to get it all done and taken care of so that we can enjoy our trip.

Have fun and we will see you all later,

D & S

Nigerian Culture Day at the American School

2008-10-12T07:23:00.012-05:00

Since school started I have been doing some substituting at the American International School (AIS) in Lagos. Last week and this week I subbed for the art teacher. All of the projects that we did were put on display on Friday, which was the annual Nigerian Culture Day. Everyone wore traditional clothes and there were all sorts of special events throughout the day.

Opening ceremony of Culture Day with horses.

A few of the kids dressed up.

The closing ceremony was held in the courtyard

Some Jr. High kids in the art room

There was a mini market set up on the tennis courts that the kids and teachers could shop at. Luckily for Dave I only had about 1000 naira on me, (about $10).

For the closing ceremony a traditional wedding ceremony was recreated.

One of the murals that the kids worked on.

This is Andrew, the art Teaching Assistant. He is a Nigerian artist and painted the mural he is standing beside. He is making Dave and I an original piece of art for our living room when we come back to Texas.

A few of the moms in native dress. Lots of parents came to the event.

Can't think of a title for my post so...

2008-09-18T10:46:00.005-05:00

I usually write more and explain a little about the pictures but they just took so long to load that I really didn't have the energy to write much about them, and because of the nature of the pictures I thought they were pretty self explanatory.

Anyway, you might think that I would talk about thought that are rattleing around in my head, and I probably should but I don't have too many thoughts at the moment just a blank stare looking back at me, at least it looks back at me when I look in a mirror.

So we have been back in Nigeria for a couple weeks now and we are now into planning for our next trip. It is still several weeks away you can never plan too early. We are thinking Australia but we haven't finalized anything yet so when we do we will let everyone know.

Until then we are kind of in a routine that doesn't lend itself to much blogging, I'm working and Suzanne is teaching dance classes and we like to veg in front of the TV (at least I do and I've kind of drug her into it as well.) I may put some more pictures up from our trip if I feel like it.

Ok be safe, have a good weekend, good golf, good tennis, or what ever makes you happy. Ok I’m not Marvin Zindler but it was stuck in my head.

D

More Rome stuff

2008-09-06T08:12:00.009-05:00

Malta

2008-09-05T13:39:00.010-05:00

More cool pics

2008-09-04T15:29:00.002-05:00

Old stuff is really cool.

Beach fun back in Nigeria

2008-09-03T11:40:00.004-05:00

The day after we got back in Nigeria our company had a beach trip planned and we decided it would be fun to go.

It was a little bit cloudy but that didn't stop us from having a good time.

Dave actually got in the water. The waves were pretty strong and there was quite current going out to see. It made for an interesting time in the water.

Fun in the sun and sand and water.

Tug of war made for some pretty fun pictures.

Good times ever since my wife has joined me here. We are definitely making the most of our time here, and enjoying each others company because we can.

Much fun

2008-09-02T14:16:00.004-05:00

Its really amazing to see things that were around so long ago.

Too Cool

2008-09-02T13:14:00.003-05:00

We only were able to spend half a day in Pisa but we got some pretty incredible pictures. It was really cool to see.

Some pictures of us

2008-08-30T19:16:00.005-05:00

I happen to like us so is it any wonder that I like taking pictures of us with cool stuff in the background. We tried to get one of both of us in all the places that we visited.

This was the first afternoon on the boat. Can you tell we have been traveling to get to the boat for quite some time? This is the room and the window to look out at the ocean.

We went to the balcony of the boat. It was sort of windy and sunny.

Dinner on the boat was great.

There was a dance club on the boat as well.

Malta was the first stop on the trip. This was a really nice place with a very interesting history.

Naples and Pompeii was the second stop. We ate lunch at a little pizzeria in Pompeii.

Rome was really cool. There was so much to see there.

We took a open air bus tour around Rome. We could have spent a week here and not gotten to see everything but we had a really nice time and we saw a lot.

Fourth port, I don't think this picture really needs a caption to know where this was taken.

Train ride between Pisa and Florence. I thought this was a really cute picture.

Florence was very nice as well. By this time we were getting a lot of experience in riding trains and busses it was quite fun.

Dinner in Spain was very good food and did you notice the pitcher of sangria?

This was a little restaurant in the old gothic quarter in Barcelona. This place was hands down the best place that we ate at the entire trip. Suzanne said that she is going to write Frommer’s and tell them about this place. If you ever go to Barcelona ask us and we'll tell you how to get to this place, definitely worth trying to find.

This I think is the cutest picture that we have. This night we went to a flamenco show, very cool.

Can you tell we like to go out to eat? This restaurant was very interesting. It was a restaurant where every course was a dessert, and with as much as Suzanne and I like dessert we simply had to try it out.

We have about 400 plus pictures of our trip so expect more from each of the different places that we visited but I like looking at myself with my beautiful wife so I put up a bunch with us in them.

Monaco was really awesome.

2008-08-30T11:26:00.004-05:00

As a part of our trip we got to go to some other places in Europe. One of the stops was in Monaco, it wa a really pretty place.

This was the view from the Palace, looking over the Marina

A picture of the Palace.

Dave found some cannons... Cool.

Suzanne found a house with her name on it. Villa Suzanne.

Our trip to Spain... In no particular order

2008-08-30T11:12:00.003-05:00

I figured if I just started writing in order what we did it would get kind of boring. And then we did, and then we did, and then we did... So I'll just start putting stuff up as I think about it and we will see where it goes.

Suzanne found a fridge to match her kitchen.

Last day of vacation

2008-08-28T18:17:00.002-05:00

It's now the last day of our vacation and we are packing to go back to Lagos. We have tons of pictures and it will take a really long time to load them so be expecting them kind of soon. We had a great time and look forward to reliving it by posting about it. See ya'll soon

D

The internet is sort of working right now

2008-08-14T13:28:00.006-05:00

The beach trip was an interesting experience. We got stopped on the way there by the “police.” They searched until they found something they could say was worth a fine. So we dashed them (which means we paid them off) and were back on our way to the beach.

Once we got there we got to experience the joys of bargaining for just about anything that we could think of that would be sold on a beach. Here are some of the crabs that we got for lunch.

This was the little cabin that we rented for the afternoon.

The locals came in with their “fresh catch” from their fishing boat. Come to find out they had the fish from the other day and they simply put them back in the boat so that they could call it fresh catch.

The cabin had a little balcony attached to it.

It was kind of cloudy that day but we still had a good time while we were there.

Like I said there were vendors selling just about everything. This is the loot we walked away with.

These little lizards were all around. They looked a lot like my old pet.

We played some games.

Fresh coconuts were pretty good.

More Pictures

2008-08-14T13:08:00.005-05:00

Churrasco’s in Nigeria with several friends

You’ve all met Amy and Reza before. They are in a lot of our pictures. We like them, they are cool.

This is pictures of the rest of our group. We have a good time when we get to go out.

I got to eat some meat it was good.

Trying impatiently to add pictures

2008-08-14T12:42:00.005-05:00

We went to the conservatory. It was a beautiful afternoon and we had a good time walking around the place

There was this lovely walkway that went around the entire place. It was kind of neat.

This was a structure that was built so that you could climb to the top of one of the trees. It was pretty tall and kind of scary climbing up. (Suzanne didn’t go up, but I like to climb things. She let me go all by myself.)

Picture from the top of the trees.

We saw some wildlife while we were there. This was our turtle friend.

Peacocks just hanging out.

You can sort of see the monkeys if you look right in the middle of the picture. There are three of them in this picture can you find them all?

Afterwards we went to a little shop for dessert. It was yummy.

That evening we went to see a local band at one of the little places to go out at. The little place was right on the water here but it was too dark to get a picture maybe we’ll go out again and get a picture of the place and not just the band.

She’s so pretty when she’s having a good time.

Trip to the Lekki Conservatory

2008-08-12T13:51:00.003-05:00

A few weeks ago Dave and I went to the Lekki Conservatory, which was pretty much like a big park with animals running free in their natural habitat. The walking trails were really pretty, but for the first two hours we didn't see any animals. There are supposed to be alligators, lots of birds, and monkeys. Finally we saw the monkeys as we were at the end of the trail. They are hard to see in the pictures because they were really high up in the trees, but I promise that they were really there. They were called Mona monkeys.
I am still trying to get the pictures to upload with our internet here!

Out to dinner... and an adventure

2008-08-01T15:15:00.010-05:00

We went out to dinner with our friends from work and the ninth floor of our apartment building

Reza and Amy

She's so cute.

Look at the lovely ladies, we had a lovely dinner

Now to the adventure...

Our elevator decided that it only wanted to go up 2 and 1/2 floors

Finally we decided that we were tired of waiting so we tried to open the doors. We banged and banged until finally someone heard us and they tried to open the door but it was locked. The maintenance people came and they couldn't get the door open. After about 45 min of trying to open the door we found a latch that let it open and we climbed out. It was quite an adventurous way to end the evening.

The little things

2008-07-30T00:39:00.001-05:00

It really is the little things that you miss, things you wouldn’t even really think about until you don’t have them anymore. For example when you are not feeling well and you run out of OJ, you can’t just run to the store and pick some up. You have to wait until the next day and call a driver and wait, go to the store and search, and there is no guarantee that they are going to have what you want.

In Sickness and In Health

2008-07-26T08:32:00.003-05:00

Well, this week began okay with Pizza for dinner on Sunday night. But as the week went on, Dave and I got sick, but on different days. Monday afternoon I had a fever and just felt bad. Anytime you have a fever they tell you to go to the SOS clinic and get checked for malaria. So Dave took me to the clinic when he got home from work, and they drew blood. For those of ya'll who know me, I am freaked out by blood and needles. Anyway, malaria test was negative but they said my white blood cell count was high. I am better now after taking the antibiotic that they prescribed. Dave though hasn't been so fortunate. On Tuesday he went to the clinic because he felt like he had sinus infection. The doctor confirmed it but after taking medicine everyday he is not quite better yet. At least now we know that there is a reliable international clinic with doctors who know what they're doing.
Other than taking care of Dave I have just finished up my second class towards my MEd. It is nice to feel like I am accomplishing something. Sometimes I do get bored here, especially since Dave works long days. Hopefully when school starts I can do some substituting at the American School and also teach more dance classes with the Society of the Performing Arts of Nigeria, a nonprofit studio that gives lots of scholarships to local Nigerians who are interested in dance. Right now I am teaching some ballet and jazz classes 3 days a week. I am also excited about our first R and R trip in three weeks. We are going on a Mediterranean cruise for 7 days and then we will be staying in Barcelona for 5 days. Maybe I will be able to remember some Spanish from the 7 years I took it in high school and college!

Shipment arrived

2008-07-19T17:35:00.003-05:00

Yeah our stuff finally made it here

Out to dinner to celebrate our good fortune!

Shipment should be here soon

2008-07-18T01:16:00.002-05:00

We shipped a bunch of our stuff over here, the week before I came home and they promised us delivery within two weeks. Well promises around here are about worth the paper that they are printed on. We've now both been back for 5 weeks, and including the 2 weeks that I was home we are now about the 8th week in to waiting for our 2 week air shipment. We have been on the phone, and email and have been promised "Oh it will be there tomorrow" since I figured out that they weren't going to get our stuff here without constant attention. This has been the cause of much consternation since we have been back, and again yesterday we have been promised our stuff will get here today. The last excuse that they gave us was that our stuff was at the airport but they couldn't get a forklift to get our things onto a truck. One of the really frustrating aspects was that the majority of the hold up wasn't the Nigerian company but the company shipping our stuff out of Houston. If you ever want to know who not to use when shipping thing out of Houston just talk to me and I'll tell you who not to use. (On a side note if you want to know which discount online travel agency not to use ask me about that and I'll tell you that too.)

Anyway our stuff is supposed to get here today so hopefully we can get it and stop worrying about it.

Pictures from Suzanne

2008-07-08T13:28:00.006-05:00

Here are some pictures that I took today. It was raining so that is why some look kind of weird.

In our neigborhood goats are always walking around.

Ladies carry everything on their heads.

Most local people get around on okadas.

Stuck in traffic on the bridge from Victoria Island to Ikoyi.

Our driver Olu

Right here was a picture of our building but I thought it would be better to not put it on the internet.

This is the grocery store that I go to. Today they had Pringles and the other day they had M and M's. You never know what they will have each day.

Another lady with bread

This is outside of our apartments. There are lots of trees and plants where we live.

New Camera

2008-07-05T00:46:00.001-05:00

We decided that it didn’t make much sense to go through our experiences here without a camera. For this blog is as much a journal for us to remember our experiences as much as it is a way to keep others up to date with what’s going on, and by golly we want some pictures. Therefore we broke down and bought a new one.

I know by the title of the post it would make sense that I would have a picture to go along with this blog, but we haven’t actually started taking pictures with the new camera yet so those will have to come later. Also to be honest you really have to wait until the right time of the night to upload pictures, because the speed of the internet is determined by how many people our using it at a particular time, and during the day it is abysmally slow.

Stay tuned more pictures to come soon…

Broken Camera

2008-06-28T06:19:00.001-05:00

Our camera decided that it didn’t want to work anymore. Therefore until we can either get it fixed or find a way to get a new one there will be very few pictures. We may be able to post pictures that others take but no more of our own :( I guess all you get now are thoughts. Hmm… No thought at the moment a baseball game is on, thoughts to come later.

Birthday in Nigeria

2008-06-25T02:32:00.004-05:00

Suzanne was a little bummed that she was going to have to spend her birthday here in Nigeria and not get a party. So I got our new friends to surprise her with a cake and a nice meal. Amy cooked this beautiful dinner and we had quite a nice time.

More pool party pictures

2008-06-25T02:04:00.003-05:00

Imagine sitting by the pool listening to some Robert Earl Keen, and getting to know some new people. It makes you not feel quite so far from home.

Pool Party!

2008-06-23T03:43:00.003-05:00

This weekend Christine and Moody put together a pool party at our apartment. The weather turned out beautiful and we had a lovely afternoon and evening by the pool.

Getting on the plane

2008-06-20T06:44:00.002-05:00

Back in Nigeria

2008-06-20T01:34:00.001-05:00

Everything has been really hectic the past couple of weeks. I have been on R&R and I needed to come back to Nigeria to get a break from my R&R. We packed up our house to rent it out while we are not there, and that alone consumed most of my break. Also my wife came back with me this time so we also had to pack for an extended period in another county. Getting internet hooked up in the apartment has been a challenge. I had a laptop connect card while I was here and it worked fine, but when we got here with her laptop the card did not fit in the slot. So we had to find other means of getting connected and it has been slow going. Our shipment from the US still has not arrived either, so she doesn’t have any of her stuff to decorate the apartment. I had quite a challenge adjusting when I arrived, but I thought that it wouldn’t be as much of a challenge for her because I would be here to help. However, that has not been the case, and all of the same challenges that I had before we seem to be having together now. Eventually things will settle down and get back to normal (at least as normal as one can get here) When we get the internet hooked up at the home I’ll probably pass off the blog to her and let her run with it.

Deep in thought...

2008-05-26T08:34:00.002-05:00

I haven't figured out what I'm thinking about, but I'm thinking real hard about it.

The guys here like to make fun of people. I guess I'm the only white guy they have seen that has a beard.

8 Weeks

2008-05-26T01:04:00.002-05:00

It doesn't sound like a long time, and to those of you back home (other than my wife) it probably hasn't seemed like a long time either. However out here in the Land of Oz time ticks by very slowly. Tick tick tick...

I wrote a few days back that I had 5 days left before I come home. Well here it is Monday and I still have 5 days left before I come home. 5 days 21 hours 32 minutes and 18 seconds to be exact, but who's counting.

I theorise that when my wife is here it won’t go by quite so slowly. I miss my beautiful wife. I miss just holding her, lying next to her, just spending a whole day doing nothing just being together. (I even miss when she gets mad and throws things, but don’t tell her I said that ;) )

I’ll be home soon!!!