Trip to the Lekki Conservatory

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

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

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

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

Yeah our stuff finally made it here



Out to dinner to celebrate our good fortune!

Shipment should be here soon

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

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.