Ishahayi farm

I tell you the teachers out at ishahayi never cease to amaze me. I was out there to give all the teachers their bi-monthly "donation" (as teachers they don't get paid, so the School Foundation there gives them a stipend to help out - $100AUD a month mind you, but no-one complains)

Anyway, when I was paying the teachers, Aki, the grade 6 teacher comes in all sweaty and smiling telling me he's just started a "farm". This I had to see. As the the kids were about to go on holidays for a couple of months, the kids were clearing around the school building to get rid of snakes - and lo and behold they ended up with a nice little patch of land along the side of the school next to the new well. Why not start a farm? So aki got the older boys planting cassava, which they can grow from cuttings. Cassava normally takes about a year to get big enough for the root (the big starchy bit you eat) to be a decent meal.

When I asked him what his plans were, he smiled confidently and said that they would sell the cassava and buy school books or press it and grind it to a powder to make garri (a local starchy staple) for the children to eat. Great work. Like I said, those guys always impress me... amazing

One of the standard teachers implements around
here is a good stick, Aki is no exception


After dividing up old cassava plants by "cutlass"
(machete) you can just plant the cuttings




The younger kids got to sit around and watch as the older kids
did all the work, just in case there were any snakes in the bush.

Ikaare School Building

After a few weeks of bad rain, we've had enough days over the weekend and this week to finally get a roof on the new School Building out at Ikaare. So now all that left to do is to get a floor put in and the walls rendered and we can start getting the kids in there - mind you we still don't have enough cash for doors or windows or a ceiling yet (and there's not enough furniture) but some of the local suppliers have helped us out by extending a little credit to the builders for this job.

Anyway, all schools break up for summer holidays at the end of the week and won't be back till early October, so that buys us a little more time. In the meantime, here's a few pics I took of the concreters starting the rendering...

Iba-Oloja Primary School (ibeju)

Charity work isn't all hard work. Actually not much of it's hard work at all. But when the only way to get to a school is by canoe you could do a lot worse on a nice sunny day. (during the Wet all the swamps around Lagos are completely flooded in a foot or so a water, so canoe is the way to travel...)

I won't bore you with the details other than to say, a group of us headed about and hour or so east of Lagos to check up on a school we done some work at last year and deliver some more school supplies. Unfortunately, we had a film crew hanging around so everything took twice as long as you had to keep going back and doing everything two or three times so that they could get it on film. It confused the crap out of the locals when the film guys were yelling "hug them again!! I didn't get it!! Now say that again louder and look this way!!"

Anyway, on to the pictures...

No strollers or prams around here, kids are lashed to whoever's
looking after them by a "wrapper", even if they're on a motorbike

Loading up the canoes

heading through the jungle to the river

I had the easy job. Mussilu did the paddling
while I bailed out the canoe every so often

On the river

Mr Mufu was kind enough to show us how to do a little
fishing on the way home (didn't catch anything though)

Due to the rains, we had to walk 100m or so through the swamp to get back to land

Iba-Olaja primary



The kids doing a role call and having a little sing

As usual, you always get swamped by kids who all want to be "snapped"

Nigeria has a Rail System?

Believe it or not, this place used to have a thriving rail network... nowadays it's a great place for people to build, so slums have grown through all the rail land in the major cities and it's going to be interesting when they try and fire it all up again. But anyway, but when the Empire was getting rich off the backs of its colonies in Africa, the Brits built a line from Lagos heading up North to bring whatever wasn't bolted down back to port to sell back in the Motherland...

That was then, now the Nigerian Rail Corporation is probably the world largest owner of scrap rail parts that are useless to anyone. The good folk at the Nigerian Field Society organised a trip down to the old yards and HQ at Ebute Metta in Lagos (which was supposed to be on while we were in Kenya but had been put off due to the nationwide strike and petrol shortage). Unfortunately, being the wet season, it was absolutely pouring down and half of the rail yards were flooded, so we didn't get a chance to see the old steam loco's they still have sitting in a shed {this site has some pics of what we didn't see} - but they still had some amazing stuff, all just sitting there gathering dust. No one around here really gives a crap about history, and since Independence the military and various politicians have cleaned out every government owned company, coup after coup (which is why there's never any power or water here either...that's another story though)

So here's some pics of interesting stuff we stumbled upon as we wandered around on a wet Saturday morning...

The "new" NRC logo from the 60's when the Japanese
and Chinese brought in Diesel Electric trains

Unfortunately those diesel electrics didn't last too long...

This is an interesting one. Fingering through a bunch of old drawings, George & I found some drawings of the carriages that were built for the Queen's first visit to Nigeria back in 1956 (when she was barely 30)
Here's a little blurb from African Affairs, in April 1956

Royal Tour of Nigeria

The Queen, accompanied by Prince Philip, in February carried out a tour of Nigeria lasting three weeks which took them to all the Regions. It was a memorable visit, not only because of its unprecedented success, but also because it was the first time that a reigning Monarch had set foot in this, the most important of the African colonies. For a colony it still is—though one on the brink of self-government, and a country, therefore, which pretty well runs its own affairs already.
Lagos, the Federal capital, was first to welcome the Royal party on January 28, A political truce had been agreed to by all while the Royal visit lasted, and in place of politics, the people of Nigeria busied themselves with great demonstrations of loyalty and happy festivities. However carefree her subjects might have been in those joyful three weeks, the Queen herself laced a complicated and exacting programme. Her patience, charm and affection for the Nigerian people never deserted her.
Perhaps the most impressive and symbolic part of the Royal visit was the Queen's visit to the Federal House of Representatives. Wearing a gown of ivory satin embroidered with pearls, a diamond tiara and the star and sash of the Order of the Garter, her Majesty walked in procession to the House preceded by the Sergeant-at-Arms. She was received by the Speaker at the Bar of the House and conducted to the throne. The Duke of Edinburgh in white naval uniform, sat on her left, The Governor-General, the Chief Justice of the Federation, the Archbishop of West Africa and other dignitaries sat on her right.
The Speaker then read a loyal address, referring to the intense feeling of loyalty which the visit had created. The Minister of Transport, the Minister of Communications, and the Leader of the Opposition spoke in support of the address.
The Queen, in reply, spoke of "this most important stage of Nigeria's development." Nigeria was moving forward to what she was sure would be a happy and fortunate future and a place of increasing significance in the modern world, She regretted that difficulties of time and distance prevented her and the Duke of Ed arch from meeting more than a fraction of her subjects…”

The Office for Impractically Long Acronyms



The maintenance sheds are basically the same as the day they
were deserted (whenever that was...) tools are just lying around
as though they were left one day and no one ever came back.



If you're in the market for old train wheels, give me a call...

It's raining again...

Yup, it's that time of year again...

For whatever reason this year nobody decided to try and fix any of the thousands of potholes on lagos' streets. So now that the wet season is in full swing, it's all fun and games trying to negotiate a path through foot deep water hiding mystery potholes.

Here's a few pics susan took last week after it had rained for a few days

This excerpt from a recent article in the local paper This Day says it all....

All around Lagos during this rainy season, from the highbrow Dolphin Estate, Ikoyi through the middle class suburb of Surulere to all the adjoining satellite towns in the mega city, the tale of woes by the residents, have remained the same. Flood has laid siege on residents and it has also compounded the already deplorable road network that transverse the sprawling city. It is not uncommon to experience or hear of terrible accidents or crimes perpetrated by urchins as a result of traffic snarls orchestrated by bad roads and floods on rainy days.

For anybody coming into Lagos for the first time, there are so many things that give the city a bad name. If it is not the heaps of refuse that liter the city or the unwelcome attention you get from area boys and armed robbers, it is the ubiquitous traffic jam most times caused by bad roads, flood or lawless motorists. Lately, one major challenge Lagosians have had to contend with is the poor condition of roads in the state made worse by the incessant downpour.

The rains have upped the ante on the debilitating road situation adding further misery to the plight of poor commuters who must get from one point to another to make ends meet. When it rains in Lagos, it is common to see hardship every where. Sometimes, cars are seen floating side by side with rubbish left behind by the numerous street hawkers who now govern almost every major city road. Vehicles become casualties of the flood, with stranded drivers and commuters seeking assistance from area boys who end up robbing these helpless victims. In truth, rain is not necessarily a bad thing at all. There are many places in the world where the inhabitants are literally praying for rain to fall. It's just that our leaders have managed to transform the heavenly blessings into a curse for residents.

The full article is at: http://allafrica.com/stories/200707091079.html

Sayonara Maslina

It's the end of an era in Lagos. After plenty of ups and downs and a whole bunch of awesome memories, it's time for Mas to leave us... (insert sobbing noise here)

Mas is off to continue her plan of world domination over in Singapore, which is a little closer to home than Nigeria. So it's only right that we rounded up the posse (minus Ryan and Desi who are having a baby in Canada as we speak!!! CONGRATS on a healthy baby boy!!) and headed over to the ragin' cajun's (the TODD) place to christen his new BBQ and have an awesome meal! Ironically most of the stuff for dinner had been brought in from overseas, so it wasn't much of a Nigerian dinner - but a bloody good one nonetheless.

George and I had flown in from Nairobi that morning and had been to a supermarket the night before to grab some goodies that you can't get in Lagos like broccoli and green beans (man they were tasty) and we still had a couple of racks of lamb and some wine we'd brought back from South Africa earlier in the year. Todd also had a bunch of steaks he'd brought over from Louisiana, so it was on!! You really do have to laugh at the kind of crap you can take through customs around here, no-one gives a sh!t about anything...

Anyway, enough blabbin', here's some pics...

The last supper (l-r)
George, todd, john, susan, maslina, rachel, rob

Thanks to the nationwide strike, the timing worked out beautifully with
"dad" Marcelle (middle) flying into Lagos from Angola as well... nice one!

Another great meal at Todd's (Thanks buddy it's always a pleasure)

Mas and her Lamb, never try to separate them...



George made an awesome collage of photos of everyone
from Lagos over the last couple of years and put them
on strips of local fabric and everyone signed it for Mas.
The best idea for a going away pressie I've ever seen

So Mas, it has been great to have you in our lives in Lagos. You've saved both our arses on more than one occasion. We'll miss you, but see you in Singapore soon!!

xox John & George