Ikaare School Building

While it's all go go go down the creek at Ishahayi, things are starting to get going at the Ikaare Junior Grammar School as well. IBSF has managed to get some funding together to start constructing the new school building (you can get a full 8m x 24m three classroom building for just under $14,000 AUD here - bargain)

The old building built in the 80's was completely useless
so we had to knock all that down and start again

It also turned out that half the foundations had never been built
(probably why it fell down in the first place)
so we had to rebuild all that too

now, after three weeks, we're starting to get somewhere
- hopefully it'll be done before the wet season really starts...

Back to School !

Many thanks and good Karma must go to Desiree and Maslina for coming out to ishahayi and giving a lecture on Malaria and sanitation to the student's and teachers. We'd been planning this for ages, and I must confess most of the posters and teaching materials had been sitting in my office at home gather dust for a little too long (sorry-o to Desi and Mas).

Desi had been busy at the health unit of the American embassy (when she's not trying to buy a house back in Canada and have a baby!!) So literally 5 days before she flys home to settle down and bring a new little Quinn into the world, we're all out at the beach in the heat and humidity - talking to the kids to give them a few basics so they're not always sick all the time...

A great job was done by team Desi & Lady Salami, including a couple of musical numbers and Mas had managed to get some insecticide treated mozzie nets for the teachers off a contact of hers as well as a bunch of posters etc. I must say, that despite all their good will - actually getting anything (even just a picture or poster or something) from aid organisations like USAID and the WHO is like pulling teeth - really slowly

We used the church building (originally built by IBSF as the first school) and it was packed

Literally packed !! (next time we'll get a few parents involved too)

Desi and lady Salami getting the kids to read the posters

The all singing all dancing "this is the way we wash our hands" duo - coming to a theatre near you

Whilst poor sanitary conditions spread plenty of disease and keep the kids from school quite regularly - Malaria is a big problem. The isolation of the community really doesn't help when it comes to the medical attention so desperately required with disease like malaria. Only a month or so ago, a father of 5 from the village died whilst in a boat on his way to the mainland to get treatment for malaria / typhoid. His kids had to drop out of school to maintain a livelihood for the family... As treatment isn't really an option, we were trying for prevention. We had a few insecticide treated nets that pretty much fit a whole family and showed everyone how to use them. Unfortunately we only had a few at the time, but we're hoping to raise some cash to get enough for all the families of the kids at the school (70 or 80 nets) - at only $10 each this will make a massive difference out here. So again - HUGE thanks to Mas and Desi for all their time and effort - particularly in light of all the stuff each of them is going through at the moment.

Finally, Lady salami asked all the children to put up their hand if they wanted to be like Mrs Quinn (Desi). There was a resounding "yeah" and plenty of hands - despite none of them knowing what she does. When they found out she was a Nurse, everyone still wanted to be a nurse, even some of the boys! But when asked if boys can be nurses, all the kids screamed a big "Nooo!!" -I guess it takes time for thing s to change. Desi kindly pointed out that men can be nurses too if they want, and with a final cheer and clap for Desi to give birth to healthy twins!!(sign of good luck around here) we headed back to Lagos - Desi happy to know that she won't have to deal with twins - one's enough first time round, right?

Capetown is lekker, man!

[this'll make more sense if you read it in a South African accent (you know, the whole "diplomatic immunity" bit...)]

Capetown is seriously lekker, brah. We had a jawl. Everyone keeps asking us what we got up to in South Africa - as there's actually heaps to do - regardless we spent a large amount of time lying around on the balcony of the house we'd rented BBQing lamb on the braai and sampling the local dop... Attempts were made to go shark diving and do exciting stuff, but if never panned out. Instead a great week of grazing and enjoying a really sweet part of the planet. Seriously, you may as well be on the Northern beaches of Sydney - just a hell of a lot cheaper!! - it ain't Africa, not by a long way...

For an actual description of what we did (and ate!!) Mas has been kind enough to save our lazy bums with her blog here. There's a couple of videos as well - inc a pretty cool one of a cooper banging away at a barrel that we saw on a tour of a brandy distillery - yeah we know, it was a tough holiday...

Anyway, we do have a few pics to share...

One good thing about Africa, there's always awesome stuff to look at out the window of the plane...


straight off the plane and into the nearest cafe...




(l-r) John, Rob, Rachel, George, Sarah, Maslina

enjoying a couple of "man cans" on the balcony

Cooking lamb on the braai

We went for a drive down to Cape Point to have a look at the National park. Unfortunately there was a strange thick fog that covered the mountains. Only in the hills though, then it would disappear. Made for great effect as it swept over the hills and then disappeared in the ocean below.




made for interesting driving

and you couldn't see much at the light house at the Cape...

On the way back we stopped at Simonstown where the local penguins have integrated themselves into the locals lives. Everyday, they come home from a day at sea and just wander across the beaches through peoples games of beach cricket!! Apparently they like shiny things and will sometimes nick off with your wallet...



Sunset over Hout Bay

A cool building in Capetown that warranted a photo (can't remember what they sell though..)

A few quite ones down by the waterfront. Seriously this place could be Sydney - very darling harbour

One day we headed out to Stellenbosch to sample the local vino. Very good stuff. Why we were tasting Brandy at 10:00 in the morning is anyone's guess..

The cable car up to the top of table mountain which overlooks Capetown. Some smart idiot thought that it would be a great idea to make the gondola floor spin around as you go up. Great in principle so that you can see the whole view, not so great when your moving vertically at a great pace and end up feeling like you're inside a washing machine with 30 other people...

Once on top of table mountain, the whole place is dead flat (hence the name i guess) rather strange feeling though - completely different planet to coastal Capetown.

what's a dassie you ask? Well, it's a fat, lazy little fella that kinda looks like a cross between a small wombat and a meer cat with a few other things thrown in for good measure (apparently they're related to elephants - seriously, go figure). Anyway, according to one site these little guys "spend very little time moving around to conserve energy. They also allow their body temperature to drop by up to three degrees centigrade to save metabolic energy. They then spends lots of time basking in the sun to warm up again." lazy little buggers... But, if you feed them after midnight... well, that's a whole other story. Either way, they were too lazy to come out for a photo op, so you'll just have to use your imagination.

Capetown for Easter!!

We've just come back from 8 days in sunny Capetown down in South Africa - really good, and we mean really good.



In fact so good that it might take a week or two to get you all some pics etc. Please bear with us...



here's one little pikky though... (just click on it for full size)

Happy Easter All!!

Hope it was a good one!!

Election time in sunny Nigeria and all is well... (?)

So it's been another weekend of fun and games in Nigeria with the Presidential "Election" "taking Place"

Now you may wonder why these words are in inverted commas?

Short answer being:

"Election? oh, that's what you call an election"

and

"What do you mean there's no ballot papers this is an election? Oh, so now I have to come back next weekend for another election? I though we'd already done two this week..."

Anyway, I could get into a long and I mean looong dicussion about politics in Nigeria and Africa, and I'm not going to.

For those who want to know more about what happens when a country like Nigeria has "elections" I suggest you read these:

Nigerian Elections – Politics of Thuggery and Chaos

What our politicians say (and what they really mean) an interesting translation of electioneering hype

Nigerian Elections 2007: What's hot and what's not in the media coverage

Nigeria: Blogging the historic election (Part 1)