The village children

Every sunday when we go to the beach we meet some of those living in the village. They come to the small pier to carry our coolers to the beach hut. We have stayed in the beach hut overnight once, and got to know a few of the villagers a bit better. The daughter of chief Big john, Fatima is always asking for Sofie if she is not present at the beach. On the photo you can see Fatima with her daughter and Sofie - from sunday.

We went to the beach to take a few pictures of Sofie to prepare for the task of making Christmas cards. On the beach we ran into these three young boys.

When the day at the beach comes to an end and we are heading back down to the pier all the children in the villages comes running to join us. Some of the little ones wants to hold our hands while walking. Sofie has learned by know that she is a popular figure when it comes to holding hands, and some of the children calls out her name to get her attention. To them she must be close to a princess - she don't have to work, she can swim in the swimmingpool, she can drink water from bottles and have cans of juice - all in one day! And she has several outfits. Sunday this little girl was quick to walk over to Sofie to hold her hand. And Sofie took her time walking in the pace of the little one.

I rarely bring my camera to the beach, but this sunday I did. And I carried it so it was visible. The result was that the kids started posing for me. Particular these three little boys. They ran in front of me and posed. The one in the yellow Liverpool t-shirt were very charming and used all his charm to get my attention.

The pier is a good plays for the children to be Sunday afternoon - they know they will receive a treat before they return home. It is not easy for the little ones to get their fair share - and the older kids - particular a few of the boys are very cunning when it comes to get their hands on some candy. Here most of the kids are gathered to be a part of the photo.

It is very obvious that these kids are used to work and help out in the village. We se them carry water, dig up roots, peel vegetables, babysit younger children, climed the palmtrees to get coconuts. This little girl is carrying a younger sibling, even though she is not very old herself.

Carnival at the school - fund raising

November 8th were the BIG day - the fund raising activities the children looked forward to. Raffles, jumping castle, throwing wet sponges at teachers, and so many more activities. We came when it all started, and stayed almost to the end, and Sofie were not bored for 5 minutes.

In addition there were music and dance performed by students at the school.

Surfing - or playing on and with a surfboard

Last Sunday we were invited to join some friends to a beach used by Lagos Yacht Club, Agogo beach. The ride from the Yacht Club to the beach were fairly short in a small open motorboat. There were plaenty of trees giving good shade for the sun, it was nice and warm and we were in a good company with Marike and Albricht and their two sons Axi and Uli.

Sofie were a bit reluctant to swim in the water to strat with, and walked about with shoes and socks on for at least an hour before she finally gave in and went swimming. She had great fun playing with the boys and in the end she were able to swim out and enter the surfboard.

Furniture - to be continued - it seems

Well - good news, some of the furniture has arrived! Sofie has received a pretty desk in dark wood, made from scratch. Good work, nice drawers and absolutely perfect size for her. And she has received a shelf for her bathrooms items. And again - good work, nice shelf.

But - where is our bathroom shelf? And the furniture for the veranda? Wonder how many "two - weeks we need to go through before they eventually turn up.

The shelf to organise the closet has arrived, and was totally wrong for the purpose - you have to stack the items sideways into it! Really hard work to get anything in or out! It will need to be re-done.

i was told that it is not allowed to import furnitures into Nigeria. And first i thought it made sense with an internal marked of 148 million people. But after the experience of getting furniture - these guys needs some competition! Someone who can deliver on time and cost and quality.

Fishing net

In Nigeria and other African countries they have a special fishing net, that we do not use in Norway. It is circalur, and thrown out from a small boat. At the end of the circle- the bottom -lead is attached to make it sink quickly. When they pull the net, it shapes itself like a big bag - holding onto the fish.

from our veranda we have the view of small boats with 1 - 3 fishermen onboard going into the Lekki Lagoon fishing. I often run for my camera - but changing temperatures from the airconditioned flat to the warm veranda leads to dew on the lense. Sso I have not got a good fishing picture myself yet. By searching google Photo I found one that can illustrate the fishing method.

And why am I suddenly writing about fishing nets? I grew up partly on Danish farmland and partly along the coas¨tal line of western Norway, so fishing was one of my childhood activities - and still something I enjoy today.Here in Lagos I am not allowed by security officers in my company to ask the local fishermen to take me out fishing - so I will not do that - but it would be great fun.

I have been trying to get a fishing net like this for my father, who also loves fishing. But I have not been able to get hold on one on the markeds or in the shops. So I ended up asking Big John, a local chief, if he knew how to buy a fishing net. He said he would fix it all for me.

The procurement and production of this net tells a stor of developmental level and economic development of Nigeria. Step one - ask someone he knew if they could make it and get a price.
This misson was carried out and he reported back to me that this could be done and ad estimated price. Then a couple of weeks later there was a need to by the lead - so he needed advanced payment for that. Then this friday - the net was ready and presented. We got to see how to throw the net, and it landet in a nice circle in the sand on the beach.

And I have advanced one more item on my list of christmas gifts.

Nigerian Culture Day at the school

Sofie has been looking forward to the Nigerian Culturday all week. So today, she dressed in the Nigerian outfit her nanny Joy has made her for the occation. Joy arrived a bit early this morning and made sure that Sofie was properly dressed and fixed her headband. There were a slight issue with Sofie demanding to wear sock and shoes instead of sandals, but you don't mess with a tired Sofie - we let her wear black dress shoes and white socks.

The whole school was colourful wearing clothing today, staff, students and parents. In the picture you see grade 2 sitting and watching a horseshow on the soccerfields. Some of the parents had even taken the traditional Nigerian head wraps on, and that made a difference for sure. So many colourful hat-like head wraps I have never seen in one place before.

When we arrived at school it was decorated beyond recognition. Leafs from the Coconut palm tree made a new entrance. When we came to the school court female musicians where sitting there whith their rythmic instruments playing.

The tenniscourts were turned into a marked place today, and the student got to practice their negotiations skills - making good bargains with the traders.

Here we are

I have been asked a couple of times now, to be more specific on where we live, people can't find it on maps. Well, that is probably because there are few maps over the area available on web tools. The beach you see on the satelite photo is the coast line. The right hand side of the beach is Victoria Island where the financial activities, shops, and schools are. Where you see the little blue baloon with an A on, is Ikoyi. That is the island where the Nigerian oil company and Statoil has their offices. From Ikoyi an artificial island is build, shaped as a banana? and given the name Banana Island. We live in the western part of Banana Island, with a great view over the lagoon and to mainland Lagos.



Our neighbourhood consists of apartment blocks and churches. Some big, well funded chirches sponsored by European or American churches, other more locally funded. One of the later is found quite close to where we live. Music and singing heard early in the mornings. Plastic chairs and plastic church in use with an enthusiastic user group. Very loud music from such a small church.

Situated close to a roundabout with heavy trafic is another church which has caught my attention - based on the cool name. The Church of the Assumption. To me that is summing up perfectly what churches and religion is all about.

Well back to our neighbourhood. From the veranda we can see the local fishermen taking their small boats out in the lagoon chasing after fish and shrimps so they can feed their normally large families. Some morning I am wondering why I am not out there fishing instead of fighting trafic, going to the office. But given the numbers of fishers out there and the price of fish - I would guess that there already is a shortage of fish compared to fishers. So I better stay in the office and buy fish from them.