Careful! Dangerous tiny car on loose

So, Vova and I went to Delaware yesterday for some beach time and checking out some of the nearby outlet stores. As we were driving back at night there was a crazy minivan going under the speed limit. Another car and I passed him, After which the guy definitely flicked his high beams lights at us several times. Shortly after we decided to stop and get petrol for the car. The minivan proceeds to follow us. As it was a rental car I was driving quite slow in the station trying to figure out what side the tank was on. I didn't realize the van was still there but it was trying to pass perhaps. As it turns out the boys appear to be on drugs by their behavior and come over on a cell phone, which coincidentally are not to be used at petrol stations and can cause explosions and read out license plate number to who knows on the phone. Thug friends? Police?

So Vova goes over to investigate, and before he is anywhere near him, the freak shouts at him to get away and how he doesn't want a fight. Vova asks him what the matter is. One of the thugs, like not so respectful fraternity house boys tells him to get away and that we will be contacted shortly. It was the strangest case of giving power to the freak shows of the world out there. Quite literally nothing happened. Can you imagine what would have happened if these witch (communist, terrorist or other name calling) hunters had found someone black or middle eastern? Too much power to the proletariat when they seem to be taking large amounts of drugs that make you paranoid and react really inappropriately, could start huge conflicts. It was quite scary. I got a complete vibe that these boys were not quite right in the head and the fact that one of these half-shells was driving a car scared me a bit more. I mean how can they think that a tiny little Scion, like a mini cooper or smart car could threaten a minivan. It was crazy.

Anyway. Back to work.

Hallelujah!

Our plane finally arrives late from Abuja. If you look carefully, that is the name given to the plane.

Sky as your canvas


View from the window, returning from Abuja, the capital of Nigeria.

Bird's eye view

Abuja as seen from the sky

Escaping the compound

Lagos, as seen from the confines of our "compound", the Excellence hotel.

Ross, Anna and I were like puppies desperate to leave the house today. So we escaped our cage with Bode and his wife Yemi. We have been in the hotel mostly since we got here. I escaped to exchange money with Ruth and Teresa, two Nigerian women. Ruth seemed to dominate everything telling the men to do this and that. People (especially women) seem quite commandeering so far. My money changing seemed trivial to the dollars that Teresa was exchanging for African families in Port Harcourt.

I'm beginning to think the guide book had it wrong or that they ate in huts while in Nigeria. As a vegetarian the food really isn't that bad. It is quite spicy. I had some spicy beans with cassava and eggs for dinner tonight. I was quite pleased. A lot of the regular dishes are vegetarian enough. All quite spicy. A lot of it I would enjoy having again, although maybe compared to other places in West Africa it is not as good, which would explain the horrible review by the guidebook.

People here eat with their right hand, left is for cleaning the bum in case you were interested. Someone mentioned that in Senegal they don't use toilet paper even, just water in a bottle by the side of the toilet. The peace corps actually teaches them how to clean. :) A friend was saying that in Uzbekistan they use paper from books.

Anyway so it would be very upsetting for people in Nigeria if left handed to use the left hand while eating I would imagine. While eating you take a bit of cassava or yam flour (like cream of wheat of sorts but shaped in sphere) and scoop up some food with it. You clean your hands in a bowl of salt water afterwards. The only thing that was very strange for me food wise was this mixture of spinach and melon. The "melon" is yellow and looks like meat or cheese but is pureed melon seed. Interesting though strange taste.

I had cola nut for the first time and it tastes toxic. It is a substitute for coffee, hence the name relation to coca cola. It is quite bitter although there is apparently a bitter cola nut as well.

Count to date:

Seen 2 strange bugs

Several mosquitoes

Explained 4 times that goat and chicken is meat and I don not eat it.

Received 2 SMS from strange man from airplane who gave me his SIM card, one of the messages being slightly religious

And

5 missed calls from this guy

Electricity going out?

HMM. Including now, 6 short times. Once for an hour (Note to self. The flashlight you were thinking of bringing would have been quite useful). Funny how our trip began that way. The short ones aren't that noticeable. At least it hasn't happened yet during the presentations.

Apparently there are no McDonald's in Nigeria and they fought to keep them out. Go Nigeria! They have Nigerian fast food though, Tantalizers and some others. They seemed to be out of most food by 8pm. So we went elsewhere. Food always takes an hour to be served as it is freshly made.

Mowed grass for food

So according to our colleague from Nigeria, Tosen who was at the Philip Morris protest, we are now eating real food. He compared salads to someone mowing their lawns and putting the remains on the plate, which is true in some ways but again it is health to eat many things from an organic lawn, even dandelions for cleansing the body ;). The food here is not as bad as the guidebook says, more variety than Guatemalan food, but then again I haven't been to a village. One of the dishes I had tonight is melon seed paste and spinach. It is yellowish in color with green specks from the spinach and white bits which is the melon (tastes a bit strange).

Apparently many blacks in Africa especially Nigeria have diabetes from eating lots of yams and cassava. I saw on TV Nigerian women bumping and grinding along to yoruba rap.

Ruth, the woman who went with me to exchange money taught me a yoruba based word "jarra, jarra" meaning more, more. She wanted more of a discount. The women here seem to hold the whip where men just follow along being more laid back.

I didn't think I would be talking about diet and nutrition to a very large African man today. He says the reason many Nigerians have diabetes according to an anthropologist is that people used to eat less and be more active. Now they are less active and eat more.

Metal, wires and dust

Along the road in Lagos

Stephanie getting friendly with the police.

An ex-police officer turner preacher helped this photo come about. Apparently the police are rather reluctant to be in photos...We even got one of them to smile :)

Halliburton Propaganda even in Nigeria

Halliburton is trying a PR move even in Lagos...This was in one of the newspapers.

And so it began

I am really in Africa - just flew over what would officially be much of the middle of the sand centre. All I see is sand and some spots - I think I just saw a road, now just sand but yet some sort of trail is demarcated (I am flying over Algeria). Exhausted would be one word to describe me right now.

...

Just a bit later, upon arriving in the heat of Lagos airport, a power outage happened 3 times for about 10 seconds to a minute each time just upon waiting at the baggage claim. The first time happened a second before entering the bathroom. I remember hesitating before going in while analyzing the placards outside the doors. The men had a circular flat head while women had dart like fire coming out of their head. The second two outages happened at dinner at the hotel and then upon arriving in the room. Anna (my coworker) mentioned in Senegal women bleach their faces to be lighter.

Smoking or Passive smoking section

This was the bar directly across from our gate.

We will offload your luggage

Mr. X you are holding up your flight. Please report to counter F5 or we will offload your luggage.

I have heard announcements a lot in Europe of people delaying their flights with the airplanes waiting for people. This week in Amsterdam I finally heard KLM and other companies threaten the passengers with taking them off the flight. There's always a first for everything.

The gate for our flight to Lagos was conveniently located across from a bar/cafe which coincidentally was one of the smoking areas in the "smoke-free" airport.

I cannot believe that I will be on African soil within the next 7 hours. The tour books all say very nasty things about Lagos and Nigeria in general. I have no idea what to expect other than mass chaos.

Monopoly - corporate style

Monopoly: mo·nop·o·ly (mə-nŏp'ə-lē) pronunciation
n., pl. -lies.

1. Exclusive control by one group of the means of producing or selling a commodity or service: “Monopoly frequently arises from government support or from collusive agreements among individuals (Milton Friedman).
2. Law. A right granted by a government giving exclusive control over a specified commercial activity to a single party.

I bet when you were playing that game when you were a kid, you never really thought about the consequences of winning or that these sort of things just MAY happen in the real world. Funny, how that game seems to be not so much of a game. Remember the water company, and the electric company and they always seemed to get a nice fair share of your money. Interesting that you have to pay for your services isn't it?

Privatization just seems to be accepted somehow. If it isn't accepted than perhaps you are a bit socialist or one of the other instant negators like terrorist, witch, communist, traitor, etc. But think about services this way, if you have to choose between water, heat and eating what kind of world do we live in? Why do we pay for water? Isn't water something natural that no one owns? In Bolivia the campesinos fought back and shut down all of La Paz when the government tried to privatize the water industry. There was a total siege. Usually people just let the multinationals walk all over them. However, they fought back in Bolivia.

Anyway back to Monopoly. Remember how you loved winning the game, what a thrill it was? Kids probably never think that there really are losers out there and it isn't a joke when they lose all their money to the people who have Boardwalk and Park Place. I never thought of it before, but the game really does teach children to be good little capitalists, doesn't it? That's a whole new world for me to explore with propaganda. Before I looked just at textbooks, media, news...Now games, that is VERY clever... To take a new look at the game of Monopoly by Jim Monroe click here.

Ships in Baltimore

Reflections of a era long ago

Pamplemousse

Spontaneity is such a lovely thing isn't it? Apparently after I had chakra energy work done the other day I started laughing full on in the morning while still asleep a couple days afterwards. I attribute it to opening the 2nd chakra (emotions, desires, etc.) It was still quite funny. It's similar to me sitting up straight in bed while asleep a second before and saying grapefruit, as he had opened an essential oil of grapefruit. For some reason the alarm and jackhammering can be slept through but the smell of grapefruit, or pamplemousse in French will wake me up. I always had a strange connection with grapefruit. It resonated with me more than any of the other fruits while studying French. I would always order, jus de pamplemousse (grapefruit juice) while on flights just to get to say the word.

The chakra energy work was really relaxing. It was a bit like watching a film. Like where the energy was being worked on, images and colors would be going on there. Towards the end when she was working on my head it felt (and I thought this right after) like cowboys or bandits or something were being liberated from my head. Anyway, it was interesting. At the end it felt as though my right hand was palm down instead of palm up like it was.