A Fun Day of Sailing

On September 13, 2009, Rob, myself and Kevin went sailing from the Lagos Yacht Club to Tarkwin Bay. We sailed a Lightening sailboat and anchored in Tarkwin Bay about 45 minutes later. We swam ashore and went body boarding. The waves were huge, but lots of fun. After a while of playing in the waves and chatting with the locals, we swam back to the boat, and sailed home. Check out the photos below...


View of the Lightening fleet from the Lagos Yacht Club.

Rob and Kevin setting the anchor in Tarkwin Bay. Check out the waves in the back ground!!

View of the Lagos Yacht Club Hobbie fleet.

Nigerian Field Society Badagry Folk Festival and Slave History Trip

August 28-30 we took a trip with the Nigerian Field Society to Badagry to attend the Gbenopo Royal Carnival and tour the historic sites of one of Africa's largest slave ports. We had two days of exciting cultural experiences and historical tours. Check out the pictures below.

Arrival in Badagry. We took at 1.5 hour boat ride from Lagos to Badagry.

Gbenopo Royal Carnival.

Meeting the king of Badagry.

Enjoying a cold beverage with friends at the hotel in Badagry.

Market in Badagry.

Butcher at the market.

Typical Nigerian market.

My first Nigerian fabric purchase. Humm...I think I am going to use this fabric to make pillows.

One of my favorite photos. The children love to have their photo taken. They get even more excited when you show them to digital picture on the screen.

The Grand Finale. Festival dancing in front of our table.

The ladies with the chickens were my favorite!

Traditional drumming and dancing in the pouring rain.

Traditional dancing and druming.

The stilt characters were amazing. Very agile.

Badagry heritage museum. Described the history of the trans-Saharan and trans-Atlantic west African slave trade.

Slave market where slaves were bought and sold before going to the point of no return to be transported across the Atlantic.

Our boat ride to point of no return. Fortunately it returned to Badagry......

Badagry point of no return..

View of the point of no return and monument.

Sitting at the point of no return imagining what it was like for millions of people being transported across the Atlantic as slaves not knowing where they were going or if they will ever return to Africa.

A Start of a New Life Adventure - Living in Lagos, Nigeria

Rob and I are starting and adventure of a lifetime. My job has taken us to Lagos Nigeria for a 3 (hopefully longer;)) year assignment. We are very excited to have the opportunity to live and work abroad. It gives us a chance to experience and learn about different cultures as well as meet people from around the world.

We arrived in country in early August 2009. In the last month, we have been "exploring" the markets, restaurants, various sporting clubs, and shopping plazas on Ikoyi and Victoria Islands as well as checking out the beach! Check out our photos below...

Our first night in Lagos. We (Rob, Kelvin - our sweet basset hound and I) made it safe and sound! We are enjoying our first Nigerian beers (Star).

The view of Five Cowrie Creek from our hotel window.

Fishermen on Five Cowrie Creek fishing from a traditional boat near our hotel.

Ahhh.....a day of relaxation at the beach. I bought the basket on the vendor's left shoulder and the one hanging up top on the left.

Traditional fishing boat "parked" on the beach..

The beach house and grounds our company provides for our use. Not bad..

Here I am "livin' the highlife". The beach is very steep. From where I am sitting it is a 5-10 foot steep slope to the water. The currents (undertow) are extremely strong and the waves are big. These waves are ~10 foot breakers. At another beach locality, there is a shipwreck on the shoreline that breaks up some of the wave. We have been boggie boarding here. I will post pictures of "Shipwreck Beach" in the near future....Stay tuned...

Rob, Lawrence, and Steve "livin' the highlife"....

Leaving the beach for the boat back to Lagos. The local village ladies and children carry our belongings back to the boat. It amazes me how they can balance/carry a full cooler on their head with little effort. Truely amazing.....

I find this picture really interesting. It was taken on our boat ride back to Lagos. Decomissioned boats are left in the waterways to decay while what appears to be functional boats tie-up to these sinking boats....