Three weeks left

I can't believe it is only three weeks until we come home. I must say I am so looking forward to seeing everyone and SHOPPING- proper SHOPPING.


We have had another hectic social week. 
Monday- We went to a play brought over by The British Council which was a star at the Edinburgh Festival. Really good, but although myself and the other 30 people really enjoyed it - I think it was a waste of Taxpayers money (and if I paid taxes in the UK I would be angry with the BC) The play is moving on all over Africa and Australia- nice work if you can get it.


Tuesday- Carl and myself went to buy a freezer from a neighbouring compound, and our driver dropped us at the wrong door, so we had to walk past a member of staff's flat- I shouted to her just to say Hello and then she ran to me. She was having an extreme allergic reaction - the lot swollen face, lips and throat so I bundled her in my car and asked Whallid to drive as fast as he could - we got to the hospital in about 15 minutes but only just in time. NO way an ambulance would have got to her because no-one moves out of the way for them.As I have said before you must be self sufficient here- HUM should we buy a full operating kit when we are at home ?


Wednesday - fantastic curry with the Head of the British International School


Thursday - Thanksgiving at the American GQ club (we joined an American Club!!! great margaritas- since coming here I have definitely developed a taste for them) WE had the lot, ham, turkey, biscuits, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie all mixed with great drink and wonderful company.


Friday we stayed home and ate on the balcony


Saturday- today - we are going to the St Andrew's Ball with the Lagos Caledonian society - huge black tie affair with lots of Scottish dancing


And tomorrow Sunday we are going on another Field Society Trip  this time in a sail boat to an old Slave port for a look around and lots of food.


This is  mixed in with starting school at 7:00am and not stopping all day. I have bags under my eyes like you can't believe!!!


After the last trip , we collected well over 700 books for the school in the end and one parent gave me a cheque for the school of N50,000 (about £200) to buy things for the school. Some people are so caring.


I am going to come home to the uK whiter than I went away!! We have a fab pool but it is just too hot to spend any time outside at the moment. at 1:00pm today we sat outside in the shade for lunch and it was 31c but in the sun on the back balcony the thermometer reads 39.5c.!!!
And I am making cakes and mincepies for the British Women's Group bazaar next week.
IT DOES NOT FEEL LIKE CHRISTMAS I am still wearing strappy dresses and sandals .


I'll try an update the blog on the Ball and the trip tomorrow.

Stressful Day

We have had a few challenges during our time in Nigeria, but on Friday I had the biggest challenge of my headship career. At the end of the school day, some children had left, lots were going to afterschool activities, and hundreds of people were on site milling around looking at the book stalls, chatting to friends and enjoying the afternoon sunshine, we had a fire. The school hall caught fire. Within seconds of a parent telling me she could smell smoke in the hall, the stage, curtains and roof were ablaze. We set off the alarms and the children knew exactly what to do, they went to the muster points and sat down, BUT NANNIES PANICKED. We nearly had a disaster as some of them ran and pushed children out of the way and tried to climb the fences. We could have had children crushed against the fences- doesn't bear thinking about It took so much shouting and screaming to calm them down. We cleared the classroom blocks and then had nannies pushing us out of the way to go back into the buildings to get the children's bags. Eventually we calmed them down, but there are lessons to be learnt and we will practice fire drills at the end of the day for parents and nannies regularly.

The school hall burnt to the ground, my staff broke down the covered walkways that joined the hall to the classrooms, we used every fire extinguisher and jury-rigged a hose from the pool, but the fire service took 1 hour to get to us. We saved the rest of the school, but the hall no.
We were lucky- not one injury, but boy will we do training with nannies now!!
As I said earlier on in the blog history you have to be self-reliant in Nigeria. you cannot rely on the infrastructure that we take for granted.
So on my CV now it says, historic school with original, colonial architecture celebrates 60 years in one place- new head comes and burns it down!!!!
On Saturday we had an emergency technical committee meeting to ensure that we have the hall fenced off and made safe for school to open on Monday- this was a little bizarre, as we needed to get the contractor to buy and erect the zinc hoardings, but he needed cash money before he would do it!! SO, we all emptied our pockets, went to the cash machines and gave the guy N250,000 (£1000)  so he could go to the market (which only takes cash) and buy the materials- B&Q need to come to Nigeria and soon please. Can you imagine that happening in  a school in the UK?
But we all laughed, thanked God for looking after the school and gladly worked throughout the day.

Hardship posting?

Well,

What do we miss? We will be home in 4 weeks and there are some things I can't wait for,
1. Drinking water from the tap.
2. Walking wherever you want
3. Being able to buy whatever you want from one shop
4. being spontaneous- ie saying lets drive to Bristol- not planning it so that we have told Waheed we will need him late etc.
5. Not being stuck in traffic

But it has its benefits here... Breakfast on the balcony in November

Sail Harbour trip to Bagadry

The Bight of Benin

Beware the Bight!!

On Sunday we went on an amazing trip with the Nigerian Field Society. We went down the Badagry Creek into the Bight of Benin to visit some very remote communities. For anyone who has ever read the Patrick O'Brian novels set in the Napoleonic wars featuring Lucky Jack Aubrey, the Bight of Benin raises some concerns. As they say in the novels, " Beware, beware the Bight of Benin, one comes out for when a thousand go in" The area is very treacherous for shipping and that matched to the swamps, mosquitos and yellow fever used to kills the sailors rapidly. It is an amazingly beautiful place, but unbelievable poverty. No fresh water, no electricity  some very unreliable generators) no medical care and schools with nothing. However,standing on the beach with fresh coconuts being sliced open with a machete was an unbelievable experience.
After meeting the headteacher I have organised a book fair and we are donating 350 books to the school this week.
We finished up in a super spot, a hotel made from containers and fully solar powered- what a fantastic day.
The journey by the speed boat was a bit hairy with the half submerged wrecks all along the coast, but the joy of being out of the city and being able to see much more of this wonderful country was fantastic.Sometimes we have to pinch ourselves to remember we are on a hardship posting.- and then you read about a couple of car jackings on the road to the airport and a shooting etc etc,.

The intrepid group

The boat had just come in and all the children had to help to get the small fish out of the nets.

private beach hut - rent it for N7000 a night (£28.00)

home after collecting coconuts and fish

Year 5 and 6 classroom for 60 children

new infant school but it is bare inside and no doors 

Headteachers together

water supply for over 300 people

centre of the village

Carl with fresh coconut

pineapple plantation

the fully eco friendly hotel

The markets

Our friend Joe's (who was with us on the fateful broken leg trip to Epe) family were over during half term. (lots of men come but wives and children stay home). And I suggested that I take them to the markets (Of course I am such an expert 9 weeks in Lagos!!))so we went to Balogun market - one of the biggest and busiest. OMG after wandering through alleys and down incredibly crowded traffic strewn streets, and all we saw was lace (I kid you not millions of amazing lace and broderie anglais stalls and that is all they sold) we gave up. The teenagers had definitely had enough lace and when we walked through the livestock section they were shocked.
We found our way back to the central mosque and de-bunked to Lekki craft market much smaller and more variety. However you could buy anything at Balogan including live chickens and dubious bush meat.
At Lekki, I was surprised by the number of stalls selling civet cat and other spotted furry skins- not too sure what they were.Also the huge number of crocodile skins and stuffed animals and tortoise etc also ivory (but it may have been shaped bone pretending to be ivory)
I bought amazing insulated tiffin tins. These big stainless steel containers have three separate pans inside for you to carry different dishes around.Can either be hot food or cold as it is insulated.
We are going on a sailing trip into the Bight of Benin on Sunday so will try out the Tiffin tin.

Down to Port Harcourt.

This week, I flew down to Port Harcourt to the Shell school - along with Bonny Island the three of us make up a Nigerian partnership. There have been 4 kidnappings this week in PH, so I was very glad to be travelling as a Shell employee (safety is everyone's responsibility!)
The domestic airport at Lagos is how I imagined an African airport to be- all corrugated iron roofs, tile floors and millions of people lying on the floor, lying on window sills, lying across chairs (and underneath them.)
I arrived in PH after (thankfully) a very straight forward flight on Arik air and then sat in the curtained bus and travelled with armed soldiers in front, 2 motorbike police at the sides and an armoured personnel carrier behind!!

the view from my seat on the bus

PH camp itself is really beautiful, very lush, like living in the jungle and so clean and quite. It was a pleasure to be able to walk around. You have to make your own entertainment and the ex-pats organise quizes, fun runs, games etc. We all went on a fun run/ walk and then ate a huge Dutch meal prepared by one couple (everyone takes it in turn to cook for the runners/ walkers ) I loved it, and could happily live there but knowing me (couldn't even face  a week in the Maldives) I might develop cabin fever after a few months.But I saw, vultures, lizards, hawks, and maybe if I screwed up my eyes and imagined a bit a green mamba! (Course it could have been a banana frond)
Coming back I decided to invest N1000 (£4.00) in going into the 1st class lounge at PH airport - the departure gate was a heaving mass of people trying to get out of PH for the weekend and there wasn't a square millimetre of space to be seen anywhere. Well it was like sitting in my Auntie Eileen's front room. All chintz and antimacassars, and china teapots and cups and saucers (no milk of course or coffee - but heigh hoh this is Nigeria)

Remembrance service

On Sunday we went to the Commonwealth war cemetery for Remembrance Sunday (why it was a week earlier than at home no-one could say). In some ways it was identical to being at home, but, as with everything in Nigeria, boy was it different.!
The Commonwealth graveyard was immaculate, and the graves were identical to every other war grave we have visited in  Belgium or France. It is so touching to see the way that ythe graves are maintained- we should be very proud.
To start- it begun at 9:00 - (too hot later) we sat in the open air, with huge fans blowing on us,.
There were parrots in the trees
the mangoes were nearly ripe and hanging on every tree (well every mango tree)
the Whydahs were whistling and calling
the dragonflies (size of your hand) and swallows (yes swallows) were swooping all around us (are these the same swallows as were in our garden in Monmouth in July?)
It was 33c (at 9:00 am.
BUT
wreaths were laid by the Indian, Canadian, British consuls and the United Nations representative and navy, army and airforce officials
the last post was played
We all wore poppies
We all said, " They shall not grow old as we that are left grow old. age shall not weary them. nor the years condemn. At the  going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them"
We all cried.

After the service, we all retired back to the High Commissioner's residence and had a very nice cocktail party and lots and lots of Gin and tonic (notice a pattern here? but it is purely medicinal to keep away the effects of the malaria).







While we were there, we were chatting to a friend who asked what the Reddington Hospital was like now (where Carl had his operation) we said great, but don't know if I would like to be really ill there. He replied that he was in the Reddington for about 10 days, when he was suffering from ARSENIC poisoning!
His secretary felt spurned by him (he asked someone else to make his coffee and she was "in love" with him) so she started to dose his coffee every day with arsenic. When she was arrested, she said it was a Ju Ju love potion but the doctors said it was pure arsenic! - it all happens here.

Eid Mubarak

Another EID HOLIDAY!!! This week we had another two days official holiday to help our Muslim friends celebrate the end of the Haaj. The roads were quiet and so we drove around a bit more to help us find our way and Carl drove! - every day in every way he is definitely getting better. But the weather is still really odd. The rainy season should be well over now, and it is getting very hot, but still massive rain showers and thunder- the photo isn't great but can you imaging the force of the rain - all the lettuces were bashed beyond saving

.

Sail around the World

Last Saturday we went to another "do at the yacht club (life is just one huge social whirl) called "Sail around the world" basically you pay your money and you eat and drink as much as you can from 20 different ethnic stalls, from roast beef sandwiches and gin and tonic for England , through haggis and whiskey for Scotland to Braai and beer for South Africa via Irish stew and Guiness to falafel (Israel) and planters punch and everything in between.! A great evening. We danced (yes Carl danced - well shifted from leg to boot via crutch) we ate and we laughed and laughed. We are son lucky to have such great neighbours ad Richard and Geraldine to share things with!

Oh forgot Halloween - all the kids came to the door dressed up, Carl pounced out  from behind boxes and they overdosed on very sticky (well past sell by date but heigh hoh)  sweets - like home almost, but I did miss the boys, Kit and Joss and going to Chrissy and Peter's for the most amazing Halloween tea ever!

Harvest at school

As per nearly every other school in the world we held a Harvest Thanksgiving and asked for fresh and dried / tinned food but also baby milk and baby items. The children dressed in mufti and we collected donations from the. We raised, N145,000 about £450.00 can you believe it! This money went to a children's hospice and will pay for 2 children to have cleft pallett corrective surgery - how fantastic is that? We took the rest of the produce to two orphanages, one in Lagos itself (couldn't take the children there for safety reasons) and one in Yaba. The orphanage in Yaba (suburb of Lagos) is run buy the Red Cross and is very clean and the children are clothed and fed, but wow so many needy children. The babies come to the orphanage as new borns- found by the side of the road and left to either die or be found, 2 of the babies were left in bin bags! there are about 50 babies under 2 in the room in the photos- no babies in the pictures didn't think it appropriate. It was a VERY sad morning, but my children were outstanding, talking to all the little ones and the staff and mixing with everyone. I was so proud. The photos of the classrooms are of Reception and Nursery. You can see the children are smiling BUT there are no resources and this is an exceptionally well run school, the "normal" Nigerian schools are worse than this.

Oktoberfest

At the end of October we went to the yacht club for  a traditional German Oktoberfest - I kid you not. The band were flown over from Bavaria as was ALL the food (Potato salad, sauerkraut and sausages)  and absolutely oodles of wine and beer. We listened to German music stood up and sang the drinking song, stuffed ourselves with food and sank in the saturated ground (Rainy season not yet over) and all of this is truly sweltering heat. It was really bizarre and for the first time since we got to Lagos there was a huge number of Europeans. Where have they all been hiding? wherever we go we are one of the only European couples there and tonight where were the Nigerians?

It was a fabulous if slightly surreal evening and boy oh boy did our heads ache the next day!

Big catch up

I am not ill - not been captured or kidnapped - just been very very very busy and travelling!!
Since I last blogged ( a fortnight ago) We have done sooo much. All our possessions we packed back on the 11th August have arrived. And we had very little broken (two glasses and a mirror) and - as far as we can tell NOTHING stolen! Which is very unusual. Of course the container didn't arrive during half term theat would be far too easy, it arrived the day I went back to school - oh and the day the lifts were all being serviced so no lift! the container was too big to come through our double security fence so the men had to carry EVERYTHING from the front of the compound right around and up the two storied to our flat. That was, 169 boxes and all our furniture and if you can remember what our settees and tables were like they are big and very heavy. It was amazing opening the boxes, we couldn't remember what was in them and it was a voyage of discovery every box. Lots of coos and aahs and OMG why did we pack that? (Why exactly did I pack neoprene lined wellingtons, and thick DuBarry boots? not to mention the 7 cardigans, puffa waistcoats and winter skirts!)But when I got to the food box I was in heaven - marmite at last

.

So the flat is getting to really look like home and we have our barbeque on the balcony, food in the cupboards and a humungously large TV (Carl won out and we went and bought a massive new TV) oh and a table and chairs to sit on the balcony and drink our Gin. Now I have finally found my camera lead I can start to take some proper photos.
I'll continue this catch up on another page...