Gross out 2

We are in half term so I thought I would cook some Boston baked beans using local adult beans. These beans are small and white but taste lovely and as Carl has to ncrease his roughage and pulse intake thought it would be great. I bought the beans loose from Suya marketlast month and used half and put the rest in a large airtigiht container. As I poured the beans into the saucepan to soak, I noticed they were moving - all by them selves!! THey were crawling with weevils - and what is worse still so was the rice and the flour!!!! And they must be bad because Beatrice said we had to throw it all away, not wash them or pck out the weevils but throw it away- unheard of in Nigeria to throw away food! Sort if you haven't read he Aubrey maturin series of books se in the napoleons wars, but the joke gets how do you chose between two weevils? You always chose the lesser of two weevils!!!

Gross out

Ok it is the rainy season here and there are lots of bugs about, but our poor guinea pigs have been limping so we got the vet in, they had Tumbu Fly larvae growing under the skin of their feet. The poor creatures must have been in agony, so while Daniel. Head steward held the guinea pigs, I squeezed the red boil like lump. You cannot believe how huge the larvae was that I squeezed out!!! They were larger than my ring finger nail and white, fat and wrigling!,both guinea pigs had 3 in their feet and they left massive holes and craters, but hopefully the antibiotics will clearr that up. I don't think the stewards though that Me, a yebo could deal with the insects without screaming!! However if I ever get Tumbu fly I will be on the first plane home and will be screaming all the way.

Glenfrome charity in Lagos

The amazing kids of Glenfrome school raised money for a Nigerian orphanage , by wearing odd shoes. they gave me £100 and this week our school council took n25,000 worth of baby food to the orphanage. I was so proud of both schools.

It is a very small world

Unfortunately, Carl has had a quite nasty health scare - I am not going to go into it here, but suffice it to say he has had to have a colonoscopy. Thankfully all is clear and he is Ok only diverticulosis which is easy controlled by weight loss (!) and a bit of diet change. However, the consultant he saw asked if he was Swedish to which he replied no, Welsh and Mr. Dayo Ajayi, replied that he trained at the Heath Hospital and lived in Wales for 25 years. And he was known as Dai when he lived n Wales. He lived in Abergavenny and just outside Monmouth. He also knew so many people in common with us!! But the truly bizarre thing was when we went to see him today he greeted us in Welsh!!! We are n half term this week so hope to go and see some places and take photos.

London visit

Last weekend I had a flying visit to London to attend a conference and interview a couple of teachers. Both were very successful and hopeful Jenny will be joining St Saviour's in September.
When you live in the UK you take so many things for granted and it is only when you are not in a 1st world country that you truly appreciate the things we have in the UK.
shall I list them?

• electricity - all the time no power outs
• hot water in the hotel room- all the time
• zebra crossings!!!! which people respect
• streets that you can walk down and look at shop windows
• well stocked supermarket shelves with amazingly cheap out of season food.

so I stocked up on British asparagus  and we have been eating it and savouring it all week!

Hey but it was great to come back to the warmth - both temperature and welcome from people. 

Sailing

Well, we have joined the yacht club and started learning to sail. We are going out on little catamarans- two people at a time and they go like the wind. it is really great fun, but we need to improve!! So I started learning how to use the harness that enables you to lean right out over the side of the boat- see the picture!! I had bruises on my bruises on my blisters. But couldn't wait to get on the water.
 The water by the yacht club is very warm- like a bath but really oily and full of rubbish and less than pleasant things., and it is an amazingly busy channel as well. So you have to looking all the time for ships and tankers that wont see you. Still Joe and myself took off - me in the harness attached to the boat and started tacking etc around the bay, and then- we took a turn too sharp and the whole boat capsized and we were firmly in the water. All I could think was don't swallow please don't swallow!! It took us quite a time to get the boat back up the right way, involving two further dunkings in the water. I lived in fear of eye and other infections for the next week- people kept regaling me with stories of friends who had gone in the harbour and come down with multiple boils etc later. Still I appear to be boil free at the moment!.But hey this is Nigeria!!!!!!

Scottish Dancing in Nigeria

This is weird, but yes tonight we have been to a practice Scottish Dancing session in a gym in Lagos- we wouldn't do this at home!! Butt it was great fun and it is so much better at the Balls if you can actually dance a few of the dances off by heart.
We had a Holiday here and have spent the day being incredibly lazy - taking a  few photos and reading, "Game of Thrones" sat by the pool in the 37c heat.
These are a few of the photos I took just on the street we live in Second Avenue- all life is here! (Taken with the new camera)

These red/purple bananas may look strange  but taste fantastic.

Thesel izards are everywhere

local garden centre

do you need a plumber

as I said all life is here on Second Avenue

The Praying Mantis was on a tree inside the apartment compound- truly beautiful.

Benin- Easter Holidays

Theses are photos of the train but can't get them to move!!!

 We are incredibly fortunate, we have made amazing friends and over Easter we went to Benin Republic with some of them. We also went with 12 other people who we originally didn't know but who are now firm friends.
I can't describe everything we saw, but the experience of travelling across Benin in a 1920's train and visiting a Voodoo market and shrine will stay with me for ever. Of course the sleeping in an un-air-conditioned room after having had far too much to drink will also stay with me. I woke up at one point and realised how so many white Europeans died in west Africa!! I did think I would actually die of the heat- but sleeping under a mosquito net in a room with no windows- just slatted shutters, listening to the roar of the surf on the coast at Grand Popo was amazing!

One other thing I saw which has actually changed me and my outlook was the tree of bats! As you can see my photos are rubbish, but this tree was hanging in the hugest fruit bats you have ever seen and I could capture were these pathetic dots! - so as soon as we got home I bought myself a Canon EOS 600 amazing camera, so from now on expect better quality photos!!

quaint but soooo hot

This guy is making the  brass bracelet I bought for 50p!!!

yes you are seeing correctly the child has his arm on the forge and a knife in his friends hand!

This is an open air forge where all sort of things from shovels to belt clips are made

Benin is very different to Nigeria- the colours are mainly red and it is very dusty also we didn't see a police block or army at all. The other really strange thing is the way of selling petrol- in huge class bottles by the side of the road. Can you imaging suggesting putting 10 litres of petrol in a stoppered glass bottle and standing it in the sun in 36c heat? the H&S people would quite rightly have a fit!

I had just taught this child a clapping game and he wasn't too sure (I also had a bag of sweets!)

We all visited a voodoo market (no photos at all allowed but our friend Victor took a few hiding behind Carl) and there was every dead animal that had ever lived on sale from rats to owls to horrifically gorilla hands and feet. I can't begin to describe it or the smell, there were also so many live animals for sacrifice and food. Cages of kittens, lizards, birds and puppies apart from the ever present goats.

I bought nothing!

One of the trip highlights was the train ride- I think the photos here speak for themselves, but all you could hear were children shouting Hey white foreigner at you and waving- the train rarely runs and when it does it only carries freight.

Even in Grand Popo- a very small place, there is a war memorial- very poignant.