Yes, still first week - Roadtrip to Ghana

Now that was a bit mad... there was the Ghana Ratha Yatra (a Hare Krishna festival that is really a global thing, as well as a very ecstatic occasion with a lot of dancing and stuff; and I had already visited the London and Rijeka ones this year, so I thought this one would be a nice touch). So my boss set heaven and earth in motion to get us there but we couldn't get a Ghana visa for my son cause there was no space in his little passport... so we went by road instead of just flying to Accra.
The route took us through Benin and Togo... always staying quite close to the seaside. Here's a few pics from the road... village life in Benin, The Ocean!! (there were some fishermen at the Togo-Ghana border where we made a stopover to stick our feet into the sea, but they weren't happy to be photographed... and just general madness. Ghana was not my cup of tea at all btw, too much standing around in non-moving traffic... and you'd think Lagos would be worse. But no!

Video shoot at PMAN

The video we shot was for a song for the Abuja @ Thirty celebrations (you know, that capital of Nigeria that they built from the ground up cause Lagos just would not work as capital of a modern federal republic). And yeah I'm in it too :s

Now I just have to find my YouTube account details, then I can upload some short bits of video... some people did have moves :) And... you see this last pic? That's that Victor Essiet again. But in the background, on the left, you can see one of the security guards. Now there's somebody to go weak in the knees for... he keeps opening the car door for me as well... hehee

Another random lizard

Day three - random lizards and J's new school

Somebody saying hi (that's J's foot underneath the breakfast table, and lady lizard after picking up a bit of food). They are so fun these guys! Breakfast is scary sometimes, I try to not be fussy but I have learned that I really should be more picky. My digestion is still getting used to all these new food groups... and all that pepper they are using here!! if I don't stop being unfussy I'll have a hole in the wall of my stomach in no time... oh yeah and here's a pic of the school. It's got a swimming pool!!

Still day two - Victor Essiet's gig

I wasn't terribly impressed, but some of the smaller gigs before the main thing were cool. That's Fidelia again and my boss in the middle.

Day two - Abeokuta

On the second day we all went to Abeokuta, about two hours drive from Lagos. The king there (one of three big rulers in Nigeria) was celebrating his first anniversary of ascending the throne. Biiiig party - we were welcomed with drums and fun and stuff and things. This is Fidela and me before we went to the palace... and this is the scene at the palace. If you wonder why many people look like they are wearing the same thing - the fabrics are actually designed for the occasion and everyone has their clothes tailored from them. I thought it was a nice touch... Then of course we went to greet the king, which was nice. I must have been the only white person there again but I got more and more used to being the odd one out...

Pictures!!

Right... who said they wanted pics?

This is where we are staying in Apapa, Lagos. I've got my nice little Sony camera but no memory stick, and the internal memory is only enough for about 9 pics... so I have a nice little diary saved up by now, a new folder for each batch (software! So amazing.) And since this is the first time I've been able to log in you get a little bit of every day and the rest of the pics will be on flickr.

So anyways, the story so far - Saturday, the day when we arrived in the morning, was spent doing nothing much at all, so we took a few of these pics. This is the ferry port opposite the house. Just in case you thought Lagos = hellhole and all that! And another pic of J in the garden. There's lizards and crabs and things running about there...