Independence Day - Nigerian Style

Wednesday, October 1 was Independence Day. Most businesses were closed, except some retail stores. We worked at the mission office, though. There was lots of noise and commotion coming from Opebi, and it turned out to be a parade. I missed most of it, but managed to snap a photo and take a little video.

There were several activities at the church that day. In the morning, the Stake had a Young Women's activity upstairs in the back part of the church. I didn't ever go and see what they were doing, but it looked like a good turnout. At the same time, our ward Primary had a "sports day" activity in the cultural hall, which seemed very popular. Sports means that they played different kinds of games. They fed the kids a bottle of soda pop, which is customary. The bottles tip over and spill pop all over the floor and sometimes they end up with broken bottles. That's what they like, though.

At 4 p.m. the Stake Young Adults had a big activity with loud music and dancing. They had a young man from one of the wards acting as MC, and they called girls up to ask them dating type questions. I couldn't understand a lot of what was being said, but I thought it was somewhat lame. It reminded me of those Stake dances when the kids won't dance with each other. I explained to the MC and the DJ about doing a "snowball" dance. They had never heard of such a thing, and of course they don't know what a snowball is. I don't know if they ever tried it out. They catered a dinner with lots of spicy rice and chicken, but we left and went home to our nice quiet apartment and food that we are used to. Yes, we are showing signs of being old fuddy-duddies.

A Sweet Birthday Treat

I was so surprised and excited to get a package from Margo and Kenny on my birthday. It was a box of Alene's chocolates from them and our other friends in the ward. Amazingly, they weren't melted or badly smashed up. We shared one with the office Elders (Elder Quansah on the left and Elder Afangbedji on the right). We also shared with President and Sister Jones. The rest we hoarded for ourselves. They are almost gone. What a "sweet" friend Margo is to us and everyone she knows.

Okada Driver's at Rest

These guys make their living giving people rides, wherever they want to go, on these small motorbikes. They are called Okada's ( pronounced Oh-cot-tuh) The men know addresses everywhere. If we get lost, you can pay one of these drivers $1-$2, depending on the distance to your address and they will lead you there. You pay them after you arrive at your destination, not before! Think about it. Why would they lead you where you needed to go if they had your money. There are thousands and thousands of these in Lagos. All of the Africans who have any money at all use them to get places, quick.

We were surprised to see these men resting or sleeping on their bikes. Linda counted at least three or four on their bikes. One is resting or sleeping in the tree. We have never seen that before. They normally work from first light in the morning until after dark every day. This picture shows (in the back ground) the black and white concrete barriers that divide the traffic, otherwise drivers would go both ways on both sides of the street. We still see them coming head-on toward us, or we see them backing up against the traffic to get to where they want to go. It is really crazy to see these bikes or cars going the wrong way all the time. If you cross this street, Opebi Road, on foot...you must look both ways before you go to the middle of the road. You can only go 1\2 way, stop, look both ways again, then go the other half of the way across. As we were waiting in the middle of the street to finish crossing, we saw an Okada with a driver, and a passenger carrying a huge, live sheep\goat. It had long curvy horns like a mountain goat and longer hair like a sheep, but it was larger than the man holding it on the bike. Too bad the camera was tucked away in the bag. We love all the funny sights we see as we walk or drive around this city.

New Convert, Christy

Elder Quansah, left, and Elder Afangbedji, right, taught Christy. She is a single young lady who is friends with a recent convert, Tayo. It's nice to see new member's be missionaries, too.

Even though we didn't teach Christy, she asked Kurt to baptize her. They started filling the font a little late, so it was a challenge to get the job done in knee-deep water.

A Special Day for Megan - Happy Birthday and BAPTISM!

Megan is the second daughter of our oldest son, Kurt Jr. and his wife, Suzette.One of her many talents is dancing. She and sister, Kayleigh, both have amazing rhythm and coordination. Here she is in one of her flashy dance costumes.

She almost shares a birthday with me, Grandma Linda. We always get to share the spotlight in September at our monthly Family Home Evening get-together.

If she is supposed to be a witch, she is not very scary looking to me.

Her confidence as a soccer player has increased. She is pretty focused as she goes after this ball.

Most of us can't remember the exact date of our baptism. Megan will always be able to remember because she gets baptized on her 8th birthday. Here she is in her pretty white dress. She looks like a princess!

It's hard for Grandma and Grandpa to be so far away and miss these special events. But I know Megan supports us as we serve a mission. She is a beautiful girl - INSIDE and OUT!

New "DO" from Elder Krupp's Salon

A while back I posted a blog about all the people and things that I miss. I didn't mention how much I miss Tara. It is so nice to go and sit in her beauty salon and get pampered. Since my highlights had all grown out, Tara got all the stuff so I could add highlights here in Africa. She emailed some directions, too. It all seems so simple until you do it yourself for the first time. Of course I couldn't follow the directions totally. Tara suggested that I only pull through hair from every other hole in the cap. She mentioned that I could add more highlights later if I wanted.

It didn't look like all that much that we were pulling through. I didn't think the little hook that came with the cap was big enough, so we used a little bigger one that I brought to crochet around baby blankets with. It worked great. Elder K. said I still had about 80-90% of my hair still in the cap. After the pulling out of clumps of hair came the bleaching part. Elder painted the goop on, we covered it with a plastic "shower" cap, set the timer and Elder used the blow dryer to keep it warm. We could see the color changing right before our eyes. I began to feel a little panicky after about 8 minutes and decided to check it at 10 minutes instead of processing it for 15 minutes. After rinsing the goop out, I realized that it wasn't a very light blonde. But after it was all shampooed, dried and styled, I decided that it was a good thing that I panicked and washed it out early. I think we must have lightened about 60% of my hair. It doesn't look bad at all, as you can see, but I'm afraid it will look bad in 2 months when the dark roots start to show. Anyway, it was a fun adventure and Elder Krupp did a great job, as usual. We will both be happy to get home to Tara, though!

Sister Elizabeth

Sister Elizabeth is a cute new convert. She is very shy and quiet, but has a darling smile. She works as a security guard somewhere. They recently changed her days off, and she has had to work the last three Sundays. I called to tell her I missed her, and she said that she missed me too. I will give her a big hug when she gets a Sunday off and can come to church. Hope it's soon!