I had forgotten that Chris had taken a picture of Darlington (the artist who painted “Dreams of an African Child”) and me when we purchased the painting. What a beautiful painting for our dining room in Africa.
Now about Lagos……….a response from my last posting from my friend Robbin about how modern Lagos looks made me realize that I have been showing/telling about all things good without letting you know about the bad and the ugly. So, this week is about reality, and I may even post some extra pictures. After all, everyone knows that 1picture is worth 100 words.
Lagos is a major business megacity, more densely population than NYC in probably about the same size space. We realized living at the Eko Hotel that there are people coming in and out daily from all over the world. There is a crazy excitement here that you can feel. It is constant motion and sound, and never more so than when you are driving in the car. There is also extreme poverty that is heartbreaking and filth that is unbelievable.
Lagos is a major, growing city and expected by the UN to be the third largest mega city in the world by the year 2015. The biggest problem is that the city has no infrastructure. I have not seen more than 2 or 3 traffic lights here and everyone drives like maniacs. Because most of the population here cannot afford to own a car, there are thousands of motorcycles. The bikers here are also making their living with their bikes. They are called Okadas and they own the road. You will see them parked in small to large groups all over town just waiting to be summoned. They have all but replaced taxis in this town. They cut in and around car traffic and get you where you are going in a fraction of the time it take in a car. You see men and women in business suits riding on the back of the Okadas bikes, and Chris has seen a family of five on one bike. The Okadas can get mad at each other, but you cannot get mad at an Okada, and God help you if you hit one with your car. You will almost instantly be surrounded by 200 or so of them yelling and screaming and beating on your car. We have safety rules about what to do if you hit an Okada. Number 1, you do not get out of your car nor do you lower a window. We have a number programmed into our cell phones that Chris says calls the Cavalry. You tell them where you are and they are there in less than 15 minutes. They take care of everything with the Okadas and everyone goes there merry way.
There is a tension here that you feel but I don’t think it’s more than you feel in any big cities. We take a lot of precautions here but not more than we took living in Dallas or Houston, well with the exception that we are not allowed to drive here and we are advised not to go out after dark. For some people, that would be a big problem. For us, it fits perfectly with our schedule since we go to bed by about 8 p.m.
Fact: 821 Nigerians die every day from malaria; that’s 34 per hour. Worldwide, one person dies every 30 seconds from malaria. We expats take one malarone per day and have no problems. Malarone in the US is expensive about $250 for a 30 day supply, but we are also well aware that we pay more in the US for prescription drugs than anywhere else in the world. Out of curiousity, I want to find out how much malarone costs in Nigeria.
So, no infrastructure, extreme poverty, and filth in a country that is so rich in culture and natural resources is hard to understand sometimes. For us, it is only a matter of mostly minor inconveniences like power outages, taking malarone, sharing a car and driver, (not that I want to get out that much), and having very slow internet except for early in the morning. The only thing that I can see that the government does for the people is discount the cost of gas at the pump, approximately half the cost of gas in the US. Mostly the ones who benefit from the gas savings are the wealthy Nigerians, the expats and the Okadas.
The other thing that is an inconvenience is that all of Nigeria is a cash only society and the largest currency you can get here is 1,000 Naira which is less than $10 US dollars. I had to go to South African Airways last week to pick up some tickets. Chris had to pick up money from the bank in the Shell building the day before which happened to be payday. He went a little later to cash a check and all they had left was 100 and 200 Naira notes, so I went to the SAA office with a travel bag we use as an airline travel carry on.
We feel good about spending appx 80% of our grocery money with the street vendors who have wonderful fresh fruit, veggies and eggs.
With all that said, every day we find a lot to be grateful for and realize that for us, the benefits far outweigh the inconveniences. And the experiences we are having are very rich.
No comments:
Post a Comment