Loving life in Lagos!

When we stay in Lagos for a while, we start buying things. You know there's not that much to do here. So we have added a few Darlington paintings that you may not have seen. The firt one showing is the first painting we bought from him about a year ago, "Dreams of an African Child". We have since had it framed and have found a framing style that we like with his work.

So, a couple weeks ago when it had rained all week and was continuing to rain, Chris thought it would be a good day to go to Lekki Market, so off we go. We were also looking at antique doors. We wanted to buy one of the antique doors to use in having a coffee table made with door inset in top and covered with thick glass. It's a mess out there when it rains as you will see but we made it there and back with no big problems.

Darlington was having trouble getting in from further out Lekki Peninsula, so we looked at doors first, and they were coming out of the woodwork. The only thing we saw that we liked was a day bed that could have been used as a coffee table, if we didn't mind that it wasn't flat and smooth. We gave and took a few cards and word had reached us that Darlington had arrived.

The first three paintings are some we looked at but didn't buy. The two we bought are the ones that Darlington and I are holding up. One is "Dreams of an African Child II" (of course, we had to have that; we own it's partner) and the other is a truck that Chris thought was truly a wonder. Darlington said we couldn't take the truck because it wasn't finished, but I reminded him that he was coming to our house on Thursday and could add the license plate number then. We also had another painting that was unsigned. I don't think I got the title of the truck piece.

And yes, that lake you see in the road is the road to Lekki Market and in addition to the water, it has huge holes you can't see. We did drive through it with no big problems. The other traffic pictures are just examples of the "go slow", the various forms of transportation and traffic as usual.

On Thursday, Darlington came over and spent about six hours with me in our flat. To begin with, he had never seen his work hanging in someone's home and we now own about seven of his works and all but the last two have been framed. He was truly amazed and wanted to walk all through our flat to see what other art we had. I remembered to get titles on all but two that we didn't know the titles. I also spent a long time with him asking questions and gathering information for his bio. We are going to have a little Art Exhibition and Sale for him here in our flat on Saturday, November 7th, so I told him to start painting! And eventually, he got out his paint and brush and signed the unsigned piece we had and then painted the license plate number. Chris had asked when we got home with the truck piece of I thought Darlington would mind using ZAZEN on the license place, and that is what he did. He even added a small TX up in the corner, then he started to touch up a couple of places. I asked him when he knew he was done and he said not until it was out the door. Darlington A. Chukwumezie is only 24 years old but it very talented and paints in a lot of different styles. We also spent time going through some art books, especially the three from another artist I found in Starbucks in Houston ten years ago when he was 25, John Palmer. There are definitely some similarities. Darlington is destined to be one of the premier artists of Lagos and Nigeria in the next 10 years.

We also found a wonderful artist/builder at Lekki on our last visit named Yusuf Fatai. He has been over a few times now and we have forgotten to take his picture but we will. He built the very beautiful Chinese mahjong table and four chairs. I have him a picture of the table I wanted but told him I didn't really have any ideas about chairs. The table he built is very close to the picture I gave him but much, much nicer. It is solid mahogany and very heavy. He said he wanted it to last my lifetime, and I told him it would probably last several lifetimes. It is very beautiful and Chris and I are very pleased with it.

Since then, he made me a set of shelves for my bathroom. I need a place to keep my stuff. We said use a lighter weight wood and lighter color so it would look good with the bathroom and master bedroom. When he delivered it, it was so pretty, I hated to hide it in the bathroom. And of course, it's also mahogany. Very talented artist. His next job for us will be to build the coffee table.

So, the picture with the door and the kneeling man and me is the door we bought and the man is Tanto Yusuf, the dealer. The door is about 4" thick, very heavy, and made of ironwood, probably. It is about 200 years old and is Yoruba which means it's from this part of the country. There is one blank space in the door which is part of the story but I think it just looks empty, so I am going to add some Nigerian beads in there, the big decorative kind. The artist Yusuf will have to come get the door in order to build the coffee table. I am sure we will treasure it for the rest of our lives.

The two shots at the end are a couple of pictures Chris took from our front balcony. We don't see the sun too much this time of year, but no complaints here; the rain keeps it nice and cool. Life is good here! We are having visitors, Mom and Kevin from August 10-17th, and we are going on a Kenya safari on August 29th. And last, but not least, we are coming to the US on September 18th and will stay until October 17th. Hope to see a lot of you then!

Stay cool!

Chris & Donnie

TAEKWONDO!

It all began with our joining BMS in December. BMS is a gym, spa, and training center for all sorts of sports, etc. They have a small but full gym with experienced trainer, a spa with Thai women who offer every service imagineable, a small outdoor pool, a sauna, a Yoga (and other sport) hut and a very high quality restaurant.

The picture on the very bottom is Grandmaster Emmanuel E. Ikpeme, Black Belt 8th Dan, just one step away from becoming a Great Grandmaster. Grandmaster offers Taekwondo, Yoga (his two main arts), Palates, Taebo and Kickboxing. He teaches at BMS 6 days a week, has morning Taekwondo classes at Lekke Phase I three mornings a week, has Yoga classes at a new place here on Ikoyi Island three afternoons a week, has Yoga classes for a bank's officers three afternoon a week, and then has has Taekwondo classes at his own club at the National Stadium on mainland Lagos three nights a week.

I started Yoga with him in January and after a couple of months began to have an interest in Taekwondo. I knew I needed to put in some mean time in Yoga getting stretched and strengthened before I could even think of that. After three months, we mutually agreed that I was ready and I began Taekwondo on April 1. In April, when we were in China, I bought the uniform and then the fun and hard work began, and it is hard work.

I didn't have any lofty ambitions, but Grandmaster has us on a schedule and said we would have grading and trails for yellow belt at the end of March, and so we did. Now he says in two months, we will have grading for advancing to 7th keup. Immediately after that we will start working toward the blue belt. He says I will be a black belt in two years. Who knows? Miracles do happen.

I feel very fortunate to have found such a high level professional to train with. Taekwondo came to Nigeria in 1975 and that is when GM started his training. He attained black belt in 1977 and has continued to work his way to the top. He started doing Yoga when he was 13 years old and is the founder of the Nigeria Yoga Heritage Foundation and the Coordinator for the Nigeia Taekwondo Foundation.

I do continue my Yoga and hope to continue it for the rest of my life. Both Yoga and Taekwondo are great disciplines, a great deal of fun and a lot of hard work. My present schedule is M-W-F from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m., six hours a week. What it has done for me is help me get my body back in shape and fired up my metabolism like nothing I have ever tried. Amazing! I think I will keep doing it.
I was also inspired by my son, David's devotion to Kung Fu when he was in Jr. High, and always thought I would like to try it sometime.

And here we are and that's that! BTW, you can see all the pics and many more at http://picasaweb.google.com/donniedayp.

Chris and I are most happy that Mom and Kevin are coming for a visit in August. Also, we will be in the US from September 19th - October 17th and hope to see a lot of you during that time. We have a schedule of where we will be when so would love to have any of you join us at one of our stops. Please get in touch if you are interested. We always like to hear from friends and family.

Love,

Donnie