Yes, we brought it with us.  We stocked up at the Pound Shop in Worthing, and it was worth it.  Our apartment is fully decorated (it kind of looks like Hallowe’en threw up in here, especially on our door!), and we’ve had our annual Hallowe’en Birthday Party for Laryssa.  She invited all of the Flat Rat Kids, 10 in all, and it was good fun.  We made some crafts, played some games, trashed the house, ate dirt for dessert.  What more could you ask for?

A party for adults?  We did that too, though we didn’t host that one.  Our colleagues who live in the other building (The Penthouse Divas) hosted the Halloween Party last night.  They had a pretty good turn out, and there were some interesting costumes.  Sorry to say that I didn’t last long… the children’s party (and the prep leading up to it) wore me out!  Chris had fun, and is paying for it this morning!

Note the foot stuck in the door!

 

The clean up!

 

Two weeks ago we had our October break and we were headed for the U.K.  All was well, I wasn’t stressed, until the day of our departure arrived and Laryssa and I still did not have our passports.  We had been told for two weeks that “they will be here tomorrow”… which obviously wasn’t true.  (Our passports were stuck at Nigerian Immigration, awaiting Resident Status.)  The woman who looks after it at our end arranged for us to go to the airport with the others, and assured us that our passports were arriving at 4:00.  She would have someone get them from the domestic terminal and bring them to us at the international terminal.

So… we arrived at the airport at 5:00, and our bus driver received a call saying that our passports were in the air and would be there shortly.  Hurrah!

6:00 rolls around, we are standing in the airport, waiting… and my phone rings.  It seems that our passports did not make that flight, and would be on the next one.  “You’ll have them by 7:30.”  So, of course, 8:00 rolls around and still no passports.  Our check-in closes at 10pm and the flight is due to depart at 11:00pm.  Feeling extremely stressed at this point, as it will be too late for a refund and how do we get back to campus?  Five minutes later we get a call saying they are on the flight and will be here at any time.  At 9:00 we get another call saying she has them and is on her way.  20 minutes after that, we have our passports- finally!  We rush to the check-in and manage to get through pretty quickly.

We then arrive at the security and passport control… very long line, and we have 25 minutes until our gate closes.  By this time we are frantic and Laryssa is hot and sweaty and very tired (read: whiny).  Chris picks her up and she puts her head down on his shoulder.  One of the guards notices and waves us to the front of the line.  His partner yells at him, saying that Laryssa is not a baby, we should not have priority.  He yells back that the girl is obviously not well, and lets us go through!  We tell Laryssa to keep her head down!  We get through, rush to our gate, and walk straight on to the plane.

Way too close for comfort! It was a cultural experience… welcome to Africa.

Sunday October 5, 2013

Another interesting week in Lagos!  We had really heavy rain on Friday.  We woke up to it in the morning, and it lasted through to the afternoon.  When it rains here, it really rains!  A couple of weeks ago I taught my students the phrase “raining cats and dogs”.  On Friday, we decided it was heavier than that, so they said it was “raining elephants and hippos”.  Chris managed to get a few photos.  The flooded yard was taken across the street.  When it rains heavily like that, you don’t really want to be out and about.  For starters, it will take hours to get anywhere.  The roads aren’t in the best shape on a good day.  When it rains, the potholes become bigger and drains overflow (yes, sewers too).

               

Saturday morning arrived with a pretty sunrise.  You can see the sun reflected on the building across from us.  It turned out to be a beautiful day with nice blue sky and warm temperatures, somewhere around 30 C.  Laryssa, Chiara and I spent a couple of hours in the pool in the afternoon.

                         

Saturday evening we had an impromptu barbecue by the pool.  We brought our own bbq and a dish to share.  It was a good turn out…  very relaxing and lots of fun.