Last week I wrote about the Harmattan. The sands seem to be clearing off and the locals are saying that Harmattan is over. The sky is a little clearer, and this morning we actually had a bit of rain! I was out for an early walk when the rain began, and it was funny to see everyone coming to their windows or balconies to see the rain. Big smiles on all the faces… we haven’t seen rain here since early December!

We cleaned out our AC filters again today. It’s only been a week since we last did it. Kind of scary to see what our lungs have to put up with!

     

It was a busy weekend for the AISL Scouts, both girls and boys. The boys held their annual Regatta by the pool on Saturday afternoon. They took turns racing their boats (made by the boys) and had fun splashing about in the pool. Our little friend, Finn, won his race!

     

The Girl Scouts held their annual Campfire meeting late Saturday afternoon on our AISL field. The girls had a great time playing games, singing, and of course, eating s’mores! Laryssa watched the Campfire from our balcony last year, as she wasn’t yet in Girl Scouts, so this year, she was so excited! She can’t stop talking about it and is already planning for next year!  According to Laryssa (and I heard a few other girls say the same thing), “It was the best day EVER!”

 

 

One last photo for you. We celebrated Chris’s birthday this week. He is now 40 11 (forty-eleven)!

The Harmattan season is in full swing in Lagos.  Harmattan is when the sands of the Sahara blow across West Africa, leaving particles in the air which create a desert-like atmosphere.  The sun is blocked so temperatures drop, along with the humidity.  It supposedly prevents cloud formation, so no rain either.

We’ve had some really cool temperatures this past week.  Monday it was about 21 C, with a very cool breeze blowing most of the day.  While we expats are enjoying the cooler temperatures, the locals aren’t quite so happy.  The guards are bundled up in coats and hats at night, and our driver has been wearing a coat to work the past few days!

There are a few drawbacks for the expats as well.  The air quality is very poor and causes allergy-like symptoms for many people.  Sniffly nose, coughing, difficulty breathing…  We are now cleaning out our air conditioning filters weekly, and boy are they a mess!  I’d love to be able to turn off the air and open the windows, but then the dust would be that much worse inside!  As it is, surfaces need to be dusted daily (often a few times throughout the day), and floors need to be washed at least once per day.  Apparently it is much worse in the northern part of the country.

The Harmattan season begins in December and lasts until sometime in late February, early March.  We will continue to enjoy the cooler temperatures, though we may not be swimming as often, as the pool is quite chilly!

You can barely see the sun in the sky, above the flats.

These two photos were taken a few minutes ago.  The buildings are disappearing!

The cooler temperatures make it more enjoyable to sit outside in the afternoon.  Here we are enjoying Friday afternoon with Mark and Lisa.

The kiddos were inside having their own Fun Friday!

The tomato plants are enjoying the cooler temperatures too!

By the time I’d finished writing my blog and posting, the buildings beyond the flats had disappeared, and the buildings across the field were barely visible!

The Festive Season…

…is definitely upon us!  We’ve been pretty much non-stop since Thanksgiving in November, just like everyone else in the world!  Even though we’re away from our close family and friends, we are surrounded by our local family and friends and we create our own special traditions as we go.  Every time we move to a new place, there are new customs to adopt and new friends to celebrate with.  We are thankful for that!

I enjoyed three (American) Thanksgiving dinners this year, while some of my colleagues actually had four!  The school’s PTO organized their annual Thanksgiving lunch for the staff on November 25, and as usual, they outdid themselves!  Full turkey dinner with all the trimmings… and then we had to go back and teach for the rest of the day!  The next day, grade one celebrated Thanksgiving in the class.  It was a half day of school, so we enjoyed our turkey dinner at 10:00 am!  I brought the turkey and the children brought in all of the side dishes.  Such fun!  On Thursday the 26th, AISL residents got together for a potluck Thanksgiving dinner in the gym.  Delicious food, good company… a great Thanksgiving.  Some of us also managed to have our own Back Friday as well!  Eight of us went to Lekki Market to do some Christmas shopping.  Fun, fun!

PTO Thanksgiving Meal for Teachers and Staff

 

Thanksgiving Brunch with my class

 

 

Flat Rat Thanksgiving Dinner

Black Friday… On our way to Lekki Market!

In December, we’ve enjoyed a variety of Christmas-related activities.  We had a tree-lighting ceremony one evening at school, two Christmas concerts, a cookie exchange, a Christmas party hosted by some board members, an Arts and Crafts expo, Christmas brunch with the flat residents, and a kids’ Christmas party (while their parents enjoyed brunch at a different flat!).  The fun continued the last week of school with a staff Christmas party after school one day  and our class parties with the children on the last day of school.  Everywhere we go in Lagos, people are wishing us “Compliments of the season!”

Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony

Ready for the cookie exchange!

 

The Children’s Christmas Party

 

We opted to stay in Lagos for the Winter Break this year.  (Now that we have a house in Canada, we can’t afford to travel as much.  So sad!)  We are dog-sitting two little dogs for the holidays, so they are keeping us busy.  We’re making multiple trips up and down our four flights of stairs to get them out for walks! We celebrated Christmas Eve with one of the AISL teachers (Linda), her husband and some of their friends.  It was a lovely Italian evening, complete with a seven course meal and lots of laughs.  Linda and her husband joined us for Christmas dinner at our place, along with our good friend Donny and another couple who decided to stay here for the holidays.  Lots of good food shared with good friends… Santa was good to Laryssa and brought her the bike she asked for.  She’s been having a great time out riding around during the day, and a few times at night!  We’re also making good use of the pool!

 

The dogs…

 

Christmas Day in Lagos

The new bike!

 

Christmas night…

We celebrated New Year’s Eve here last night with Linda and her husband, Renzo, their friends Janet, Alberto, Gianluca and Zaheer, as well as Donny and Keeley (a teacher who came back early).  We had a lot of good laughs and rang in the new year with champagne toasts and we watched the fireworks from our balcony.  The fireworks were part of a big celebration at Bar Beach, not too far from us.  Laryssa and Gianluca had a great evening playing games and then enjoyed sparklers to celebrate the beginning of 2015.

New Year’s Eve

 

Watching fireworks from our balcony

So although I would have preferred to travel for the holiday (as always!), we’ve had a lovely time here with our local family and new friends.

We wish you all a very happy, healthy new year!