Yes, Yes...

Yes, yes...So when one is agreeing with you here they say, "yes, yes"... and you hear that a lot, so that's how we begin the blog today. Busy day...slept like a baby and woke up late, around 9 Nigeria time. Breakfast this morning was scrambled eggs, boiled plantain, boiled yam, fruit, homemade yogurt, and a cooked tomato, onion, and pepper salsa for lack of a better term. I realise now that I have never had a real yam before. We interchange the word yam for sweet potato in the US, but they are very different. The yam is very starchy and delicious and is one of the primary forms of carbohydrate here. Toast, while available, is not traditional here. The coffee that is served here is delicious and served with "tinned" milk...evaporated milk to you and us... We headed out to the bank which was a different experience than at home...first you must go through security, which makes you pass through a set of doors, one on the outside first and then it closes, you are scanned by a metal detector, and then you go through the other one into the bank . It was a little bit like...Beam me up Scottie on Star Trek. The naira, currency here is about 150 to the dollar. Miriam wanted to check to see what the going rate was because we will change money from her. That accomplished, we went to the chemist's shop...a/k/a the pharmacy to get more malaria pills. The malarone we are taking is quite expensive at home, and as it turns out even more pricey here...so we decided not to get the medication there, and do some research on an alternative drug that you take only once a week and is very inexpensive...John thinks that he should just add double quinine (tonic) with his gin and that will work, but I'm opting to talk to the doctor. Then we were off to the market.

This market is huge...stall after stall of everything that you couldever want...and probably some that you don't want...pots and pans, and cooking utensils made of wood, mops and brooms, belts, beautiful vibrant fabrics, watches and on and on and then you get to the vegetable and fruit stalls...a veritable Whole Foods, Nigerian style...peppers of all sorts, carrots and tomatoes, tropical fruits like we've never seen before and smoked fish and periwinkles and dried shrimp....and people...tons of people everywhere.

Everyone works hard here to scratch out a living and they are resourceful...the generators were humming as we passed several stalls with sewing machines going and clothes being sewn. On the side of the highways, you can see people with set up "shops" making furniture out of rattan material or as we saw today braiding hair. John tried to get his hair braided, but they didn't have enough glue to stick the braids on...haha...

We purchased some beautiful fabric and hope to go back again to get a bit more. Then we had to run home and get Tariye and go to do some errands with her. We went to the grocery store to pick up some sandwich items and snacks for people to have around the house. It is always interesting to see what different products are in foreign places. Local items were very reasonable but imported products were quite expensive, We found the furniture to be very expensive.... perhaps an opportunity for Moosehead but then it's sort of difficult to imagine a colonial dresser in a Nigerian home.
Tariye took us to a mall in an attempt to take care of some errands and we thought that it would be an opportune time to change some money at an ATM. The machine was out of cash so we went to the Hilton where there was an entire wall of ATM's.
I took out 20,000 naira and need to be sure and check out the transaction with my bank to ensure that that don't try and debit me 20,000 dollars.
We returned home in time to avoid the afternoon downpour complete with high winds and lightning. After about 30 minutes, everything cleared... including the heat. It was a very comfortable 68 degrees!
Dinner came early as more guests needed to be picked up at the airport. Several varieties on yams and and casava along with a delicious soup consisting of local greens and the smoked fish purchased the day before made a very enjoyable repast.
Turner and Miriam left for the airport following dinner to pick up more guests. We feel very fortunate to have the family to ourselves before the rest of the guests arrive.
We wiil try and post some pictures tomorrow but have experienced some difficulties .
Hope all is well back in the USA.