The Jambalaya Kit

I decided to post one more thing before I head off to bed.

I wanted to make Jambalaya again before Josie gets home. Since she doesn't really like it, I figured I would make it early in the week and then I could have most of it eaten by the time she gets back. The only problem is that it takes quite a while to get everything together and get it made, and since I did not make it on Sunday, having enough time on a week-night is always an issue. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I play squash, so that would make it difficult, and Tuesday I have a meeting at church after work. So I came up with a plan, we will call it the Jambalaya Kit! After playing squash on Monday I did almost all of the prep work. This is the kit:



I cut up everything necessary and bagged it so that when I got home from my meeting tonight I could just dump it in the pot and get started. The preparation took at least an hour and a half, but the results are well worth the time invested! When I got home tonight I was able to get the whole thing put together in just about an hour. Also, because of a lucky find at one of the grocery stores, I found a sausage that actually works better than any I have found here. This is the best Jambalaya I have made in Nigeria. (far better than my attempt last week!...due to a poor choice of sausage, the whole batch was ruined in my opinion)



Doesn't that look DELICIOUS!!!!!

P.S. IT IS! I am going to enjoy this pot!

The Weeping Wall

In the old portion of the city of Jerusalem there is a structure commonly referred to as the Wailing Wall. Inside my flat, in our master bedroom in fact, we now have the weeping wall. There is nothing religious about it (other than me praying that it does not get worse), but it has become a feature in the bedroom that definitely draws the eye.

Wednesday last week I walked into our bedroom and was greeted by this:



So I marked the boundaries and decided I would wait to see if it was getting worse. This is what I awoke to the next morning:



And by that afternoon:



I have not taken a picture in several days, (if I remember I will take one tonight and add it) but it has certainly gotten worse. Thus far I have not seen them doing anything to fix it. If it continues I fear we may have to treat it like a boil and lance it. Drill into the bottom of the wall and try and drain the wall, I am just worried about how much water is actually in there.

Plumbing has been our worst problem since we moved to this flat, as any of you who have read Josie's post about the flood will no doubt recognize.

OK, I actually did remember to take another picture when I got home....take a look at this beauty:



I think it is starting to look like a Japanese character....maybe it tells a proverb about how water overcomes stone. That would be appropriate in this instance! I also got an email today that said this same leak is affecting at least 3 flats...now I REALLY wonder how much water is inside the wall!

Staff Buses

Today I thought I would tell you a little bit about staff buses. You might first wonder what a staff bus is. Well in a city where only a small percentage of people have their own mode of transport companies have to get their workers to the office, job site, etc. For this they use staff buses, but not all staff buses are created equal!



Here you have your very basic staff bus, although this one is pretty empty at the moment. I am not sure if these are construction workers, but that is what I would guess from the mode of transport. Here is a similar staff bus filled up.



But there are certainly nicer modes of transportation, and ones that are better to ride in when it rains.



This one would certainly be nicer when it rains! It seems like almost anything can be a staff bus, and some of them are actual buses, some of them are very nice. This one, while not a bus, I have to describe as one of the nicest staff buses I have seen. I saw it near our flat, but did not have a camera. So I ran in (hoping it would still be there when I came out) and grabbed my camera. I had to walk just a little bit to get back to where it was, but I thought this one was worth it.





Just the fact that this one has nice comfortable (looking) seats puts it above at least most of the Semi-trailer versions. Most just have wood benches lining the walls. A lot of employees depend on this kind of transport, and it benefits companies to provide it. Especially when the area many people work in is only really accessible via two bridges. This kind of company transport can save a lot of headaches in the long run.

Exotic Places - Exotic Allergies

One of the joys of going to different places is experiencing new things. Well, when you are me, one of those things is discovering other things in the world that you are allergic to! Back in Oklahoma, I know generally what I am allergic to and when to expect problems. That is in Oklahoma, and I am not. One thing that I have discovered that causes me problems is fresh mango. Now this is where it gets interesting, usually when I eat something I am allergic to I get hives and my lips swell. When I eat fresh mango there is a completely different effect. Something in the mango apparently reacts in my stomach and it makes me burp, something in the burps actually cases my sinus cavities to swell. when it is in full effect my eyes swell nearly shut and I cannot breathe through my nose. I can still breathe, so it is not life threatening, but it was rather amusing to see Josie fussing over me when it happened!

However, mango is not the only thing that I react to here, but unfortunately it is the only thing we have identified. There is something that happens between the dry season (harmattan) and the start of the rainy season. I think it is something that blooms, or pollinates. The effect looks like this:



Ignore the hair, I woke up looking like this. I knew there was a problem when my eyes would not open. As it turned out basically my entire face was swollen. When you wake up looking like this there is only one course of action. I sent an email to the office informing them I would not be in, took Benadryl and went back to bed!

The next day I showed this picture to the guys I work with, they told me they were certainly willing to go track down the guys that beat me up and pay them back. Co-workers are such good helpers!

Even with all the allergic reactions I have had in my life so far, only one has had the possibility of being life threatening: I hope it stays that way, since we still don't know what caused that one!

Just for Fun

Today I want to just make a quick post to answer a very simple question:

How do you transport four tires without a car or a truck?



For those that think this must be a rare sight, I can refute that. Unfortunately I did not have my camera on the way to church on Sunday, but let me try to describe what I saw. Between the driver of the okada and the passenger was a rolled up mattress. Not an air mattress or something like that. A full size bed mattress, it stuck out a couple feet on each side of the bike. I was disappointed that I did not have my camera, but it will not be the last time I have a chance to snap a picture of something like this, I assure you.

Logistics Problem

When I explain the situation in which we live here in Nigeria, the responses I get tend to border on patronizing. For example when you tell people you have a driver, you usually get responses such as "Must be tough!" or "that would be nice". Now don't get me wrong, there are many aspects of being driven everywhere I go that I quite like. For me it is especially advantageous since I do not enjoy driving cars, I have never really liked cars! I can ride for hours on a motorcycle and be completely content, but driving an hour in the car needs to have a good justification to entice me to do it. This dislike of cars in general also partially carries over to riding in them, so you can imagine my profound joy of dealing with the Lagos traffic. Tuesday night was a prime example. I was at a meeting out at our church building, which is about 11 kilometers from my flat. To go from the church to the flat took two hours and five minutes, and most of that time was spent on about a two kilometer stretch.

There are other problems as well, which brings me to the events of last night. After I left work I decided I was going to go watch a movie before going home. The traffic was terrible, as it has been almost every night lately, and so to get to the theatre on time was already going to be a challenge. I also wanted to go by the flat first to drop off my laptop. It took 40 minutes to travel most of the three kilometers to the flat, when we were within a reasonable distance I hopped out and walked the rest of the way (which, based on recent events, did make me a bit nervous). I was able to get up to my flat and back to the car before my driver had been able to move more than five car lengths. At least this allowed us to head straight for the theatre instead of getting out of traffic and having to fight to get back in. We hit more traffic every direction we tried! Finally I had to jump out again and walk the last little bit to the movie theatre. At this point it seemed all was going well, but I need to add some background before I continue.

Aside: Last week my driver had a problem with his personal car while he was on his way home, it stalled and had to be pushed out of the roadway, a couple of guys helped him push it over to the side of the road, after receiving this "help" he realized that his phone was missing. The phone is provided by my company, and they have not yet managed to replace it.

When I entered the theatre I found that the movie I wanted to see had already sold out, I immediately went back outside to locate my driver, and of course he was nowhere in sight. Expecting me to be in a movie for the next two hours he had gone to get some food, well obviously I could not call him since he has no phone. I tried calling our central radio room to get them to contact the radio installed in the car, he was not in the car. I stood just outside the mall while I waited for them to track him down. After about twenty minutes I received a call from the radio room, they were not able to get in touch with him, but another driver was in the area and would come by and pick me up. After another twenty minutes, because of the traffic, the driver arrived and took me to the flat. Once I was back home, I called the radio room back and asked that they continue to try and contact my driver until they managed to reach him. I expected that this would be the end of the story, but alas, no. Just after 10 o'clock I received a call from the drivers supervisor asking if I still needed my driver to hold at the mall. I explained the situation and told him he could tell my driver he was done for the day. Ten minutes later my driver called to verify that I was actually at home and not still in the mall. Apparently he was waiting around in one of the other residences with several other drivers, none of whom had been involved in the earlier attempts to find him or transport me, and all the drivers were quite concerned that something had happened to me.

Sometimes it is easier just to drive yourself!

Road Rage.....or Something Else?

I thought I would take a few minutes and write about something that happened yesterday. I'm really glad my wife was not here for this event! Two co-workers and I were doing some shopping, one of them is new to Lagos and we were taking him around to all the different stores where we get groceries. While we were driving down one of the main streets on the island where we live an okada (motorcycle taxi) started chasing us and banging on the car. Apparently he felt that our driver had done something to him and he was angry. I should take a moment to mention that no one in the car saw anything that sparked this and the driver said he did not do anything. The okada pulled alongside and was yelling at the driver, then he pulled across in front of us to slow us down. At this point our driver nearly did hit him. The driver stopped in front of a gas station, just past an intersection where police were directing traffic, and the okada pulled across in front of our car. The driver of the okada got off his bike and came over to the driver's window and continued the rant that he had begun while driving. He was telling the driver to "wind down" (roll down the window) and he tried to open the door (thankfully it was locked). When this did not work (the driver was just staring at him) he began beating on the window (even using his belt that he had apparently taken off during the tirade) and kicking the door. Finally some other okada riders, and other people that were around, grabbed him and tried to usher him off and calm him down. Needless to say, those of us in the car were a little worked up after this!

Now there is the possibility that this was much more than road rage! I may just be paranoid after my wife and I were robbed on the street while walking a few block from our flat, but this seemed a bit suspect. It is not unknown for thieves on okada to try something like this to get a driver to stop and then he and his buddies proceed to rob the occupants of the vehicle. Considering there were three white men in the car I can not rule this out as a possibility. Thieves very often use okada here because they are quick and so numerous that looking for a particular one would be nearly impossible. I'm just glad that my wife was not there, it took me about 30 minutes just to calm down completely. Unfortunately this is one of the consequences of living in Lagos, and tomorrow is another day!

On the Subject of Food

If you have read through the rest of my blog you know that I have a tendency to take pictures of food that I cook while my wife is out of the country. Well once again I am going to prove that I actually do cook for myself while my wife is gone. Both of these are meals I cooked earlier this year during one of my wife's trips outside Nigeria.



This one is chicken with a country mustard sauce (from a bottle, so I can't take too much credit) over rice, with some pan-fried zucchini strips. It was easy and tasted pretty good too. And it made for a nice picture...

This one I am proud of, this was a spur of the moment creation that was quite excellent, but the funny thing about it is that most of my family either would not or could not eat it.



I will give you an idea of what is in this one (I can't give an exact recipe since I made it up and as usual I did not write anything down).

First I cooked up some chicken with cilantro (which my Mom hates), carrots (which my brother is allergic too), and red and yellow peppers. Then I cooked up some spinach tagliatelle pasta (which my wife does not like), and mixed that all together. Then I covered it all with a Lime vinaigrette dressing (also made up on the fly). I thought it was wonderful, but as you can see from the description, I guess it was good that I was home alone. The left-overs were just as good straight out of the fridge the next day!

This last one is specifically for my Dad! We had a social at church and we decided we would make some food to take. Josie made Jello with fruit in it (which was a huge hit, after we explained what it was: most of the people had never seen Jello) and I made a pot of Jambalaya. It was a bit interesting since I had to make it with the ingredients available here.



The Sausage was a garlic sausage I happened to find in one of the stores here. It was alright by itself (although I doubt I would eat it that way normally), but after it cooked in the jambalaya it tasted great. Apparently it wasn't too bad, after the social this is what was left!



The funniest thing about this making the Jambalaya, is that our steward was around the flat while I was cooking it. She has never made or tasted jambalaya, but because mine did not look like the picture in the recipe book she told me she thought I did it wrong. I thought it was absolutely hilarious!

Hopefully this has made you all hungry!

Interesting Food

One thing about living in a different country on a different continent is experiencing foods you would not expect to see in the US. I will elaborate by giving you two examples.

Goat Roundabout Pepper Soup

First of all let me explain the concept of pepper soup. The first thing to understand is that it is HOT! It is a broth base with some sort of meat (chicken, fish, or in this case goat) and some very spicy peppers. The soup itself is fairly thin other than the pieces of meat. Now to elaborate on goat roundabout, obviously we are talking about goat meat, roundabout refers mostly to the digestive tract. Goat Roundabout pepper soup contains pieces of goat meat, stomach, intestine, liver, etc. And yes, I have eaten it! Actually the goat meat and liver are not bad, the stomach and intestine are a bit too chewy for my liking.

Goat Sausages

OK I guess I would have to describe these as an acquired taste. I bought them at the store and was curious what they would taste like.



I grilled a couple of them up and gave them a try.....not what I would call fantastic, but maybe I can think of something to put them in.



Josie did not try them, but our friend Julia and I did. With a little bit of sauce or something to dip them in the are OK.

No Excuses (OK maybe one)

OK, I have to first begin by saying I have absolutely no excuse for not updating my blog for two months. My wife puts me to shame in this regard (although in a lame attempt to defend myself, she does have a little more time on her hands than I do) and now even my brother has started blogging. So just to get things going again I will share some fun pictures with you. These are a couple of pictures taken while driving through Victoria Island (Lagos).

I'm not sure exactly what happened in the time before I snapped this picture, but what I do know is that it must have been a heck of a ride.



Considering the missing driver's side front tire, I would almost have to guess that it fell off while the vehicle was moving, but this is just a guess. It also looks like they narrowly avoided crashing into the wall, again I will say, it must have been a heck of a ride.

Shave and a haircut, two bits

I have been needing a haircut lately.....I wonder how much this guy charges.



In this picture you can see the hand clippers that he is using to cut the man's hair.



For an American this event looks strange, but this is a very commonplace thing here.

As I said in my last post, I do have other pictures I need to post....maybe this time I will actually get them on here before another 60 days pass.

What's in a Phrase

OK, so first thing is first: I know I have not added anything for a while, a lot has happened I just have been really busy. I have several things to post and will try to do so in the next few days.

This one is not for the faint of heart
(I have no pictures for this which is good, as you will understand later)

I had to go to Houston at the beginning of the month to shutdown an office my company had there (very hectic process) and when I came back Josie came back to Lagos on the same day, we were on different planes due to some booking issues so we arrived 10 hours apart. I came in on Saturday morning and Josie came in on Saturday night. Since Josie came in late she did not go to church the next morning, I was feeling pretty good so I got up and went. On the way to church that morning I saw a man who was stoned on the side of the road. Now if you read that the way I think you did you assumed that this man was high, that is not what I said. The man was laying in one lane of the road surrounded by reasonably large rocks. I'm not sure what the crime was, but the punishment was quite clear and very effective. The body was still there 5 hours later when I came home. I asked my driver and he said the body could be there for days (luckily he was gone by Monday). Crime is up quite a bit here right now so we are being very careful about when and where we go, I imagine this guy got caught stealing or something and punishment was administered immediately. I do however think that this punishment is at least a little less cruel than another common method. The mob grabs a tire places it around the offender, pinning his arms, they then douse him in petrol and you can guess the rest. Justice can be swift in this part of the world, especially when no court or police are involved.

Vacation is Over!

Well, after getting to spend a total of six weeks in the US, I'm back in Lagos. Josie and I flew out of Nigeria on Nov 27th and got back Jan 13th so it was a long stint in the States. Josie really enjoyed it since she got to spend the whole time on vacation! I got to take three weeks off which was really nice, but before and after vacation I was in Houston working.

Vacation was really excellent though, we got to see quite a bit of family and we even got to have a traditional Allen family gunfight on Christmas morning. It was so funny to see Dad crawling around on the floor ducking behind his chair and shooting little plastic bullets at Josie and Me.

We also got to spend some time with Josie's Grandfather, which turned out to be a really good thing. The day we arrived back in Lagos he had his fourth heart attack. After hanging in there for over a week he passed away, and Josie flew back to attend the funeral. She has been back in the States since then, so I have been living the exciting life while she is gone....HA!

When she is gone all that it means is that I work from 7am to 6pm most days, not necessarily the best thing but oh well. I will be flying out next Friday and meeting Josie in Houston. One thing to note is that even if Josie wanted to come back to Lagos right now she would not be able to. Both of our visas have expired and they have to renew mine before we can do Josie's. Mine should be done this week and then I can get the information to Josie so she can get hers updated. With all the traveling we did last year I'm going to have to get pages added to my passport after they get this new visa done, I'm running out of room really quickly.

Well I just wanted to drop an update in here since I had not done so in quite some time. This is me signing off!