Just for the Fun of It

Two weekend ago we took a trip to the capitol city.  We did it for no other reason than that we had promised our kids we'd do it before we started back to school and time was running out.  We sandwiched it between two other business related road trips and I was worried that it would be a burden rather than the refresher we had planned it to be.  I was wrong.  We had an absolutely fabulous time!  It was so good to get away, see some more modern conveniences and just have fun.  

We forgot our camera, but the nice thing about having a 14 year old is that her trusty ITouch is never far away.  Here's what she captured.

This is scenery along the way.  This is a pretty typical photo of the Nigerian countryside along the plateau where we live during rainy season.  We think it is beautiful!

This is just a random shop along the way. This is what most of the retail in our town looks like.  You'll notice the plastic chair, bagged water leaning against the wall, several crates of Maltina (which is the choice beverage here, it's like beer without the alcohol and I think it's nasty) and of course, the standard generator.  This is how we do life here.

This is how we do life in the capitol city.  Notice the contrast?  Seriously, this isn't what all of the city looks like.  This was actually taken at the Hilton hotel where we swam one day.  Do you see why we might find this refreshing?

This is Lily eating an ice cream cone poolside.  Those two concepts...ice cream and poolside are not on our radar in our normal life.  It felt really, really good!

Lounging poolside.

This is the central mosque in our capitol.  It's beautiful and yet, believing as I believe, it's also heartbreaking for me.

This was one of the highlights of our trip.  They had just opened a new grocery store in the city which is based out of South Africa.  The inside was amazing, it looked just like a Food Lion or Kroger inside. They had produce, dairy, meat, and groceries all in the same store.  There were actually many varieties of cheese.  There were cash registers with conveyor belts.  They gave us coins as part of our change.  None of these were things we have seen since we left Canada.  I laughed until I cried when we walked inside.  I looked at my friend and said, "Excuse me, I just need to giggle for a minute." It was so much fun!

This was one of the things we purchased there.  It was a flavored milk drink.  They had green apple and orange flavored too, but the kids chose chocolate and strawberry.  They were not a big hit, so we won't be buying them again, but we thought the packaging was hysterical.  It's called Dudu Daily.  Someone in our family was wondering if that's why people drinking them?  Do they help you in that area? 

This is Abe with one of his current favorite people.  She's a journeygirl who lives on our compound and we just think she's swell.  Abe is a little fixated with her.  We've heard that Baptist MKs typically have at least one Journeyman crush before they reach adulthood.  Apparently Abe's just came earlier than most! For you non-baptists, a journeyman is a young adult who does two years of missions following college graduation.  Many of our career missionaries did a journeyman term first.  It's a great way for them to fill short term needs while also exploring missions.