things you won't see just anywhere

Today has been a rough day for me in Lagos, Nigeria but I am trying to laugh my way through as I count the days until we are home. Instead of complaining about all that has gone wrong I thought I would turn my attention to some funny things we've seen during our adventure here and share some laughter with you. Unfortunately I didn't bring my camera and so there is no photo documenting any of this so I will try to paint the best picture I can. I call this entry "things you won't see just anywhere" ode to the many funny signs we've seen...

a large billboard in the airport read--
AIDS!!!Now that we have your attention please do not leave baggage unattended and play safe. (really???)

on the back of a public transport bus (which there are thousands of)--
I love my mother

on the side of many walls throughout the city--
Do not urinate here again

on a sign in the bathroom at the airport--
Please do not stand on the toilet
Please do not wash your feet in the wash basin

Tomorrow is the national presidential election for Nigeria...so glad we managed to be in the country for that at the rate all other African elections have gone lately. Here's the irony...their current president who is up for re-election is named Goodluck Jonathan. Yes, good luck to you Mr. Jonathan and please make sure my friend and I make it out of your coutnry alive.

Oh and it's not just anywhere that someone speaking English needs a translator when communicating with someone else speaking English. I've earned my keep translating for Angie this week :)

We brought one of the new tablecloths from LC with our new logo on it...a quite expensive tablecloth I might add and drove up to our first venue to see it tied to a wall flapping in the African wind. OOPS! Chalk that up to things you never saw coming and therefore couldn't have prevented.

And my personal favorite today was trying to be adventurous in my food ordering. I am not really a picky eater and will usually try anything once. The guys we are with continue to comment on us eating the same thing every day so I tried to order something new and different and boy did it backfire. This is the only way to explain how it happened. While I was ordering and waiting on our food Angie stepped away to use the restroom. As she walked back up I was given my tray of food and caught a whiff of something that smelled like poop. I looked at Angie strangely as if to question whether or not she stepped in poop only to realize the smell was coming from my plate. I kid you not...this speciality rice on my plate literally smelled like poop and for the first time I could not stomach it and had to send my order back. I felt terrible knowing that it was a delicacy in Nigeria and I had just wasted a plate of food but I was getting sick just smelling it much less trying to eat it.

And that my friends is just some of what you won't see just anywhere. Here's to world traveling and seeking adventure!!