Some Random Photos

Heather's little game inspired me to put up some random pictures that we have on our computer. So here goes in no particular order.



The first night on the cruise ship we had a very nice dessert. Since it had been quite a while since we had a good dessert we took a picture of it.




These are some of the trees at the beach in Nigeria. We had a really good time both times that we went to the beach.





Just before we got married we took some "Pre-wedding" pictures.



Here is the winery that we went to in San Fransisco. Speaking of that we still haven't opened the bottles that we brought back. Maybe we will drink some when we get back.

Dave in Kazakhstan. I don't really know what this statue is of but it looked cool so I took my picture in front of it.

Tag

This is for Heathers tag game. It is a picture of Dave and I in Pisa on our trip to Italy last summer.



Here are the people I'm tagging:

Becky- one of our very favorite people in our family

Christine- one of our good friends in Nigeria along with her husband Moody

Jenn- has been one of my BFF's since I was one year old

Can I also tag Heather or has she already done it??

Here's how it works

*Go to the place on your computer where you store all your pictures and open the 4th folder.*Open the 4th picture.*Post the picture and give an explanation of what it is.*Tag 4 people.*DO NOT CHEAT!! You cannot edit or crop the picture!!

Have fun

Playing with my new camera

Suzanne bought me this fancy new camera for my birthday, and since then I've been playing with it to see what all I can do.



Here we are trying out the automatic timer feature. Our previous cameras had the auto feature but we never took the time to figure out how they work, but this one was fairly simple.



Dave pretending to know how to play the guitar. Suzanne bought this for me last Christmas, and since then I've learned how to play an E Chord a G chord and a D chord. Soon I'm going to learn how to switch between them.



We went out to a place called the Piano bar.



The owner of the place also got on stage and sang some of the songs.



Here I'm testing out the Black and White feature of the Camera. I like my new toy!



The four of us having a good time as usual.

We danced to a Willie Nelson song. We are in Nigeria, doing the Texas two step to a Lebanese man, singing some Willie. How cool is that!

Friday

"Oh, and remember: next Friday... is Hawaiian shirt day"



So last time there were complaints that Dave was the only one wearing a Nigerian outfit. This time there were a few more of us with our traditional outfits on. From left to right Lukman, Dave, Ihuoma, Badru, and Mathew. These are some of our expediters.

Here is a shot of our Materials group. Shijoy, Jess, George, Emeka, Wale, Dave, and Nnamdi.

More B-Day Pictures

Amy got me a cake. (flash back to July) We have now both celebrated our birthdays here.



Suzanne in here beautiful dress for the evening



We taught them how to play the bean game. It was fun. (Thanks Rebecca and Jeremy)

We had cake and tea. We started drinking hot tea now, we really are becoming international!

Dave's Birthday in Nigeria!

Luckily for Dave his beautiful and brillant wife came back to Nigeria just in time for his 29th birthday. Can you tell who is writing this blog post?? Anyway, Dave and I and our good friends Amy and Reza went to a seafood restaurant that was wonderful, even by U.S. standards. Then we went back to Amy and Rezas house for cake and played games. Amy was so sweet to get a cake for Dave and I am very thankful to her. We had a great time and enjoyed spending the evening with our friends!

Happy Birthday to Me

Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday to David, happy birthday to me!

Yeah my wife is getting here today. This makes me a happy man!

New helmet law in Nigeria

So I'm not sure if it is really a new law or the enforcement of an already existing law but as of Jan 1 all Okada (small motorcycle) drivers and passengers are required to wear helmets.

The penalty for not wearing a helmet is the seizure or your motorbike. Therefore most of the riders have some kind of head protection. I've notice a lot of people with construction hard hats, some with bicycle helmets, and some are wearing actual motorcycle helmets. Some however like this guy in the picture, either can't afford to procure a correct helmet or have decided to make a statement that they think this particular law is not in their best interest. Most of the people here think (not incorrectly) that every new law is simply a way for the police to extort money off the local population.

Some of the riders simply refuse to wear helmets testing if the police will actually seize the bike. I heard somewhere that in Lagos there were in excess of 1000 bikes taken on Jan 1. I'm not certain if that was truly correct but it makes sense because every time I go out I see at least 2 or 3 being confiscated along my trip, and I don't go very far.

A lot of the passengers don't like to wear them (for good reason) because so many other passengers have worn them and it is quite unsanitary. Some refuse to wear them because they think that the driver has put some kind of spell on the helmet and it is going to cause them bad luck if they wear it. Some just don't like it.

I think if they continue to enforce this law then most people will eventually get on board with it. The riders will buy their own personal helmets and they will become safer but if they don't continue to enforce it then it simply turns into another law on the books that they police can use to get money off of the local people, but I guess only time will tell.

Pictures from New Years in Nigeria

We didn't take a lot of pictures but we got a few



Bill fixed some nachos. Here is Bill and Christine enjoying some of them



This is Smatt with Christine and Anna hanging out having a good time



Dave and Bill. Doesn't Bill look excited. This was getting later in the evening and we were getting a little tired. Oh well I guess that what happens.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year from Nigeria! We had a little get together here with those from work that are around at this time. There were fire works and all the usual stuff! All day today there are still those with fireworks probably all night tonight as well.

Poker Party

I like to play poker, even if I don't win all the time.



here are some of the poker players!