Sad but True

Well, maybe that is a little harsh. I guess it isn't too sad..maybe embarrassing is a better word for it.:) Last night, Guy and I were going to have dinner with some friends on Ikoyi Island. It was a Friday evening. Friday afternoon and evening traffic in Lagos is an absolute nightmare. Take the worst traffic you have ever seen in Houston and multiply it by 10 and also add the factor of the okada drivers on their motorcycles weaving in between the gridlocked cars. It is crazy! ( I will have to start keeping track of how often i use the word crazy over here!) The local term for these major traffic jams is called a "go slow". This is where all the vendors sell things you would never think you would see being sold on a street. I think in a previous post I mentioned that I saw toilet seats being sold one time in the midle of the road. I guess the vendors can make some money off people who are trapped in their cars and have nowhere to go. We were just over the bridge to Ikoyi when I looked out the window and saw a young boy holding an ironing board that he was trying to sell in the middle of the road. I told Guy I saw it. We needed a new ironing board because the one we had with our apartment was very wobbly and almost fell over when it was used. Guy rolled the window down a little bit, and asked the boy how much it was. He told Guy 5000 Naria...which is about 32 or 33 dollars. Guy told him no, but he would pay 3000 naira. Finally after going back and forth ( the boy was running next to our car as we slowly inched our way down the road) the boy agreed to 3000 naira. After we had it in our car. Fatai said," He is praising God that he sold that ironing board!" When we got home that night, Happiness was very surprised to see that we had bought an ironing board in a "go slow". We took the plastic off of it and stood it up. It wobbled even more that the one we already had. We looked at it from underneath and basically it was covered underneath by a trashbag that was stapled on the bottom with a regular stapler. Guy was mad that he had been had. Happiness couldn't stop laughing at us. I think it was worth buying that terrible ironing board just to see her laugh so hard.:) Happiness told us as she laughed," The boy will probably never go on that road again to sell anything . He will be too afraid that we will come back and yell at him. He knew he was selling a bad ironing board." I think we have learned our lesson about buying anything in a "go slow".:)