Back in Lagos

On Friday, we started our journey back to Lagos. It started with Elizabeth waking up on Friday morning with a seal bark cough and a slight temperature with a runny nose. I had a sinking feeling the flights home wouldn't be that great. Isn't it funny how a mothers intuition almost always comes true??? The flight from Houston to Amsterdam was horrid. It was 8 hours of non stop crying. Elizabeth was crying the whole time and wanted Guy or myself to carry her up and down the aisles. She didn't want us to sit down with her in the seat at all. When we landed in Amsterdam we were all exhausted. Jeremy was a great traveller, but even he didn't sleep that great on the plane. Thank goodness Guy had booked a room for us at the hotel in the Amsterdam airport where we all took a three hour nap before getting on yet another 6 hour plane ride to Lagos. The ride from Amsterdam to Lagos wasn't as bad as the first plane ride....I think the Tylenol and Motrin was finally kicking in for Elizabeth. Finally she was quieted down when we landed. Then, all the familiar signs of being in Lagos started in. Once the plane was on the ground and stopped everyone was up and getting their bags down before the seat belt light was turned off. I still don't know why many Nigerian people have the need to get up and try to push to the front of the airplane....is there a connection they are going to miss?? ha ha Then, the smell of people wearing no deodorant sets in...ugh!!! After the cattle like way we got off the airplane, we stood in the immigration line. We were standing there for about 10 minutes and then the power went out so we were standing in the immigration line in the dark. ( the power has been off at the airport but I have never had it go out in the immigration line). The Nigerian flashlights came on ( back lights to cell phones) It was kind of funny because the power outage didn't even phase Guy or me at all. We just made sure we had one hand on the kids the whole time. After getting through immigration, I needed to go to the bathroom. I tried not to have to go, but I couldn't hold it. I went to the bathroom and was not surprised there wasn't any toilet paper ( I brought my own) but was really surprised to see soap on the sink. I went over and pumped two pumps in my hand and turned on the water....but the water didn't work...I should have known!! There was nothing to get the soap off my hands...so I just rubbed it off on my jeans.:) We waited for our bags on a luggage carousel which was going slower than a 100 year old woman with one leg and a walker. Guy got all of our bags and as we were leaving the customs officials wanted to know what we had for them....of course I told them all of God's blessings...and we were finally out of the airport......two hours after our plane landed...

The kids were really excited to see Bernice and get back to their own rooms. It was as if they had all new toys they hadn't seen in 7 weeks.:) Today Jeremy asked me if this was Nigeria and I said yes. He said " Oh, it kind of seems like Houston." I wish I could say it was like Houston, but it is nice to be able to unpack and have a place for everything after being gone for 7 weeks.:)