I Love Nigeria

*********WARNING....this may be construed by some readers as a whiny post....and I have tried really hard for the last two years not to write a whiny post....but I can hold back no longer....so if you don't want to hear whining...don't read any further*********

These past two weeks have been hard....really hard....actually, they have just been the pits!!!!  I have really tried hard to just write about the funny things that happen here ( well, maybe some scary things) but I have really tried darn hard not to whine (on the blog at least:)).  But, then I thought, if I don't write when I feel fed up here then I am not really portraying a true picture of living here.  Because let's face it, if you live in Nigeria you are going to have days or weeks when things just don't seem that great.  These past two weeks have been filled with bank visits, lawyer visits, a sea shipment sitting in customs ( here at the port) not having a clue when it will be released ( It has been there over two weeks now...and I know it can take up to six weeks or  more...but every year it still drives me crazy!), and other issues here that can only happen in Nigeria....I really feel like I have been beaten up by Nigeria these past few weeks.

Right now, I am longing to hear the acronym UPS being uttered as a phrase which indicates a huge brown van will show up at my door with a wonderful package...not a UPS (uninterruptable power supply) to keep Elizabeth's and Jeremy's lights on when the power goes off  thirteen times a day.

I am longing for smooth paved roads so I won't get whip lash every time I venture more than a few feet from our building in our car...

Road right outside our building.....still in the rainy season here...when will it end?

view of the same road from my balcony...can you see the purple??

I am longing for grass for my kids to run in and a playground for my children to play on.

I am longing to feel like I am making some kind of difference here...because these past few weeks I really feel like I am not...

I am longing for the day I won't walk into a grocery store and they are completely sold out of peanut butter (which happened to me last Friday at Shop Rite) sold out of peanut butter???!!!!! Really!!!!????

Then, today, Elizabeth brought this home from school...

I am not going to lie....a tiny piece of me wanted to wad it up....but then, I really had to laugh out loud!  I thought to myself, "That is so Nigeria!"  just when you think that things may be at their lowest...something funny will happen...and for me today, this was it!  This week, Jeremy and Elizabeth are learning about Nigeria for a Nigerian cultural celebration for Nigerian Independence Day on October 1. 
The funny things is, I know she doesn't really know what she traced, but I know she really does love Nigeria...it is her home.  She doesn't really know "living" anywhere else.  For me, I feel like the outsider most times and I am trying to fight my way in.  Happiness told me today, "Madame, Nigeria won't beat you up, you'll beat it up!"  I don't know about that,  but there is always another day...and if there is anything Nigeria has taught me at all, it is that you absolutely have no freaking clue what each new day will bring!:)