Guess Who's Back

I am back in Lagos, and not too much has changed about the place. I guess that has to do with the fact that I was only gone for 10 days. I have a new room that appears to be better than my last one. This room has windows that actually seal shut, and the TV has clear reception, so I am happy. It does lack the tabletop oven that was perfect for reheating the dining hall’s pizzas, but maybe I can get that fixed with a phone call or two. I am still pretty exhausted from my trip over, which was somewhat of an adventure.

As some people have noted, I tend to be a procrastinator, especially in the area of packing. Well this trip was no exception. All Sunday day, I thought about packing, but decided that Sunday night would be better suited to my avoiding work. I was fully aware that I was going to a concert Sunday night, but I thought that I would easily be home by 10:30 since the show ended at 10. Well, my prediction was very wrong. The concert was by the Houston Press, one of those uber-liberal, grass-root, blue collar, free-publications that promotes all things local. It turned a lot of the downtown restaurants, bars, and clubs into venues in which quite a number of local acts performed. It was a lot of fun, but it definitely did not end at 10. The performances ended at 10, but then the DJ exhibition started at one of the clubs soon thereafter. This turned out to be nothing short of a freakshow which was pretty awesome. The crowd was made up of hippies, druggies, gays, punk rockers, ravers, the seemingly normal, and the obviously not. There was an even a guy with a foot-long safety pin going through his nose and mouth (he had on orange platform shoes too). The point is, we ended up partying with these fools until one or two in the morning. It was well worth, besides I was able to witness a three way body shot by already scantily clad women. The music was great too. Eventually I got home and went to sleep, vowing to wake up and pack in the morning.

And I did. I woke up three hours later and started packing, and by 7:30AM I was 90% done and looking forward to my 8:00AM pick up. I may have forgotten to mention that I agreed to bring a bunch of stuff back for people, mainly meat for one of the expats and medicine for a Nigerian co-worker. The expat’s daughter lived in my apartment complex and she had put the package of meat together that I was supposed to take with me. So she calls me around 7:40 telling me she needs some help carrying the meat down. Turns out she has damn near 70 pounds of meat (69 pounds to be exact) that I am supposed to be taking with me. All this is in a duffle bag filled with little hot/cold packs stuffed with meat. The bag was heavy, so getting that down to my apartment brought me pretty close to my 8:00AM pick-up time. So I stuffed the rest of my stuff in my bag and got in the limo to the airport. The driver said only one thing when he saw my bags, “You must be going to Africa.”

I check in my 68 pound personal bag and the 69 pound bag of meat without any trouble (gotta love first class allowances) and head to my plane. I have no idea if it is legal to ship meat or prescription drugs, so I just listen for my name to be called on the loudspeaker, but nothing happens.

The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful, except for the layover in Atlanta. Being passed out the entire trip to Atlanta, I forgot to set my watch one hour forward, which resulted in me being almost left by my plane. That time I DID get to hear my name over the loudspeaker. I realized this error maybe five minutes after ordering my food at TJI Fridays while on the phone with Tiffani. It went something like this:

Me: Well I will let you get back to work, I don’t want people to think you are goofing off
Tif: It’s pretty late in the day so it should be ok
Me: I guess so, it’s almost four right.
Tif: No, its almost five.
Me: [Looks at watch] Oh that’s right, its almost five to you, but I am in… (mind realizing that I am in Atlanta, therefore its almost 5)… wait, my flight is leaving now.
Tif: Oh
Me: Gotta go, talk to you later [click]

I tell the waiter to cancel my order, but it is obviously too late since the food is being brought to the table. So I pay for the food and get a to-go box then rush out the restaurant. It was 4:55PM when I heard them announce my name for my 5:10 flight, so I started running. It is always when you are late that your gate is at the very end of the hall, so I was running for a while. I literally was applauded by people as I approached the gate. Eventually I got to my seat and honestly did not see what the big deal was, I still had ten minutes to spare.

Stepping foot in Nigeria was met with less excitement and nervousness this time, but it still felt good walking off the plane. I got yelled at by a Nigerian guy because I was trying to steal his luggage cart (I did not think he was using it) but besides that the only worry was managing the 140lbs of luggage I had checked in. Luckily the ExxonMobil greeter got a cart and took care of everything. I ended up being the only one on the bus, so they turned the radio up loud and I could look out the window without any white people getting scared. I took some pictures and relaxed.

Back at the hotel I was treated like a celebrity. Those notes I wrote really did the trick, everyone was very nice to me. I got in at around 12:30 but waited a while to tell my job that I was in the area or else they might have asked me to come in. Instead, I fell asleep and did not wake up until five hours later.

P.S. They served leather again in the cafeteria. I forgot to mention this last time, but one of the delicacies here is Leather, as in skin from a cow. It tastes like nothing, which is much better than what I would have guessed it would taste like.