Boat tour

On Sunday Carrie took us to a little shuttle boat that normally transports people to and from a beach and bargained with them to take us on a 2 hour tour around Lagos. Lagos is a major shipping port and is made up of several islands. The boat trip nice because we could cruise by areas that we probably woudln't have seen otherwise because of traffic, location or safety. We saw small waterfront villages that don't have running water, power or sewer, monstrous cargo ships, the city scape, a religious festival and a bunch of sunken boats that haven't been and may never be removed. It was surprising how many of them there are. It was also bizarre that we saw clothes drying on some of them which means people have moved in!

One village of interest was the "Stilt Village." Carrie's friend, Melody, said years ago there was a war in Ghana so thousands of people fled to Nigeria. These people were not allowed to own land (or live on the land?) so they built little houses on stilts above the water. Again, they don't have refrigeration, electricity or sewage and they bathe, do laundry and eat the fish from the water that they use as their bathroom. There are approx 1 million people in this village and they have their own government, classroom (notice I didn't write school), maternity, a church and travelling salesmen who sell items from candles and clothes to snacks.

It was a cool tour and we saw more in a couple of hours than some people see in their years living here.