We Are The Littles

I’ve made my way to Lagos for the time being. I arrived yesterday afternoon after waiting out a torrential rainstorm at the airport in Port Harcourt. Of course the storm started at 1:30pm which is the time I was supposed to take off so I was delayed by 45min.

Anyway, I’m in the office today in Lagos finishing up some last minute things. My relief was supposed to fly to Port Harcourt early this morning but they held him up at the airport because apparently all hell broke loose this morning and things there are preeety tense.

I don’t know all the specifics, but I do know they were having a Carnival (think Rio) there today and all of the expats were told to stay home. Most of the roads were to be shut down between the hours of 8am and 4pm, including the one and only road to our office. There’s only one way in, only one way out. So, there’s a big Carnival, plenty of people gathered in large crowds, and the militants go crazy. They were blowing up cars, shooting at people, the whole militant 9 yards.

So, in the last month I know they’ve kidnapped one expat, shot up a convoy of expat rotators heading from the heliport to town (4 wounded, 2 critical condition), and now gone Carnival Crazy and blown up cars and shot at people. I don’t know if they managed to hit anyone with all of those bullets but I’d find it hard to believe otherwise.

So, I’m going home tomorrow and I got out in the nick of time!

So, I’ve been internet-less for about 3 days now. It’s not nice since it’s my main source of communication & entertainment. However, I just got a text message from the internet provider and they say things are back to normal. Guess I’ll find out when I get home.

Since I don’t get paid to blog at work I’m outta here. Hopefully a better update will follow later this evening.

I don’t think the tiny scorpions we used to find in Oklahoma would stand much of a chance next to this bad boy. Some of the guys found it on one of the trucks that came down from Northern Nigeria to deliver some stuff. No Q.o.U., they didn’t kill it. It was dead when they found it. I’m glad they don’t have critters like this where I’m at. Can you imagine stepping on one of these on your way to the bathroom in the middle of the night!!!??? Talk about a rude awakening.

In other news… There are some great new pictures over on Gabby’s Virtual Baby Book. MBM took the best one yet and it’s up for all to see. Go have a gander.

Good night.

From POTD's

My relief finally decided to show up. I’m going to Lagos to meet him and do a handover. That’s good because it gets me out of Port Harcourt 24hrs earlier than expected. It doesn’t get me home any quicker though since my flight to Germany doesn’t leave until late tomorrow night.

I’m sitting in the Port Harcourt International Airport, typing this out on my oh-so-trusty iPhone. I’ll be in Lagos before you read it though because there is no wireless connection here. Big surprise.

Even bigger surprise… They have George Jones music coming from somewhere behind one of the counters in the picture. Strange.

This is what I found in the tub this afternoon. Nice huh?

Ok, it rained again today. I mean really rained. I mean sumthin’ fierce. Not all was bad though because we left work 30 minutes early so we wouldn’t get bogged down in traffic. If you think people can’t drive there when it rains (especially Houston) you should see them here. It’s utter chaos. Anyway, there isn’t much chaos in the video below but I think you’ll find it interesting nonetheless.

It’s another boring night here. Only a few more to go. My relief still doesn’t have his visa which is a little troubling in my otherwise bright & cheery future. He’s supposed to be here Friday so we have time to go over everything. Only problem is I’ll have to do my real job all day and going over everything is going to be almost impossible. Good luck new dude. Sink or swim is what I always say.

Other than that, all I’ve been doing is downloading new software to try out. All freebies of course. I got iTunes 8.0. I’m not all that impressed. It’s not bad, just not an evolutionary step forward. I got the new Google browser called Chrome. I am impressed with it. It’s super fast, nice and small, and doesn’t get in your way like so many others. I also downloaded the Opera browser, which is what i’m using right now to create this very post. It’s similar to FireFox in some ways and has a few bells and whistles I wanted to try out. Finally, there’s Picasa3. I might have said this before but just in case you missed it… IF YOU’RE NOT USING PICASA & YOU HAVE A DIGITAL CAMERA YOU’RE MISSING THE BOAT.

Anyway, that’s about all I have for today. Over & out.

Well, it didn’t exactly go Boom! If it did go Boom! it didn’t go Boom! loud enough for me to hear it. I walked to the front of the apartment to grab something to drink and the pictures below are what I found when I got there.

Don’t make fun of me. This is the most excitement I’ve had in weeks.

So, one year ago today I started my gig as #2 in Port Harcourt. I’ve officially been here one year. Or half a year since that’s all I work. Either way, I made it a year. The job is easier now that I have some sense of what I’m doing. That doesn’t make it or the people any less frustrating though. Oh, and the boss is away again for the next two weeks so #2 moves to the #1 spot. Now all I need is #1 pay and I’m happy. Anyway, as I always say… Nothing has changed. It’s the same Port Harcourt as it was one year ago. Definitely no better, but not worse either.

One thing I don’t remember from this time last year is all of this rain. It’s the rainy season and there have only been two dry days since I’ve been here. Most of the time it is fine during the day, but around 5:30pm or 6:00pm the rain starts. Right around the time I get home. Right around the time I’m supposed to run. I guess I should dust off that old jump rope that’s been sitting in my dresser drawer for the last year and give it a spin.

In other news, a hurricane is about to obliterate the Louisiana Gulf Coast again, MBM and crew are back in Wichita Falls, Weezer is back on Oklahoma City, & Kari and crew are moved into their new giant abode. Maybe not moved in, but they’re sleeping there.

That’s about all the time I have. Now it’s off to work. I’ll leave you with a slideshow of some of the pictures I’ve taken here over the last year or so.

And don’t forget about little Gabby next door. She’s having self-esteem issues with the lack of participation over at her corner of the internets. One comment each on the last two posts? Y’all are slippin’.

**EDIT** It looks like my slideshow is acting up. Hopefully it will start working later in the day.
****EDIT**** I’ve given up on the slideshow. I can’t even get the link to the gallery to work. Maybe next time.

Well, MBM is gallivanting around town with Weezer. She’s slacking on our “Little” site so I felt the need to provide you with some much needed entertainment.

Nigeria, is as always, the same as when I left last time. Nothing much changes. We did see some real-live captured militants a week or so ago. That was interesting. The militants are the bad boys of Nigeria. The ones that have big-bad weapons and like to kidnap expats for fun. However, these militants were not very scary. They had recently attacked the Nigerian Navy not far from our offices. Of course the Navy opened up a can of whup-ass on the bad boys and captured 20 or so of them. They apparently stripped them down to their skivvies, blindfolded them, and threw them in the back of some Navy pick-ups. The pick-ups then drove by us in traffic. Word on the street is those fellers will never be seen again. Pretty freaky huh?

Oh, and a truck cut us off in traffic on the way to work the other day. Our guards didn’t take kindly to the act because they thought it could have been the bad boys trying to get us. They jumped out of the chase car, pulled the driver out of his big rig and proceeded to beat him senseless. It was not pretty. Guess here they beat first and ask questions later. We always think they (the guards) have their heads up their wahoos. Guess they really do pay attention.

As for the running, it hasn’t been happening this trip. It’s the rainy season and has rained EVERY SINGLE DAY that I’ve been here so far. Not necessarily during the day, but it usually starts around 5:30 or 6:00pm, right around the time I get home and want to go run. It bites. I haven’t started my quest for 100 consecutive push ups yet either. Guess I’m just lazy this trip.

So, that’s all the stories I have so far. What do you think about our new website banner with all of our little pictures? Cool huh? I also added the trip countdown timer on the right-hand side, updated Carolina’s Latest Gallery (bottom right in the sidebar), and updated my latest reading list (also bottom right in the sidebar). If you’re bored give it a gander for something interesting to read. Oh yea, don’t forget about Gabby’s Virtual Baby Book. You all have been pretty quiet over there lately.

Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

It’s painful to look at, but the weight-loss button on the right-hand side is back up to where it was at the beginning of my last hitch, minus 1lb. I fell off the wagon when I got home last time and gained it all back in one fell swoop! Sucks to be me. Now I have to do it all over again. Guess that’s what happens when all you do is sit there and stare at a tiny baby for hours on end. This time it’s not MBM’s fault… It’s Gabby’s!

However, I did come more prepared this time. I have my trusty GPS watch to track my runs. I have my trusty iPod and Nike+ Sports kit for music motivation. I have plenty of water flavor packets to keep off the Diet Coke (not high in calories but bad for you nontheless.) and my cook has started right with no instruction. See picture below for what was cooking tonight. Doesn’t look too appetizing, but nothing a little salt, pepper, and Louisiana Hot Sauce couldn’t fix.

To top it all off, I’m going to try my hand and the newest exercise craze that has taken the internet by storm. It’s a training program designed to take you from 0 push ups to 100 push ups (consecutively) in 6 weeks. I’m going to do the initial test tomorrow night and get started on it on Saturday. Who wants to join me? You can check out the program at One Hundred Push Ups. If you’re lucky I’ll capture it on video for all you stalkers to see.

Finally, I do have pictures of the adventure Justin and I went on last weekend at the Houston Aquarium. Hopefully I’ll get those up sometime tomorrow.

Port Harcourt out!