A Note From Jack

I spent a week in Lagos and loved it. The people are fun, my parents live in a holiday environment, and Ayo is the most excitable dog.

When I walked through the door Friday night Ayo spent ten minutes just jumping up at me with excitement, he is (somehow) even smaller than he looks in pictures, but manages to jump several times his height. He also displayed his fabled dance technique where he stands on his hind legs and shimmies about. We also took him to the beach where he made a new best friend: Mara an Ethiopian rescue dog. While we were there he tirelessly ran around the beach, followed Mara everywhere and kept almost repeatedly getting drowned by waves because he is so small. All week he spent snuggled on the sofa next to me and sleeping next to my bed and I’m very sad I couldn’t smuggle him to the Netherlands.

Ayo, a good boy.

Living in Bella Vista Towers is a lot like being on holiday. Usually when I visit my parents I spend a significant portion of my time doing chores around the house. However, in Lagos Glory is there and she cooks, cleans and takes care of everything. This means that my week felt a lot more like a very lucky holiday where I had to do very little of what keeps us busy day to day. There are also tennis courts, a gym and a pool to enjoy while you’re there. This means that just being at home is like being on holiday.

On Saturday, Rob and I met Lucas and Dayo, two (younger) employees of Nigerian Breweries, we went by several great pubs on Lagos Island and ended the night at a giant arcade. I met Dayo and Lucas again on Thursday for drinks at a bar called Bogobiri which had an open mic night. The open mic was with a live band and people got a chance to sing their own songs or covers with the live band. Most of the music is Afrobeat, which is a genre I was only this week exposed to for the first time. As it happens, that very week in Lagos was the ‘Felabration’, which involves days of celebrations to commemorate Fela Kuti, one of the forefathers of Afrobeat. He seems to be a universally loved figure in Lagos, I asked several people and all said reverently that he spoke the truth, some even referred to him as a prophet who predicted all that has happened to Nigeria years ago. At the very least he is a great musician, Ali and Yinka recommended ‘Teacher Don’t Teach Me Nonsense’ and ‘Zombie’, and I pass on that recommendation.

I went to two markets while I was in Lagos. Balogun Market is a proper market on the mainland and it is packed with little shops, people and activity; it's an overwhelming place to be but also my favourite place I saw while I was there. Viv and I tried our hands at bargaining with some of the vendors, in the future I will leave the bargaining over to Viv, she is much better at it. The other market we went to was Lekki Market, which is aimed at a more affluent, non-local, market. It was also much quieter there, with more things like art around the market. It is close to the Nike Art Gallery which we also visited. There are some of the most beautiful art pieces I have seen there, however the price tags attached to them were less beautiful.

Viv (left), Nike Gallery’s Local Wildlife (middle) and Lekki market (right)

I also got the chance to see Rob’s offices, the brewery next to it and many of his colleagues. The Brewery has a great system: they reuse all the bottles they sell to customers, because the customers can’t buy bottles unless they return them too. His colleagues, like everyone else that I met while I was in Lagos, were really friendly.

Although it was a busy week there is still so much to see, including more of the mainland, a visit to a local school with Viv, and going to see a Nigerian movie. All for next time.