A Smooth Move

November 8th our container arrived at Bella Vista Towers! Yes, the move could start. The moving company brought in all the boxes to the 13th floor with the elevator only a few things were too big so they walked 13 floors to bring it up. You have to realise that the stairs is a very warm place, extremely warm. I don't envy these men!

Glory made a lunch of fried rice and chicken and walked around with lots of drinks. In total with the drivers we had 14 men from the moving company, plus Yinka and Ali, Rob, Glory and I that was a lunch for 19 people and it was great. She’s a star. Ali was sitting in front of the door to check all the numbers of the boxes. Yinka turned out not only being a great driver but also a brilliant Ikea assembler. He did all the beds with Rob and the next morning he helped the 5 men who came back with assembling the sofas, more bookshelves and many more things. In the evening Glory had to move a very have box to her place and she placed it on her head. I was so afraid it would fall, but she said, "this is the way we do it, it's easy"! Tineke and I just dragged a heavy box to the other place, "that's the European way" we joked!

Thursday evening Tineke arrived at Bella Vista Towers around 10:30. She had a good flight and was overwhelmed by everything she saw on the road. So many people still walking everywhere, cars with no lights, motorcycles in the wrong direction, coming towards you, so dangerous. Yes, you definitely need more eyes here, lots to take in. It was Tineke’s first trip outside Europe, and then going to Nigeria is quite an ordeal. She came to help with the move. She’s a super trooper! She helped in Helsinki and in Vienna and she promised wherever our next post would be she would come to help! And so she did. Friday morning we thought let’s start with the kitchen, with the plates, well we never found the plates until late in the evening. Always the last box, Murphy’s law. Friday we worked us through the boxes. Unfortunately a few vases, wine glasses, a few ceramic statues were broken and a top shelf of a sideboard of my mum’s was totally broken in half. But we also miss a few strange things, like the kitchen scale. Six men were very busy with one Ikea cupboard, Rob as experienced Ikea assembler was looking at it and could not believe what they were doing with the 6 of them! He gave some directions but I believe they ignored him. During lunch time they didn't want to stay in our living room, they preferred the hot staircase. After half an hour we learned why; they were all asleep. Saturday November 10th we decided to go with Tineke to the Lekki market. This is a market mainly for tourists. Lots of vendors try to sell you their African items for the best price. You need to bargain about every price. Sometimes you think what are we talking about, 50 euro cents cheaper deal or no deal?

Back home we continued where we left in the morning, unpacking more boxes. In one week we were through all 376 boxes. Everything had a place. The second week was more about sorting out the curtains, lamps and paintings on the walls. We can call the maintenance guys, you ask for an electrician or a carpenter and then you wait and wait………….7 hours later the carpenter rang the doorbell. When he learned what we had in mind for him, he had to go back downstairs to get his drill. One time it took two hours before he showed up again. This also happened when he needed his ladder even more hours before he came back. You always have to pray they return in 15 minutes, but when they're working they are extremely helpful. Rob marked all the holes therefore it was just the drilling and hanging of a painting that the carpenter, his name’s Friday, needed to do. On Monday morning when Friday came up, he drilled many holes and hang the paintings but one painting was in the living room, the painting of the children in the grass when they were young. He hang it sideways!! Tineke and I looked at each other and almost bursted into tears with laughter but we hold ourselves until Friday was gone. It was hilarious.

On Tuesday Tineke and I went to the Lekki school where I do some volunteering work. We were making Christmas bells. We started in the wrong class room, but we quickly changed to the right one and carried on with making beautiful art works with the pupils. The children are very grateful and love this hour of art work. For Tineke it was a very special experience too. After the school we quickly headed home to have a shower and get changed for the next event; a luncheon at the Shell Hall with the International Women Society of Nigeria. I was invited by Nkoli, the Vice President of the IWS. We met at the NOC event a few weeks ago. We sat at Nkoli’s table, met very nice women from Zimbabwe. The entertainment was special, first with a Chinese Dragon Dance, then Nigerian women danced and a trio of young men playing classical music. In the meantime we were spoiled with excellent food. Only watching all these beautiful ladies with their African roots and stunning colourful dresses was entertaining pur sang. We enjoyed it very much, but after a few hours we felt we had to head back home to finish the job in the house.

The first Wednesday we went with Isabelle to the Balagun market. We had our two drivers with us, Isabelle with Oscar and Tineke and I had Ali. Tineke was a bit overwhelmed by the enormous amount of people. This is the biggest market of Lagos, really huge. It’s hot, very noisy and smelly as well. Every vendor wants to sell you something, they all have the best price! I do like the place but after an hour or an hour and a half I’m so done with it. Then I need a to go back to the air-conditioned car. On Friday we had a nice party, a Beaujolais Primeur of GMT. The decoration was one of a kind, absolutely amazing with so many lights and lots of food. Rob didn’t go inside because of all the French cheeses, as you all know he doesn’t like cheese. We drove through Zenith street with thousands of Christmas lights and decorations. A bit over the top to be honest; this bank spends every year so much money on this in a country where more than 70% of the people are so darn poor. On our way back home we had a serious collusion! Yinka pulled up to the middle of street/crossing, we were standing still for a few minutes when suddenly a car collapsed at our trunk. We were all right, Yinka stepped out, walked to the guy in the car, told him he’s an idiot and came back in the car. Rob asked Yinka, “have you told him he’s an idiot?!”Yes replied Yinka, "he’s an idiot". No paperwork, no police, nothing. Later Yinka explained to us that he first checked if there were more people in the car. There weren’t so he could step out. If there are more in a car, he wouldn't have done it, too dangerous, could be car jackers or worse.

On Monday and Wednesday of the last week we did aqua gym at the neighbour compound Ocean Parade. On Thursday two weeks after Tineke came she left again. We’ve had the most relaxed move ever. In two weeks everything was done. A few reasons are; there are many build in wardrobes, so no Ikea furniture to assemble. We have Glory who is doing the household and cooking, this saves time as well. No driving to Ikea to buy things, we took everything from Vienna. Last but not least, the maintenance guys were hanging everything, this saves a lot of time as well. So the move is a fact, now we can enjoy our house under the African sun. Home sweet home and a big THANK YOU to Tineke!!!