The Cane Village

The Cane Village, the place where anyone can get easily obsessed with any kind of basket. Under the highway In Lagos, this little market/village, is where people make and sell baskets for anyone who wants to buy.

When we got to the Cane Village, we entered in and a few pieces of beautiful art were stacked up for people to buy. We saw paintings of warrior princesses, African women, and African men. We then walked by and entered a world of baskets! There were so many, more than anybody could count! We immediately went from side to side examining the baskets and watching how they were made. The workers were weaving the baskets, and chopping up the cane wood.  They would take their frame, made of the cane wood, and then weave the slivers of wood thought the frame, making a beautiful basket.

There were many deliveries being made back and forth. Our guide told us that most of the baskets were being brought to weddings or stores. Trucks would always pass by through the rugged road.  Through all this chaos, there were many children, and chickens:) The Children played with whatever they could find, and seemed as if they had the time of their lives! We spent the morning shopping, and left with many baskets!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

 

Advertisements

An Islander’s Livelihood

On the outskirts of the big city Lagos, many islanders live their lives based off and center their future on sand-dredging, partially because there aren’t many other opportunities for work. This involves extracting the sand from the bottom of the lagoon and transfering it into larger, wide-sided boats where it is strained of all the water. The blue boat you see below is one of the boats that strains and carries the sand to the island, which is eventually used to make concrete. These boats actually get filled so much that they often seem on the verge of sinking – the boat sinks about 3 feet into the water as it fills with sand. This can be seen in one photo below where the driver is in the back controlling the motor. Believe it or not, that boat, when not filled with sand, is just as buoyant on the water as the blue boat is. When we would pass by in our ferry, we had to go to a no-wake speed because they would get mad at us and yell across the lagoon if we went any faster, because it would make enough waves that could tip their sand-filled boats. The other boats shown below with large tubes coming out and reaching over the water are the ones that dredge the sand from the bottom and transfer it into the larger boats.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Mopane what?!

One morning I came downstairs while we were living in Johannesburg, South Africa and opened the fridge to find this! I was horrified! I did actually scream and then my domestic helper from Zimbabwe began to laugh!  She explained that Mopane Worms are such a yummy snack when fried, becoming crunchy and quite tasty.  Unfortunately, my inclination towards chocolate and disinclincation for eating worms got the best of me and  I could not try one.