Fear and trepidation

For the past four months, at least, there has been a huge elephant residing in our living room. It eats a lot. It costs a lot. It causes a great deal of worry and discomfort. But oops! We're not supposed to talk about it!

 

So I can't tell you why I'm probably making a pilgrimage to Lagos in the next two or three weeks. I can only tell you that I have hardly ever been more apprehensive about anything in my life. And that's saying a lot because I'm an obsessive-compulsive worrier. I could win prizes for the amount of worrying I've done in my quarter+ of a century.

 

I remember seeing a photo once, taken in the Atlanta airport, of a sign that proclaimed the Lagos international airport as unsafe for the wary American traveler. Fortunately, we're not going to the airport at all. On the contrary, we get to brave the big city itself.

 

To be honest, I know very little about Lagos, and I've blissfully enjoyed that ignorance. I realise that there are many Nigerians--resident in Lagos, of course--who would say you haven't been to Nigeria until you've been to Lagos. Well, my passport says otherwise, with stamps proclaiming my exits from and entrances into the Federal Republic. I've only been to Lagos once--13 years ago--and then it was just an overnight with my mom and brother. (The reason my dad was not with us is a story in itself, but I'll save that for another day.) We stayed in the Baptist Guest House between our flight from L.A. and our flight to Jos the next day. And it was pretty miserable.

 

This time we're going for a week. And we're going by bus. (David made this bus trip in May for his exams, and the 12-hour trip took 24 hours because of a huge church revival blocking the only road between Ibadan and Lagos--a one-hour drive in normal traffic.)

 

You could say I'm apprehensive. In fact, I think I said that myself. But really, that's an understatement; to acknowledge my true feelings would be to admit defeat. Lagos is big. It's crowded. To get where we're going by 7am, we'll leave our hotel by 4am. There's crime. There's noise. The weather is wretched. It's just not my ideal place to spend a week. But hey, this is important enough for me to make the trip regardless of the city's ill repute.

 

And it will take me a full week to get emotionally prepared for the ordeal! ;) So help me, I'll make it a trip worth telling about!