Abuja via Lagos....

I'm finally here, nearly a week late and then just for added fun with a 'via lagos' thrown in at the last minute. We left Heathrow slightly late waiting for Vonnie's (fellow VSO) pencils to be loaded on the plane, thankfully for Vonnie at the other end ALL of her luggage had made it on to the plane and not just the box of pencils. She could have drawn herself some clothes I suppose. I was also pleased that both of my bags arrived as I may have wept, especially after the packing hell of the last few days. I'm sorry for the tantrum mum and you dealt with it very well.

The flight was diverted because of heavy rain at Abuja taking out some of the landing lights on the runway. After circling for what felt like an eternity whilst the engineers tried to get them working I have to confess I was willing the pilot to just give it a go and try landing in the dark. I'm sure he could've done it but he wussed out and diverted to Lagos to refuel and wait for it to get light, it looks so easy on the Krypton Factor. There was some kind of paperwork issue at Lagos with the refuelling and so by the time we actually got back to Abuja and off the plane we were about 5 hours late, to say I was feeling hanging and going stir crazy was understatement.

On the upside VSO were there to meet us (hooray!) and Vonnie and I said goodbye to Sam a fellow volunteer who had been home visiting her family and was also on our flight back to Abuja. She's based in Calabar where I will be heading after I've finished the in country training. She answered lots of my stupid questions at immigration like, do we need this bit of paper? What do you write in here? Is this bit supposed to be signed? I think my brain might have got off at Lagos.....Anyway Sam headed back off to Calabar and it's a relief to know there's other volunteers there who I can have a beer with at the end of the week and by that I mean every single working week not just this week.

On the the subject of beer, I've just come back from my first visit to a Nigerian bar with Vonnie and Ingrid who is a volunteer already out here and is with us for the training. It was a great finish to the day and I think we've learnt some important lessons and the training hasn't even started yet! All in all I'm feeling very happy and ready for what this next week brings, which will no doubt include more conversations with the locals about my football team not being in the premiership, or even the championship.....