The streets of Lagos

Had an outing this week visiting missionary apartments for the placement of generators. As I have told you before, electricity goes out frequently so generators are a necessity. One apartment has not had electricity for two weeks. When electricity goes out the water does not pump from the bore holes. (There is no infrastructure providing water so everyone has to have a bore hole (deep well) providing water for the building or apartment.) So the missionaries have had to go outside to a well to get water and carry it up in buckets. We saw two bore holes that the Mormon Church provided in two areas allowing two small towns to have access to clean water. Most apartments in Lagos do not have a water heater so there are many problems with illness because people do not take the time to heat water to wash dishes or bathe. All the missionaries are provided with a water filtering system, but if electricity goes out it doesn't work properly. 

There are a few main streets that are paved in the outer areas of the city, but most are dirt and are deeply rutted making four wheel drive a necessity if you are in a vehicle. Some areas are cleaner than others, but trash is everywhere and people dump everything into the deep ditches by the side of the roads. Some ditches are covered and others are not. Goats are frequently seen in front of where people live and they wander in and out of the living quarters that are sometimes just huts. Most areas of the city have stalls side by side selling a variety of items and vendors wander through traffic offering sunglasses, belts, magazines, etc. There are so many needs here that it staggers the imagination. I just hope we will be able to help a little.

Women walking in front of stalls

One of the paved city streets with typical crowds

Missionary kitchen

Wife of one of the security guards with her baby 

Stalls and mothers with baby 

Women carry heavy loads on their heads 

Four of the sister missionaries

Bore hole (built by the Mormon Church) for one of the local areas allowing them to have fresh water

One of the many vans used as public transportation - a person is always hanging out 

This woman owns several apartment buildings, one of which is a building where four of our missionaries live 

These ditches are at the sides of all of the roads