Winning Smiles

Winning Smiles
Samohi SAGE Team Wins National Competition in Cincinnati Ohio

7.27.2008

Shopping and American Food!


























Note: You can click on any of the small pictures to see them full sized.


Sunday July 27, 2008

Today is our first full day without any SAGE planned activities. We were supposed to go on a tour of Abuja to replace the trip to Yankori National Park but of course, again, this is Nigeria so when it came time to meet for the tour, it had been cancelled. To be fair, it might have been because many of the teams were leaving today and the buses were occupied taking teams to and from the airport. In the end it worked out well for us because everyone slept in very late and got some rest.
Towards the middle of the afternoon the New York team asked one of the buses to take both U.S. teams to the “hut” village near the Sheraton hotel. This is an area that has a large number of tiny shops shaped like huts that sell African and specifically Nigerian trinkets and arts and crafts items. As you walk around the area the shopkeepers use all kinds of cajoling techniques to get you to come in and look at their wares. Some shops specialize in jewelry, others in African art, some in fabrics, and many in stoneware, baskets, wood, leather (often snakeskin) items. You must bargain for everything. Prince is a member of one of the SAGE Nigerian teams (not a competing team) and he went with us to to be sure we would get fair prices. Prince is 14 years old and displays maturity way beyond what we would expect in the U.S. When we would be given a price he would look at them and tell them to give us a “better or real” price and was a tremendous help to all of us.

It started to drizzle heavily so shopkeepers magically produce umbrellas and hold them over you as you walk to encourage you to visit their shops. Ms. Kemp purchased some African art and asked the shopkeeper to hold it for her in exchange for borrowing his umbrella to walk around.

There was a beautiful and very friendly cat strolling the village. She was one of the African cats that are very sleek and trim with a small head and very large ears. It turns out she has five kittens that play and live in one of the shops. She was very friendly and let Mrs. Harrison hold her while she purred away.

After leaving the arts and crafts center, we decided to treat ourselves by having a late lunch early dinner at the Hilton Hotel so we asked the bus driver to take us before he returned the New York team to the hotel. The bus took us on a short cut to the hotel which was down a muddy, unpaved road. It was 5:00 pm when we got to the Hilton and we arranged for the bus to pick us up at 7:00. The Hilton hotel is a beautiful hotel and very much what one would expect from a “high end" hotel. Ms. Kemp felt right at home. Interestingly enough, unlike the Sheraton, the Hilton does not have metal detectors or screening when you walk into the lobby. After the bus left, we walked to the restaurant that we had been told served hamburgers and french fries but when we got there, we found out they were closed for lunch and didn’t reopen until 7:00pm for dinner. We were so disappointed but the ever resourceful Ms. Kemp, found out that we could order food out by the pool so to the pool we headed. IT WAS GREAT to have American style food again. We ordered hot wings, roasted chicken, penne pasta, and hamburgers with French fries, onion rings and sodas. It was so good!

When we got back to the hotel we mostly just relaxed but some of us spent time with team members from South Korea. They taught some of us a card game which is mostly a game of bluff. Now we understood why there was so much noise, shouting and cheering from the South Korean rooms. Turns out one of the team members is a magician so he dazzled us with magic tricks.

It’s time to say good night. Tomorrow Benedette’s uncle is taking us on a tour of Abuja. On Monday we have an appointment at the US Embassy in the morning, and then a bus is taking us to a SAGE team school just outside Abuja. This is the school that we began corresponding with a couple of months ago. The school is on a break but the teacher (Amaka) is bringing some of her students so we can share information and establish a closer connection so we can work together after our team returns to the United States. As soon as we are done there we will return to the hotel to pick up or luggage and head out to the airport. We want to be sure to be there very early because our travel agent has let us know the flight is oversold and not to cut our time too short to get there. We are going to err on the side of caution and be there 3 hours ahead of time.

Bye for now. We love and miss you all but we are still having an amazing experience in Abuja.