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First, there's a couple of very tired gerbils somewhere after running on a little wheel to power my less than 1mbs internet connection so I could upload these three files. Not really sure what's going on as the connection has a habit of breaking, so I've been submitting each file and keeping my fingers crossed that the connection will last the upload.

Anyway, technical difficulties aside, I had this morning to look round before doing some work. I went to Lekki market which is basically a load of shacks at the roadside interconnected by little alleyways. I don't think the images below really do it justice and they certainly don't capture the number of people running around (all of whom seemed to be rather camera shy).

First thing is that when you get there, all of a sudden hundreds of kids appear from nowhere and start running alongside the car. When the car stops and you get out, you're mobbed like a pop star. A rather daunting experience I have to say. The kids seem to enter into a competition to see who can accompany you around the market to carry your stuff for you. Thankfully I was being shown around by a US expat who just said to shoo them away and proceeded to literally walk through them waving his arms in the air shouting “shoo.” After a couple of minutes they got bored and disappeared. Anyway, the market was really nice and I ended up with a couple of wood carvings (hippo pictured below) and a couple of paintings.

I've been asked a couple of times “is it safe?” to which I wittily reply “it's safe and zipped away in my trousers, but thanks for asking.” (And that probably explains why I didn't try and be a professional commedian). On a serious note though, safety is a concern, but when I think that this time last year my trip was to Asia instead of Africa and I was in Indonesia I feel very lucky given the earthquakes that have hit.

Anyway, time to go out for dinner and beers.