Rainbolt Travel Diary

“So Tony we need to go to Elias Electronics. Do you know where it is?”
“No Sir,” was the answer.
“It’s past Lafayette.”
Finally a street address I thought. Tony said ok and we headed off to go get a cell phone. From the front seat I watched closely as we left the back gate of the AIS Compound and headed out. As usual I kept a sharp look out for street signs. I am bound and determined to get a sense of place each time we are out.
We zipped past the mineral fill up where empty soda and beer bottles are returned for full ones. Past Dream Plaza the closet mall, well actually department store with groceries, to the compound and then out on what is the main street running north and south, or maybe it is east west. No street signs.
Tony turned left and I saw Lafayette, not a street, but another shopping small. Two banks and a church later we were at the cell phone store, which was really a closet behind a Nike store. No bargaining this time and soon we were on our way. Another successful outing, without the aid of street signs.
Mr. Slater, our resident geography and GPS guru, explained to me that in Lagos it is relative location that counts. Most addresses here are based on your relation to another place. AIS is behind the 1004 Federal Apartment buildings so our address is Behind 1004. The 1004 is not a street reference, it is the number of units in the buildings before the military kicked everyone out. The buildings are being razed and will eventually become property of one of the oil companies.
So when we head to the Thistle for happy hour we are behind the Mobile Roundabout, which is the roundabout near the Mobile gas station. The tailor that is making our clothes for Nigerian culture day works “across from the containers”. The pizza place we went to this weekend is across from the Silverbird cinemas.
The main street we turned on runs east west, but I only know that because of Mr. Slater’s GPS, and I still wonder what is exactly is on the maps that are sold at the go-slows.