Nigeria Part1

I am so grateful for the opportunity I had to visit Nigeria a few weeks ago. It came at a difficult time, (leaving a 2 week old baby at home) but it was something I couldn’t pass up on. My friend Adam Miles with Saveathonforafrica invited me to follow him and his daughter and two professional women soccer players,(Natalie Norris, and Lindsi Cutshall) on their launch trip of this amazing charity. Adam’s story about how he began this project is inspiring and very respectable. I’ll leave it to him to explain that though. VIDEO
I had no idea, really, what to expect on this trip. I knew the basics of what we were going to be doing, but day to day it was a surprise. In summary though, we were there to help promote the building of a soccer academy and competitive league, through soccer clinics and public appearances. I had read many things about the country in general and was both excited and a little nervous. In hind site I had nothing to worry about. The cities we stayed in were very peaceful and excited to welcome us. Many times I felt like a celebrity just for being white. Everywhere we went, people would stop and stare. Usually they would smile and want to shake our hands. Being the one with the camera was a little different though. Everyone would smile until I pointed a camera at them and then their tough face would come out. I’d put the camera down thinking they were upset but they would then run over with a big smile and want to see their picture. It took a little bit to get over that fear of offending people but they seemed to love it. I’ll try and recap our fast paced trip, but at the same time let the pictures tell the story. Everywhere we traveled, we did so in a tiny blue van driving about 60MPH on tiny roads. Because our hosts wanted to ensure our safety we didn’t stop much other than our destinations. That means most of my landscape shots or street life shots were taken through the window, while darting through traffic. Well, here we go…