At the great Olumo Rock...First times :)

 

Hello Les Amis

How was your weekend???

Mine was super great...

Me and one of my 'amazing' paddy in the Universe, Gbenga, went rock climbing at OLUMO ROCK :))

It was my first time there (Gbenga's 3rd)....Felt like a kid on an adventure...It was so scary/ beautiful/ enlightening....I love places with a lot of history and this place made me appreciate/ fall in love with Nigeria and GOD all over again...It was an awesome experience...plus I got eat some corn and have insightful conversation with my paddy :))

Here are some of my beautiful moments below... ^_^

From the outside...WELCOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

Walking Steadilyyyyyyy towards it :))

Closer :))

And the climb begins :))....Oops we met our tour guides!!!!!

Me and the men of EGBA....Amazing storytellers

Gbenga, lets do this!!!! HA!!!! 

First stop...The shrine....Ghost time!!!!!! :))

Goin into the cave

Me and Gbenga at the hide out....Wow!!! cant believe that some hundred years back...This served as a refuge for the people of Egba.....

A room inside the cave....How will a tall person fit in? :))

It's that Tiny? Like I could fit in? Lol

Natural Mortarsssssss!!!!!!

The burial place of one of the great kings of the Egba kingdom

On to the next oneeeeeeeee.........

I loved the statue....She welcomed us to the next phase of the climb :)

  

Yup!!!!This one :)) Narrow path indeed :))

So the stairs have been there since time immemorial (The additional stairs were added to make it more comfortable for people to climb) ....God is just super awesome!!!!!

Getting ready to climb...But shoes gotta go...Oops!!!!!!

Gbenga Move awayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy :))

Yup...Me nexttttttttt.....At the other side :))

Second stage over...Whewwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The next climb...So while I try to be brave and all...This bridge scared me...Looking down from it is not 'NICE'..hehehehe..But im thankful for it cos i heard that previous climbers had to jump from one end to another....Scaryyyy!!!!!!!!

Yayyyyy!!!!! Crossed it.....Up next the top!!!!

But gotta rejoice first....Hahahahahaha!!!!!!

Didn't rejoice for long.....The struggle continues......

The trick is to go over these pile of rocksssssss

:)

But when U do...U get to the top and REST!!!!!!!

Smile with your friendssssssssssssssss

Smile at yourself

And see the great IROKO Tree :))

With our new friends....Joshua and Wasiu.....Great climbers...

I love the view from the Top......

Can you make out the Ogun river...........

I love how they maintained the 'Vintage Mud' Houses in the area.....It's honestly breathtaking,,,,,,,,,,,

The house on the 'yellow' rockkkkkk.......#like :))

 The trip was amazing....I heard this story about some tourists who wanted to break the rock. Unfortunately for them, while breaking the rock, it started bleeding water and blood...Some of it entered the tourist eyes and they became blind......
Uhmmm, not sure if the story is correct but hey! 

It's a pleasant place to visit...and did I mention they have a gallery..and I got me my first art work

I call it the 'Konga' Man...It's made from waste tinssss like tin bottle and plates and all that...In the words of the artist  'waste is gold'.....

Was gifted a bracelet....Faith. Hope. Love....Thank you Mr. Art Man :))

 

 I loved visiting this place (Officially their new spokes person..LOL)... Awed by the wonders of Gods work here....Like the name implies- 'Oluwa Lo Mo' meaning 'God created it' ...This couldn't have been man made :))

So grateful for all in life...Didn't mind that I was drenched by the rain (It rained heavily on my way home...I guess I needed a bath after all that climbing..LOL)It's all part of the adventure and I feel blessed to be alive to experience all of this beauty...And like Gbenga wished me 'Have a lot of beautiful first times'....

Make time to LIVE life...Make time to enjoy your world and everyone in it. Make time to see the beauty of Gods work.....Always remember that no matter what goes on in life, GOD is forever your ROCK, like the Olumo is to the people of Egba :))

Thank you so much for reading....
Have a beautiful week and amazing first times....

Hugs :))

 

FAMOUS PHOTOGRAPHS

Hi Dear,
How was your day?
Been listening to Some nights by fun. Nice song!!!

source: youtube

I share the sentiments of Laura McCartney "If you see something that moves you and then you snap it, you keep a moment". I really love photography. I think sometimes, it tells more stories, in more beautiful ways than any other form of art. It does that sometimes. It's a language that is easily understood by everyone.

I stumbled upon this site which features the world most famous pictures. These pictures changed the world. They spoke to my heart and hope they stir something in you too.
Here are my favourites. I still think about them :

The photo is the “Pulitzer Prize” winning photo taken in 1994 during the Sudan Famine.
The picture depicts stricken child crawling towards an United Nations food camp, located a kilometer away. The vulture is waiting for the child to die so that it can eat him. This picture shocked the whole world. No one knows what happened to the child, including the photographer Kevin Carter who left the place as soon as the photograph was taken. Three months later he committed suicide due to depression. Photographer: Kevin Carter; Source: Wikipedia.org

And of course the afghan girl, picture shot by National Geographic photographer Steve McCurry. Sharbat Gula was one of the students in an informal school within the refugee camp; McCurry, rarely given the opportunity to photograph Afghan women, seized the opportunity and captured her image. She was approximately 12 years old at the time. She made it on the cover of National Geographic next year, and her identity was discovered in 1992. Source: nationalgeographic.com

• 

  Today we break a little from the site’s pattern showing you not a photo but an image captured from a film showing the Palestinian father, Jamil ad-Durra, trying to protect his son from israeli gunfire moments before the boy was shot dead, the father wounded and a Palestinian ambulance driver who came to rescue them, also killed. Reporters watched helplessly as the boy and his father became trapped against a wall with nothing but a small concrete block for cover as bullets rained around them on a road near the Jewish settlement of Netzarim in the Gaza Strip. Mohammed crouched weeping behind his father, who tried in vain to shield him with his arms and body. At one point, the father raised his head and wagged his finger, as if to scold. Some time later, both were shot and Mohammed slumped into his father’s lap.

  Mohammed died, while his father survived badly wounded. An ambulance driver, who braved the fierce shooting to try to rescue them, also killed. Image source: BBC

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  Lunch atop a Skyscraper (New York Construction Workers Lunching on a Crossbeam) is a famous photograph taken by Charles C. Ebbets during construction of the GE Building at Rockefeller Center in 1932.The photograph depicts 11 men eating lunch, seated on a girder with their feet dangling hundreds of feet above the New York City streets. Ebbets took the photo on September 29, 1932, and it appeared in the New York Herald Tribune in its Sunday photo supplement on October 2. Taken on the 69th floor of the GE Building during the last several months of construction, the photo Resting on a Girder shows the same workers napping on the beam. Source: allposters.com;  Photographer:Charles C. Ebbets

  
  

Omayra Sánchez was one of the 25,000 victims of the Nevado del Ruiz (Colombia) volcano which erupted on November 14, 1985. The 13-year old had been trapped in water and concrete for 3 days. The picture was taken shortly before she died and it caused controversy due to the photographer’s work and the Colombian government’s inaction in the midst of the tragedy, when it was published worldwide after the young girl’s death. Source: Wikipedia.org; Photographer:  Frank Fournier




Award winning photo showing a iraqi man comforts his son at a holding center for prisoners of war in An Najaf, Iraq, 31 March 2003. AP photographer Jean-Marc Bouju has won the 2003 World Press Photo of the Year competition. Jean-Marc won also the 1995 Pulitzer Prize in Feature Photography and the 1999 Pulitzer Prize in Spot News Photography.
With barbed-wire in the foreground, the picture shows a father who has been detained by the Army’s 101st Airborne division. The man wears a bag over his head, and he clutches his son in his lap. Source: pdnonline.com; photographer: Jean-Marc Bouju

• These pictures lives forever even though some are old. We still have wars, famines, earthquakes, deaths and many other problems that plague mankind. Some of  us are fortunate not to suffer from any of them. Some are not so lucky as can be seen in the pictures above. The point I'm trying to make is this: Let the pictures speak to you and cause you to effect good changes in the world anyway you can. You can visit  http://www.worldsfamousphotos.com/ for more pictures... Get your camera and click away...Every moment counts... 
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• Thanks a lot for reading...Hugs...Have a great week :)
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IN AN UNCUT WORLD: A Picture Story

One of my favourite cities in the world is Calgary.  I love it not because my best friend lives there (and I get to disturb him a lot any time I visit), but because it is Clean. I was looking at an awesome website, where they listed out a  list of the world cleanest cities. Places like Adelaide (Australia), Honolulu (Hawaii), Kobe (Japan), Wellington (New Zealand), Minneapolis (USA), Freiburg (Germany), Helsinki (Finland), etc made the top ten list and looked like something created from the mind of a ‘Pablo Picasso-like’ personality.

These cities are clean. They are beautiful. The whole environment has this surreal feeling but the truth is, whether we chose to believe it or not, they are as real as they come (My best friend can testify to that)...

I’m a freak for a clean environment. Living in a dirty environment is a total nightmare. And if given the opportunity, I would change the whole world and paint a picture of green grass and happy beings all over the world. I would also take on the job of a full time environmental police, try to be a female 'Al Gore'. Who wouldn't?? 

However, I wonder if the cities mentioned above have slum-like places; the places hidden behind the facade of green grass and world class architectural facilities. The places also called the ‘Ghetto’ where the struggle for survival is norm for everyone. The places where ‘social’ child abuse is important and children fend for their families. The down town place where sand, rock, and dirt pave the road, and seem forgotten by the government. The place where the ‘happiest people’ live in a blissful abandonment not bothered by the state of their environment. The backyard. 

I wonder if these places have been edited so that they can look perfect and welcoming to an average tourists...I wonder what their 'Uncut state' is like...

Yesterday, I sat in the bus with a man talking to himself. I was scared and distracted myself by looking at some pictures I took of the ‘Backyard environment’ I’m talking about (Out and about in Lasgidi)...

I wish something can be done about our environment...

Presenting my 'uncut world' Collection...

Another beautiful day in Lag

Stucked in traffic, taking pictures and trying to figure out how the road side sellers do what they do? Do they make money from what they do? Do they save? Do they ever get off the streets? You can buy anything you want in Lagos especially when our traffic 'tie wrapper'...~Sighs~ Even little kids join in the hustle, selling on the highway, traffic or no traffic, at their own risk, fending for their life :(

Struggle to the front of the road. Sighs

Told you. You can buy anything you want :(

Whew, traffic clears and its a race and struggle with the Okada riders...It's not the safest mean of transport but they ride like they own the road....In a Lagos traffic though, they are your sure bet to getting home early...

Standing at the busstop, and grateful that the crowd had thinned ...

My favourite means of transport, The BRT, they have their own lane and all but nowadays, it's like the regular 'Molue' bus (My Opinion)...People are packed like Sardins in the bus and for some, the mini stair and doors are bad...

The downside of life...Pegs as hair clips :(   

Movies and wires :(

A beautiful working mom who is doing all she can for her kids. Sometimes, I wonder if she wanted more for her life....The struggling guy who came to town for a better life, I wonder if he's found peace yet...
I'm grateful they allowed me take their pictures..The guy behind even posed for me....

'Rocks, papers, dirts, pave my street', He said 

'We even had to use a rock to hold an electrical pole from falling', He continued

A typical road side shop...Man must survive...

One of the few 'good' houses in down town lagos...

Yeah, I know, my ‘Utopia’ mind is at it again, wishing the world a blissful perfection.

Sometimes, when I take sad pictures like these, a lot of questions bug me; I wonder what went wrong in their lives. Is it fate that they end up like this? I heard someone say that the demarcation between the rich and poor is here to stay. Nothing can be done.  I don't agree with that statement, still, I wish it weren't so...

Is a cleaner environment, affordable 'good' housing and better standard of living too much to ask for?

Just ranting...

Share your thoughts on these please.....

Thanks for reading...Hugs!!!!