Saturday 18 February 2012

Nigeria's Expat Leftovers

ALL YOU CAN BUY.

No, it's not really the phrase, "All you can eat buffet". I am talking about going to an expat sales in Lagos. What I mean is that whenever someone is leaving Lagos, Nigeria, for good, they are bound to hold a pantry sale to let go of their stuff. Especially the expats community here. One will sell anything that they couldn't bring back to the next country that they are going to or things that they no longer want or need. Of course, I can sometime find the things that I am used to buy in the States or Singapore here in Lagos but looking at the prices, shit, I'd rather not at times. Thus, I am ALWAYS looking forward to an expat pantry sale whenever I see or hear one!! Believe me, when there's an expat sales, I'm there! So, a few days ago, I was on the computer surfing the net trying to finish planning our summer vacation when I saw, "..........EXPAT MOVING SALE"! I grab my bag and zoom off, praying that I would be the first one there and nobody else. Well, at some point, one cannot be greedy because this is what happened when you are greedy....

Dog Bites!!!!
I was bitten by a dog at the sale!!! Oh f***! Don't tell my husband. He doesn't know about this or he'll kill me! Of course, I was the only one and perhaps the first one there. Only the driver was present with the dog. The owner wasn't there and Comfort (yes, that's her name!), the stewardess, was nowhere to be found either. She was supposed to be in charge of the sale. Anyway, I rushed home to take care of the bloody bite marks. Don't worry, friends and family, three days of antibiotics, I will be OK!  My rabies shots are all up to date thanks to Nigeria! All vaccinations are up to date before coming here.

Dog bites or no dog bites, it's all worth it! One of my expat sales haul here in Lagos :)
Only challenge is where to put all these?!?! Our pantry here is not like the houses in America, Singapore etc but wait a minute! I cannot say pantry because we do not have one here!


NO!!! Our pantry room doesn't look like any of the above!! Jealous.com

Our so-called pantry is office-laundry room-storage area. Below is what our pantry-laundry room-office-storage area looks like. You are welcome!

We do not get a lot of storage space in the apartment and there is no way we will store all these food/items in the allocated storage room outside as things get stolen. You can forget it! So we try to "stuff" in every corner of the apartment when we find space. My husband's company allow us to do an annual shipment worth of 1000pounds of goodies. Come July, we will have a headache! Where the hell am I going to put the rest of the goodies when it comes??? We'll cross the bridge when we come to it i guess.

2 comments:

  1. HOly Crap, Suzieta!!! I know some expats get a little out of control at pantry sales...but you are the first one I know to be bitten by a dog at one!!!! Glad you are ok!!!! That's one good thing about moving here...we have all of our shots up to date!!!!

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  2. Very creative way to get rid of stock. What would be a good way to find out about and any upcoming pantry sales.

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