Our Nigerian Hut

I forgot that most of you don't know where we live!  You might be picturing something along the lines of a brazilian favela, or grass huts in the middle of the Savanna.  Nah, nothing like that!  We are well taken care of.  Each embassy has a housing board.  The housing board takes a look at the incoming employees and their families and matches them with the most appropriate available housing.  Well, it so happens that fortune smiled down upon us - we have one of the larger families here, and one of the largest and nicest homes became available!  Homes here are placed in compounds - gated communities surrounded by high walls, topped with concertina wire and guarded by solid iron gates and security guards (some with automatic rifles).  The windows and doors on the homes are all covered by iron gates.  If your home has two floors, the second floor has a second heavy iron gate which locks from the inside.  Each residence also has a safe room (usually the master bedroom) with an emergency alarm inside.  So, we're fairly safe in our home!  Safer than we were in our D.C. home!  (Those of you who came to visit know what I'm talking about!)  So, while there are areas of Abuja that look like favelas (I was in one yesterday), the housing compounds are well taken care of - pools, manicured lawns, flowers, topiaries (yeah, go look that word up cause I know 90% of the guys have no idea what that is!).  Our home is about 4,000 sq ft - 5 bedroom, 4 1/2 bathroom.  We would love to have visitors!  As I told a good friend last night, I feel pretty comfortable extending that invitation to pretty much anyone and everyone, because I'm relatively sure no one will take us up on it!  But please know, we would love to have anyone come and visit!  These are pics of the home the day I moved in.  I'll post some more after we've unloaded all the boxes.  Enjoy!