Outing to Luka’s

Luka is a store that caters to ex pats that is within walking distance of our home (flat).

[Derrill interrupting here - When I went out here, my instructions were to take pictures of everything at Luka's so Joy would have an idea what we could get out here and know what to pack and ship ourselves. I got some pretty funny looks, taking pictures of everything on the shelves. The bright side is, you get to see where we shop! Back to Joy]

One day last week I decided that I wanted some things there and didn’t want to wait until  Derrill went there again. He will go there after work some days and pick things up for us and then walk home, but he had a retreat and wasn’t going to be going again for a while.
It was the first time for me venturing out of our home by myself with our two children, so it was an adventure. I wrapped my carrier around me to carry Princess (I bought the material for the it Saturday at the market). Prince and I got on our shoes and we grabbed some money and we were off with a map from Derrill.
Luka’s is about a mile away from us. On my walk I thought it would be good to stop by other stands that I saw on the way, but I was too nervous to shop anywhere else, but Luka. We saw many people along the way. Princess slept the whole way. Prince said that he liked wearing shoes to the store. There was deep trench all along the road that we walked along and he also liked  it when there was a bridge across it and would jump onto it and say, “See mommy, I can cross” at every single one. I kept him from jumping onto the flimsy wooden ones, but it was fun to see him enjoy himself.
We made it to the store. I was hoping to find more fresh veggies that day, but I did get a pressure cooker to help out with cooking the meat. I am hoping it will help with the tenderness of the beef. I also got some needed eggs. When we bought the things a boy tried to carry my pressure cooker for me. They are used to helping us out to the car, but I told him we were walking and he put it down. You may wonder how I got our eggs home. They do not have covers for their egg containers and they are in a large flat. They tied another flat thing on top of the eggs and I put it in my backpack sideways. I was sure I would lose at least one egg, but I did not.
On the way home I carried the pan on my shoulder, while holding Prince’s hand with my other hand. My arms were getting tired, so I was grateful when about half way home an AUN shuttle stopped for us and offered us a ride home. Prince wanted to keep going, but I was ready to be done. So we got home without incident and it was interesting to see some of Nigeria outside of a car.

 -- Joy