I've been doing a bit more travelling around the country this week. The travel high point was a trip by helicopter today to a number of places including a local chief's palace and the village my dad where my dad was born. I took a couple of pics from the helicopter as well as on the ground and hope at least a few of them come out OK.

Below are a couple more random thoughts that have crossed my mind during this trip since my previous post

• The proliferation of mobile phones is even more significant than I thought. I had assumed it was a city thing since the phones I saw folks with were in Abuja (current capital) and Lagos (former capital). However visiting less developed areas also have shown a high proliferation of mobile technology. In my dad's village I saw both a pay-as-you-go booth for MTN, a local mobile service provider, as well as a kiosk where a enterprising local entrepeneurs were renting out uses of their phones at 20 naira a call (about $0.15)

• When I was growing up it was common practice for local businessmen to sell products that had been unsafe for public use in developed countries. It seems we now have a new government body called NAFDAC whose job is to act as the Nigerian version of the FDA. NAFDAC has been so effective that there have been multiple attempts on the life of the head of the organization by pissed off business owners whose products she's taken off the market.

• The only thing scarier than being in a speeding car in typical Lagos or Abuja traffic is being driven in a speeding car in Lagos or Abuja traffic with an in-dashboard DVD player which is showing hip hop videos with half naked chicks dancing seductively. I kept wondering if the driver could keep his eyes on the road. That's it. Next time I come here, I'm walking everywhere.  

• As I expected the common questions from family and extended family were when I'm going to show up with a future spouse and when I'm going back to school. What I didn't expect was so many people asking when I became such a fat ass. In hindsight, I should have expected it given that I haven't seen some of these folks in almost a decade and I've put on dozens of pounds since then. I definitely need to get back in shape.