Encounters - 1

Sometimes i get really lazy and cant be bothered to write. For a few months - actually close to a year, i have been toying with wirting about encounters.

Living in Lagos means that i witness or experience the most interesting things. Some of them are funny, some are sad, some inspiring, some just defy logic.....you get what i mean.

So i have decided to capture some of the ones that touch me for different reasons on my blog....

Today, on Awolowo Road on the way to work - traffic was crawling as it usually does at that time. Lastma officials were everywhere and doing their best to at least make the situation sane (and they were succeeding).

Near the Lagos Polo Club, the Lagos State Waste Management Agency officials were taking away the thrash. And i was watching them thinking to myself. Thinking about how the little steps that are being taken in Lagos are making a difference. We have thrash collectors and Lastma...

Then a group of kids - 2 girls and 4 boys walked past the waste management folks. They were on their way to school. All neatly dressed in their school uniforms and gisting away. They were young teens with the oldest in my mind not being older than 14.

By the gas station up ahead was a mad woman. Well she was carrying all the baggage in the world, talking (screaming) to the heavens and marching puposefully on the way to ..well somewhere i guess.

All of a sudden, the mad woman begins to run towards the kids. The waste management people stop and watch her. Wondering i am sure, like i was where she was running to. As she got closer to the kids, it became clear that she was actually heading for them. At that point, the waste management folks shouted at the kids to move. Almost in slow motion (at least that's the way this played out for me), the kids all turned around (i am sure they wanted to see what all the shouting was about). Bus conductors and a few drivers started to scream at the kids, toot their horns...maybe to distract the mad woman, maybe to warn the kids...just doing something..who knows.

Mad woman extracts a long club like wooden object from the bag she was carrying and smashed this on one of the boys' heads. Boy's head begins to bleed. I swear we were all shocked. People started to shout. The kids looked stunned. One of the waste management people quickly ran to the boy and put his hand over the wound. Somebody selling pure water opened a pack and poured it over the boy's head. All of a sudden, the Lastma officials start running down. Mad woman crosses the road and continues to scream at the heavens and people are clearing from her way.

The Lastma officials run to the boy, look across the road and see the mad woman walking away. One of them brings out his walkie talkie and talks into it. Meanwhile, i am wondering why one of the Lastma people wont go and apprehend the woman. Suddenly, a few armed policemen (they must have come from the Falomo police station not too far from where this incident took place) show up. 3 of them. They corner the woman. Who begins to swing at them with her stick and the policemen are doing this weird dance - trying to dodge her swings, while trying to grab her.

At that point, traffic moved.....

I was shaken.

There are no wise words or insights to share. This is just an encounter......