I love my life.
When many would travel to the most beautiful cities in the world to take pictures around beautiful monuments, I take myself to one of the poorest slums in Lagos and photograph myself on a heap of rubbish with a smile on my face, knowing at that very moment there's no place I'd rather be.
In our mag FM&B, we have a page we call street life. Like the name indicates, it's about life on the streets of Lagos and the way of life of Lagosians. In the last edition, we did the area boys and street kids, this time we decided to go to a place called Makoko. I'd been hearing about this poor slum for a long time, but never been there until yesterday.
I'll try my best to explain this community to you guys.
Makoko is a small community in the Yaba Local Government area of Lagos State. Majority of the people who live there are the Ilajes and the Eguns, from the Western part of Nigeria. Their main occupation is fishing. It figures 'cos they live on water.
This place is probably worse than any place you've ever seen. You won't understand the depth of poverty there until you visit and see for yourself. But I'll try to make you all understand a little of the terrible living conditions of the Makoko residents. Thankfully I have a few pictures to show you guys.
This is how they live...their homes are made of wood and built on water. When it rains, well you and I can only imagine their plight...
This is how they move from one part of the community to the other...via a little boat. Walking long distances is usually not advisable, except you're a good swimmer because the planks they use to construct their bridges aren't very strong and could give way at any minute.
If you want to go from one section of the community to another and don't want to go via the boat, maybe because you're not going very far, then you can cross this 'bridge'. It's a single plank that can break at any minute.
This is their kitchen.
Behind me is their bathroom. The bathroom is also built on water and not very private. If you cared to, you could see a naked person having a bath. As for their toilet, how can I describe it? Let me try...let's just say they do it in the water.
This is their playground, on a pile of rubbish
This is their only source of drinking water.
Now if you look at this picture closely, you will see a little girl peeping on your extreme right. You see how close she is to falling into the gutter?
Here's the little girl again with another little one. See how close they are to the gutter? And there's no one around checking on them. One of the residents we spoke with said they've had cases of children falling into the gutters. Some of them survive it, some don't.
Talking to some of the residents of Makoko
Despite their living conditions, the residents of this community are friendly, helpful and very accommodating.
With some of the guys I work with. Oteri Agboro, Myself, Gbemi Mowarin and Santiago T Roberts.
When I say be grateful for the life you have, I don't say it because I want to talk, I say it because of what I've seen and experienced. Yesterday I saw a little boy pick something up from the dump and put in his mouth. The moment was not caught on camera but I saw it and watched helplessly as he chewed and swallowed whatever it was.
When you close your eyes at night and hate your life because you can't afford the latest BMW, or you can't send your children to the most expensive schools, or your job isn't paying as much, please think of the people of this community who will trade places with you in a second, and be thankful for what you have.
Despite the poverty, deprivation and suffering we witnessed yesterday, my friends and I still find reason to smile...
So yes I love my life.
Thoughts?
