It is very hard to express why life is so very hard in Lagos. It is so all-consuming that it's impossible to make comparisons or look at the situation objectively. It is hard to remember what life is like elsewhere, as the body sets its airbag to the Lagos setting and forgets what kind of defense system other places require. I haven't been to the interior of Nigeria, so I don't know what life is like in more rural places; life in the village is often a lot harder than life in the city. But Lagos is a beast, and I can't imagine that life elsewhere can be more difficult.

The state of decay that is found all over the tropics is somehow more obvious in Lagos. There are so many people that a bout of heavy rain can cause the most tremendous chaos. Yesterday I was 12 hours trying to get home from friends, stopping for a short lunch on the way and then having to take shelter at The Shrine to wait for the rain to stop. Lorries burnt out their clutch cables stopping and starting in slow traffic up the hill to Akute, passers-by forced to act as vigilante traffic wardens in order to clear up the mess at crossroads. The generator ran out of fuel; muck and air was sucked up into it. A bolt snapped during being repaired, the metal had completely rusted. Now it is well and truly bust.

People in Lagos go to church in a big way. This morning I was allowed a lie-in, the woman who warms the crowd up before the pastor arrives didn't get screeching over her megaphone until 9.45am. Until 2pm, the entire neighbourhood was filled with the excruciating shouts of people trying to improve their lives through god. What would improve life is some infrastructure; people would be less infuriated and shout less.