Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove, Nigeria

Hello all! One more July post! Yayy!! I am sitting in my garden tonight, cos finally at this hour I can catch some breath...it's been a terribly hot day...and I seem to be less and less tolerant to heat and am having a hard time dealing with it, with it leaving me completely dysfunctional...I dont know if it comes with age or what but I used to be able to bear such temperatures much better... Speaking of age...heh, yesterday I leveled up...yep, Happy Birthday to me :D For a change, I didn't spend this birthday somewhere outside the town/country as I usually do..it just didnt work out this time...but I cant complain..it was a nice day I must admit, even though it felt odd cos I somehow have gotten used to 'running away' on that day...plus the choco-waffle in the evening was yumm yumm yummie...I just cant believe it I am 34 already...no wonder I cannot tolerate heat anymore...and alcohol :P

Anyways, enough ranting, lets check out some nice postcards for today, with the first one coming from Nigeria...it's been a while since I've posted a Nigerian card, so here we go..

Even though sent in September, this card arrived in January....after a journey of 4 months more or less...strange are the postal routes, aren't they?
The dense forest of the Osun Sacred Grove, on the outskirts of the city of Osogbo, is one of the last remnants of primary high forest in southern Nigeria. Regarded as the abode of the goddess of fertility Osun, one of the pantheon of Yoruba gods, the landscape of the grove and its meandering river is dotted with sanctuaries and shrines, sculptures and art works in honour of Osun and other deities. The sacred grove, which is now seen as a symbol of identity for all Yoruba people, is probably the last in Yoruba culture. It testifies to the once widespread practice of establishing sacred groves outside all settlements..

and another important thing, it is on the UNESCO whs list!! :)

the stamp is from a set of 10 hologram definitive issued in 2010

Cultural Dance, Nigeria

This past week has been an odd one, esp. mail-wise..my postman was practically ignoring me.....to the extent i started getting paranoid, since I knew a lot of mail was supposed to be coming my way, but i was receiving NOTHING....i even started wondering if maybe my postman had retired and a new one was put at his place who was too inexperienced to deal with my mail...everyday I come home and first thing i do is check the mailbox, and it's empty...on Monday and Tuesday i somehow didnt bother too much...but then Wednesday, nothing again..Thursday, nothing again...Friday...empty....i was already stressed enough with work and at least i hoped that some mail would cheer me up, but no....on the whole contrary...and Saturday was promising to be the same...but I guess my prayers were heard sometime after 2pm, coz thats when the postman had most probably dropped by and also dropped a plentiful of mail....or in other words, almost 30 cards, few covers and bunch of stamps!! *happy dance* Yay, at last!!! The only problem with such bulks is that in the end i dont even know what it is all that i received and takes really long to message everyone...and im still in the process of doing that....

And one of the cards that arrived yesterday is this one from Nigeria, showing a typical Nigerian dance. Irena, the sender of the card, says she doesnt like the modern Nigerian dancing coz it is not as interesting as the traditional one, which is something different and has a point.
Well, Im not familiar with Nigerian dances, but I think that on the overall i would usually prefer the traditional ones too, coz they tell more about the roots of the culture and simply, they are traditional.

two stamps on the card, with a smudged cancellation...the one on the right is from a set of 8 definitives issued in 2001, while the other one was issued in 2009, regarding the South African Football Worldcup.

Dabai, Nigeria

it's weekend time! which means its update time! though if we are to be fair, 7 days ago was also a weekend time and i should have made an update already, but taken all the circumstances in account, id be happy if i manage this one...time is just not on my side...but thanks for still dropping by every now and then to check if there are some news...

and since i had to have a time gap here, i thought it would be nice to give this blog a treat with a new country...which is also not one of those countries i thought id have a chance to have a card from, written and stamped, any time soon...but i actually have two now ;) So here comes the first one...
It shows a Local Market in the Dabai Village in Nigeria, where Markets of this kind are very common in Nigeria, as well as Africa in general...if we are to assess the hygiene factor, im not sure i would give this place a high-rank...but i guess thats how these markets work..
My whole Nigeria-postcard thing didnt start off very nice, but fortunately, ended up well...and im happy to actually have two written and stamped Nigerian cards...since due to politics, i almost gave up on them, but here we were able to fix the misunderstanding and send each other cards.
Ok, i wont pretend that im full of knowledge about Nigeria....coz im not....i still dont know why i admit such stuff publicly though...
Nigeria is said to be the most populous country in Africa and as well the most popular 'black' country in the world with over 150 million people living there. But believe it or not, in Nigeria, the human rights are still at a very poor level and many abuses are done from the side of the government officials. As some of the most significant human rights' problems are considered to be: extrajudicial killings and use of excessive force by security forces; impunity for abuses by security forces; arbitrary arrests; prolonged pretrial detention; judicial corruption and executive influence on the judiciary; rape, torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of prisoners, detainees and suspects; harsh and life‑threatening prison and detention center conditions; human trafficking for the purpose of prostitution and forced labor; societal violence and vigilante killings; child labor, child abuse and child sexual exploitation; female genital mutilation (FGM); domestic violence; discrimination based on sex, ethnicity, region and religion; restrictions on freedom of assembly, movement, press, speech and religion; infringement of privacy rights; and the abridgement of the right of citizens to change the government.

unbelievable...

the stamp on the right was issued in 2004 and comes from a set of 4 under the subject of Children's Postage Stamp Designs - Education the Great Liberator (Umaru Jessica). The other one was issued in 2007 regarding the  the 24th UPU (Universal Postal Union) Congress in Nairobi 2008. It shows a man and a woman and the caption reads South-South Zone Costume.