Travel to Lagos, Nigeria in 2024 and visit Makoko stilted water village, the largest water slum in the world with over 250,000 people. Fishermen here live in wooden houses over raw sewage and get around in wooden canoes. They call it "The Venice of Africa", but the sanitary conditions are far from what you see in Italy. Yet the people of Makoko seem happy. This was an eye-opening and humbling experience.

I took a Makoko boat tour on the trash filled water and visited the son of the chief of Makoko, who runs a school over the water. Then I watched the men return from fishing (past the mainland bridge where the water is clean) and give their catch to the ladies who smoke and sell the fish on the mainland. The most popular fish they catch is called Kpanla, a gold colored freshwater fish.

I also visited the village bar on stilts and drank Trophy beer and Nigerian whiskey with the locals then caught a beautiful sunset before making one big misstep and landing in the water.

OOPS!