First Few Days

The first week is almost over – I can’t believe it. We’ve had a great few days of exploration and cultural exposure.
Touring around:
On the Sunday after our arrival we went to a Drill monkey sanctuary in the middle of the city. This sanctuary has been created to care of Drill monkeys (a species of monkey native to the area) and chimps being hunted and treated badly. The chimp in the photo had her legs broken so she could be used as a photo prop. Monkeys, like humans will not readily climb into a stranger’s arms – they need to get to know the person before making physical contact. Since there is not time to get to know one another in a photo shoot, the monkey's legs were broken so the wounds could be squeezed as a way to “convince” the monkey to go into the stranger’s arms as requested. Unfortunately this is a fairly common practice.

After the Monkey sanctuary we toured around the city getting to know our surroundings a little better and seeing how the people of Nigeria live. We went into the older parts of Calabar where the living conditions were drastically different from the area around our hotel. The structures were far smaller and made of wood and thatch in some cases as opposed to the brick building in and around our hotel.

There are some traffic lights at major intersections in the city but none of then are operational – probably due to the lack of reliable electricity in the city. Instead there are traffic police positioned in the middle of the road and traffic circles in other places. In the center of most of the traffic circles in the city there are sculptures similar to the photo of the crossed feet attached which symbolizes relaxation. We also took a picture of the team in front of a sculpture of a pair of hands touching the ground to symbolizing peace - see photo(from left to right: Jolanta, CSC rep, Hugo, George from IBM Nigeria, me, Georgia, Yvonne, Abi, Kristina, Ryan, Henri, Tim had not arrived yet).
We also went to a Slave Museum, which provided a very realistic and moving account of the slave trade between West Africa and the US. We were provided with information from the beginning of the journey in Africa as volumes of people died in transport to the ports, to the horrifying conditions on the boats. On the boats slaves were packed on shelves side by side horizontally for the entire trip, only given a sprinkle of water through a hole in the roof, and made to defecate and urinate under themselves since they could not stand (the roof was only a few feet from the floor). After months at sea in these conditions of course only few survived. Even after thousands dyeing during ground transportation across Africa and then thousands more during boat transport across the ocean - they were then sometimes sold for one measly bottle of whiskey. For me the museum was comparable to Auschwitz in Poland in terms of the horrifying way one group of humans treated another group of people. It was a very moving visit that numbed our entire group for the next few hours.

Meeting our clients:
That evening we were invited to Ann’s house – our Nigeria logistics coordinator – for dinner. The evening was very interesting because of the exposure to authentic local food and the fact that we finally met our clients for the first time. It was very interesting meeting the Commissioner of the Ministry of Social Welfare and Community Development – our client. She was very warm – laughing a lot, a lot of physical contact, grabbing our arm, hugging us and talking about how happy she was to see us and have us helping her ministry. This first contact with our client was very customary for Nigerians – a lot more physical contact and warmth than what I am use to in my business meetings.

Introduction to local food:
Regarding the food: my favorite food was Moi Moi made by Jane - also one of the wonderful people in Calabar making our stay more comfortable - see photo of Jane in a great Nigerian outfit. Moi Moi is a local food composed of crushed beans and spices wrapped in a banana leaf. Very flavorful. I also tried bush meet which was interesting. They have a lot of rice in Nigeria cuisine (coconut rice, fried rice and tomato rice seem to be the popular ones). There was also grilled fish, chicken and goat – all very spicy and tasty. Meat and carbohydrates seem to be the main staple of Nigeria cuisine – veggies are not very common and everything is heavily spiced – far spicier than the food in Bangalore.

First day of work:
The next day we started our first day of work. I was very anxious – it felt like my first day of school. Our client – the Commissioner of the Ministry of Social Welfare and Community Development is a very auspicious woman with a strong presence - you know when she has entered a room. She is one commissioner among approximately 10-15 under His Excellency, Senator Liyel Imoke (the governor of Cross River State – the most south western state in Nigeria). There are about 4-5 women in the cabinet of the governor. I am starting to see that women are quite progressive in Nigeria and can be seen in high level positions of authority throughout the country.

She was very grateful and appreciative of us being there to help. We were able to meet with her and direct reports to get to know the leaders of each. Everyone was very gracious. We were told to simply knock on anyone’s door at anytime with any questions. We were also provided with a very comfortable office – very spacious, air conditioned with brand new furniture and computers as well as our own bathroom – we were being treated like royalty. We later found out the office actually belonged to one of the Commissioners’ cabinet members who was displaced to another smaller office for the month we would be helping out. We felt terrible….totally unnecessary….

As the days progressed – true to their word, we really could knock on any door and sit down for 2 hours sometimes and pick someone’s brains about the ins and outs of the two projects we were here to work on. The project names are HOPE and Comfort – both with missions as grand as their titles. Hope stands for “Health Opportunities for People Everywhere” and will deliver a free healthcare solution for pregnant women and children under the age of 5. Project Comfort is a conditional cash transfer program for vulnerable household where by a constant supply of money and vocational skills training is delivered to a needy household. Here is a link to an article on the two initiatives:
http://allafrica.com/stories/200909140860.html

My project mate – Georgia from Australia (see photo of Georgia in our office) and I will be developing a communication strategy and step-by step data collection manual for both projects. We are coming into the ministry after another team of two IBMers from the US and Germany helped with Change Management training and the first steps of the communication strategy and report templates for Projects Hope and Comfort.

It is really amazing what IBM is doing here in Nigeria – the services we are offering are full fledged IBM offerings at a very good price – free. While at the same time all of us IBMers are here long enough to really gain some strong foundational knowledge about the Nigeria culture and people.

Some observation:
• To date there is very little technology in Calabar and what technology they do have is very choppy with some pockets moving far faster than others. For example, there is wireless internet in our hotel while at the same time most of the day to day dealing in the hotel as well as in the Ministry are done with paper and pen. At the ministry they are currently going through fall plan (just like us back home) and all their budgetary planning documents are hand written. If a page has an error - they rewrite the page. On the other hand the bio data collection associated with project Hope and Comfort are done via finger print readers and electronic cards outfitted with computer chips. Even in the most remote area of Cross River State the Ministry is planning on eventually ensuring that every person has a unique biodata card and their personal information is stored on a central database that can be updated and accesses across the entire state in any health clinic as needed. All the health clinics no matter how remote will be connected into a single network repository for easy report generation and data analysis. This is all in the introductory stages but they are in fact moving surprisingly fairly quick given all the adverse conditions they are facing (e.g., no roads, electricity – using solar energy, schools, running water, etc.)
• It has been interesting working with women in positions of authority – not only is the Commissioner a female – so are many members of her cabinet including the person that owns Projects Hope and Comfort – women are really making incredible headway in the workforce here in Calabar.

• It has been interesting to notice the lack of garbage on the streets of Calabar. There is far more garbage on the streets in my neighborhood in NYC as compared to here
• The air pollution is heavy in Calabar from cars and motorcycles with no emissions controls and also from the diesel generators used as a power back-up when the electricity goes down. Most businesses have their own diesel generator to provide back-up power when the electricity goes out (happens at least a few times everyday). Wealthier homes also have their own generators
• The local taxi’s are actually motorcycles with the driver wearing an orange safety vest to distinguish himself from other motorcycle drivers. We have been told we are not allowed to get onto one of these taxis because they are unsafe and constantly in accidents. Instead a minivan from the government has been given to us for the month.
• The major roads are paved in Calabar, the side streets are unpaved red clay with many potholes and bumps

• The local beer is called STAR and is generally served in a very large bottle (about the size of two regular beer bottles)
• Everything involving food and drink seems to be super sized here. The portions are enormous. For example, when you order a juice you get a full 1 liter box of juice - not just a glass.

• It is very humid and warm in Calabar – and we are currently at the tail end of the rainy season but there are still patches of rain and the air in always really wet. The average temperature is about 80 degrees F
• There are not many mosquitoes right now which is not what we were expecting. There are mosquito nets on each of our beds in our rooms and we are all on a strict regiment of malaria medication and mosquito repellant with at least 30% DEET. Slight overkill for right now – but I guess it is better to be safe than sorry

• I asked the Commissioner of Safety and Security about the “dash” – he said this was something Nigeria’s give the police at road blocks as a thanks for all their hard work ensuring criminals are detained. He also stated it is not something foreigners are expected to pay. Interesting local perspective and answer from the security leader of the area...a little different from what the documentation I read said about the "dash" (see first blog entry)