Week 4 - Nov 2

The last week was manic. We had our final presentation with the Governor and his Commissioners and Special Advisors on Wednesday. It went very well. We all presented our final summaries of the work we had done over the past month and then His Excellency commented on our work. He stated that he was very impressed and felt we had done the work of 1000 Nigeria’s in the short month we were in town. He also decided to invite us to his home for dinner the next day as a token of his appreciation. The dinner was surreal – we felt like kings (see visual above of Georgia and I in His Excellency's waiting room in his house). It was so extremely rewarding to get to know the great man behind the admirable projects Georgia and I had been working on. There were even a couple of us who stayed behind for a few minutes to talk in a little more depth with His Excellency about his legacy. The evening was truly unreal.

The next morning it was time to head out to Lagos where a few of us were scheduled to do a press conference discussing IBMs CSC work. Lagos was a big city that felt fairly safe and had a lot of diversity - see visual above of Lagos street scene. We had a nice time there doing a bit of touring around and visiting of one more village on an island where we handed out a few of our last little gifts to children - see visual below of children with Canada hacky sacks.

In the end it was extremely emotional departure – half of us were going to Lagos and the other half were leaving though Abuja. In the few moths we had gotten to know each other and then incidence such as Ryan getting Malaria – we all managed to grown VERY close to each other. In fact I felt like I had acquired 9 new brothers and sisters over the course of a few short weeks. On that last day it was like I was being ripped apart from my family – it was horrifying and extremely painful. We all cried a lot in those last few hours – the good-byes were torture and exhausting. It was an incredible adventure that created an unbelievable bond that can never be broken. I am sure the 10 of us will meet up again in the future.

In addition the work was absolutely amazing – I have never felt so fulfilled and useful in my life. I truly felt like I had made a difference in people lives that could not have made the difference on their own. This experience has been the most rewarding work I have ever done.

Week 3 - Oct 26

This week Georgia and I started running our deliverables by different parts of the Ministry to get their feedback and buy-in. Georgia was also leading a video recording effort where we wanted to go out to a few of the Primary Heath Care centers to talk to real people using the two programs we were helping execute (see visual above of child in one of the facilities). Again this experience was surreal. We manager to visit 3 facilities – two in Calabar, and one on the outskirts of the city. The facilities were probably some of the better ones in the state – and still very difference from the health facilities we were use to in our own countries (see visual below of clinic room). Everything is tracked manually on posters in each of these facilities and thus the need for a centralized IT network to help improve this documentation and delivery system.

After talking to a few beneficiaries in person Georgia started working with the local radio and television station to help edit the video to create a short documentary type testimonial on the Free Healthcare and Cash Transfer services that could be shared with others to motivate them to go ahead and use the service. The work Georgia did with the radio station was really an eye opener into doing business in Nigeria – for example, every step along the way it is necessary to provide a “dash” to get the next step completed. There was a small tip needed to use the studio, then the editor needed a dash, then the video guy needed a dash, and so on and so forth. In addition – everyone needed to be monitored in person for anything to get done. If Georgia created a list of request and left stating she would be back in a few hours to check on things and answer any questions – nothing would get done until she came back.

Another lesson for us in terms of language was the need to speak extremely slowly if you had any other accent besides the American accent. The US accent is readily understood despite their own local form of English – the largest reason for understanding the American accent is because they are exposed to American TV. Any other person – Georgia included (from Australia) needed to speak extremely slowly to be effectively understood.

One night this week we also went to a FIFA match. This was a large 2 week soccer match between different countries. About 15 minutes into the game is started to drizzle a little. Unknown to us (the 10 of us were seated under a semi covered part of the arena) it started to rain a little harder and as it started to get stronger people from the uncovered parts of the arena started to rush to our side – it was a little unnerving to begin with – but after a while it became apparent that nobody was going to get violent – see U tube video Georgia took: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8R03cHiiqM

This week Georgia and I were also invited out to dinner by Edak our Commissioner which was very kind of her. We went to the Chinese restaurant at the Mirage hotel – it was spectacular! The food was amazing as was the décor and the service. We ate huge tiger prawn which were some of the freshest prawns I have ever had since they are fished right out of the close waters and brought in fresh (there is a lack of reliable refrigeration so a lot of sea food is really fresh). We also had a seafood soup that was amazing as were the mixed veggie and rice dishes. This meal was a little different than the usual meal in Calabar which consists of grilled fish and plantain - see visual above. There is also generally a lot of spice in the food in Nigeria - see the visual below of sticks of street meat being covered in chilly spice.


It was also a scary week because we found out that Ryan contracted Malaria, as did Georgia potentially - on the same day we found out about these two tragedies Tim passed out and fell to the ground - there were a lot of visits to the hospital that night.

Week 2 - Oct 19

This week started out with work and the need to have at least the first drafts of most of our deliver ables completed. At the end of the week we were being given a treat, His Excellency – the Governor of Cross River State was sending all of us to a famous tourist destination called the Obudu Ranch (see group shot above). It was a surreal experience. We traveled via an armored caravan (see visual below of guards) to the ranch via mini bus along a poorly paved road through the country side of Cross River State for about 8 hours. We stopped along the way at a waterfall and were able to interact with some of the people in the village we stopped at. The people and villages along this trip were an eye opener compared to the life we had experienced so far in the city of Calabar. There was a lot more poverty in the country side – this was the way most of Cross River State was living. These were the people that were most desperate for the Social Safety Net programs the Ministry of Social Welfare were in the midst of creating. These were the pregnant women and children who were not surviving. It was here that so many of the people could not get themselves 3 square meals a day or proper health treatment. When hearing about 75% of the 3.89 million people in Cross River State living on less than $1/day – it was this population being referenced. When hearing about nearly 20% of all maternal women and children dieing – it was this part of the State those statistics were coming from. It was this trip that really put all these numbers into perspective and really instilled a sense of urgency into the work we were doing. For every day that Project’s HOPE and Comfort were not 100% operational – thousands more women and children were dieing. I wanted to really help make a difference – this was my time to help people who really needed the help. These were the people who really could not do it on their own.

The social safety nets being created with projects HOPE and Comfort are the first of their kind across all of Cross River State – the other 30 odd states in the country were all waiting and watching to see how these would look after launch. This was the Governor’s chance to really make a difference – not just in Cross River State – but across the entire country since the other states would follow suit if His Excellency does well. In turn if Nigeria pulls off these two programs effectively – every other developing nation will be watching and wanting to learn from their success.

The trip to the ranch was very inspirational and really made me want to help the government with this great initiative.

In addition to really opening my eyes from a socio-economic perspective – the Ranch itself was an oasis of beauty. It was nestled in a fairly remote hilly region of Nigeria where the temperature is a solid 10 degrees cooler than the rest of Cross River State. We needed to wear long pants and long sleeves as opposed to constantly sweating in Calabar.

We arrived at the ranch late at night on Friday so were not fully aware of our surroundings until waking up the next morning to a completely different world. It was like we literally left the country and were on the outskirts of the Canadian Rocky mountains or something. In addition – the resort was absolutely decadent – to the point that I felt guilty even being there after everything we had seen along the way up.

After breakfast we were shown around the grounds. We did a little walking, saw some beautiful little waterfalls, saw the Governor accommodations (not recently used) the helicopter pad (again not frequently used) and finally a small village where some of the employees lived – again bringing us back to the reality of the health and food situation in Nigeria. The contrast between rich and poor was again astonishing and eye opening. These sorts of comparisons were a clear illustration of how Nigeria is the 8th largest exporter of oil in the world and yet it is also the 20th poorest nation in the world. There is a VERY small portion if the Nigerian population that is extremely wealth while the rest of the country is desperately in the need of a social safety net and health, education (see visual of school house above), and cash transfer programs.

That evening we had dinner in the central dining hall and retired to one of the ranch bungalows to relax with each other. The next morning we started out early on the gondola out of the ranch and back into our mini bus to begin the journey back to Calabar. Along the way home we stopped in the jungle to get a true feel for the humid underbelly and the rainforest. We climbed up into the canopy walkways were we crossed from tree to tree via an interconnected sidewalk in the sky (see visual above). The experience was fantastic and beautiful – to be many feet above the ground moving from tree to tree just like out cousins the monkeys!

After completing the 8 hour trip back we were all exhausted and filled full of a totally different perspective of Cross River State. Thank you Your Excellency!!

Week 1 - Oct 12

This was the first official week in Nigeria. It was a week of getting to know our work, the players, how things are done in Nigeria, what makes the people tick, etc. There were a lot of learning lessons.

Within this week we learned a lot about the hierarchy in the Ministry. For example, there was one day when the private toilet in our (the office Georgia and I shared) office would not flush and so I went out looking for another facility. I did manager to find a public bathroom - the interesting thing about the bathroom was the fact that each stall was labeled for a different rank within the office. The Commissioner had her own stall, and other ranks had their own....interesting....

Another thing that was interesting was the physical contact and pure raw emotion expressed in the work setting. Everyone is always yelling out how they love you – which to them is an expression of their appreciation for your presence. "I love you" is simply something said when there is a desire to say - "thank you for bieng here to help". In addition - instead of saying “welcome” everyone says “you’re welcome” - which was hard to adjust to initially because I constantly thought everyone was recognizing an unheard "thank-you".

There is also a lot of physical contact in Nigeria. As people are talking to you they are also generally holding your arm or shoulders in a lot of cases and giving you a lot of hugs. There is also a lot of laughter when speaking. Attached is picture of Georgia and I with Iquo - the women in charge or Projects HOPE and Comfort.

There are also a lot of references to God in many discussions – statements such as “God willing...such and such will occur”, “God will ensure we are taken care of”, etc. In this first week we also went to church to see what that was like. It was a very large gathering with a lot of speaking and loud prayer. The preacher was very passionate and the people were very responsive. It was a long ceremony that generally occurs in the very early morning (approx 7am Sunday) and then again a little later (appox 10am). Given the fact that Cross River State is predominately Christian there is little rivalry between competing religions. This is also a big reason why this state is so much more peaceful than a lot of the others states (in addition to the fact that there is no oil in Cross River State – the predominant product is agriculture).

It was also interesting to see how unknown IBM was in these regions. There is VERY little brand recognition – people know Microsoft, HP and Oracle – but not IBM. IBM still has very little presence in Nigeria at this point in time.

This first week we also went to a local market to see how things are bartered and sold. There were many skinny alleyways where everything from underwear to raw meat was sold - see visual of young girl at market above.