Calabar - "Come & Live and Be At Rest"

I am really going to struggle with this blog. There is so much to write about and I don’t have vocabulary to articulate it all. However, I will make a valiant effort to describe our first weekend in Calabar. :p

Ganesh (US), Albert (Phillipines), Heesoek (Sth Korea), KJ (India), Tetsuya and the 3 Australians (Ian, Fiona and myself) all arrived in Dubai for our connecting flight to Lagos. It was a fun moment as we acquainted ourselves face-to-face after all those late night conferences and sametimes.

On arrival in Lagos, we were met with chaos, queues and Mr Wales. There was no real system to any of the queues or baggage collection. We nervously waited for all our luggage at the carousel and I am happy to report, everything went very smoothly. We even had a round of applause for Fiona’s red bag of shoes.

Mr Charles drove us and all our luggage to the domestic terminal where he had to pay hefty fees for all the excess baggage. This was my first experience of “African time.” Our flight to Calabar was delayed for an hour and there was no announcement. Sit and wait, live in the moment.

My first impressions of Calabar are from the air and what a sight of captivating beauty – lush green rainforests with the Cross River weaving through it. It was initially established as a port for the slave trade during the 17th century and following that, the major port for Palm oil trading. The weather is hot, humid with a chance of light drizzle every day.

We were met at the airport by the very lovely Sara and Jane who took us to what will be home for the next month – Axari Hotel. The rest of the team had arrived earlier in the day from Abuja, Bernd (Germany), Boris (Hungary), Ashley (US) and Lekshmy (US). Again, a lot of curiosity and fun getting to know everyone over dinner. We were pretty tired after 30+ hours of travelling but the body is a most resilient engine running on adrenaline and excitement.

I should state that our hotel is fairly kick-arse. Our team half-jokingly talked about not blogging about our conditions in order to let imaginations run wild and drum up some sympathy. However, we are staying in an affluent part of town and are spoilt. We have a large bed, cable tv (keeping current with CNN), aircon (although mine has decided to stop working today), wireless internet (albeit very slow when 12 people try to connect simultaneously), hot water and so far, fingers crossed, electricity. The electricity has only gone out twice but the generator kicks in about 2 secs later. We also have a pool and gym though none of the 4 treadmills are working.

Day 1 in Calabar started with Health and Security Briefings by Dr Joseph Ana and the Head of Special Services. Anyone concerned for my safety has nothing to fear – we are being very well looked after here. In fact, we must inform our local host, Ann, of all our movements so necessarily security is in place. Also, Cross River State is the safest state in Nigeria which will play a large part in the development of tourism. The only issue with tourism is that its been slow as the infrastructure cannot support it - the roads are rough and poor, electricity cuts out often and there is very little public transportation. Its hard for domestic tourists to visit when they can go to Ghana for the same price and have electricity.

In terms of health care, our main issue will be malaria here. I will remember to take my weekly pills as mosquitoes absolutely love me. Even with my crazy 80% DEET repellent, I have attracted quite a few bites. As a side note about healthcare in the state and Nigeria as a whole – the main issue is healthcare is unaffordable for the majority of Nigerians. This is currently being addressed by the state through initiatives such as Project Hope - a free health care system for pregnant women and children under five. In fact, IBM was awarded a commercial contract this year to continue with work from Nigeria Team 2’s recommendation to Ministry of Social Welfare and Community Development. Georgia Watson from IBM Melbourne will be working on this next month (or whenever visa is sorted). Congratulations Georgia!

We also went through per diem/cell phone distribution and had a discussion around doing business in Nigeria. Topics of discussion included how to organise successful meetings, the importance of respect and titles, avoid using the left hand for pointing, shaking etc. I will be tested when we start work on Monday and I hope I remember everything!

We took a walk around our surroundings after lunch at the hotel running into some pretty damn cute local children who greet us with shy but cheerful waves. It was also where we suffered our first (and I hope only) casualty! Tetsuya was crossing the main road and took a tumble injuring himself fairly badly on the elbow and knee. He was cleaned up, an xray was taken on Sunday and no dislocation, thank god.

For dinner that night our generous host, Ann Oden, prepared a Nigerian feast under a marquee at her house for the IBM team to meet their clients. It was a fun-filled night to talk personal, business, political matters and of course, football (soccer). There was also some dancing. It was really interesting and insightful to hear the strategic vision of the different Commissioners of the Ministries.

The food was fantastic and I will dedicate a whole post to the local cuisine later down the track but as a teaser, I am absolutely loving the spicy pepper fish and moi moi.

On Sunday, day 2, we started the day with registration at the Calabar Women and Children Hospital (yes, they also help men in case you were wondering) and then going to the supermarket to stock up on supplies. Supplies for me roughly translates to chocolate and biscuits  . My colleagues picked up a variety of things including sandals, coffee, electrolyte drinks. We had lunch at Crunchies (a fast food joint) – I had a chicken pie and fries.

After lunch, we took a tour of Calabar. There is no real downtown or city centre. There are just landmarks scattered throughout the city.

Hopping into our mini-bus, a local guide called Charles took us to Drill Ranch. Drills are one of Africa’s most endangered primates. The drills were recovered as orphans after their nursing mothers were illegally shot for bushmeat. It was fascinating to hear from the very inspiring and passionate ,Liza Gadsby, one of the two US biologists who set up the ranch 22 years ago, on the challenges of running the place. The ranch runs on about meagre $US150k a year with a staff of 40 and 10% of the world’s drill population! Funding is a real issue. It was a delight to see the drills, chimpanzees, crocodiles and dogs playing together. The ranch has morphed into a vet clinic as well. For more information and how to donate to this worthy cause, please visit www.pandrillus.org.

Next stop was a very short visit to the Calabar Museum situated on the hill overlooking the waterfront, in the Old Government House, the former residence of the colonial governor. The building was designed and built in Glasgow and shipped over in pieces. The museum concentrates on the history of Calabar, the region and slavery. We took photos of a British telephone box, canons and a very old motorcycle!

Our final stop, the Slave History Museum. The museum tells the sobering story of the estimated 15 millions slaves sold from Africa to the New World. It’s really a heartbreaking and important story.

I have much more to write but tonight is an early one as I have been only getting 5 hours of sleep a night. It’s actually really comfy in the room but my internal body clock springs me into action at 6am every morning despite being up to 1am the previous night! Also, the heat and humidity makes me quite lethargic by the end of day. The other thing I am keeping an eye on is hydration. We had about 12 Litres of water delivered to our rooms so I need to make sure I keep on drinking.

I hope I’ve been able to describe a little of what I’m experiencing here to share with all.

Tomorrow, we will all be picked up by our drivers in the morning to take us to our offices for the next 4 weeks! I’m nervous, excited and will write in due course about my experiences with doing business in Calabar!