In Calabar there are a few nice hotels. Two of these, the Mirage and the Metropolitan, offer 'free' internet in their respective lobbies. The only condition to using this 'free' internet is the purchase of some kind of drinkable liquid available at the bar. Neither hotel advertises this arrangement with the public, but it seems that it is generally understood - especially for the white folk in town. The Mirage has come to view us as regulars - even though we've never spent the night, always with a computer bag shouldered. The only other 'consistent' place in town - legitimately - to get online is a place called HiTechPro. When we were introduced to HiTechPro, we were told that it was "the best and most reliable source" of internet in Calabar. Since that pronouncement and the excitement that followed (the craze of reliable internet), not surprisingly, HiTechPro's services have been down. So with the desire to post this blog update comes the inevitable reality of taking a motorbike to the Mirage - with our purple computer bag shouldered - requesting a Coke.
After our final day - Friday, July 9 - of cleaning the new One Sky Office/House we returned for the weekend (our last weekend) to the host family we have been staying with since our arrival in mid-June. It was definitely hard to believe that we would be moving out and living somewhere else in Calabar for the duration of our time in Nigeria. Our weekends, since living with the Ita's, have been comfortably secure in their routineness. Adam plays soccer with the Judge and his mates on Saturday morning (6:45a-9:00a) at the Africa Club, which is always followed by time spent in the bar, with a ridiculous amount of beer on hand (at 9:00a), discussing the ups and downs of the match as well as the local politics. Lots of laughing, hand shakes and back slaps. On Saturday afternoon, we typically walk around the neighborhood, go to the local market and then out to dinner at a local Chinese restaurant called, Happy Food. Most Saturday nights we are the only guests at Happy Food - and as soon as we walk in they already know what we are going to order. One night a couple weeks ago we watched the Michael Jackson Memorial Service on the four TVs hanging from the ceiling in the restaurant. Seemed a bit surreal to be in a Chinese restaurant, in Nigeria, watching MJ's funeral. On Sunday mornings we head to church with the rest of the family from 7:30a-11:30a, at an evangelical church called by three names, 1. The City of Testimonies, or 2. Christian Central Chapel International (CCCI), or 3. Faith Mansion Church. All names are the name - used interchangeably. Aside from being a solid place to worship and witness genuine state experiences - the music, singing and dancing are extraordinary. Plus, you never know what the Bishop is going to say....
After church on this particular Sunday - July 12 - we went to a place in Calabar named, Tinapa. Financed by debt and conceived by the former Governor, Donald Duke, Tinapa is meant to be a free trade zone - the one such place in all of Africa that was intended to draw business from all over the world to Calabar. When we went there, it was empty. Huge shopping centers without shop owners or shoppers. Two large film studios, with an overhead sign denoting it, 'Nollywood' - remain empty. A hotel, roads, baby palm trees, parking lots - hectares of space - all empty. In some people's eyes Tinapa is seen as failure - a colossal mistake that has shouldered the people of Calabar with epic amounts of debt. Others think it will pay itself off in time...in time. Perhaps both are correct, but in the short term the debt service payments alone are bankrupting the city of Calabar. Hard to believe a place like Tinapa even exists as an experiment in a state with as much need as Cross River. That evening, back at the Ita's - with the Big Gen running - we watched the second half of Ghost, and the full version of Snakes on a Plane. Wild times, in many ways, for our last evening staying at the Ita's home in State housing.
Monday, July 13th marked the beginning of our fourth week in Nigeria, and the day we moved into our new One Sky Office/House in Federal Housing, north of town. The building is clean, ready....and empty. Save for a bed, two chairs and two desks there isn't any other furniture in the house. In fact on our first day in the house, Kate had to go shopping for 2 plates, 2 forks, 2 mugs and so on. We have a wonderful housekeeper and cook, Blessing. She worked for One Sky many years ago and is totally accustomed to cooking for Westerners - which means french fries, omelets, fried rice, lots of fruit, toast and tea. She is wonderful and has been super flexible with our diets and desires. Our guards, Solomon and Stephen are amazing as well. They alternate - weekly - working from 6a-6p and 6p-6a. Consequently there is always a guard on duty, watching the front gate and recording all visitors before, during and after office hours (9a-5p). They take care of the grounds and manage all One Sky equipment. Rosemary, One Sky's Office Manager, keeps the show on the road dealing with scheduling, errands, purchases and just in general keeps oil in the gears. We have a great team! During our first week (July 13-19), last week, we were all getting used to one another, figuring out all the necessary systems, buying all the minor things you need to get an Office/House up and running. And now at the start of the second week (July 20-27) we are all a little sharper and most accustomed to living and working together. Everything takes time and happens in time. Over the weekend, Solomon's daughter, Goodness (6 years old) and Stephen's daughter, Violet (14 years old) arrived to spend some longer term time with their respective fathers. It is awesome to have more people here in a regular basis.
We still don't have electricity (they call it 'light') in the Office/House yet. When it gets dark, we turn on our headlamp and hang our LED lantern from a string on the ceiling. We bought a little FM/MW/SW radio, and at night we turn on the BBC and catch up on world news. Up until Friday, July 17th, we didn't have running water - which meant we had to carry buckets of water to our room to bathe at night by lantern light. Kind of fun! On Friday they turned the water on - Stephen cleaned the backup water tank - and now we have running water pretty consistently. Drinking water on the other hand is a whole other situation. Water from the city (our water) isn't safe for drinking. People either drink bottled water, or they boil/filter their water for drinking. Most of the water we drink is boiled and then filtered (the rest we get from bottled water), and we haven't had any trouble...yet!
In other news, the participants from the ongoing Leading from Within project have been stopping by for scheduled coaching/mentoring sessions with Adam. These meetings are a wonderful opportunity to spend one-on-one time (2 hrs) with each participant and really get to know them. The discussions typically focus around leadership, motivation, review of the material from the last Intensive, identity, goals, visions and building relationships. Our One Sky team in Nigeria is also working closely with the Canada team to brainstorm and prepare for the upcoming August Intensive (11-14). It is difficult though to make contact as power and internet are hard to come by, and phone calls are pretty expensive, not to mention the 8 hr time difference between British Columbia and Calabar. At the end of this coming week, July 27, we will be welcoming at the One Sky Office/House (our first house guest) a volunteer from America, living in Denmark, a woman named Angelica to assist our team in preparation and facilitation of the August Intensive.
On Thursday - July 16 - we went to the closing ceremony for the Oten Ita Foundation Primary School - Psalms School. Along with working with the Foundation on a variety of other projects, Kate has really enjoyed spending time at the School for the last four weeks. The Primary School has 35 students, ranging in age from 3-11. The closing ceremony was very official, and extremely adorable. The kids sang songs, danced to rap music, and performed some of what they learned throughout the school year in front of the assembled guests. In an interesting cultural moment - that shocked us - some of the parents of the students leaped to their feet in a frenzy of excitement throwing money at their kids as they performed (who were, admittedly, doing a good job) in front of the audience.
When we entered Nigeria in Lagos back in mid-June, our passports got stamped as 30-day tourist visas. This amount of time, we knew, wasn't going to be enough - but we figured we could sort it out in Calabar 30 days hence. Last week (Wednesday, July 15; Thursday, July 16; and Friday, July 17) we went to immigration to get our visas extended for 30 more days. It was a very intense experience. In the end, we got what we needed - but not without a story. The following is Adam's journal from those three days, as it pertains to the immigration visits:
Wednesday, July 15:
After lunch, headed to the immigration office, with Patricia and Morris, to extend our visas to the alloted 60 days, not 30 as was stamped in Lagos. Hopefully it won't cost us anything extra, as it has already cost us in NYC. Quick, rushed lunch. Then to the immigration house and into many different offices. Very military. Sit down with an assistant supervisor, claims he needs a letter, and 14k each. Oh boy. And we should have registered when we came into Calabar, and he is going to cut us a break otherwise he could arrest us. I am thinking about the judge and know he has zero power. Power hungry dude. We stand to leave and he takes us, unexpectedly, into THE comptroller office, first Patricia for 10 minutes and then they signal for me to come in. I come in, and the sit me down. Bad vibe in the room. The comptroller stands up and starts yelling at me because Americans are ruining everything, and who I am to come and teach leadership skills because the Western mind is what the problem is after all. After me hardcore. I sit and listen a little shell shocked wondering what I am to do. Talks about environmentally degradation, Shell and Chevron - am I sure that THEY didn't do my training? I explain to him that I am a volunteer, teaching...and then he explodes again, how am I to teach these people anything? Go fix your own country before you try to come in and ruin ours with your Western thinking. Many thoughts flying, lots of different angles to take. Explain again that I am a volunteer, and my background in service and NGO work, and fundamentally I am here to connect and learn from Nigerians and then take that information back to the US and do something about the real issues here. He calms a little, as I am speaking a bit now - causing no harm, speaking of God and friendship and rules. They ask how I make money if I volunteer all the time. Tell him I am a boarding school teacher in the US, and this is my vacation time. He never concedes anything, but calms and agrees to sign my papers if we go through the paces. Intense to get yelled at for coming to volunteer and willing to spend MY money to do so.
Thursday, July 16:
Take taxi to catch up with Kate and Oten to go back to Immigration and the needed paper, no money in hand this time. Get the comptroller's office this time, he looks at the paper and says, "The address is wrong, it shouldn't be 'Office of the Comptroller' just THE Comptroller" and asks us to bring another paper back the following day. Are you kidding? Kate speaks a lot with him, I am hoping Oten will, but she remains quiet. He says it is officially 14k a piece. We leave, go back to Oten's house, retype and print the paper, not happy about the cost, but whatever.
Friday, July 17
Breakfast, called Morris, and he picked us at 9:15 and we went to immigration, 3rd time now. Money in hand this time as well. Handed over paperwork to assistant comptroller, they fussed around for an hour filling everything out, asked for 50N for file folders, ended up taking 60N. Messed that they don't have files and I am about to pay 28K for extensions. I don't care, just want things to be smooth. Eventually everything is signed and we give the money over (counted in front of us at my request) and I ask for an official receipt. The assistant comptroller balks saying that it isn't his place to give such receipt. I tell him I can't hand over money without proof. Again, he won't give a receipt. He says to pay now, and come back on Monday for an official receipt. We say no. He says keep money, he'll keep passports and then come back on Monday for payment and receipt. No way I am leaving my passports. Eventually he says, "You don't trust me?!" And Kate tells him it is against our protocal to give money without receipt, or leave my passports anywhere. He relents and says take both and come on Monday. Both Kate and Morris are like, give the money, and lets get out of here. So, finally, I throw the money down and he says he won't take it and go now with both. So, we leave, with plans to come back on Monday to officially pay and get a receipt. We walk the halls, get in the car, and drive to the gate, where they call us back to the office. We walk in, the assistant nowhere to be found - and into the receipt office, where this dude is filling out a receipt for us. We hand over the money, get receipt (easy) and leave. Though not an official immigration receipt, it is receipt of money being handed over. And this is what we wanted since the beginning, something that proves we gave the money. It is clear to me that the assistant comptroller cant give us a receipt because that isn't the official cost (14k), and thus can't produce an online receipt that says so. Whatever. I don't care, because I am resigned to paying the 14k and moving on. And we do, accomplishing both tasks - passport visa extensions and receipt for payment, both in hand.
It is a rainy Tuesday afternoon, and we have yet to return to Immigration to get our official receipt. Soon though. We are in the process of looking for a wheelbarrow to help the guards complete the cleaning of the grounds at the Office. 1:00p is lunch back at the office - so, off we go...
Until next week...
Lots of love,
Adam and Kate
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