Tuesday, 29 October 2013

TIA: This is Africa

If you’ve seen the movie Blood Diamond then you might remember this quote from there. It’s quickly become my most common saying as I shrug off everything that happens over here. As everyone warned me, you just have to get used to a whole different style of living.

I took my first trip this past weekend since first arriving in Africa 5 weeks ago. I didn’t leave Nigeria, but traveled to the city of Calabar, located still along the coast, but far to the east. It was only about an hour plane ride, so imagine roughly the equivalent of Dallas to Houston. It was an amazing trip, besides the actual traveling part of the trip. Not surprisingly, we were delayed going both ways. The first leg we didn’t learn of until we arrived at the airport, but it was only about an hour – not too bad. On the return flight we ended up getting delayed about five hours, but luckily we learned this in the morning before leaving at the airport, so just got to spend more time at the hotel and not the airport. Thank goodness because the airport in Calabar was just about the jankiest thing I’ve ever seen. See some of my pictures below. Delays are completely common for traveling within Nigeria from what I’m told, if not even expected. However, international flights have a much better track record of being on time.

I will say the trip was a blast though. As soon as we began our descent into Calabar I could immediately tell how different our surroundings were. Calabar is much more of the jungle-type of Africa you expect and maybe see on TV. Coming in, everything around was so green and there were trees and forests everywhere. This is the complete opposite of Lagos, where I live, which is vastly, vastly overpopulated. It was nice to be out of the city, the insane traffic, and constant hubbub of people everywhere you go. Calabar was so much more laid back and peaceful. The name Calabar, we were told, is actually an acronym for “Come And Live And Be At Rest.” The name was quite fitting. Because of the anticipated delays in travel, the tour group purposely didn’t plan much for Friday or Sunday and pretty much packed everything into Saturday. Friday afternoon we just arrived at the hotel, got some food and drinks from the hotel bar, mingled, swam, and got to know each other. There were about 30-35 people on the trip altogether. I’d say it was about half couples and half younger bachelors/bachelorettes like myself looking for a neat experience. There was also one family with three kids that I actually hung out with a lot, as the kids kind of latched on to myself and a couple others. So there was a pretty good mix in the group and I got to know a lot of them quite well, having good conversations with all but a few. Several of us exchanged numbers by the end of the trip, so now I have a number of friends outside of Chevron in the area that should be fun to hang out with. Myself and my friend Kate were actually the only two Chevron people on the trip. I was a little surprised by that.

Anyways, Friday was a relaxing day. We had dinner served to us at the hotel and afterwards went out by the pool for some organized entertainment. There was a group brought in to perform for us a number of dances common to the Yoruba tribe, one of the four main African tribes common throughout Nigeria. I got some good photos and videos which I’ll share below. Saturday began very ominous as we woke up to a torrential downpour for several hours. This pushed back our departure from the hotel and threw off a lot of our plans that day. The guides spent a lot of time in the morning trying to rearrange the things throughout the day, as some sites had become inaccessible due to the heavy water and we’d have to wait for it to dry up. We ended up leaving the hotel an hour later than scheduled. The different sites we hit throughout the day consisted of:
  • Old Residency Museum – this sat high on a hill overlooking the delta and the inside told the history of the city, from the patterns of ancient trade to the slave trade up until present
  • Watt Market – currently a typical African market with hundreds of stalls and street vendors, but was once the very first slave trade market. We didn’t actually get to stop and shop here, which we were all very disappointed about. They just drove us through it.
  • Mary Slessor’s grave – a very important woman to the city of Calabar who founded a Presbyterian mission and was super influential in saving the lives of twins… yes, twins. People in Calabar used to actually believe that having twins was a curse and they would often take the babies into the forest and abandon them, likely to die. Mary Slessor, a white woman, came in and put an end to this and is now a key historical figure.
  • Drill Monkey rehabilitation center – we got to see rehabilitated drill monkeys and chimpanzees native to the forests here, which were awesome. One of the chimps actually threw his food over the fence and nailed me right in the shoulder when I wasn’t paying attention. Made for a good laugh. At least it wasn’t his poop. I got some good pictures below.
  • Cercopan – Center for Education, Research, and Conservation of Primates and Nature. Another place which housed many different kinds of monkeys and was really neat.
  • Slave History Museum – chronicled the entire history of the slave trade, which actually existed in some form in Africa before the Europeans and Americans came over and exacerbated it to what it’s known as today. I bought a book from this museum that the tour guide recommended and actually can’t wait to read it.

Those are the main things we saw throughout the day, but also had several other random stops and little things along the way. We were all crammed into a bus as we drive around town with a tour guide on board pointing stuff out. It was very strange to be driving through their villages and markets on a bus full of mostly white people taking pictures and stuff. Calabar is known for being a tourist attraction and the people are also very friendly, but it definitely still felt a little odd. The bus we were riding on was super shady and was making strange noises all day. At one point, it did actually break down and refuse to start up for a while. This was hysterical because we were right in the heart of one of the villages we passed through. We all had to pile out and push the bus out of the road a bit until it would start up again. TIA. It was funny because once all the villagers saw us start piling out of the bus they began flocking out to us to see what was happening and why all these white people were there. It was entertaining. I got a few good pictures of us pushing the bus though.

I got very accustomed to being hot and nasty on this trip. It’s getting into the dead heat of dry season here in Africa and our bus had minimal air conditioning. I was constantly sweating the whole trip and just learned to live with it. I’ve definitely learned not to assume or expect anything over here and that the simple things I take for granted back home are, in fact, luxuries here. The airport lounge in Calabar was not air conditioned among many other places, my hotel bathroom had no light, and the mattresses were rock hard. But hey, it’s all part of the experience, right? I will say though, the most frustrating thing about the whole trip was the food situation on Saturday. This was mostly annoying because many of us felt it could have easily been prevented with a little communication. Essentially, we were never told when lunch was going to occur, so none of us planned ahead and brought much food. It got to about 1:00 and we started getting hungry, but it seemed there was much more on the agenda before lunch. It took a bit before somebody finally asked and we were told lunch would be at 3:00. Mind you, this is after a 7:30 AM breakfast, so that’s a long time to wait. So once we arrived at our restaurant at 3:00 all starving and ready to eat, it still took another hour and fifteen minutes at least until the food started coming out. And when it did come out, it came one plate a time, about five minutes apart. The ladies all ate first, and I didn’t even get my plate of dinner till right about 5:00. That’s a long time to wait to eat. Now, to be fair, as soon as we got there at 3:00 I started to fill my belly with beer to hold me over, but I was still plenty hungry when that plate came in front of me. Hungry enough to have my first experience eating a fish served whole. They told us we were getting fish and chips, so I just assumed we were getting an Engish style meal… nope. See my pictures below. I don’t think I ever thought I’d do this, but I was so hungry at this point and it was all they were serving. To my surprise, it was actually really good. You just peel back the skin and dig in, picking the meat off all the small fish bones. And the fries, yeah they’re actually yams, but who’s keeping track.

While I say the trip was overall a success, I still felt it was somewhat poorly planned, despite being hosted by a tourism service. We weren’t kept very informed, they expected us to just know things somehow, and didn’t really seem to have everything thought out in advance. An example would be the bus from the airport when we first arrived. Not everyone fit on the bus and some of us had to wait for a “second” bus, which was actually just the first bus taking everyone to the hotel and coming back for us. It was about a forty minute round trip, while we stood outside in the heat. My thought is just like, they knew exactly how many people were coming on the trip, so they should have known this bus with a certain amount of seats wasn’t going to be big enough. It was the one and only bus they had reserved for us the entire weekend, so they also had to call an audible the next day when we, of course, didn’t fit again and had to rent another bus last minute. It’s little things this that kept happening all weekend that remind you you’re traveling in Nigeria. People kept telling me throughout the weekend that the difference is very obvious when you go on a trip planned by locals versus expats, and I totally believe it.


All in all, great trip though and I really can’t complain. It was awesome to get out of Lagos and see another part of Africa. But honestly, I think my favorite part might have been getting to know the other people on the trip. We had all sorts of unique professions represented from all different countries of the world. I was truly inspired just by the amount of intelligence and diversity I encountered; I had very educational, fascinating conversations and learned a lot from everyone. There were two people in particular – one a “Conflict Advisor” for the UN and the other a “Commercial Attache” for the Austrian Embassy – who I found very interesting and insightful. They were both only about five years older than me and had some really neat stuff to share. I’m inspired to read more and beef up my own knowledge on different subjects so I can hopefully sound intelligent to people as well. Don’t get me wrong, I can carry my own in a conversation, but I just still feel too young and naïve. One of my favorite professors/mentors in college told us one time that the 3 best ways to gain wisdom are by reading, traveling, and suffering. I’m really starting to believe that. 

A few pictures of the airport in Calabar:



 The group eating our first meal at the hotel:

Our Friday evening entertainment:




 Old Residency Museum, first stop on Saturday:


Random images throughout the day of our bus, villages, and a makeshift soccer field:


















Us pushing the bus and then walking uphill after it:



Monkeys!











And lastly, my marvelous fish lunch at Tortuga Island (at 5PM)!




Monday, 21 October 2013

Mass: Nigerian Style

I have been fortunate enough to be able to make it to Mass here the last three weeks and shouldn't have much of a problem from here on out. My first week, sadly, I was not able to because I couldn't arrange a driver in time and didn't really know how to go about leaving the camp. But, my second week, determined to make it, I was able to arrange a driver days in advance and find a few churches not too far from me. I spent a little time at work googling Catholic Churches in the area and ultimately just decided that the first time I should just go to whichever is closest. I found the Mass time on the website slated for 9:00 AM, printed off directions and a map of how to get there, and was all ready for my driver when he picked me up at 8:15 Sunday morning. To be honest, I never really gave much thought to how different the service would likely be. I had heard from people that it would be, but in my naïveté just didn't really think much about it. The first time it actually crossed my mind was when I showed my driver the address and he just started to chuckle. He asked me if I was sure that's where I wanted to go and I responded with a hesitant, "Yes, is that okay?" He followed up by saying if that's where I wanted to go he'd have no problem taking me, but he still seemed plenty amused at the idea.

It didn't take us nearly as long as I thought to get there, so we pulled up twenty minutes early around 8:40. My driver, still smiling, told me to call him if I needed him as I hopped out of the car. As soon as we arrived I knew exactly why he was getting a kick out of this. As I first walked inside I noticed this church had a very unusual set up - half of it was inside and the other half was outside. There were plastic chairs set up all around the outside of the building from the back wrapped all the way around the sides. I entered from the side and, for fear of being awkwardly stared at if I went too far in, just found an open seat as close as I could and sat down. I could hear someone talking inside rather emphatically, but figured it was just somebody giving a talk or announcement before Mass started. As soon as I sat down I also realized that I had no view of the altar, or inside of the church whatsoever because I was stuck on the side of the building. There were plenty of other people there sitting with me who I guess were all satisfied with not being able to see anything. I quickly realized how bad my seat was, but was too nervous to get up and scout for another one because I felt so out of place. Before long, I realized we were smack in the middle of the service. It took me about 20-25 minutes before I actually realized this because the homily was so long and it wasn't until afterwards that I could decipher how far along they were. Apparently the 9 AM start time on the website was completely inaccurate. People kind of came and went throughout, almost as if there was no definite start or end time. It seemed to be a very casual come and go as you please.

Needless to say, the experience didn't get any smoother from there. It finally got to time for Communion and I saw people inside starting to get up and form a line. I stayed put because I figured people around me would just start heading in when it was our turn... That never happened. Nobody around me ever moved and before I knew it I looked up and it was all over. I guess the majority of the people outside just don't go up for Communion. I don't know. I never really figured it out. About twenty minutes later another procession began and people around me started going up to get in line. I figured now it was maybe our turn so I followed suit. I didn't realize until I got close to the front that it still wasn't Communion, but people bringing gifts and offerings up to the altar. I noticed this when I was about five people away and realized I couldn't walk up there empty handed and not drop anything. I quickly grabbed my wallet and whipped out a few bills just so I could drop something and not look stupid. On the walk back outside I was able to scan the whole crowd and quickly realize I was the one and only white person in attendance. All eyes were definitely on me. This was certainly a local village church and I don't think they were used to seeing anybody like me there regularly. This brought me back and made perfect sense of my driver's initial reaction. Anyways, it was quite the experience. From the point I arrived during the homily, the service lasted another hour and 45 minutes and still wasn't over yet. The priest had given the final blessing at one point, but everyone still remained as more processions began to occur. I couldn't really understand what was happening, but parents were bringing children up to the altar, people were bringing food and gifts, there was all kinds of stuff going on. Ultimately, I ended up leaving early because I had no idea when it was going to end and I truthfully did feel slightly out of place. It was really neat to see so many Nigerian Catholics and share in their worship with them, but it was totally different than anything I'm used to. Definitely an experience I'll never forget. And don't get me wrong, I didn't feel any hostility or unfriendliness of any sort. I never felt unsafe, just confused I suppose.

On the way back, my driver and I had a good laugh about my experience, but he informed me that there are tons of Catholic Churches in the area and we could keep trying them all until I found one I liked. One of them that he mentioned is catered specifically for expats and offers an international Mass, but is slightly farther away. He thought I would like this one so we agreed to try it the following week; and he was totally right. After attending Mass the next Sunday at the church he recommended I felt much more at home. He was right that the service is offered for expats and is done concurrently in both English and French, but mostly English. They'll read the readings in both French and English and do a couple of the songs in French. Coincidentally, I even met a couple people there who also work at Chevron. To my surprise, they informed me that there's a bus that actually takes people there from camp every Sunday. This made me happy because it means I wouldn't have to continue coordinating a driver every single Sunday (not to mention, the bus is free, unlike a driver). Just one less hassle. I took the bus this past weekend like they recommended and was able to meet more Chevron Catholics on the ride over. I'm really excited to continue going every week and get to know these people and settle in to the church. It truly seems like everywhere I go things just always work out so nicely. I feel super blessed to have found this community already and know it's all in His hands. Don't get me wrong, it hasn't all been easy and there's certain things I'm really starting to miss, but experiences like this are what make it all worth it.


Random thing I learned today: the guest house across the street serves Johnnie Walker black label. Amazing. They don't keep it out on display, but if you ask they'll pull it out for you. I was already starting to get pretty sick of my two beer options here (Becks and Heineken), so I think I've definitely found my new night cap. And yes, I just wrote a post about going to church and finished by talking about Scotch. I'm Catholic... What of it?

Wednesday, 16 October 2013

Happy Eid-al-Adha!

Just kidding. But yesterday did mark the first day of this Muslim festival and since Nigeria is about half Muslim, we got both yesterday and today off of work. This marks the second and third mid-week holidays I've already had in my four weeks here. I promise this isn't common; I just happened to arrive at the right time. We don't get any days off for Thanksgiving over here though, so I guess this makes up for it. I won't have any more days off until Christmas.

I'm not extensively educated on the Muslim religion, but the little I do know about this holiday from speaking with a few coworkers is that it's referred to as "The Festival of Sacrifice." One of them mentioned to me that his family would be sacrificing a ram yesterday. This prompted me to at least look up the meaning behind this holiday and essentially I learned that it's a day where families are to sacrifice a ram, goat, or some form of livestock to feed their family, friends, and the poor. It marks the end of Hajj (their annual pilgrimage to Mecca) and commemorates the trials and triumphs of the Prophet Abraham, most especially his willingness to sacrifice his own son at God's command. It's actually quite interesting, so if you'd care to read more here is a link I found useful: http://islam.about.com/od/hajj/a/adha.htm.

So, I celebrated the day off by getting off camp to go see a movie yesterday. There is a theater at the local mall here and I checked out the movie times when I was there on Saturday. A friend and I decided we'd go early to hit an 11:00 showing because the prices were cheaper before noon. Upon arrival and trying to order our tickets, we found out the showtimes displayed on the screen outside are apparently not the actual showtimes. The lady handed us a booklet that had the actual showtimes in it. When I asked her why the screen wasn't updated with the right times, she told me that it gets updated every Friday for the coming week. I told her that I was here on Saturday, which was after Friday, and the showtimes shouldn't have changed in the last two days then. Furthermore, regardless of when they changed, whatever the screen was showing currently STILL wasn't the same as the showtimes for the day. Her reply was simply that it's someone else's job and apparently they're not doing it. End of story. Some things just aren't worth arguing. That's Nigeria for ya. Ultimately, we had to wait another hour for a show to start and didn't even see the movie we originally wanted to. Instead of the four showtimes listed on the screen for that movie there was, in fact, only one showing at like 4 in the evening that day. Whatever. We saw "The Company You Keep," which I hadn't heard of, but it was half-decent.

Saturday, 12 October 2013

Fat Boy Run

Every Friday at 5:30, for several years now, Chevron employees flock to the beach for the weekly Fat Boy Run. There are a couple options: you may either run from the Chevron camp to the beach (about 5-6 miles) or you may ride a bus to the beach and get dropped off there. Ultimately, the final destination for all is a nice homey bar on the sand. Those who opt for the bus are dropped off directly at the bar and can choose to run back and forth from there. Yesterday was my first time to attend this event, and being so I decided the first time I should just take the bus. Ideally I'd like to build up the running the whole way at some point, but I figured I'd start with baby steps. The ride to the beach was very fascinating. It was only a 10-15 minute drive, but along the way we passed through several villages/markets I hadn't yet seen. Some were even situated right up close to the sand. It still amazes me every time I see these unique villages. It's just so different than anything I'm used to seeing in America and it gets me every time. I seriously had to pause for a minute yesterday just to ask myself, "Am I really here right now?" Every time I go out it's so surreal and I feel incredibly blessed to be experiencing this part of the world that so many may never get to. Don't think at all that I'm taking this opportunity for granted. It's also just such a vivid reminder of how lucky I am to have been born where I was and live the life I am. Truly, truly thankful.

Anyways, once we got to the beach a couple of us decided to go for a run. There were a few others that came along just for the fun and camaraderie, not the exercise, so they planted themselves at a table and ordered a few beers. For the other 3 of us, off we went down the sand. Basically, you just run until you feel like you've hit a good halfway point and then turn around and head back. There were three of us in this group: myself, my friend Kate, and another guy who is apparently a personal trainer and was in it for some real exercise. We hung together the whole time, but it ended up being a solid 40 minute run in the sand. The third guy was pushing us the whole way and, honestly, I'm glad he was there because if it was just me I probably would have cut the run shorter by a good 10-15 minutes. It was a great workout, and running in the sand obviously intensifies it as well. By the time we got back, the group of about 5 that had run from camp was arriving at the same time. We all did some cool down stretches together (because this is still Chevron and safety comes first) and finally, exhausted, went and settled in for a couple beers.

This turned out to be, without a doubt, my favorite experience here so far. Yesterday was a smaller group than usual because tons of people are out on vacation this week because of holidays, but a great time was still had by all. We sat around watching the sunset and the waves crash into the shore and, truthfully, I felt like I could have been on any beach in the world. Yes, it's very polluted and there's trash everywhere; if you turn around you see the tattered villages and makeshift lean-to's, but when you're looking out at the sun setting over the water there is still an amazing tranquility. Once the sun was set we started a bonfire and sat around drinking beer and eating the local food. I tried some beef suya (which is very spicy and delicious) and grilled chicken that was cooked right there in front of us and washed it down with a cold Star, the local Nigerian beer. I got to know more of my coworkers that were there and we were even joined by some locals who have gotten to know the group over the years since we're there every Friday. I can't express enough how much I enjoyed this. Not only did I get a solid workout in (my calves are burning today), but I got to watch the sunset, drink some beer, eat Nigerian food, sit around a bonfire, and mingle with coworkers and locals. I decided this will definitely be a staple in my weekly routine here. The Fat Boy Run occurs every single Friday, rain or shine. It hasn't missed a week in years and I don't intend to miss one over the next six months unless I'm physically unable. I'm already looking forward to next week.
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I will go ahead and apologize for the lack of pictures I've taken since I've been here. I'm really bad about snapping pictures, but am trying to get better. I would have loved to get some of the beach and sunset last night, but wasn't bright enough to bring a camera along with me. I will start taking more from here on out and put them up as I go. I know these stories I tell would be illustrated much better with accompanying photos, so I will try to improve. That is my goal.

Random sidenote about two things I've learned this week. 1. The Texas A&M vs. Ole Miss game is on live TV here tonight. I don't know how or why, but I am so dang excited. It starts at 1:30 AM, but you best believe I'm getting up, or staying up, to watch it. 2. Don't watch The Food Network while in Nigeria. They show too much delicious-looking food and you have no access to anything remotely similar. It's just torture.

Until next time...

Logic Never Prevails

"Logic never prevails." I can't tell you how many times I've heard this phrase to describe the situation here. I heard it many times from my predecessor as advice before coming over here and have heard it countless times since being here from all the other expats. Things are just always more complicated, both at work and in daily life. Here's an example:

This week myself and a friend decided we are going on a trip in two weeks. It's a sponsored weekend trip to a town on the other side of Nigeria (for the sake of this story, I'll describe the trip in more detail further down). Because the trip requires a flight, overnight stay in a hotel, tour guide, etc. it costs some money. Unfortunately, since neither my friend nor I arrived here until recently we hadn't heard about the trip until Tuesday of this week, with the trip now just over two weeks away. The deadline for sign-up and payment was Thursday, which left us only two days to make a decision and get paid up. Long story short, after thinking about it for a day and getting approval from our managers to miss that Friday of work, we decided on Wednesday that we wanted to go for sure. Now for the process of signing up. If this were in the states, or hundreds of other countries, you would just log on to a website, put in your credit card information, and pay the required fee. But not here; payments of this type do not exist here. In order to get the money to the responsible party, we were going to have to take cash directly to the bank and have them deposit it into their account. And not only that, but we have to go to the specific bank where they have an account at and deposit it there and only there. I began thinking about how to get this done and essentially told myself it was going to be a four step process: 1. Withdraw cash in USD from my bank account, 2. Transfer that cash into Naira, 3. Organize a driver to take us to the bank, and 4. Actually take the Naira to the bank for deposit.


Fortunately, Chevron has a cashier here on site where you can get cash in either USD or Naira. Unfortunately, you can only withdraw in the currency of your bank account and you can't exchange between the two. So I wrote a check to the cashier for the amount of cash I needed and withdrew it Thursday morning. Wednesday afternoon when we made the decision to go, I gave a call to "the money man" and arranged for him to meet at my house during lunch the following day to exchange money. The "money man" is a guy that all the people on camp use to exchange dollars into Naira. His was one of the first numbers given to me when I arrived on camp. He will come whenever you need him and gives better exchange rates than the banks or airport counters. Also on Wednesday afternoon I was able to find an available driver willing to drive us the next day, who also was to meet us at my house at noon. Essentially it all worked out. We were both able to withdraw our money, exchange it at lunch, drive to the bank with all this cash in my bag (which felt super sketchy), and deposit it before the deadline of 5 PM that day. What could have easily taken me five minutes back home, took me half a day and a lot of coordination here. If I had my own bank account here, it likely would have been an easier and I'm honestly not sure how it would have worked. But, I can guarantee it still would have been more difficult than simply paying online. Again, nothing comes easy here. This is just my most recent and obvious example.


Anyways, the trip sounds so sick and I can't wait for it. Here's the actual description of the trip: 


Situated in a beautiful setting high on a hill overlooking the Calabar River, during the slave trade era, Calabar was an active port for the passage of slaves through the estuary to the Gulf of Guinea.  Now known for its natural beauty and historic buildings, Calabar also is the home of two very interesting conservation NGO’s, Pandrillus and Cercopan, which focus on the preservation of primates. The tour will include the Old Residency Museum, Mary Slessor’s Tomb and residence, the Slave History Museum, Pandrillus Centre for the Rehabilitation of Drill Monkeys and Chimps, the Cercopan Centre for Primates, and the Watt market.  The Group will also have the opportunity to dine with the State Governor, Sen. Liyel Imoke, at Government House. The group will meet on Friday morning the 25th, fly to Calabar, and return on Sunday the 27th. The cost of the Trip includes flight, accommodation, meals, guides and land transport in Calabar.


So you can see why I'm so excited, right? Should be an amazing experience and great learning opportunity. It will mark my first African excursion out of the city of Lagos. The trip is sponsored by a group called the Nigerian Field Society which coordinates all kinds of trips like these, both local and around the country. There are several other trips coming up this year that I'm trying to get in on as well. This one will have around 15-20 people. The person going with me is a coworker/friend named Kate. She is on a similar six month program as mine, only hers is for HR, not finance. We were actually friends back in San Ramon on both of our first assignments and it worked out great that we ended up over here at the same time. At least now I have a partner in crime over here that's my age to do everything with. Should be a blast and I'll most definitely post about the trip in two weeks when I get back. I cannot wait!

Sunday, 6 October 2013

General Living Situation

After my last couple posts I've received a few questions about my basic living situation here, which made me realize that I never really described this in any detail. So, in this post I will try and outline my setup here and give a general overview of what the compound is like. Here goes nothing.

I'll start with a very basic geography lesson for those of you like my elder sister who don't even know where Nigeria is located in Africa. See the picture below.


Then to go even further, here is a view of the city of Lagos, where I'm living, in relation to all of Nigeria:

And finally, here is the Chevron facility in relation to the city of Lagos:

If you look close enough at this last picture above, you can see that the part of Lagos where I'm living is actually not connected to the mainland. This area is referred to as "the island," "Lekki Island," or "Lekki Peninsula." I've heard all of these used regularly. This is opposed to the "mainland" which is west of us and connected to our island by bridge. But that's enough geography for today. Now on to the Chevron facility.

Below is an image I took from the Chevron website and decided to color up a bit to make my descriptions easier to follow. Hope this helps.


So if you look at the image above, I marked in red the road that is the main entrance into camp. When you first come in there is a security checkpoint which isn't pictured on this map, but is off to the far left. Coming through this first gate gives you access to the office buildings, so all the local Nigerians that work here enter through this gate every day. The building I work in is outlined in purple. If you continue farther down this road where the red arrow ends there is another security checkpoint that takes you into the compound; this is where all the expats live. For anyone that doesn't know, expat is short for ex-patriot, which basically means any employee that is from another country other than the one you're working in. Most of the expats for Chevron in Nigeria are American, but there are also many from the UK, India, Australia, and several other countries sprinkled in. Only the residents of the compound and select other personnel have access to the compound itself. The security is very tight and they're strict about who gets let in, which I'm very thankful for.

The compound is made up of 127 houses with a variety of single houses, duplexes, and triplexes. Which house is assigned to you is determined by whether you're single, married, or have kids. My house is number 18, which I've circled in blue on the picture. Right across from me is the clubhouse, gym, basketball courts, tennis courts, workout room, and pool, which is the big area circled in green. As you can see, the location of my house is super convenient for access to these amenities. Most of the fun night/weekend activities (like last week's wine club and this week's trivia night) take place in the clubhouse, so it's nice being conveniently located to that. Also right across the street from me is the management guest house, which I've circled in maroon. The only people that have access to the management guest house are short-term visitors who are here for special projects and business trips. All visitors stay in what are called rotator houses, which are four bedroom houses designated specifically for guests all located around the management guest house. You may recall my saying in a previous post that I'm actually staying in one of these houses as well. For some reason, people on assignment like myself are also designated to these houses. Since I'm only here six months, they didn't want to give me a whole house to myself and have to deal with furnishing it for six months and everything. So instead, I just get the master bedroom in one of the rotator houses for the duration of my stay. This definitely has it's pros and cons. One of the biggest cons being that I have different roommates cycling in and out almost every week, so I don't really ever necessarily get the place to myself. However, one of the he biggest pros is that I do get access to the management for my entire six months here, which is pretty awesome. The guest house serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner every single day for no cost to the employees. This essentially means that I don't ever have to cook for myself if I don't want to. So far I've been eating at the guest house for most of my meals and the food is honestly pretty good, but I've already found it getting a bit redundant in just two weeks. I think I'll continue to eat here pretty often, but I'll definitely start cooking for myself intermittently as well just to mix it up a bit. Every visitor is also entitled to bottled waters, bottled sodas, and up to four beers every day. Yes, you read that right... because I'm technically a "visitor" for these six months, I can get four free beers every day I'm here if I want! Pretty cool. Now, I do have to be aware that everything I take gets charged back to my finance cost center, so my boss has the ability to see how much money they're spending on me while I'm here. However, she already made it clear that she won't really be keeping track, so that's pretty neat. Though I still don't think I'll actually be drinking four beers a day.

Another big positive of being in the guest house is that I get a house steward assigned to the house that does all the daily cleaning and laundry. I just have to leave my laundry outside my door in the morning if I ever need it done, and at the end of the day it's back outside my door cleaned and folded. I think this is my favorite thing about being here, considering how much I absolutely hate doing laundry. I'm spoiled, I know. I've already made two separate grocery store runs and been able to stock myself pretty good with various pastas, soups, cereal, chips, and snacks. I jumped at all the stuff I actually recognized and was a little hesitant to buy too many new things yet. I definitely aim to branch out and try more during my time here, but I'm making myself ease into a bit. Currently I'm stocked with Pringles, Lays chips, oatmeal, nutri-grain bars, frosted flakes, and lots of Ramen noodles. Taking me back to my dorm room days a bit. I've gotten a few questions about the TV situation here so I'll address that briefly. I do have tv through an African satellite provider and it's a pretty wide range of channels. Unfortunately, American sports are out the question. I've seen only one baseball game on and it was a day delayed. Same with college football: the only game I've seen so far was like Utah vs. San Diego State and it was on a Sunday morning. So lame. There are like 8 sports channels here, but they show mostly cricket, rugby, and soccer. I don't mind watching soccer too much, so that's going to have to get me by for now. They actually have had the President's Cup (golf) on live this week though, so I've been watching that whenever I can. There are some regular channels like Comedy Central, E!, FOX, BBC, and CNN, among others, but nothing is live it seems. It's lots of re-runs of old shows or Keeping up with the Kardashians for like 5 hours straight. Kill me now. I think I'll read instead...

...or be active! In the very back of the compound, which I've shaded in green, are the athletic fields. There is a sand volleyball court and baseball field in which the outfield doubles as a soccer field. People play soccer out there several days a week, but unfortunately I haven't seen it used for baseball at all yet. I did bring my glove just in case though; I'm still hoping I can at least find one person to toss with while I'm out here. I was also told that the outer perimeter of the compound measures almost exactly 2 km, so that makes tracking my running distance pretty easy.

Every person, or family, is given a car while they're here as well (I just picked mine up Friday). Families are given an SUV (Toyota Highlander) and individuals or couples are given a sedan (Honda Accord). It reminds me of the Truman Show walking around the camp seeing all these cookie-cutter houses with one of two cars backed perfectly into their driveway. It's pretty strange to see. Everyone also has the option of selecting their own personal driver. Most people select one specific driver and pay them a salary. This makes that person essentially on-call for them so that they have a driver whenever they need one. A driver is necessary if you ever wish to leave the compound, because driving here is just so crazy and different that all expats are discouraged from driving themselves. All the drivers are local Nigerians who have experience driving here and have been approved by the transportation group. There are also some people, like myself, who will choose not to hire a driver full time. Since I won't be here very long and really don't plan on going off the camp a whole lot by myself, it doesn't make sense to pay someone salary. Most times when I go off I assume I'll be with other people who have a driver and I can chip in for that. Or the few times when I will want one for myself it's not too hard to find a free driver who is more than happy to drive you for a small fee to make some extra money. For instance, this morning I arranged a driver for myself for the first time to take me off for church. I simply asked a friend if they planned on using their driver this morning and when they said no I gave him a call and he agreed to drive me. It was only about two hours of his time, so we agreed to the price of 2000 Naira, which is just over $12 US. Not too bad.

Gosh I write too much. I really do hate writing, but somehow once I start it just keeps coming. My apologies, but I hope this was at least insightful. I mentioned above that was able to get to Mass this morning, and what an incredibly different experience that was from what I'm used to in the states. I'm going to leave that for another post though. For now, I'll just leave you with an awesome verse from one of today's readings from 2 Timothy:

For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice
but rather of power and love and self-control.
So do not be ashamed of your testimony to our Lord,
nor of me, a prisoner for his sake;
but bear your share of hardship for the gospel
with the strength that comes from God.


Thanks and Gig 'Em!