Farewell

I am currently sitting in the Delta lounge at the Lagos airport preparing to depart for the last time… Destination: Austin. I could not be more excited to get home. It’s been a long six months over here in Nigeria, but I can wholeheartedly say it’s been an incredibly unforgettable experience. I have been constantly challenged, tested, and frustrated, even some of the time in a positive way. I’ve met some amazing people, made some great friends, and hope to keep in touch with many of them. I came here six months ago with pretty much no expectations. I had never lived outside the country before, let alone spent ANY time in a developing country. I half expected to sit alone at my house most the time and just read books and watch movies, which was certainly not the case. Looking back, I think my social life was likely more active than it’s ever been in my entire life, save maybe a year or two of college. I’ve never had so many weeknight activities and events while also filling most my weekends quite easily. It far surpassed the minimal expectations I had for this place.

That being said, nothing can compare to the excitement I have to come home right now. After being away from Texas for the last year and a half (CA for a year and Nigeria for 6 months), the anticipation to return is certainly at its height. I can’t wait to make a home for myself in Houston and finally settle in somewhere for an extended period of time. I can’t wait to be closer to my friends and family and reunite with many people I’ve seen so sparingly over the last two years almost. I’ve gotten the question a lot in the last week or so, “What will you miss about Nigeria?” This is a hard one for me to answer. I don’t think there will ever be a time I’ll be sitting anywhere, especially back in Texas, when I’ll think to myself, man, I really wish I was back in Nigeria right now. It just hasn’t been that kind of experience. I will always look back on these 6 months as something I’m incredibly grateful for and as an amazing eye-opening experience. There are certainly moments I’ve cherished and things I’ve done that I’m truly thankful for, but this just isn’t a place you would necessarily ever choose over somewhere else in the world. There are things about California, both SF and LA that I truly miss; things I wish I could go back and do again or do more often. There aren’t necessarily things like that about Nigeria for me. Well, maybe with one exception – I really did enjoy the Fat Boy Run and would mark that as my favorite thing about this place. I could see myself sitting at home on some Friday night in the future wishing I was out doing that. But that’s the anomaly. The biggest thing, and largely the only thing, I’m sad to leave behind are many of the people here. I made some good friends and even enjoyed a few coworkers and sincerely hope our paths cross again in the future.

In conclusion, I’ve resolved that this will be my final blog post. The intention of this blog was to keep people informed on my travels and experiences abroad, while also serving as a journal of sorts for myself. This was never intended to be a long-term, permanent thing for me, so on my return to the states tomorrow I will say goodbye to Nigeria Nick once and for all. As good ol’ Tyrus Borck put it, it’s time to welcome back Texas Nick. I hope anyone that’s actually read and kept up with this has found it at least slightly entertaining and enlightening. It’s been somewhat of an annoyance for me at times to actually keep up with this, but I’m very pleased that I have. I can’t wait to look back on this years from now and remember this experience that was such an invaluable period of my life. For any of you reading this that I’m leaving behind, I’m sorry to go. But, for those of you reading this that I’m coming home to, I cannot wait for what is to come! Texas, I’m coming home.

P.S.  In what is a perfectly fitting departure, I just had to bribe airport security to let me through. This is the first time I’ve personally had to bribe someone here, though I’ve heard countless stories and witnessed it several times. I had a large ceramic mug that I purchased from Munich in my carry-on bag because I didn’t want to risk it getting damaged in my checked bag. Apparently it’s too big and can be used as a weapon (what?) so they tried forcing me to check my bag, which would have been another excess bag and cost me $200. Instead, I offered the guard 1000 Naira (equivalent to $6) and they let me go on through. Ohhh Nigeria… 

Motherless Babies Home

Two Thursdays ago I had the incredible opportunity to visit a local orphanage here in Lagos. A group goes from our camp every Thursday morning and that week my boss was gracious enough to grant me the morning off to take advantage of this opportunity. I had honestly resigned myself to the fact that I'd never get to go because they only went on weekdays, but after finally just talking to my boss about it she was perfectly willing, if not eager, to give me the morning off to experience this before I left Nigeria. For obvious reasons, they don't allow you to bring cameras or take pictures or anything, so I don't have any of those to share. But it was certainly another amazing experience that will stick with me forever.

I think this was actually the first time I'd ever visited an orphanage of any kind, so I didn't really know what to expect. The living conditions were certainly not great, but surprisingly better than I had anticipated. It was definitely better than many other housing and living situations I've seen elsewhere around Nigeria. There wasn't any air conditioning and it appeared most the kids slept 2-3 to a bed, but it seemed like they were still all pretty well fed and cared after. The Chevron group that goes every Thursday always brings a few big boxes of toys and balls to play with while we're there. It was very obvious that this is rare for them as the children were all beyond ecstatic to have toys and things to play with. It appeared they didn't have really any toys of their own, so these few hours were likely the highlight of their week. I asked one of the women why we didn't simply leave the toys there for them and the response I received was because they are just not cared for. The toys would get destroyed or stolen too easily and there had actually been instances in the past where they saw some of the employees stealing toys to take home for their own families. So unfortunately they just couldn't trust to leave them there which is quite disappointing. 

We only stayed for a couple hours, but I truly enjoyed my time spent there. We did spend a bit of time breaking up fights over toys and trying to ensure everyone got their turns, but that's pretty natural with kids anywhere it seems. I got to play ball with some of the older boys outside (soccer that is) and play around with some of the younger toddlers with their different toys inside. There was also one instance I had a young boy sitting on my lap and all he wanted to do was lay his head on my chest and be held. This was definitely the most heart-warming moment of the day. It occurred to me that these kids probably rarely ever get any kind of special one-on-one attention. The child-to-staff ratio was presumably around 20:1 and there are a good amount of infants/newborns who require most of the attention. I can only assume this leaves the toddlers and other young children lacking much attention. I can't blame them for just wanting to be held. My heart really went out to them. While it was certainly tough to see children living like this, abandoned and with no parents, it still brought joy to me to know that these kids have been given a chance. I'm sure there are plenty more kids around Africa living with virtually no parents that aren't getting at least the minimal attention and care these orphanage children are. And praise God that these kids were at least given a chance at life, unlike millions of others. 

Alright, changing topics real quick. I spent the last week out of the office doing a contractor audit with the same Nigerian coworker I'd done all that travel with recently. We were auditing a former contractor who operated all our airline shuttle services around Nigeria until just this past December. We essentially combed through all the contractual documents that outlined the pricing structures and amended agreements then went through all the invoices from the past two years making sure all the billing and payments were done appropriately and in line with the contract terms. It was actually really interesting and possibly my favorite thing I've gotten to do here work-wise. We had some good findings and were actually able to pick up some lost money along the way. The crappy part was that the contractor's office is way out by the airport, which is about an hour and a half away from the Chevron camp. So, basically I was driving an hour and a half each way in the morning and afternoon every day this past week to get out there for this audit. I don't think I'll ever get used to Lagos traffic, but at least I had a good book to read and got a lot of reading in. 

Well, as I sit here writing this and looking ahead to the next few weeks, I'm starting to realize this may already be one of my last posts. One week from today I'll be leaving for South Africa to meet my parents in Cape Town for a two week vacation and safari. I return to Lagos on March 9, and have recently found out I may have a pretty quick turnaround heading back to the states just a few days later. It's looking like there's a good chance I'll be home by the weekend of March 15th, which means this week ahead may be my last full week of work in Nigeria. In any case, I'll certainly put up one final farewell post, but not sure if I'll get any more in between now and then; I'll try though. I have recently received and signed my official offer letter to return to the Houston office starting April 1st and couldn't be more excited about returning home to the greatest state there is. I am thrilled to see my parents next week for the first time in 5 months and almost equally excited to return home and see everyone else. It's been too long. I'm not sure if anyone still even reads this blog besides me and my parents anymore, but regardless, see ya soon 'Merica!

Business Travels: Week 2

Well, I just returned from my second week of traveling around Nigeria on business and never thought it would feel so good to be back. This week wasn't quite as eventful as the last - very straightforward as far as the work went - although there were still some hiccups in travel, as expected. This week's travel consisted of Abuja and Port Harcourt. Our flight Monday morning got out just fine, as it was the first of the day and, therefore, didn't have much opportunity for delay. Our flight Wednesday morning was delayed about an hour, which is pretty good, all things considered. The only frustrating part about this was that we literally never got an update on the flight status. Our boarding time came and went, as well as our departure time, without hearing a thing. They finally just called us to board about an hour late. Wednesday, however, was unique in that the main Chevron locations in Nigeria all went on strike. There has been an ongoing dispute the last couple weeks and the union officials finally decided they wanted to protest (the whole matter was pretty ridiculous if you ask me). Anyways, this kept us from working in our designated location at all Wednesday and we had to wait until they called off the strike Thursday morning before we could go in and get our work done. Luckily, the workload was pretty light at this last location, so we didn't require much time to finish everything up and were actually able to catch a flight back to Lagos Thursday afternoon, a day earlier than expected. But of course, we weren't going to get out that easy... our 3:30 PM flight got delayed initially until 5:00, but we didn't end up leaving until closer to 6:00. And this was after arriving at the airport plenty early at about 1:15, so we had a nice long afternoon at the airport bar, which actually wasn't too bad; we were both expecting delays anyway. After another nice long and slow drive back from the Lagos airport, I eventually made it home around 10:00, so not all that bad. Just continuing to build that patience...

So, in conclusion, after two weeks of traveling around Nigeria, I'm happy to say I successfully made it to four of our different locations and have returned home safely (which I know the latter is what my mother is most thrilled about). This was absolutely a great opportunity in that I got to see and experience things I had never before, including some rather remote areas of the country. The hotels and guest houses were actually pretty nice and the helicopter rides were, of course, a highlight. Getting around Nigeria was certainly not an easy task though, and I have plenty more small stories I'd be happy to share with anyone. 'Twas a great experience and truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but one I must say I'm okay to not be doing again in the near future.

Lastly, here are a couple pictures I promised from our platform visit last week. They actually published these pictures on the Chevron Nigeria website along with an article about our visit out there (not in any way because I was there, but because the GM of Operations was our escort and he presented some awards to the employees onsite there).

Business Travels

So this past week I've had the opportunity to do my first business travel with Chevron Nigeria, or with Chevron at all for that matter. I returned to the Lekki camp last night for the weekend, and will depart again Monday morning for another week of traveling. I'm traveling with a Nigerian coworker of mine from the Internal Controls group and we're visiting four of our different operating locations all around Nigeria conducting reviews at each place. Essentially, we are doing cash counts at each location, making sure their imprest accounts (petty cash) match whatever is on the books. Along with this, we're analyzing their usage of the funds over the last year and trying to find ways to eliminate the use of cash across the entire business. The goal is basically to use cash for nothing except actual emergency situations. The reviews went smoothly this week, and hopefully will next week as well. Honestly, the whole thing is pretty straightforward, so it's hard to imagine what could actually go wrong.

As far as the travel itself, one thing was reiterated to me again this week: domestic travel in Nigeria stinks. I mean, really stinks. I mentioned this in a post awhile back when I traveled for a weekend trip to Calabar, but the operation of the airlines here really leaves you scratching your head. More on this in a bit, but first I'll talk about the good parts of the trip. Chevron sponsored travel, on the other hand, is quite the opposite - it's pretty nice. The first leg of my trip Monday morning, my coworker and I got to travel on a private float plane that Chevron utilizes for shuttling people to and from the other main work location, Escravos. See the pictures below.

On our second day in Escravos, we set up a trip with the GM of Operations out there to take us offshore to one of the platforms. This was a really neat experience. We got to travel by helicopter (my first time) out to one of our platforms that essentially separates and funnels oil and gas brought up from 7 different wells back to our onshore terminal. It was such an incredible site to see the breadth of our offshore operations from an aerial view. I was told that in the multiple fields we operate offshore in this area we have about 300 individual platforms, some of which are actual wells, some serve as storage, some for offloading and shipping, and others for transporting, to name a few. I can't express enough how incredible it was to see the expansiveness of this from above, as well as from the single platform we landed on and toured. They did take some pictures of us while we were out there, complete with the hard hats, goggles, gloves, and steel-toed boots, of which I have not yet seen. If they ever get sent to me I'll be sure to share them.

On Wednesday, we got to take another helicopter trip to our next location. It was only about a 20-minute trip at 1500 feet elevation. This entire area of Nigeria is dense swamps and forests, so, again, it was quite cool to see these parts from an aerial view. Unfortunately, no pictures since we had to turn our phones off, but I definitely stashed away some mental ones.

Okay, now to the last leg of the trip. Friday morning we were supposed to take a domestic flight back to Lagos at 9:55 AM. I never expected this flight to be on time, as that would be a lot to ask, but didn't really expect a complete cancellation, which is, of course, what happened. They announced the cancellation about 30 minutes before departure and cited only "operational issues" as the reason. I didn't need any more reason than that because, alas, my response to everything now is simply TIA - this is Africa. Nothing really surprises me anymore except for, honestly, at risk of sounding arrogant, the level of patience I've acquired since being here. I think my reactions to these situations would have been totally different as little as six months ago. Anyways, after about a 45 minute scramble by our airport protocol personnel to try and get us re-booked, they finally put a plan together. We were to fly back to Escravos, via a small shuttle plane, and catch the only flight from Escravos back to Lagos at 4 PM. Both of these flights were only for Chevron employees as we have such a high volume of people shuttling between these locations, we contract a number of these flights just for us. I felt a little guilty because they bumped a few people off both of these flights for us solely because we are expats and they give us priority. They do it this way because Chevron sees it as a safety concern; they see it as more risky to leave the expats stranded in the remote locations than the nationals, which kind of makes sense. I felt a little bad at first, but it soon wore off as I just really wanted to get home. Whoops.

So what should have been a relatively quick trip - plane landing by 11 AM and home by 12:30ish - ended up being a full 12 hour travel day, getting me home around 7:30 PM. There were many other little nuances that occurred throughout the day to make it more entertaining (frustrating), but I won't go into detail on those. Traveling the airlines here is never a smooth process and you can never know what to expect. Wish me luck, because every leg of our journey next week is via domestic airlines - three in total. Who knows if we're even going to get any work done; we might just spend three whole days sitting in airports. I'm sure I'll be back in a week with some good updates. Until next time...

A Day at the Beach

Certainly not the most spectacular, eye-opening, or even memorable experience I've had in Africa, but I think this past Sunday would rank as the most fun. About 20 of us from camp piled into SUVs Sunday morning and made roughly an hour drive out to a nearby beach. One of the veterans of camp, who's lived here about 9 years now and knows the protocol, reserved us a private beach hut, arranged for the security escorts and accounted for all the minutia that accompanies doing an event like this (everything is just more complicated here). Apparently several years ago many of the beach huts out there were all owned by Chevron people and on any given weekend you could go out there and see flocks of Chevron expats spending their weekends at the beach. But, in the recent years it has gotten more difficult to get out there due to heavier traffic, stricter security restrictions, and also a decreasing number of expats living on camp.

As I've said before, it's just always nice when you get an opportunity to get off of the camp and this was definitely no exception. It felt so great to just get out by the water, play some ladder golf, toss a football, go for a swim, cook out, and forget where you are for a little bit. That being said, it was also insanely hot and I couldn't stop sweating the entire day, but hey, it's Africa... what can you expect? Here's a few pictures of our hut and view of the water. You'll notice that, of course, as soon as they spot the Oweebos (white people) they all come rushing over trying to sell us stuff. You can see table cloths, aprons, and paintings all draped over our fence.

And then there was this, which was probably the most impressive display of head-balancing I've seen so far in Africa (and you see it everywhere). These guys would literally throw dozens of baskets on top of one another and pack them up as tight as they could, carefully lift them on top of their heads while sitting down, and then stand up and walk around. Quite impressive!

Made some pretty bomb kebabs and sausages as well. Some of the best food I've eaten over here.

And then on the way home came the grand finale, because no African adventure is complete without a little excitement... On the trip back, about 5 minutes into the drive, the lead car in the caravan started smoking from the front of the vehicle. After pulling into a gas station and checking out the problem, one of the guys realized they had kept on the 4WD and that was causing the issue once we got onto the main road and out of the sand. Thinking the problem was fixed, we continued on our merry way. Then, about 15 minutes later we started to see smoke coming from the car again, but not quite as thick this time. We decided to just continue on and hopefully make it home before it got any worse, as we were only about 10-15 minutes away at this point. Suddenly, about five minutes later, we saw a really thick plume of smoke start coming from the engine of the car and we quickly pulled off to the side of the road again. As we pulled up behind them, we noticed a flame on the underside of the car. The people in the vehicle couldn't see, so we naturally started screaming at them to get out, while the driver of our car rushed into the trunk, grabbed a fire extinguisher, and sprinted over the vehicle. He crawled underneath and put out the flame while everyone else was running away from the car. Basically, our driver saved the day. Needless to say, that car was no longer driveable, so we all squished into the remaining cars and had to get a tow truck to come pick up the other one. Everyone made it home safely, but it sure added a little excitement to the trip. Here are a few pictures: one right after the fire was put out and everyone's walking away in the smoke, and a couple others of us just chillin on the side of the road trying to figure out what to do.

A Few Interesting Facts on Nigeria's Oil Economy

In reading a news article this morning I came across some facts about the oil and gas industry in Nigeria I thought worth sharing. It's just a few simple facts that demonstrate the developing economy of this region, but how it's sadly crippled by sheer corruption of both government and individuals.

• In the past decade, Africa's economy has grown by an average of 5.6% a year, compared with the world-wide growth rate of 3.6% per year, according to the IMF.
• The International Energy Agency expects oil consumption in Africa to surge about 30% to 4.5 million barrels a day by 2018. This jump represents 15% of the world's projected rise in oil demand and makes Africa the world's fastest-growing oil user.
• The are currently four government-run refineries in Lagos, Nigeria, that operate at barely 20% capacity. (This leads to the export of nearly all Nigerian crude production and forces them to import the necessary finished products of gasoline, diesel, etc., removing vital jobs from the economy).
• As much as 400,000 barrels of oil per day -- or one-sixth of total output -- are pilfered from pipelines by bandits. Most of the stolen crude is loaded onto barges at night and shipped abroad.
• Nigeria's government has collected about $1.3 trillion in oil revenue since 1980, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit. Yet about 60% of the country's 170 million people live on less than $1 a day, according to the government.

To me, this last fact is the one I find the most staggering, largely because it is visible everywhere you go. This figure illustrates the obvious misuse of government revenues gained from oil companies - clearly it's not going back to the citizens. The income gap in Nigeria is absolutely astonishing - you're either insanely rich or incredibly poor; there seems to be no middle class. 

There are many more facts out there that could give better evidence and provide a more complete story, but these are just some I quickly fished out of this one news article that I thought seemed basic, and yet telling enough. 

Merry Christmas from Nigeria!

Even though I'm not actually in Nigeria presently, I still think it's appropriate to share this picture today that some friends and I put together last week. Though I was very reluctant at first to take part in this, I must say I'm quite happy with the results haha. The resolution might not be too great on here though. I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and pray that everyone is enjoying friends and family during these holidays. And if you are not able to be with friends or family, I pray that you are still finding peace and joy in the spirit of Christmas. God bless!

Goodbye For Now, Nigeria

I sit here writing this now at a bar in the Lagos airport, getting ready to leave Nigeria for the first time in the last three months. Only halfway done with my stint, but what a journey it has already been! I've gotten to see some pretty amazing things, meet some great people, and been challenged physically, mentally, spiritually and even socially. I will say, though it's only been three months, it has actually felt a lot longer. On the whole, I think I make this out to be such a great experience, which, don't get me wrong, it is. But, at the same time it has most certainly been one of the most challenging and trying experiences of my life. When I first got here people warned me that three months was about the maximum most people can stay before having to get out for a vacation, and I can definitely relate... I'm ready. I'm in much need of a short break from Nigeria, and what better time to get it than during Christmas since the weather here has basically prevented me from remembering its the season. It's just a little hard to get in the Christmas spirit when it's 90+ degrees every day. I think some cold weather might be one of the things I'm most looking forward to about this trip. Roughly twelve hours from now I'll be wandering around Munich in the 30 degree weather, drinking cold beer, mulled wine and cider, and taking in some of the world's best Christmas markets. Then three days later it's off to Vienna for some more Christmas markets, concerts, caroling, and what should be a beautiful midnight Christmas Mass at the cathedral. Crossing my fingers for a white Christmas as well! 

In closing, I will say that it's certainly going to be odd spending my first Christmas away from family. I will miss that aspect of the holidays dearly. But, I am still beyond excited about this trip and couldn't pass up the opportunity to spend Christmas in, what I've heard are, some of the most festive places around the world. 

Nigeria, it's been real, but I'm definitely ready for some time apart. See you next week. 

Foooooood

Well I'm now 2 and a half months into my African adventure and I think it's safe to say the honeymoon phase is over. I definitely still see new things all the time and I don't think that will ever end, but I think its safe to say I'm settled down and am pretty much comfortable with everything. But, with that sense of settling down, it does start to feel a little more permanent and I've begun to realize there are certain things I'm really starting to miss. One thing that's certainly near the top of that list is food. As comfortable as I've gotten with most things here (like watching people pee in the streets and sell alligators on the side of the road), one thing that hasn't become my new normal is the food here. My stomach has just not adjusted. I'm not sure exactly what it is... maybe the processed food I'm used to in the states, poor quality of meat here, or maybe how they handle the food here, which I truly don't ever want to witness... I don't know. But something about the food in Nigeria still doesn't sit quite right with me. Well, I say I'm not used to the food, but what I am used to is having an upset stomach at least once a day, so I guess in some ways I'm adjusting. I've grown accustomed to stomach pains, more frequent trips to the bathroom (TMI? sorry), and popping Pepto Bismol more often the last two months than I have the previous 24 years of my life. Originally, I thought it would go away with time, but that hasn't happened yet. It's not terrible, gut-wrenching pain or anything, just a near-constant uncomfortableness.

Anyone that knows me knows that my usual diet consists of roughly 75% fast food and take-out, give or take. This has led to some intense fast-food withdrawals recently. In the last couple weeks I've literally woken up in the middle of the night on separate occasions dreaming about Chipotle or Chick-fil-a. My mouth waters at the thought of Schlotzky's, Whataburger, or really any sub sandwich. I cannot express enough how much I'm looking forward to this glorious reunion when I return to the states in a few short months. Sad, I know. But it is what it is. In Nigeria the only meat that is really safe enough to eat that they have in abundance is chicken. I literally eat chicken about 10 times a week I'd say. 

I leave for Europe now in T-minus 11 days and I've already begun planning what kinds of meals I'll be having there. I know it's not a lot of the same joints we have in the states, but I don't even care. I'm just beyond excited for a steak, hamburger, or really any kind of beef that's not chewy, and hopefully some good sandwiches. I'm going to have to get enough good eating in my week and a half in Europe to hold me over for the rest of my stay in Africa... 

Footnote: I know how backwards it sounds that my two previous posts were about people living severely impoverished lives yet being so happy and then I follow up by whining about how I miss fast food. It's kind of pathetic. But it's just what's on my mind and at least I recognize it...right? No? Maybe this is just a great lesson in humility for me. God bless those people. 

Also, don't get me wrong, I still miss my family and friends way more than the food. This isn't number one on my list. 

Makoko Stilt Village

Alright, so I’ve now learned that I have to stop saying that anything was, or is going to be, the coolest thing I do in Africa because one thing after another just continue to blow my mind. This morning I had the chance to go the Makoko stilt village in Lagos. This entire village is literally built on stilts over the water. Makoko is home to roughly 100,000 people who all live in this self-sustaining community on the water. 100,000 people! That’s no village, it’s pretty much a city in itself. I first saw this village when driving into Lagos for the first time from the airport. As you drive over an 11 mile bridge, for about a 1-2 mile stretch you can look out and see this community on the water. I remember this being the most unique thing I saw on that initial drive in, which was a straight two hours of culture shock. Since first arriving I have heard a great deal about this village and repeatedly been told it's one thing I have to see while here. I had signed up for the NFS (Nigerian Field Society) trip last month before it was canceled at the last minute, but fortunately was able to make the list again this month. Only about 15 people get to attend each time.

We left for the village from a local marina in Victoria Island on these two single prop boats which are manually steered from the rear. Here is a picture of one of the boats to give you an idea.

Once we arrived, we were greeted by a man named Noah, who is the youngest brother of 22 siblings, the oldest of which is the village chief. Being a member of the chief’s family, Noah explained how he has a very important role in the community and how pretty much everyone (all 100,000) recognizes a member of his family. As I mentioned, Noah is the youngest, but also the luckiest in his family because he is the only one who received a formal education. Education is so rare in Makoko that generally only one or two children are chosen from each family to go to school. They do this to try and spread out the range of educated children. Noah told us that when they first tried to send him to school he refused so much that his mother and brothers had to beat him to force him to go. Now, looking back, he said he is eternally grateful for those beatings because his education completely changed his life. He is now in charge of the schooling system in Makoko and oversees the roughly 220 kids that are schooled each year. They actually just built a new “floating school” last year in large part due to a major donation from the NFS. This is why they continue to open their village to the NFS members and repeatedly welcome the visitors as special guests. Each trip to the village the NFS continues to make additional donations as well. It’s a pretty neat thing to contribute to and to see how truly grateful they are for the donations. Here is a picture of Noah greeting us for the first time in an upper room and explaining the history of Makoko and answering our questions. He even had some Coke and 7up waiting for us.

Once we departed the initial welcome, we hopped into some of the canoes the local villagers use for transportation. The water ranges from about 3 -10 feet deep most places throughout the village, so the boats are actually propelled and steered with these long sticks you can see below. They use them to push off the bottom and dig into the mud when stopping.  

Noah stayed with us the whole morning and took us through the village, showing us how it functions. He pointed out that 99% of the community are fisherman and make their living this way. He showed us a couple of the clinics and maternity wards, pointing out that there is really only one doctor for the whole community, but many midwives and trained helpers. He explained that most women have at least 6 or 7 kids, with up to 20 being completely normal, so, as you can imagine, that equals a lot of childbirths. The doctor actually came out and spoke with us for a bit, addressing some of the main concerns for healthcare in the village, which is clearly very scarce. Here is a picture of him speaking to us, with Noah translating, and also one of some fisherman throwing out their nets.

We weaved in and out of the canals for about a solid two hours seeing all different parts of the crowded village. At one point, out of nowhere it started pouring down rain pretty hard so our two hosts quickly pulled into a dock and we took shelter in a random person’s home. As soon as some people nearby saw the rain start coming down they waved us over and were happy to have us all cram under their shelter for a while. Once it pulled back for a bit we jumped back into the boats and made it over to the floating school. When we got to the school it started pouring again and trapped us there for about half an hour. Here are a couple pictures I took from the third story of the school building during the downpour. The last one is a little creepy and looks kind of like the grim reaper. 

After thirty minutes or so were up and the rain began to let up a little bit, we decided it was time to head back as it was now past noon. It continued to drizzle throughout our 20 minute ride back to the marina leaving us all sufficiently soaked when we arrived. The rain was certainly a nuisance and we may have missed a thing or two they originally planned to show us, but it certainly didn’t ruin our trip. I’ve learned my lesson now and am hesitant to say this is my favorite thing I’ve done in Africa, but it was pretty freaking awesome. It’s impossibly difficult to put into words everything I saw there or how I felt witnessing it, so I will try and let a few more pictures below do the talking. You'll notice some of the pictures look cloudy, which is because the whole village is very smoky. Some buildings actually looked like they were on fire because there was so much smoke. This is a result of smoking and grilling all the fish they haul in to preserve them. 

To wrap this up, though, I will say that, again, my mind is blown by how different some people can live and be 100% content. Once again, the vast majority of people we encountered today were extremely friendly, happy, and welcoming. The children were all ecstatic and couldn’t believe their eyes seeing all these white people floating through their town. It was so cool to just give them high fives, take their pictures, and see their faces light up when seeing themselves on camera possibly for the first time. There’s no doubt the living conditions here are poor; there is trash and sewage everywhere, no running water, most buildings look to be in shambles, and of course no air-conditioning or heating, and yet they continue on like the rest of us. They all seem to possess such optimism and it truly blows my mind. They make their livings fishing and trading and literally some live their entire lives in this village on the water and rarely make their way out. This was the second time in two weeks I’ve gotten to witness a way of life completely and utterly different from my own. Idanre opened my eyes, but Makoko truly astounded me. It’s difficult to put into words, but I just wish everyone could have the opportunity to see this place. 

What Is Poor? (Cycling Idanre)

Different people will define poor in any variety of ways. Economists will define it as anyone living under a certain income deemed the poverty line. Religious folks may define it as someone living a life without faith and no hope in an eternal life. Others may define it as a life without hope in general, such as those imprisoned or isolated from the world. Others maybe living a life alone, without any friends or family to keep them company. I've also heard it referred to before as those caught in and endless circle of everyday life doing work they're not the least passionate about - the poor in spirit. Whatever definition one may use to determine what they deem "poor," it became quite clear to me after this past weekend that I will never define it as what I perceive to be one's "standard of living." I now know that this is completely relative. 

I had the amazing opportunity to spend the three days last weekend in the town of Idanre in the state of Ondo, Nigeria. This was a mountain biking trip put on by the Nigerian Field Society about once a year. This trip we had six of us from Chevron and three others, but only five of us were there to do the cycling; the others were there to hike. The journey to and from Idanre was far from pleasant, as it took us between 5-6 hours each way to travel less than 200 km. This is a testament to how truly bad the roads are here. Piled onto a bus, we took a combination of back roads and one major expressway riddled with potholes and broken asphalt. Probably the least comfortable road trip I've ever been on. The mountain biking itself was the hardest cycling trip I've ever done in my life and possibly even the most strenuous physical activity. I've never been much of a biker, but consider myself pretty athletic and in good shape, and this pushed me to my limits. In all, the bike trip totaled 51 km and took us almost 6 hours. Granted, only about 4 hours of that was actual riding time as there were many stops along the way. The terrain was rocky, muddy, steep, and exhausting. By the time we returned to our hotel six hours later, I had to just lay down motionless for a good two hours before wanting to move again. I think it's safe to say this was the greatest feeling of accomplishment I've ever had after a workout.

However, the reason I write this post with the title I chose is not because of the ride itself, but because of the interactions we had along the way. Leaving the town of Idanre early Saturday morning we quickly made it off the road and back into the jungle. As we weaved farther and farther back into the thickness, we encountered one village after another full of bright and smiling faces. At each encounter the villagers could not have been more happy to see us and welcome us, children especially. As we rode through, the most shocking thing to me was the apparent living situations. All the homes appeared to be structures thrown together out of clay and mud of sorts that looked to be deteriorating and uncomfortable from my point of view. We never entered any of the buildings, but I can only assume what the insides were like. Most of these communities have no running water or facilities to go to the bathroom. We encountered people who looked like they probably hadn’t showered in months and children just running around naked and barefoot everywhere. Despite all this, they all appeared to be having the time of their lives. The sense of community was astounding, as well as the pure and constant joy they all showed; it truly moved me. A Danish man who was cycling with us commented to me at one point how these people, by any western standard, should have no reason to be this happy, and yet they’re all completely satisfied and content. And I couldn’t agree with his statement more. We both continued to admire and appreciate their happiness town after town. 

I don't think it a coincidence that I didn't manage to get this post up until Thanksgiving Day. I meant to get this up every day this week, but kept being delayed until finally having the time today. I find it quite fitting to post this today, where even though I'm far away from friends and family for the first time on this holiday I find myself with so much more to be thankful for than ever before. I am so blessed to have been afforded all these unique opportunities and experiences so early in my life. It's moments like this past weekend that just remind me of that ever more. I truly thank God for these opportunities I've been given to broaden my horizons and help me grow through traveling. I am especially thankful for the luxuries I've been afforded my entire life and completely taken for granted. What better time to stop and reflect on this than Thanksgiving Day. 

I’ll try and portray our journey below with some pictures and descriptions to help illustrate the experience.

When we first got off the main road and about 10 minutes into the bush, we ran into some young children that were out harvesting some cocoa pods. Cocoa is the main crop of this region that most these smaller villages rely on for their main source of income. Here is a picture of a single cocoa pod hanging from a tree, along with the kids I mentioned. You can also see the long scythe they use to get the pod out of the trees made from bamboo and a curved knife at the end. Notice some more of the pods hanging in the background as well. 

In this next picture you can see all the cocoa beans laying out across the ground in front of some of the village homes. Pretty much every house we saw had these concrete slabs laid out in front, which are used to spread out the beans for drying. Often times we saw these chickens or roosters playing around in the beans as well. 

Here is the first village we actually stopped at. The lady you'll see in the middle of the first picture was a dancing machine. For about five minutes she just kept dancing around and singing. Pretty hysterical. The man you see a close-up of actually came up to me and asked me to take his picture. I just thought he really wanted his picture taken, but turns out he actually just wanted something from me in return. Afterwards he asked me, "So what do you have for me? That's how it works: I let you take my picture, you give me something." Clever, clever man. I didn't actually give him anything though (considering he asked me to take his picture in the first place), just laughed and rode away. He didn't seem to mind. It was all in good fun. 

Here's more of the cocoa beans spread out all over the ground.

Now, our next stop was one of the cooler ones. I mentioned how cocoa production is huge in this region, but the other main product is palm oil. Palm nuts are the next biggest crop in this region of Africa, and we ran across a little make-shift mill in the middle of our trail. There was one man, a woman, and some children all tending this area, and actually gave us a brief tour by even cranking up the machine for us to see how it all works. It was really neat. Here is a picture of the grinder they use to crack the nuts, a barrel used to store the palm oil, and you can somewhat make out the machine behind the barrel which they use to mix the oil. You can also see the Danish guy from our group, Jakob. 

And here is one of our police offers taking (stealing) a cocoa pod and some palm nuts for souvenirs. Palm nuts are on the left, cocoa pod on the right. Also, a gun. Now these people we actually did give a little money to since they were so willing to show us everything and explain the process. It was really neat. 

Here is just a quick snapshot of the next town we stopped in for a picture and snack. One of the men offered us a whole bundle of bananas and was incredibly friendly. We each took a couple and gave him some money, which he was incredibly humbled by. I don't think he expected anything in return. This is one of my favorite pictures from the trip. Eventually, the shy women and children in the background came in for a picture too. 

This next village was the coolest one we stopped in. When I first rolled up, second in our group, I saw a huge crowd of the villagers huddled around something in the distance. Honestly, I was a little nervous at first because it looked like I was interrupting a town hall or something. Turns out, it was just the guy in our group ahead of me relaxing in the shade, mingling with the entire village that had surrounded him. It was quite the site. They had brought out the chief elder to meet us and we conversed with them for awhile, surrounded by all the children. This was also one of my favorite backdrops. 

Finally, this was one of the last villages we came to where we stopped for a rest. The kids here were my favorite and loved getting photographed. I took a couple pictures of them and then turned to show them the pictures on my digital camera. They all freaked out and went crazy at the sight of themselves on a camera and loved it. I think it was quite likely the first time they'd ever seen themselves on a camera. Also, there was this one crazy guy who loved my bike for some reason and kept wanting to get pictures with it. He had some brand new boots that he was very proud of. Unfortunately, it sounded like he was speaking jibberish the whole time and I couldn't understand a word he said :/. I just smiled and laughed the whole time. He wanted me to send him the pictures and I said okay, although I have no clue how on earth that would be possible haha. 

And that pretty much sums up the cycling journey in a nutshell. I truly believe when it's all said and done for me here in Africa, this past weekend will go down as one of the best, if not the best, experiences I had during my time here. We also went for a Sunday morning hike the following day, which somehow my legs had recovered enough to allow me to do. I'll include below just a few of the better pictures from that part as well. I only shared a fraction of the pictures, so if you have a desire to look through any more and are friends with me on Facebook, you can find them here: https://www.facebook.com/nickbalser12/media_set?set=a.10200945531149926.1073741827.1515360584&type=3

Happy Thanksgiving!