Half-time in Calabar…

The week was as amazing as the first week. We are more and more adjusting to the African life, their lifestyle and the society Nigerian live in.

Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa and the eighth most populous country in the world, and with a population of over 150 million it is the most populous 'black' country in the world. One in four African is Nigerian.
The economy of Nigeria is one of the fastest growing in the world, with the International Monetary Fund projecting a growth of 8.3% in 2009.

In Nigeria religion plays a very important role. Nigeria is home to a variety of religions which tend to vary regionally. The main religions are Islam, Christianity (Roman Catholic, Prostestant and Anglican) and a variety of smaller churches (Redeemed Christians, Jehova’s witnesses, Apostolic etc).

We prepared our first official meeting where we presented our approach how the IBM Team can support the launch of the Free Health Care and Conditional Cash Transfer in Cross River State.

That's me in the meeting and I wear traditonal Nigerian clothes. I chose a neutral grey colour. I really have to say that the clothes are so light and nice to wear which helps in the hot and humid climate.

It was a successful meeting and our support is hugely welcome.

We will work in our fancy new office (new computers, new desks and chairs but no Internet) the next two weeks to set up a reporting framework and we will support change management efforts.

On Saturday we went to the Calabar museum where we got more details about the history of Nigeria, Cross River State and Calabar. Very interesting tour.

Nigerian kitchen is supposed to be very rich – but most of the time people seem to eat chicken and rice and fast food. We now found a place where we can eat Tilapia fish which is made to order as a kind of barbeque fish. It is very spicy but very nice. Unfortunately Nigerians hardly eat many vegetables. Plantains however are usually on the menu.

You actually can see the fish before it is prepared. It is really fresh fish and it really tastes great.

Near our hotel is the Krab Krab which is a bar and car wash at the same time. Why not go for drink and something to eat why someone washes your car??? :-)

Calabar has two main markets - Marrian and Watt Market where you can get EVERYTHING what you need. Fruit, living chicken, chicken meat, just slaughtered goats, CD's, washing powder, clothes etc. etc. etc. For us something we have to get used to .. for Nigerians the daily shopping.

When going to a market on Saturday afternoon we saw a carnival parade where people wanted to collect money for Calabar. In my opinion it was too aggressive when they insisted that you have to donate – or it was just us being overwhelmed by the Nigerian culture.

Again .. the second week proved to be amazing again and I suppose the team here can make a difference in fighting poverty. We won’t change the world in four weeks but it can be done in a long run…. I am definitely able to improve my leadership skills here as I work in an environment which is outside my normal scope and I work with a hugely diverse team of IBMers from all over the world.