The chaos that is Lagos!

My new experience of the week, is my trip to Lagos, the former capital of Nigeria. I am on my first official mission with WHO, going out into the field for actual campaign projects (we are giving vaccines in the south of the country). This city has 17 million people in a very small space. It is an absolute mad house here…cars and people everywhere. The 8 lane highways are basically 16-20 lane highways,….there is absolutely not more than a centimeter of space between each car…instead of signaling (with your lights) you simply tap on the car beside you to tell them you are coming over into their ‘lane’ and then you fight your way into that space!!! I for one will say that the WHO drivers who have to come and pick us up from airports/hotels/meetings, do not get paid nearly enough to do what they do…If only we in North America drove like them, we may never have traffic jams like we do on our little 6 lane highways! (Although the more congestion you have, the crazier it is)…I should also mention that there are no legal traffic laws on the highways, so it is a complete free for all…and on top of this, even though you are on the ‘highway’ there are people selling things out your car window(everything from meat pies to click radios and phone cards, to little kittens and puppies (personally I wanted to buy every one of them)….I personally saw two guys get completely knocked off their feet by cars hitting them!! Insane! Now I said that Abuja was expensive, was Lagos is a little out of control..I am staying at one of the nicest hotels in Africa in Abuja (the Hilton for about $200 US), and here in Lagos I am staying at the equivalent of those little motels found on the side of the highways (not quite as bad as the hourly motels you find in most major cities, but no Howard Johnson or Holiday Inn that’s for sure)…and we are paying (with UN discount) $425 US a night!!! With that you get luke warm showers, 6 hour daily power outages, and no breakfast…it is unbelievable! But, food and drink is cheap, much cheaper than Abuja…so if you are wondering why we can’t eradicate polio, its because we have to pay so much for hotels, so can’t afford to vaccinate people!! Lagos is also a city of immense wealth and extreme poverty…those who work in the oil and bank industries here make approximately $20,000 US a month!! And those day labourers, maybe make $2 a day…so it is absolutely polar extremes…flashy brand new BMWs and Mercedes, alongside people begging along the highways, without even shoes to wear, so a little hard to see and really get, but I guess it really is no different from one country to the next…we all have it, but doesn’t seem to hit home until you see it in this perspective.

I am traveling with a Nigerian, Ethiopian and Kenyan on this mission, and so far so good…it is good to have a Nigerian with us, as he knows the way and the local dialect, so he deals with everything! We headed south to Delta and River states, where things are a little crazy down there (in terms of kidnappings and ethnic violence), but they have never attacked a UN convoy…and as we were getting there, there was a kidnapping, and 8 people in the oil industry were kidnapped including the Minister's father, so we got turned around, as it was deemed too dangerous for us to go further, so back to Lagos we went!

I am now back in Abuja...Manchester United and Portsmouth are here playing a friendly preseason game, and of course all the players are staying at my hotel, so it is nuts...I have no clue who any of the players are, but met a couple of them, and they could not really believe that I did not know who they were (I think they were somewhat expecting me to be some sort of a groupie, ready and waiting for them, but no such luck)...so I don't think I made any friends there, but whatever! But they seemed pretty nice, and got free tickets to the game, so I will go check it out...gives me something to do on a sunday night, I guess! And there will be a huge concert with many local nigerian artists, and like the cinema here, they have some incredible musicians!

Anyways, all is well...I am in Abuja for the next week and them off on mission for about 2 weeks to the north (muslim states)...so my burka is getting made as we speak! Also, finally got my passport back with my Nigerian visa, only for it to be immediately cancelled, and I have to go through the whole process again, although I can actually stay in the country this time, while WHO takes care of it and gives me a work permit and a visa...but my passport is almost full (with various African country visas), so now have to go to the Canadian embassy for a new passport!! It never seems to end!

I have posted a few new photos, but will get a few more from Lagos up soon!

hasta luego, ange