Social Entrepreneurship and Life in Nigeria

I am having a great day today!  I just found the BEST internet connection in Lagos (FYI- it is in a restaurant in Victoria Island called Bungalow) and was finally able to upload a video I made during my last trip to Arochukwu.

Ultimately, I am going to use the video to try to raise funds for some of the poverty alleviation programs that we have implemented in ABIA state, but it is also a good way for me to show you exactly what I am doing over here.

Let me know what you think...

So why did you chose to come to Lagos?

I have been asked this question countless times, and the only way I can explain it is that Nigeria intrigues me.

On more than one occasion I was told there are much "easier" places for me to go to volunteer my time. I was warned about of the violence in the Niger Delta, the corrupt government, the corrupt police, the high crime rate, and the dangerous roads.

The funny thing is that in some twisted way this actually made it more attractive to me. 

When I started researching Nigeria one of the first pages I found was The Economist Liveability Ranking.

The Liveability Ranking is a 2007 study used to rank 132 cities in the world according to 40 indicators that included stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure.  At the time I was splitting my time between Victoria and Vancouver, and was proud to see that Vancouver had made it to the top of the list.  Then I saw Lagos...3rd from the bottom!

My first reaction was that I should probably re-think my decision:
"Why would ANYBODY live in a place with such corruption and violence!?!"

But that quickly turned into curiousity:
"How do people live in a place with with such corruption and violence?"

I knew I had to find out for myself.

Here is a link to an article that was published in the Times-Colonist on the transition I made from business to volunteering in Africa:

Shifting From the Fast Track to Dirt Road

At the time the article was published I was supposed to be coming to Nigeria to teach computer skills. The original placement fell through, but I had the luck of fallng into my current placement with Idea Builders.

I want to thank Andrew Duffy for writing such a beaming article and for making me sound like a saint ;)

The time I have spent in rural Nigeria has taught me 3 things:

There is an art to washing yourself with a bucket of water. Only eating instant noodles (a.k.a. Indomie) and beans for 12 straight days will make you slightly crazy. Life is A LOT easier if you take the time to learn a few simple phrases in the local dialect...

 Before I came here the only Igbo I knew was from Ace Ventura 2: When Nature Calls

Wachootoo Medicine Man: [upon seeing Ace] Equinsu... ocha! Ace Ventura: [to Ouda] ...What does equinsu ocha mean? Ouda: "White Devil." Ace Ventura: Well, tell him I'm not. Ouda: I only met you. How do I know?

Igbo is a language that is spoken by 30 million people in the southeast of Nigeria. I visit this region on a  regular basis and it has provided me with the opportunity to pick up a few more Igbo words.

Here are the most important ones I have learned so far...

Igbo	English
"Biaa biko"	Please come.
"Nde wo"	Hello, how you?
"N’choro Star Beer por favor"	I want Star Beer…por favor

 
Hasta la vista,
-greg.

Traveling to Africa has provided me with the opportunity to do a few things that I never really wanted to do- bathing with a bucket of cold water at 5am, taking 14 hour bus rides on roads with more potholes than pavement, and enduring the painfully bad acting in Nollywood movies.

It has also provided me with the opportunity to try a few things that I have always wanted to do- getting drunk on palm wine, bribing police officials, and taking photographs (not necessarily all at the same time).

I never owned a digital camera, so I used this trip as a good excuse to finally try my hand at photography.  I got a pretty neat Canon D40 digital SLR from my buddy Arik's camera shop back in Canada (www.photographywest.ca), and it has provided me with more fun than I expected.

My favorite subjects are the kids in the villages that I work in.  They are usually very excited to have their pictures taken, and even more thrilled with looking at it immediately afterwards...

Before I left for Nigeria, my good friend Sara was thoughtful enough to give me a bunch of frizbees, balls, and shoes to hand out to the children in one of the villages that the organization I am working with operates. 

The village of Arochukwu is very economically depressed and does not provide much opportunity for youth, so the kids were overjoyed with the gifts and were very grateful for her generosity.

I was so happy to shoot this video.  After 4 months of hold ups due to visa issues I was beginning to think that I was never going to make it to Nigeria.