Second Day in Enugu

First Day in Enugu

Arrival in Enugu

The flight was short and pleasant, and not once did I ever feel unsafe or suspect that the plane was going to crash-land and leave me burning to death in a corn field. I heard that such an accident actually did occur a few years ago, which spurred the aviation sector to tighten safety regulations all across the board, grounding many airlines. The end result is that in present-day Nigeria, all flights run by reputable airlines have good safety records.

Enugu is located a little less than 300 miles (500 km) east of Lagos, in the eastern region of Nigeria, as can be seen from the map above. I could have also taken the bus to Enugu, but Mr Azih strongly recommended that I take the plane. "Not for you, but for me," Mr Azih said, laughing. "If you take the plane, I only have to worry for one hour. If you take the bus, then my whole day will have gone to waste, worrying about whether you'll arrive in Enugu or not." Apparently, traveling by road to Enugu could take over 10 hours, what with the numerous accident-inducing patches of road along the way.

At the airport I was met by Mr Emeka Onyema, the younger and youngest brother of Dr Onyema. Again, I wore my GEANCO T-shirt to be easily recognizable, but in hindsight, that was probably completely unnecessary. I was most likely the only Asian within a hundred miles.

Leaving Lagos

I'm finally leaving Lagos to head to Enugu, where the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH) is located. A couple days ago, Mr Azih took me to the airport, where I bought a flight to Enugu. I was also running low on malaria prophylaxis pills, so I stocked up at the airport pharmacy. (Unfortunately, for prophylaxis, they only carried Malarone, which is very pricey, so I ended up spending almost as much as my plane fare on malaria pills.)

I talked over the phone with Dr Anthony Mbah, the Chief Medical Director of UNTH, and I'll be meeting him tomorrow morning. I'm very excited to see the hospital and get started on the project.

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Amusing conversation at the check-in counter

Check-in Personnel: Mr. Lee? Then you must be related to Bruce Lee. (laughing)
Woman Behind Me: He must be the older brother! (joining in laughter)

Fourth Day in Lagos

Today, we visited Mr Azih's daughter in Lagos. The CultureGram for Nigeria mentions "visiting" as one of the primary leisure activities in Nigeria:

"Visiting plays an important part in maintaining family and friendship ties. It is common for Nigerians to visit their relatives frequently. Unannounced guests are welcome, as planning ahead is not possible in many areas where telephones are not widely available." (CultureGrams, World Edition, 2008)

I think the CultureGram is a bit outdated, as many people, even in rural areas, have cellular phones, but it's certainly true that unannounced guests (me) can be welcome. Mr Azih's daughter and her husband, Valentine, welcomed me into the house for lunch, and I even had the chance to watch a Premier League football (soccer) game afterwards at a local bar with Valentine.

If visiting is the most common leisure activity in Nigeria, then watching EPL football matches would be a close runner-up. Since not everyone is blessed with cable television, people gather at local watering holes, which usually have televisions, as well as chalkboards outside the door listing all the matches of the day. (See picture above.) Here, people (men, especially) watch the games almost religiously, and most will have a particular team they are rooting for, as can be seen from the plethora of "Gunners for Life" and "Billionaire's Club" bumper stickers that can be found all around town. (For those of you who don't follow English football, that's Arsenal F.C. and Chelsea F.C., repsectively.)

Visiting friends and watching soccer games. I think the Nigerians have gotten life down.

(N.B. In case you're wondering about the match, the Hotspurs played an amazingly tight game against Liverpool, and won 2-1.)

Lagos Traffic Jam

On the way back from the wedding, I was to experience my first Nigerian traffic jam. Despite Mr Azih's tactical maneuvers through the local streets of Lagos, it still took us two hours to get back to the house. (For comparison, it had taken us only ten minutes to get from the house to the wedding reception.) The video is from when the traffic was finally letting up. Near the end of the video, you can see the traffic warden bringing some order to the flow of cars and motorcycles. Poor guy, I wouldn't want his job. Of course, if there was electricity, then traffic lights would make everyone's life easier.

Traffic in Lagos

What struck me the most as Mr Azih drove around Lagos was how many cars there were. And second, how fast they were going. Driving on Nigerian roads is no joke; they're riddled with countless potholes, some the size of SUVs. As Mr Azih swerved at 50 miles an hour to avoid one the size of a small cow, he explained that the roads had been falling into tatters for quite some time. "The roads that are managed by the Lagos State Government are a little better [than most other roads]. The Governor of Lagos has been making some efforts to show that he is actually doing something [keeping the roads well-maintained, providing powered streetlights along main roads, etc.]."

Driving along the expressway reminded me of a computer game I used to play when I was a kid. The object of the game was to make it across a river without running into whirlpools. Driving in Nigeria is similar except you're going at over 60 mph...and there are a dozen cars lurching around you doing the same thing...and you have to make sure not to hit the occasional jaywalkers (across expressways!).

Nigerian drivers are fearless.

The picture above is a picture of a typical bus (sometimes called "bush taxi" to distinguish it from the public bus system). The man standing in the doorway and pointing is the "conductor". He shouts out the destination of the bus to potential passengers and collects the fare as they enter the bus. More often than not, when the vehicle is in motion, he remains standing with the door open so that the bus can carry as many passengers as possible. He remains in that position even when the bus is racing down the expressway performing the aforementioned swerving maneuvers to avoid potholes.

Nigerian bus conductors are fearless.