Where are all the children?

Today was a good day, in this case because I chose to speak honestly, this is what happened.

As I was walking to meet one of my colleagues for a drink, I looked at the children I passed on the way;  busy washing clothes, fetching water, or trading, and realised I really miss seeing children being children, to me that means being safe, protected, having fun, not being self-conscious and enjoying their innocence while it lasts.

When I met my colleague, for a drink or two, I mentioned that now I have been there nearly six months, I have to report on my progress and whether I have built capacity of individuals or the organisation.  Now I know I have done lots of small small things, but I didn’t expect anyone to notice them, but he responded that I had built his capacity.

Then I went home, but popped out to my “corner shop” and perhaps emboldened by two beers, told the mama, despite the fact that two of her children aged around 7 and 12 were there, that Nigeria was making me sad because I didn’t see children having fun!  She said it was true, but they do have fun at Christmas, Easter and Eid.  The younger one then told me that she had had fun yesterday at her end of term party.  Somehow this “risky” conversation turned into a much deeper one, about what all their names were and what they meant, and did I know Sarah?  Sarah was here two years ago, but I knew her when I was in Abuja, so I said yes, I was in email contact and tomorrow I would come with a camera and “snap” them and send it to Sarah.

Then when I got home, thanks to the internet, I managed to chat with my good friend Irma, I’m not sure when we last spoke but it’s certainly not since I left the UK early in 2010, I last saw her about a year previously.  Irma is a very great long term friend, but there is an extra connection, her husband Okey is Nigerian, and therefore their children part-Nigerian, but based in the Netherlands!  For me chatting to a friend at the end of the day, particularly a long term friend, with an extra special interest in Nigeria was as the British would call “the icing on the cake!”

More rain

In yesterday's post, I mentioned that the road near my office often floods when it rained, so today, much to my surprise, it only rained gently for a couple of hours, it flooded, and I got some good pictures, enjoy!

Don’t go out there, it’s raining!

When I was first in Ibadan and still staying at the luxury Davies Hotel, one evening Abdul, a member of VSO staff was also staying there, and I had arranged to go and visit Karen and Brent (former volunteers), it was their last evening in Ibadan.  We met at reception as arranged but when we got to the door we found torrential rain.  Like a true Brit, I said, “wait I’ll fetch my umbrella”, I did, but Abdul persuaded me that we couldn’t go.  If I had been alone I probably, would have tried, and got drenched waiting for public transport that never came, and would have either been forced to take an okada (motorbike taxi) and get wetter in the process, or to give up!

Since then there has been heavy rain while I have been at work, fortunately this has stopped by the time I had to leave, but on a number of occasions it has left the nearby river flowing over the road instead of under it, with cars forced to turn around, and people wading through.  Fortunately I live in the opposite direction.

On Sunday, I was enjoying an Indian meal at a fine hotel, two bus / taxi rides away from my house, it was only when we came to leave that we realised it was raining, it was also already around 8pm so pitch dark. Four of us ventured to the main road where we hoped to find a taxi, at one point ankle deep water was flowing across the road. 

We found a taxi going to Mokola or roundabout, a central location in Ibadan, from here we were due to go in different directions me to UI, and them to Bodija.  I was busy negotiating for the guy to take us all the way home, my fellow passengers were complaining, it’s too expensive we’ll just get another shared taxi, look out of the window I said do you want to step out into that lake, don’t worry about the money!   They agreed.

It’s hard to describe it now, but it was hairy, I know that cars can get stuck, float away, and people can get carried away by fast flowing water, and of course, you don’t know what is under the water, or in the water, and it was dark! 

Eventually we got home safely, and I paid the driver and entered my dry house, washed myself with running water, and was able to enjoy electricity.  It made me realise how heavy rain can be dangerous, disruptive, or just unpleasant, and if I like most people, was unable to pay extra, I could have been stranded in pouring rain until the next morning. 

The Educated Elite of Ibadan

Three times in the last couple of months I have flown between Ibadan and Abuja.  Ibadan, is famous for its university, the University of Ibadan, the oldest university in West Africa and locally known as UI, which I must say is a much better name than UNIBAD!  Most Nigerian universities are known as UNI...., it took me a while to realise that UNILAG was not a universal pipe lagging material, and UNIMAID, I thought must be something to do with milk!  Actually they are University of Lagos and University of Maiduguri.

Anyway back to my story, Ibadan is a big city, an endless sprawl, I’ve no idea of the population, but I have read of 2 million and of 5 million.  Many people daily must travel between Ibadan and Abuja, but only a few go my air.

There are two flights on weekdays, one on Saturday and none on Sunday, some planes carry 30 and some 50, its advisable to book in advance and the single fair is ₦18,000 for Overland, and ₦21,000 for Associated (about £80), I am told that both these airlines have a poor safety record, but I’m sure it is many times safer than going by road.  (90% of Nigerians live on less than $2, approx ₦300, so to fly would be 60 days of income, even for me as a VSO volunteer it would be two weeks of income, I only fly when somebody else is paying!)

So both flights leave Ibadan at around 8am, and as I sit in the airport waiting, the atmosphere is a bit like a university common room, or a school reunion, except Nigerians respect hierarchy and titles and you hear people greeting each other, “Good Morning Prof, Good Morning Doc etc”.

Waiting at Abuja airport, with passengers flying all over the country, it is less easy to identify the educated elite of Ibadan, although traditional Yoruba dress of lace, embroidery and funny hats,  is always a clue.   When flying in this direction it is only as I board the plane that I hear the academic greetings. 

Change catalyst???

One of the hardest things about being a VSO volunteer is that your aim is to facilitate change, and change is hard!  However during the last five days I feel like I have achieved more professionally than the whole time I have been in Nigeria, around 16 months.  I am very realistic change is challenging and who knows what is around the corner, so I want to post this before I find out!

Part of my role at NEST is “Organisational Development Advisor”, or OD.  OD is helping an organisation to assess its strengths and weaknesses and make a plan for developing itself, VSO is interested in this as it works through partner organisations, and VSO can more effectively reach its vision of a world without poverty, if the partners it works with have improved capacity.

During my first week at NEST, I co-facilitated an OD workshop, over two days around 20 people, comprising staff, board members and partners, assessed NEST according to about 50 indicators, and made suggestions for improvement.  These indicators covered a range of “capacity areas” such as Strategy and Vision, Board of Trustees, Management, Human Resources, Finance, IT. 

I sensed a sense of excitement to how NEST could improve and a commitment to make it happen.  It was my job to write a report of the workshop and lead the development of a work-plan.  The report was fine;  I could do that alone, but then the work-plan....

Reality was trying to get a small group of people together to turn the findings from the assessment into a plan of action.  Although I was the lead on this it needed to be done in participation with staff, or it was likely to be irrelevant, and with no staff ownership, and confined to the filing cabinet. 

We started with a mix of “big people” and “little people”, but getting the “big people” in one room and focussed on the task was a challenge, so I got permission from the “big people” to work with the “little people” to come up with a draft.  Then I found that “little people” are also difficult to get in a room because “big people” send “little people” on errands.  I became more and more frustrated and got fed up with OD.

Then I was in Abuja for a meeting, and I was chatting with a former Executive Director of NEST, who had been at the OD Workshop, he commended me on the report, and said, “if NEST implement everything in that report, NEST will go far”.  He got me thinking so what is stopping me, how do I make it happen.  The following day there was a board meeting, so I asked the chair of the Board if I could make a presentation about the OD process, he agreed. 

In my presentation, I tried to give members of the board, (some of whom were present at the OD workshop) a sense of the possible future for NEST, and to build ownership to the process, but I told them I was stuck, that the land of milk and honey had been spied, but there were giants in the way, and we didn’t want to wander in the desert for 40 years.  (Numbers 13 ff).  They asked me what I wanted, so I said I wanted my small team for 2 hours a day for a week.  I got it.

So last week, Monday to Thursday, 4 of us developed a Draft Work Plan, and I think its good, and I think that the four of us worked hard, are committed and motivated to make it happen.  Let’s see what comes next!