Today is the day! Fully packed, I set off to the airport and said goodbye to Elly. Arriving at Heathrow, I met up with a few of the VSO group that were also early and sat in Costa for around a hour chatting, until meeting the rest of the group and a lady from VSO, who subsequently gave us our passports and Visas she had collected from the Nigeria Embassy earlier. From this point we followed the standard procedure for getting a flight; check-in (thankfully my bag was only over the weight but 0.2kg), then security check and through to departures. One of the guys in my group (Jamal) actually left his passport at the security desk, but luckily enough the security man ran after him and gave it back in departures. At this point me and the guys from the Nigeria squad decided to have one last meal, choosing a nice but slightly priced Italian as our last supper. We lost Jamal on the way to the gate after, finding him again struggling to carry the bags of shopping he'd bought. We then boarded (the first time for me) a double-decker jet to Dubai. We were flying with Emirates, the seats were pretty comfy to me and came with a pretty good range of TV series and videos. This was a big step up from the bogstandard EasyJet/ Ryanair service. Even the food was pretty good, (never thought I'd be so happy describing beef that actually looked, tasted and had the texture of beef when eaten). Also, the screen on the back of the chair could show me the news. While bored on the almost seven-hour flight to Dubai I decided to look at the news in Africa. Particularly, "Crocodile Kills Ethiopian pastor during Lake baptism" was hilarious but that might just be my dark sense of humour. I made a note not to get baptised while in Nigeria, especially in anything with a larger body of water than a bucket. On arrival to Dubai we found out that Jamal had left his wallet at Heathrow so we went to lost and found who just gave him an email address (which wasn't massively helpful), I then saw some Fanta which was a luminous orange, I decided to buy it, however, they only took notes, after handing over £10 I received 25 Durum back, meaning that the Fanta had cost me £3, and being stuck with 25 durum I had to quickly find something to spend the currency on before the next flight to Nigeria. I ended up being 6 camel bottle opener key rings saying "I 💙 Dubai". We boarded the plane and took the flight to Nigeria the plane wasn't as luxurious as the one previously, however, was still by far better than the flights I am used to. Making use of the free drinks I stored five cans of 7up in my bag for more desperate times. On arriving in Nigeria we could see the lush green landscape as we landed, along with little villages that were parallel to those mud huts you see on documentaries. Getting through customs was easier than I thought and after 40 mins we were out of the airport and met a man from VSO. We packed into the minibus to realise that one of the girls was still back at the airport with one of the Nigerian representatives. I and a girl called TJ decided to go back and see if everything was okay, to discover the girl had already booked her flights back to Nigeria after being in the country max 30 mins. This was a bit of the shame but we headed back to the van and made our way to where we were staying the night. It turned out we were staying a convent/ hostel, and here we met the rest of the team who is made from Nigerian university students. We played a few team games and got to know each other the Nigerians giving us a true introduction to the country. I was sharing a room with a great and also hyperactive man like me called Tochukwu. The only negative of today would be the fact I took my anti-malaria tablet on an empty stomach and was sick before dinner... won't be making that mistake again To end today's blog entry there is two video's, the first one is a performance by our Nigerian counterparts as they welcome and introduce us to their country and customs. The second one is an example of Nigerian dancing and music. Enjoy.
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AuthorThis blog is written by one of the owners of the site; Alex Hood. Currently studying English Literature at Brighton University and was given the amazing opportunity to work with VSO in Nigeria for three months over the summer. Archives
August 2018
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