Nigeria Blog: Day 2
Today was incredibly fun to say the least despite some serious jet lag. I admittedly didn’t get to sleep until about 3am which was odd given my absolute love for sleep and failure to ever really experience jet lag in the past. While we had anticipated a much earlier morning, we arose to the hotel phone ringing at 9:45 for our requested gym wake-up call. We then carpooled with the owner of our hotel to the iFitness Gym, which was hands down one of the most amazing gyms we’ve ever been to. It was massive and had everything a gym nut like Ashwin could ever want, including several full sized monster truck tires for flipping. The music was playing on full blast with some ICONIC 2010s American Hip-Hop and for the first time in my life, I experienced what it was like to be the smallest person in the room. Yes, at 6’4 and 200lbs, I felt small. I’d venture to say that the average person working out was 250lbs of muscle, which was VERY motivating to get in a great workout with some new Nigerian friends.
After getting back to our hotel, showering off, and grabbing a quick bite, we were picked up by Paschal and our collaborator Dr. Akin Popoola and headed to the Ikeja mall for a team meeting and meal. Our whole team of LFR, HEI, and FRSC partners gathered for an amazing seafood meal where Ashwin and I got a preschool level lesson in Yoruba and Ashwin once again unsuccessfully tried to convince the team to root for Arsenal. We also spent a good amount of time discussing logistics for our opening ceremony that will be held for key program stakeholders next Thursday.
After our 4-hour meal, we walked around the mall and found an authentic Nigerian Cold Stone, where we all ordered a chocolate devotion, except Ashwin, who ordered an atrocious orange ice cream (sorry buddy, just a wrong choice). The highlight of my day, however, was how much Akin and I enjoyed discussing our favorite Marvel and Game of Thrones characters in line ice cream. Nerd fandoms are truly global. His favorite avenger was Captain America, which I can certainly respect. After ice cream, we headed back to the hotel through Lagos traffic which reminded me of a more chaotic 405 freeway. Then we got some beers with Francis, one of the HEI employees we had lunch with, and caught up about life, politics, and everything in between.
~Zach
Hey Nigeria blog! It's Ashwin here - this is my first blog for our trip and I'm so excited to be sharing my experiences of this wonderful country. So many memories created from our first full day in Lagos. Zach and I fell asleep last night believing getting to the gym at 10am would be too late - and of course we woke up at 9:45 to a wake up call from the front desk, scrambled to order our complimentary breakfast before shoving some eggs and toasts down and meeting our hotel owner (and new gym partner) in the lobby for a ride to the gym. We knew it would be a good workout when a friendly Nigerian man asked me where I'm from while running 9 mph on the treadmill. Out of breath, I responded California before he goes "but where are you actually from." I tell him I'm from India and he replies namaste, winks and walks away. Don't know if that was the highlight of the gym or the fact that Zach looked like he was going to vomit halfway into back exercises with the hotel owner's husband (just kidding Zach you crushed your workout). Go on a week long trip with me and beware: you'll be forced to get a month long gym membership.
Our wonderful friends in Nigeria then took us to exchange some change, but not before our wonderful hotel doorman offered to take us out to lunch at his favorite spots in the city. Thank goodness for an unofficial exchange rate of 675 Nigerian Naira to 1 USD, much higher than the 420 Naira to USD official rate from the central bank and even higher than the Euro right now - so crazy! We also got our first taste of Nigerian traffic. Paschal drove us perfectly through the bummer to bummer chaos where cars got within inches to us! The trip was not in vain - Akin and Zach thought of a wonderful idea to purchase dilapidated taxis and turn them into ambulances for our program here. More to come on that initiative!
We then went to a lovely seafood lunch at Ocean Basket in Ikeja City Mall. Slams, prawns, calamari, sea bass and many more ocean critters were served. And even though I was sitting around a table of Chelsea fans (definitely the most popular soccer team in Nigeria due to some Nigerian club legends such as Victor Moses), it was fun to watch a 4-0 Arsenal win on the TV #gogooners. Zach and I also "learned" some Yoruba (video evidence attached above) and had a wonderful time with our teammates here. Forcing the whole team to go get some Cold Stone with me (first time for me since I was 9) was a major highlight. Whether you're in California or Lagos, the cold stone employees mix their ice cream and juggle their scoops perfectly - so impressive.
We wrapped up our night grabbing some drinks with our friend, Francis. Francis is a great person and represents the types of people we have met in Nigeria - positive, good people who care about their country and fellow citizens. After making some friends and a few large bottles of West Africa's finest beer, Star, Zach and I called called it a night. A very successful first full day in Nigeria - stay tuned for more of our travels!
~Ashwin