So my first week in class came with a few distractions from the students. Talking with the other lecturers about it they told me that I had to lay down the law. So from this came our new rules for engagement:

Our classroom manifesto:

Class starts promptly at the scheduled time.
No latecomers to class will be permitted, this includes latecomers from breaks.
If you are late please join the class during one of the breaks.
If your phone rings during class you will be asked to leave and not return until a class break occurs.
No listening to music during class.
No yelling or being disrespectful to your lecturer or classmates at any time.
No mid class interruptions from guests.
This page will act as the attendance for this class.

Failure to abide by any of the above will result in being asked to leave the class.

If you agree to the above please place your name, registration number and signature below.

Name Registration Signature

Out with the Sheriffs badge to get some structure in the class!!!

So I wanted to leave the school last week and go down to an internet café to post a blog when I was casually informed that I was not allowed to leave the university. It turns out that there was an armed bank robbery just down the street. Sadly the robbery resulted in the loss of life.

Robberies, violence and corruption are all part of life here in Nigeria. The robberies are infrequent and the violence is mostly focused in the Delta region by the oil companies then it is where I am staying. That being said it is still always here in the background. As much as I would love to have full days to be productive here I am limited due to the curfew that has been imposed on me for my own protection. I can’t be out any later then 6 pm. It is for my own good they tell me.

Not listening to rules, as usual, I stayed at an internet café until 8 pm the other day and I was getting phone calls from people worried for my safety. Getting ready to leave we unlocked the door to the café yet still having a couple of minutes before we would actually go the owner promptly locked the door again saying that it wasn’t safe. The door comes with a sliding peep hole just like in the movies.

I really look at it like everywhere else I have travelled. If I keep my eyes open and don’t do anything that stupid then I am sure I will be fine. Here I just have to be prudent and keep my eyes open more then usual.

It is getting close to 6

When I first arrived I was spending the bulk of my time with Peter the school registrar. Here the school registrar runs all the non academic parts of the school as well as looks after students acceptance into programs. To put it another way; Peter is way to busy to baby sit me!

Nothing like a few peeps to make the adventure here a little more interesting!

Tansian University has around 1,000 students who study across 17 different disciplines. The Pro-Chancellor or head of the school is a gentleman named Father Bosco who is about as nice as anyone can get.

I guess human nature is not that different wherever you go….

Back at home I am trying to increase my productivity. I want to become more efficient and accomplish more so I am scheduling my day into 15 minute intervals. It is anal, I know! Life in African happens to be the complete opposite of that, here I am getting a crash course in AFT: African Flexible Time!

I figured this would be a concern before I arrived but I just didn’t realize to what extent it takes effect here. It is one thing to be late; it is another thing to just be in no rush to get anything done at all! This morning the people I was travelling with didn’t even start getting ready until we were already a half hour late!

This morning was fine compared to how a number of people here have to real care about accomplishing things. Here it seems that something can always wait until tomorrow. If they say it will take 10 minutes to get something done, it may take an hour if it gets done at all.

At home I live right in the middle of town. I don’t need a car since I live a 10 minute walk from everything. Just one more way to remind myself that I am not at home… they have me living out in the middle of no where here! I am in an area that is about as rural as it gets.

At least the house comes with 15 other people living here (all guys), an outdoor kitchen (a fire pit in the back), and great sleeping quarters (a bed with mosquito netting). They have an air conditioner in the room but unfortunately the generator doesn’t produce enough energy to run it most nights. It is so hot here that at night I sleep with the windows open trying to get as much of a breeze as possible, the bare essentials for clothing, and that is it! No sheet, nothing else… and I still sweat!

When I first came here I thought I would be staying at the university itself but apparently the school thought it would be safer for me in no-mans land where people can’t find me! At least the rooster outside my window can scare people away if they come for me.

HOT… I mean, instant sweating hot!

At home if I get sweaty I want to instantly run for the showers. Here in Nigeria I just have to accept it as a way of life! I look like I took a shower with my clothes on every day.

My flight into Nigeria landed in Abuja, and besides the heat when we took a car to the Canadian embassy I really was wondering why I had come. Abuja is a fairly modern city with wide streets that are clean, street lights and organized traffic. The locals joke that it is safe enough to sleep on the side walks if they would let you!

I had come to Nigeria to help out those in need and this was not it! Coming to Onitsha I got what I was asking for and I got it in heaps! Hot, dirty, stinky, garbage everywhere, roads with potholes so big you can get lost in them, cars everywhere, abandoned hunks of what once were vehicles lying about… Onitsha is the heart of a people trying to fight tooth and nail to survive!

At the Canadian Embassy in Abuja to my delight they didn’t give me that big of a lecture on the ‘no non-essential travel’ warning that the foreign affairs office gives. As long as I stay out of the Delta everything should be fine. Oh and stick close to your escorts and hire and make sure you have an armed guard just to be safe!

Ahhh…. Those are words to my ears! Just another day in paradise….

‘My biggest worry isn’t that you die, it is that you get kidnapped!’ How does one react to that statement?

The funny part is that I actually understand why that would be the case. If I died here in Nigeria people could get over it, it would suck, but people could get on with life. If I got kidnapped who knows what would happen. The uncertainty would be the real hard part. It is probably easier for me then the people around me who care for me.

I like the adventure and get the enjoyment out of it; my loved ones only get the worry. So before I went away it was the people around me who had the biggest concerns. There is nothing like getting your will in order, arranging a line of credit in case you do get kidnapped, and assuring people that some day you will settle down and be ‘responsible’ towards a family to put things in perspective.

‘Stay home, but if you don’t go I will kill you!’ That was the other comment that reassured me that though it may stress some people out, it is only because they love me. I know in their hearts they understand, and when I come home safely it will be all the better for everyone. And it will make it easier the next time I go.

I also know that they understand that I go to because I love them and I want the world to be better for them and every one in it.

So I have always wanted to go for an extended period of volunteering to see the world and try to live making a difference. We talk about how the world is flattening and how all that matters in the world are people so the idea was to go out and live what I talk about. The idea had been sitting on the back burner until I met Ben.

Ben Agbonkhese lives in Vancouver, but is from Nigeria. He mentioned to me that he wanted to start something to help out small businesses here in Nigeria and I jumped on board. This was the opportunity I had been waiting for to get involved and it came with someone to help me along the way.

The master plan was to have Ben join me over here so we could work together for a while, but alas there were greater plans in store for him. The time that worked for me to come to Nigeria happens to have coincided perfectly with Ben having his second child.

So the original plans for Ben and I have been put on hold but that has not stop me from keeping my commitment of going. Looking for different opportunities beffore I left I was introduced to Gratia International through a friend of a different friend. I enjoy teaching at home so why not do it in Nigeria!

Gratia, through there involvement with Tansian university offered minds in the rural area of Onitsha that I could impact!

Who knows what will come of this. I am still trying to figure out a way of tracking what impact I will have. The great thing is that I will have tried, I will be changed and open minded from the experience, maybe the world will be one step better.

I don’t think it is our responsibility to save everyone, I think it is our responsibility to give everyone the opportunity to save themselves.

When it comes to third world countries I don’t think it is the job of the developed world to give them all the luxuries in life. I think we should give them an opportunity to participate productively in the global economy.

Socialists may hate it, but even if you get on the lowest rung of the economic ladder you can at least start climbing out of the mud.

For a solution to be long term it has to be built by the people in the third world who are going to use it. People respond better to things they own.

I don’t know what people in the third world need to help themselves! I have my assumptions, but if I barely get my own culture how can I understand a culture a million miles away?

What can I do to help: enable! My contribution is to enable people to help themselves and fix their own problems.

There are many problems that I don’t know how to enable people to solve. The problem of not having money is one that I can help some people with through entrepreneurship.

If you can’t find a job that allows you to live a reasonable life then take control the situation and create your own opportunities.

Entrepreneurship allows people to fix the problems in their life in their own way.

This does not work for everyone, but it is what I feel is the best I can give.

I may not be change the world, but I can do my best to make it a little bit better for the next generation.