5.05 – sound of my iPhone alarm. It sings for me the song of One republic – "Secrets". I like it that is starts with a quite sound of sting instrument and goes on stronger and stronger a pretty loud chorus. This makes me get into the rhythm. I lie in bed normally half way through the song. Then – "Let it be light!" and "where is my book" or National Geographic. I read much more here than I used to in the past year. In fact ever since I came here I finished 3 books – "On killing", "One minute salesman", and "Left to tell: discovering God amidst the Rwandan holocaust". I came back to loving reading and look forward to my next book.
5.50 – quick review of the emails and answering the ones that only need one or two lines without a lot of thinking.
6.00 – TV on. I'm always switching on SuperSports Blitz or Eurosport News to see the yesterday's World Cup goals and other sports news. I love sports. I normally do that while I do my quick morning workout. 1 series of sit-ups, push-ups and back exercises. Need to get back in shape :)
6.20 – knowing that I have to be leaving at 6.40 I rush to the shower. I discovered how much time and water a cold shower saves :) of courser a cold shower in Lithuania and in Nigeria are two different things but every morning it takes 5 seconds of courage to get under water and every time I do that I think that I need work on my blog to not forget these experiences :)
6.30 – out of shower. Quick dressing and packing the back pack. It normally takes me less than 10 minutes.
6.43 - Leaving the room I often spray Mortein to kill the mosquitos during the daytime while I'm not there and switch the electric light in the whole apartment. It's one of those big safety switches that switches off the light in the whole apartment. Need to save electricity here :)
6.45 – I'm in a car with my boss, Banky and Dominik – our driver heading off.
7.20 – if it's Monday through Wednesday we arrive at the church called "Resource center". This center is where John Paul the 2nd used to say when he was visiting Nigeria. The mass starts at 7.30 and goes on until eight. If it's Thursday or Friday, we go directly to our work place – the Pan-African University (PAU) where there is a little chapel for Catholics (as I found out there are also praying places for people of other beliefs). They hold mass Thursday and Friday 7.30 to 8.00.
8.05 – after arranging my things we go to have morning coffee/tea. It comes with 4 diet cookies. That is very nice :) I like cookies. We normally chat for a while with people from EDS (the center that I work with) or other people from PAU. Everyone is very friendly at our canteen and we always and up laughing and having fun.
8.30 – back to the desk, starting to work. I normally start with defining my goals for the day on a small piece of paper. Currently I work on 4-5 projects. Two of them are the most important ones. The redesign and rebrand of the EDS website (www.eds.com.ng) (which is not yet up) and the establishment of the EDS customer relationship management and knowledge sharing system. Other projects include – guidelines for client meetings, and projects with some of the EDS clients.
10.15 – is time for breakfast. We go to the same canteen and have a donut, some nice sandwiches, little cakes or something similar with some more tea and coffee. Chatting about the latest World Cup scores is the natural part of the conversations.
10.40 – back to work.
13.55 – lately I've been going to have lunch later. At 14 although it has three periods – 12.30, 13.15 and 14.00. But after a breakfast and morning tee I'm not feeling hungry until at least 14.00. Lunchtime is huge. I could have not imagined that the plates in some other place than the US could be as big as that. But it appears it can. It's more or less a canteen, chose what you like food. Which always includes – fried or steamed fish, plantain, white and not-white rice, soups, chicken, beef, salad and some Nigerian dishes that I wish I could learn the names of. Lately I've been trying a lot of Nigerian cuisine and have been enjoying it a lot. The food is normally rather "peppery" (as they say it here) or spicy and they have these white "bun-kind-of" things. I have to ask Rotimi what exactly they are called.
14.40 – back to work.
17.03 – realize that it's past five and if we get out of here later than about 17.30 we might spend about 2 hours in traffic for something that would normally take about 45 minutes in 17.00 traffic or about 15 minutes without traffic. Traffic here is ridiculous for my standards. I always remember the example of the teacher telling students about a full glass – when filling it with big stones first, then smaller stones, then sand, and finally water. So this is a good imagination of what Nigerian roads look like. Imagine 2 jeeps going on a two lane road. Normal. In between them put another 2 cars – on the same 2 lane road. In between squeeze these ridic 3-wheel taxis. And finally fill it the rest of the space with about 10 motorcycles. You can imagine how many horns sound at the same time on a Nigerian road and how fast people move all over the place. That is why the fastest way to get around in Nigeria (just like in Barcelona) is a motorcycle. And that is why they run around all over the place and work like taxis. You can see people in suits in the morning hopping on a "motorcycle-taxi" paying a guy a 100N or so (70 American cents) and riding around the place. Another way of going around is using a mini-van bus. Here you cram as many people inside and the one that has to get of first opens the door and rides standing on the verge of the car with his/her full body outside. Oftentimes, in traffic, people simply climb up a random truck (without even asking) and ride in the same direction and then jump off :) now that's what I call adventurous getting around. Sadly, I did not get to experience that :)
18.15 (if there is no traffic) – we get back. Quick change to sports clothes. If I have about 45 minutes and it's not raining outside, I go to the lawn just outside the little apartment that I live in and do sports. This could vary anything from rolls, to Genbukan stuff, and I always finish with 2-3 series of workout. Sit-ups, push-ups, back exercises. I'm hoping to see a difference between me pre-Nigeria and after-Nigeria :) This follows by a quick 2-3 minute coldish shower and getting dressed into something more confortable.
19.00 – normally moving to the club house. A little bar place run in our "estate". Estate is a cluster of houses that live in one community and manager the place together. During the World Cup I go a little later 19.20 so as to arrive at 19.30 for the last game of the day. In the clubhouse you can get food (normally I would have some chicken and "chips" (French fries) or fish and chips. The latter is my favorite. It took me two weeks before I could try it because the place ran out of fish. But now it's back. They cook it in aluminum foil and with a lot of pepper. It's the most amazing thing ever. The medium fish (probably about 0.5m long) with chips and a bottle of water costs me N1300 (about $9).
21.20 – getting back home and trying to do some work or emailing.
22.00 – reading time. I try to read about 1 hour before going to sleep. I read slowly so it takes more time. But I'm getting used to it and enjoying it a lot.
23.03 – lights out. Good night :) This was another amazing day in Lagos!
