Day 30 – Goodbye Calabar (Sep 26)

Sadly this trip has come to an end … I accompanied Lindsey, Michelle and Cynthia to the airport for their morning to Abuja, and I will be leaving after lunch to Lagos. Kish, Juan Pablo, Ron, Hermann and Jenni left over the last few days and most should be home by now.

All project teams are meant to go through what Tuckman described as ‘forming, storming, norming and performing’ but interestingly enough in team discussions we realised the second stage did not stand out at all … storming does not always involved conflict though, I guess all team members were mature in their approach towards the CSC assignment and open to each other’s perspectives and ideas. All I am saying is that I feel privileged to have worked with such a team of IBM professionals who may have joined the program as colleagues but whom I consider now as friends above all.

I believe that at one point the team development model above was updated to include a mourning phase … to account for the sense of loss and separation at the end of a project when everyone moves on, in our case back to Australia, Finland, India, Ireland, Venezuela and the US … I am not looking forward to that phase at all !

Before I close out I would recommend you read the following blogs for another angle to this adventure … everyone sees things in a different light and I hope you will enjoy views from some of my travelling companions:

www.favali.net
http://jenninigeriassa.blogspot.com
http://lindseynigeria.blogspot.com/
http://hermannnigeria.blogspot.com/
http://michellekelfkens.blogspot.com/

Day 29 – Farewell ICT (Sep 25)

Project work is wrapped up and Jenni flew home to Finland this morning. So it is now time to go around town one last time to bid everyone farewell.
Lindsey was kind enough to be my photographer and here are a few shots from my last visit at the Information, Communication and Technology Development Department of the Cross River State Government (should I refer to is as the ICTDD of the CRSG?):

Day 27 – Executive Council Presentation (Sep 23)

Bid day today, the IBM team is presenting its findings and recommendations to the Cross River State Executive Council, chaired by the Governor – Senator Liyel Imoke. I’d say the ExCo is about 50-strong and we may have had an additional 30 people sitting at the back.
Most important meetings start with a prayer but official ones actually run the Cross River anthem, Nigerian anthem, and then the prayer told by a member of staff… quite a protocol that surely reminds everyone that they are working towards the greater good of the State and its people.

IBM and CDS focused their efforts on the following projects:
- Tinapa: strategy and roadmap for a Management Information System
- Enterprise Architecture for the Cross River State government
- Planning support for the Calabar Data Center with the Department of Special Projects
- Strategic assessment for the Ministry of Social Welfare and Community Development
- Tempo: Tourism Supply Chain development

The presentations were well received, it was rewarding to hear the governor articulate the value that he thought his State had received and exciting to hear other ministries requesting IBM support!

Day 26 – Radioactive Periwinkle (Sep 22)

Brrr … even as a French man who enjoy snails, frogs and all good things in live I have chills going down my spine just thinking about this …
Periwinkles are local snails found in thin black conic spiky shells … they actually sell at the Watt and Marian markets I described earlier though I never came across them in a local dish … until today.
Our protocol officer Jane took Lindsey and I out on a lunch expedition at House 4, a local restaurant where we order banga soup with goat meat. The soup is made from grinded palm fruits, and the goat meat usually has as much meat as skin which helps digestion. Ten little periwinkles also found their way in the soup …
Always up for trying new things I tried to suck the snail out of its shell, got the bitter juice out, but couldn’t get the little sucker out. On the second attempt I managed to bite a bit of flesh and pulled the rest out … at which point I had a temporary loss of hearing thanks to Lindsey’s master scream :) I spat it out on my plate and realised the rest of the snail was a mix of fluorescent green and turquoise blue … oh wow wow as the hotel front desk boy would say … was I just holding this between my teeth. It took a few minutes for both of us to settle back down and proceed with the rest of the meal. Minus the rest of the periwinkles :)

Day 24 – Boat trip to Akwa Ibom (Sep 20)

Apologies for the lack of updates … I shall blame it in the lack of internet access, though I am also partly to blame for enjoying being offline for a little while. It helps me enjoy the moment and be more aware of all that’s happening around me.

One of our project sponsors offered to arrange a boat ride to Akwa Ibom for the day and the whole IBM team (minus Jenni unfortunately as she wasn’t feeling well) jumped on a police boat at the Calabar marina.

We mingled with the rich and famous as we were accompanied by a few VIPs on jetskis and speedboats … quite exhilarating as we picked up speed and rain hit us hard, though it seemed a bit out of place as we zigzagged through a pristine jungle speckled with fishermen huts.

Akwa Ibom is the neighbouring state to the south west of Cross River, it was hard to tell its level of economic development compared to Cross River given the little we saw but my understanding from official publications is that they derive serious money from oil revenue allocations.

Day 20 – Time for a feast (Sep 16)

Memories of Tinapa are that of sunburns at the moment but the drawing power of good food and shopping for fabrics is irresistible! So on this fine day Jenni and I joined Kish and Juan Pablo in their Tinapa offices, headquarters of the Management Information Systems project they are looking after.

Tinapa is a free trade zone and a major investment for Cross River State … it includes emporiums (large shopping complexes), movie theatres, a hotel, a casino, many more shops, a water park and the Nollywood movie studio. Unfortunately at the moment not much if it is under operation, only the water park, hotel, and 4 shops seem to be running. The ‘build it and they will come’ approach seems to fall short of expectations and business tourists are yet to invade the place. Nevertheless it is a flagship project, has great facilities and great potential.

Now on to the best part of the day … lunch at the Amber Sun hotel! Alright I’ll tell you what was on the menu but please understand this was a reward and not our every day meal :) Mushroom cream soup, grilled prawns and chocolate mousse. Yummy.