We Have Reached the Half Way Mark

A small section of Watt Market in Calabar - also the least congested.

The time is flying by so fast. Two weeks down and two more to go. While it may look like we have been only having fun and games, we have also been working incredibly hard. Our team has had a particularly difficult time because our client has been in London and only returned on Tuesday night. On Wednesdays the executive council meets with the governor and that can last all day and into the evening. So, we only met with our client on Thursday for the first time. It has been a challenge to know if we were on the right track or needed to change our focus. In the meantime, we did as much research as we could, conducted over 24 interviews in the US and Nigeria, and read through reams of paper. We consolidated and analyzed all the information and prepared a presentation on our findings and recommendation for our client.

Thursday rolled around and finally THE meeting happened. We were able to spend two and a half hours with him. What a meeting!!! The response was overwhelming and we felt affirmed in what we presented. The next two weeks will be spent tweaking our presentation and writing a report that we will submit to the client. Our final presentation is most likely going to be to the governor of Cross River State and a number of executive council members and special advisors to the governor. Talk about pressure.....

We have also completed a preliminary statement of work for the next team and were able to summarize what we have done to date. Below is and excerpt:

"The Nigeria 1 Corporate Service Corps Team worked on a feasibility framework and road map for the establishment of a Data Center and IT Park located in the Calabar Energy City. They also undertook status quo research to understand the current IT capabilities in Cross River State and undertook a needs assessment of the desired state. While they determined that there was a medium term need for a new data center to support Cross River State IT consolidation requirements, a more immediate need is to develop CRS ICT capabilities by building required skills and infrastructure. This strong base will be required if CRS is able to meet its long term objectives of establishing a data center for use in backup/recovery for businesses outside of Cross River State and ultimately serve as a magnet to attract new businesses to the IT Park."

Enough about work....back to the fun and games. On Wednesday night we went to a Lebanese restaurant and had the most wonderful, delicious and filling meal of our whole trip to date. The table was overflowing with every Lebanese dish you could think of. What a treat!!! After eating rice and chicken for the last few days, we stuffed ourselves on continental food. So delicious!!!

This afternoon, my team member and I visited Watt Market. It is a huge open air market that sells absolutely anything.....and I mean anything. I picked up some beautiful fabric, CDs of local music and two Nigerian soccer shirts for the kids. We want to wear local clothing to work a few days before we leave, so a tailor is coming to the hotel to measure us and make our outfits. The fabric used for clothing is so vibrant and rich. I may even be tempted to wear one of them to work one day when I return!!! I have also bought some fabric to make a table cloth and napkins.

Tomorrow we are going to visit the cultural center and local museum and possibly take another trip to the market. Hopefully, I'll have a few more pictures to share with you all.

I miss everyone and can't wait to see you......but then again, I still have so much to see in Nigeria.

Chat to you soon.