Lagos

Hi All- I am in Lagos for meetings. We are starting up a new program here. I am very optomistic that it is going to be extremely successful. The potential is great since the population is so large.

Here is a bit on Lagos:

Lagos State is an administrative region of Nigeria, located in the southwestern part of the country. The smallest of Nigeria's states, Lagos State is the second most populous state after Kano State, and arguably the most economically important state of the county, containing Lagos, the nation's largest urban area.

Lagos State was created on May 27, 1967 by virtue of State (Creation and Transitional Provisions) Decree No. 14 of 1967, which restructured Nigeria’s Federation into 12 states. Prior to this, Lagos Municipality had been administered by the Federal Government through the Federal Ministry of Lagos Affairs as the regional authority, while the Lagos City Council (LCC) governed the City of Lagos.

State took off as an administrative entity on April 11, 1968 with Lagos Island serving the dual role of being the State and Federal Capital. However, with the creation of the Federal Capital Territory of Abuja in 1976, Lagos ceased to be the capital of the State which was moved to Ikeja.

Equally, with the formal relocation of the seat of the Federal Government to Abuja on 12 December 1991, Lagos Island ceased to be Nigeria’s political capital. Nevertheless, Lagos remains the center of commerce for the country.












I am staying at a hotel with the fastest internet I have had in like 3 years, so here are lots of pictures...

Here are some of the Doctors I was working with at the teaching hospital here in Lagos. It was one of their birthdays:
















Here is a general hospital in Lagos that was a small grant award winner. They are building a child friendly waiting area that will have toys and health education DVDs. They are just starting construction it now:
















This one if from Nasarawa State last week. You can see some coworkers reviewing patient charts for that study on Expert Clients:

And here are more random pics from the car window in Kano State. You can see the Emir's palace, the main mosque, and some other sculptures:
































And just because the internet is so good, here are 2 pictures of me in funny hats:















Please write some comments!!!!

More Kiva!

Ok, I am still obsessed with http://www.kiva.org/ and can't stop talking about it. If you still don't know what it is, what is wrong with you? :) It is a microlending site you can do online with your credit card. You receive email updates of the progress of those you lend to on creating their businesses and they pay the money back in 3-6 months right back into your account. I did a profile of the 3 loans I made last year. Grandma got me some gift certificates, so now check out the 3 others I just make this year:


Eribarik Paulo, age 29, is single. He has a catering business. He started this business in 2006 and works daily from 8am until midnight. He is able to earn a monthly profit of around US$ 177.

This will be Eribarik’s fifth loan from Tujijenge Tanzania. He used the previous loans to build his private house and has repaid the loans successfully. He now hopes for the fifth loan to buy a good stock of food for his business.

Eribarik will share this loan with his loan group "Neema Kimara", which totals 16 members. The members of the group hold each other accountable in paying back their loans. In the picture, Eribarik is in the middle, front row, in a white T-shirt. About Group Loans In a group loan, each member of the group receives an individual loan but is part of a group of individuals bound by a group guarantee. Under this arrangement, each member of the group supports one another and is responsible for paying back the loans of their fellow group members if someone is delinquent or defaults.

Béatrice Wilangi is 49 years old and the mother of four children, of whom two are twins. They are aged between 17 and 25. Besides her own children, she also takes care of an orphan aged 17. Three of the children in her care are enrolled in school.

Béatrice began her business in 2004 selling a five-kilo bag of sugar. Her beginning capital was US$ 5. As she used to sell near a garage, she quickly noticed what the mechanics’ needs were. She then catered to their needs by buying and selling peanuts and cakes. Over the months, those mechanics become loyal customers. With hard work and good management, she used her profits to increase her inventory from one five-kilo bag of sugar to ten.

Béatrice joined "Beni", one of Hope’s groups, last September. The two loans she has received have helped her to diversify her business by beginning to sell loaves of bread. Beatrice’s business makes a profit of about US$ 40 per week. Her dream is to open a beverage store and a clothing shop. Beatrice’s strategies are based on keeping up good relationships with her customers and knowing their daily needs. About Group Loans In a group loan, each member of the group receives an individual loan but is part of a group of individuals bound by a group guarantee. Under this arrangement, each member of the group supports one another and is responsible for paying back the loans of their fellow group members if someone is delinquent or defaults.

















Ramatu Abubakari is 28 years old. She is married and has two children - a son and a daughter. Ramatu's daughter is already in school, while her son is yet to start. Ramatu and her family live in a rented apartment in Koforidua, a suburb of Offinso in the Ashanti Region of Ghana.

Koforidua is a farming as well as a commercial community, and many of its inhabitants are either farmers or traders. Ramatu works hard to help her husband financially support the family. Her husband works for one of the timber firms in the locality. Ramatu herself earns income as a food vendor. She prepares and sells porridge at the market square in the mornings. Porridge is eaten for breakfast by many Ghanaians. Ramatu procures the necessary ingredients, such as maize and millet, from Techiman in the Brong Ahafo Region where they are readily available.

She has been in the food sales business for about three years and currently needs a loan to buy millet and maize in bulk in order to cut down on the cost that she otherwise incurs as a result of the frequent trips made to procure the porridge ingredients. She hopes to thereby increase her business profit and be able to better support her husband in paying for their children's education.





















So I obviously thing this thing is pretty cool. It makes such a difference and it so easy to do. I know the economy is a bit tight in America just now, but try it out sometime...

Kano State

Last week I traveled to Kano State to help do a study on the effectiveness of our Expert Client program and to monitor a small grant we awarded to a hospital there.

Kano State is a state located in North-Western Nigeria. Created in 1976 from part of the Northern Region, Kano state borders Katsina State to the north-west, Jigawa State to the north-east, and Bauchi and Kaduna states to the south. The capital of Kano State is Kano. The state originally included Jigawa State which was made a separate state in 1991.

Historically, Kano State has been a commercial and agricultural state, which is known for the production of groundnuts (peanuts) as well as for its solid mineral deposits.

Foreign investments and investors can be seen all over the city. It is arguably within the first five states in terms of commercial activity within Nigeria.

Kano's once booming manufacturing sector has been stagnant over the last 15 years. Largely due to epileptic power supply. Plans are being considered to build a Nuclear Power Station in the North-Eastern region of Nigeria.

The official language of Kano State is English, but the Hausa language is commonly spoken.

According to the latest census figures from Nigeria Kano State has a population totalling 9,383,682.

We were mostly inside hospital records rooms the whole time, but on Sunday we did a bit of site seeing with one of the doctors and here family. Here are some pictures:

We went to a soccer match where the local time played a team from Chad.

We went to the top of Dala Hill to see the whole ancient city. Look at all the crowed mud houses.

Here we are at on eof the hospitals.

We also met the Doctor's whole family:

Lately, I have been traveling in Kogi and Nassarawa states. Pictures from there next week...

Some other things happened, besides the visit by President Clinton

Hi All-

Last week wasn't that special, just working and going to the gym, so I think I will still write about the week before. Besides the big visit from President Clinton, many other things happened.

On the morning of his visit, I had already scheduled a testing day in a small village just outside Abuja called Kobi. This was done in partnership with a small NGO called the Children Under 5 Initiative. It was a big success, 140 people where tested, 100 children and 40 adults.

Look at all the kids so well lined up to go to the clinic.















Here I am with the head of the Children Under 5 Initiative.















Also, that day a small grant I am managing was being implemented. It involved training people to help the doctors to get more people tested and retain the patients that are already on treatment. Check it out, this is in Kano, where I am right now:

So, it wasnt all just work. We took out some people who were from the Clinton Climate Initiative who were in town. I took them to a place I like that has live music and dancers. As you can see, I learned a new was to drink a beer and kinda became part of the entertainment as well. Grandma, please don't print out these pics for Grandpa...

So I am in Kano State right now and that is what next week's post will be all about, there are already some great pictures. Hope you liked it.

Bill Clinton's Visit to Nigeria

Hello All-

President Clinton visited Abuja on Wednesday. The primary purpose of the visit was to speak at the ThisDay Awards. Here is a description of the event:

"Former US President Bill Clinton and former United Nations Secretary-General,
Kofi A. Annan, have confirmed participation at the 14th Annual THISDAY Awards Festival of Ideas. The Festival of Ideas aims to further good governance in Nigeria and throughout Africa by addressing current challenges. These include deepening democracy and democratic
institutions; strengthening leadership; and addressing poverty.

The conference will also focus on how to promote investment in Nigeria and in other African nations. The event which takes place in Abuja, Nigeria on 14 January 2009, will be preceded
by an awards ceremony where distinguished Nigerians will be honoured. Among
them: Cardinal Francis Arinze, the President of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue at the Vatican; Chief Anthony Enahoro, the elder statesman who moved the motion for Nigeria's independence in 1952; and Supreme Court Justices, Chukwudifu Oputa and Kayode Eso.

Also speaking: Jeb Bush, Howard Dean, Andrew Card, and Karl Rove!

THISDAY Awards honour those citizens and corporate leaders who personify
integrity, hard work, innovation, sound corporate governance, excellence and corporate
social responsibility.

President Clinton is not being paid for this speech. THISDAY is making significant
contribution to the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative (CHAI) to support its work in
Africa. CHAI works to expand access to high-quality HIV/AIDS care and treatment
in the developing world. Currently, 1.4 million people are benefiting from medicines
purchased under CHAI agreements. "

However, before the event, we were lucky enough to have a chance to show him a hospital in Abuja that his Foundation supports. I met him there:















This one is funny, he put me right in front of himself in the picture:















This one is even funnier, the hospital staff kind of pushed me out of the way, so I popped my head up :)
















Here is how the newspaper described the visit:

"Minister of Health, Professor Babatunde Osotimehin has commended the work of the Clinton Foundation in Nigeria, describing the foundation as a worthy partner in the fight against the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the country. The minister said this when the proprietor of the Foundation and former United States President, Bill Clinton paid a visit to the Maitama General Hospital, which is one of the sites where the Foundation provides paediatric care for HIV- positive children.

Osotimehin acknowledged the support of the Foundation in the identification and placement of over 22,000 children living with HIV/AIDS on treatment and providing quality care for 45,000 others. He expressed Nigeria’s appreciation to the Clinton Initiative for the donation so far of HIV/AIDS drugs and diagnostic commodities worth over N1.3 billion to the Federal Government of Nigeria through the National ARV Scale Up programme.

Responding, former President Bill Clinton congratulated Osotimehin on his appointment as Nigeria’s Health Minister, describing the decision as that of putting a round peg in a round hole. He expressed how grateful the Foundation is for the successful collaboration with the Federal Government, which has brought quality treatment to thousands of children and is strengthening the healthcare systems. He expressed the hope that the Opt Out Policy can be implemented across all hospitals in Nigeria that admit children. He also expressed his hope that high quality medicine will continue to be available in Nigeria.

The visit at the Hospital saw the former President interacting with children living with HIV/AIDS and their care givers. Even though, the interaction took place in camera due to issues of confidentiality for HIV patients, sources close to the Foundation indicated that he was impressed with the work that the Foundation is doing in Nigeria and he promised to do his best to sustain the work."



Here we are at the Awards that evening. There was a professional photographer there, so better pictures are to follow.

Here is the newspaper article about the awards show:

"Former Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, arrived the country yesterday for the 14th THISDAY Awards Festival of Ideas holding in Abuja today.Also already in the country for the awards is the former governor of US State of Florida, Mr. John Ellis “Jeb” Bush.

Former US President Bill Clinton also left the United States for Nigeria last night for the ceremony which is billed to celebrate the best and the brightest of Nigeria and commemorate the longest unbroken democratic rule in the country that is now in its 10th year.

American pop star, Lionel Richie, arrived the country yesterday and is billed to perform at the awards gala. Nigeria's Dare Art Alade will also entertain the guests.

Jeb Bush will join Nigerian governors this morning at an early Breakfast Session entitled “Idea on Governance and Infrastructure” and tackle questions on the challenges facing Nigeria as it moves to consolidate democracy, enthrone sound governance practices and seek the right framework for building infrastructure to ensure and sustain economic growth.

With Bush leading the session, the discussants are ex-Cross River Governor Donald Duke, Governor Gabrial Suswam of Benue State and Governor Bukola Saraki of Kwara State. Others are Chairman, Intekea Corp, US, Bill Mundell, and Liling Chen of the Peoples Bank of China.

Jeb, who was born February 11, 1953, was the 43rd Governor of Florida. He is a prominent member of the Bush family: the younger brother of current President Bush; the older brother of Neil Bush, Marvin Bush and Dorothy Bush Koch; and the second son of former President George H. W. Bush.A star-studded international team will discuss the implications of the Barack Obama Presidency for Africa at the second session.

The team will lead discussions in Session II entitled “Obama is President: What Next for the World and So What for Africa ?”Members of the team are Howard Dean, the chairman of the US Democratic Party which produced Obama; Donna Brazile, Democratic Strategist and former Campaign Manager of ex-Vice President Al Gore; Card, former White House Chief of Staff; and Karl Rove, former White House Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Adviser to President George W. Bush.The session will be moderated by Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, Nigeria’s former Minister of External Affairs.

Entertainment correspondent for CNN’s flagship morning news programme, Lola Ogunnaike and senior strategist for the Democratic Party in the United States of America, Paul Begala, have been confirmed as hosts of the 14th edition of the Awards holding.

Ogunnaike who is based in New York will partner Bagala who was formerly co-host of Crossfire, CNN’s political debate programme to receive guests from across the world who will gather to witness the recognition of Nigerians and institutions with the most impact in year 2008.

She joined CNN in May 2007 and reports on pop culture and entertainment news as part of the network’s American Morning's daily news coverage. Ogunnaike has been covering entertainment news since 1999. Prior to joining CNN, she was the top culture reporter for The New York Times and spearheaded its entertainment coverage, writing profiles of celebrities like Jennifer Lopez, Oprah Winfrey and Sting for the paper's "Arts and Leisure" section.

Begala first entered the national political scene after the consulting firm he and fellow Democratic strategist, James Carville started, Carville & Begala, helped President Bill Clinton get elected in 1992. Serving in the Clinton administration as counsellor to the president, he was a close adviser to Clinton and helped define and defend the administration's agenda. He served the extremely successful American president as a principal public spokesman."

There is actually a great group shot of the whole CHAI Nigeria staff in the newspaper today. I will try to find a way to show you that pic.

It was pretty fun and inspired the staff. He also made an excellent speech about the importance and power of NGOs in an interdependent and globalized world. It was also really cool that he had a Q&A session afterwards. Hope you like the pics.

BOTSWANA 2008!

Hello All! Happy New Year!

This post is going to be all about my trip to Botswana over the holidays. Work this week is especially hectic due to a visit next week by WJC himself. I will write about that one soon.

Anyways, so I flew from Abuja to Lagos and then to Joberg. I have a friend there and I stayed with him a couple days before I went to Botswana. We just went to some bars and one day we went to see a movie with his children who I had never met. There are not any pictures of this, sorry.

Then I flew from Joberg to Maun. I could not fly directly to Kasane so I stayed in a little guest house in Maun, check it out, my room was like one of those little rodevel huts.
















From Maun, I took a bus to Nata. In Nata, I hitched a ride to Kasane. It was so cool because from there onward there were elephants crossing and walking along the road.















I spent Christmas in Kasane with a friend I met in Nigeria. He married a Motswana girl and they built a house in Kasane right on the Chobe River. He just had his second child so I got to see his sons also. Check out the view from his house:















See the across the river? That is in Namibia. Kasane is right at the border of Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.















Look, there are hippos in the river that come out and walk around. This fence was no match.
















Look at this sunset. The sky is so big here and there is little light polution so you can see so may starts.

The best photos of the trip are not yet here, I let my friend take them since he had the better camera. When I was in Kasane, I did a small day trip to Victoria Falls. This was amazing. Hopefully, I will be posting the photos soon.

While in Kasane, I went on a boat cruise and saw tons more elephants, hippos, and buffulo.















Look at how strange this is. Why is that hippo chillin with the elephant? Don't see stuff like that too often.
















This is a small island between Namibia and Botswana. I guess they were disputing ownership last year, and Botswana won. They put a flag to rub it in.

I also visited a croc farm. That was pretty cool, look at these guys:















This one looks like some kind of monster with all that moss on him. He really wanted to eat me.















Look at the size of this one! He is like a dinosaur or something.

From Kasane, I took a bus like 1,300 km to Gaborone, the capital. The next day I drove with a friend there to his familiy reunion in Molepolole. We ate a bunch of beef and drank some beers there.

In the middle, I slipped out and went to my old village, Letlhakeng, since it was close. I saw my old friend Same and her family there. Here is her in a Nigerian dress I got her.




















Here is the rest of her family. They fed me and kept an eye on me a lot when I stayed there almost 2 years ago.

















Some of you may remember I had a dog when I stayed there. Unfortunately, it got ran over by a car. But before she died, she had puppies. Same's mom kept one of the puppies and now that one had puppies. So here are my one of my dog's children and grandchildren. I hope they are ok, I think the father may be the dog's brother (gross!)

















So then I returned to Molepolole, and then spent the rest of my time in Gaborone. I spent new years eve with some old peace corps friends that are still there and some of the newer peace corps. I met the volunteers in my village. I guess I am still remembered there as they call them all by my name. Or maybe they just think all white people look the same :)

I visited my old language teachers and some other people from my village who had since moved to the capital. I hung out by the pool and ate beef and stuff like that. I went shopping got some batswana crafts. I also went to their natural history museum. Here a pic of me there with one of my friends. She obviously likes posing.

Then I had a long ride back. I took a bus from Gaborone to Joberg. Then I fly the next morning from Joberg to Lagos. Then had to wait several hours to get a fly from Lagos to Abuja. I am not much of picture taker, but I think this gives you a good idea of the trip (minus Victoria Falls).

I do expect to to more traveling with work this year, but do not expect any postings as interesting as this one for a while!

Hope you liked it, I had so much fun!