THANKS!

I need to thank a number of people who provided information, experience, and materials to help us along the way.

Jeff Carl - Travel package development and promotion experience
Sally Farley - Survey techniques
Sadu Bajekal - Payment system information
Jay Venenga - Process modeling examples
Balraj Boparai - Demo downloads
Richard Wilkins - Maximo information
Abi Gera - for helping when most needed
Tim Van den Heede - Webcam to see the family and a great team partner

And of course I need to thank my family who made it all possible.

Wrapping it All Up

CSC and the Calabar experience are very difficult to summarize. There are so many ways to review, tell, and apply the experiences of the last month. None are 'more right' than others, but it is a struggle to put the experience in the appropriate and eloquent light.

Two tries at making a connection.

#1 - Movie analogies:

"Let's look at this thing from a... um, from a standpoint of status. What do we got on the spacecraft that's good?" -- Apollo 13 (credit to Ron Favali for this one)

It is easy to prescribe best practices and ideal models, but do so neglects an understanding of the reality of life for the majority of the world's citizens. It is important to focus on the needs, abilities, and access to the essentials of the people who are working with, as opposed to the ideal 'solution.
For example,
a) they don't use/accept credit cards and power availability is poor, but they have mobile phones
b) given the choice between spreadsheet software package and lined paper, the paper will win almost every time in difference to the advanced capabilities of software.

"Build it and they will come" -- Field of Dreams

The notion doesn't work in pre-emerging areas any better than mature markets

"In this world there's two kinds of people, my friend. Those with loaded guns, and those who dig. You dig!" -- The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Okay, I like the quote. There are lots of diggers in Nigeria and other emerging countries. It doesn't mean this class of people can't be the driver of change. We learned more from interactions with 'diggers' than any other experience in Calabar.

#2 What I want to teach my kids from the experience:

Patience -- the most important virtue
Respect -- you can learn from sources that would surprise you
Always ask yourself if something is really that important
Concentrate on what is achievable

Contradictions

We continue to struggle and laugh at the obvious contradictions, at least obvious to us, we see on a daily basis.

• Lebanese hotel and restaurant owner who came and stayed in Calabar because the people are so kind, but who is amazed we come to his restaurant without an armed guard.
• The resort that is advertised as Africa's premiere business and leisure destination, yet it goes weeks without power, very few things are actually open, and the manager aggressively shoos away potentially customers from the water park.
• The health institution referred to as the hospital that doesn't turn on the generator, has no mosquito nets, has medical devices without the batteries to operate them, and seems to use Facebook as a replacement for Gray's Anatomy (the book, not the TV show).
• The 'service charge' added to every bill that isn't given to the service staff -- it is no wonder services quality is non-existent, but still mostly friendly.
• The point of sale computers at many bars and restaurants when all orders and receipts are done by hand -- computers are not cheap here.
• The cable car that used enough power in the 20 minutes it took to ferry us down a mountain, to provide several days electricity for the villages we passed over on the trip.

This is just a starter list, but gives you an idea. There aren't 'answers' to these, just observations that leave us scratching our heads at times.

The Governor is a Terp!

At the conclusion of our projects and presentation to the State's Executive Council, the Governor invited us to dine at the Governor's Lodge last night - an outstanding culmination to the month. His Excellency, as protocol states we should address him, was a very engaging and gracious host.


A couple of insights he shared:

• He was very impressed with IBM CSC's program particularly on the grounds that it was presented as here are some of the company's select individuals who will help on projects where he saw fit. The Governor mentioned there are no shortage of groups with money coming to Africa saying they will help and this is what they think needs to be done -- very few come without predefined notions of what is needed.

• He is concerned that the coming generations won't look after their extended families as traditional in Africa. As Governor, he come provide for over 100 of his extended family, but as more outside influence penetrates the culture he sees people only thinking of their immediate family. One of the biggest lessons for me has been witnessing the greater sense of community caring.

• Cross River has the 'American style' political office model of 4 year terms and 1 re-election. He sees this as a problem as it takes ~5 years to develop a plan and seriously get a significant initiative underway and then another 5-10 years before substantial results can be seen. The challenge is in order to survive politically, each new politician needs to stand out on his/her own platform and can't in good grace propose just continuing the efforts of his/her predecessor.

• There are 12k Nigerian Doctors in the States, but less than 100 in Cross River State. He wants to provide a country Nigerians can leave, gain experience, and come home to.
  

Lastly as my family will be interested, he shared that he studied at University of Maryland at College Park before returning to Nigeria.

Packing to head towards home today!

Bringing it all together

We all have been contemplating how we would summarize the Calabar experience. Henry, probably the most eloquent of us, wrote the following blog that hit the mark for me -- why write something when somebody has already done it better. Full credit to Henry shown here with his favorite activity and topic of talk -- food.

24 days since I arrived in Calabar, Nigeria for Corporate Service Corps.

1 huge smile on my face for weeks and weeks when I found out I’d been selected for CSC.

3 months of prep work for this assignment of a lifetime.

5 clients to whom we have been assigned in Calabar to try to make a difference.

10 people in our team from 9 countries, all of whom are brilliant.

33 (91) degrees average high temperature this last month.

9 visits to the doctor from 6 members of our team so far, including 1 from me.

20 more anti-malaria pills to take until I am done.

1 complimentary mosquito net in the hotel room.

2 sad deaths in the family for members of our team over the last 6 days.

4 under-17 World Cup football teams staying at Amber Hotel near our office.

1 dinosaur and 5 gorillas outside my office who have become familiar friends.

800 Naira for a delicious lunch of jollof rice and fried fish from Crunchie’s.

12 hours until we are all due to present 3 weeks’ hard work to the state governor.

4 more hours to cram in some preparation for tomorrow.

3 days until I depart Calabar and leave the colleagues who have become dear friends.

2 big farewell parties expected over the next couple of nights.

1 huge mix of emotions.

Office Space

Feasts

The local food has been interesting. So far the local highlight has been the fish bars where they put a whole Tilapia on a wood grill and serve with plantains. A Star (the local beer which is quite good when cold) and a fish makes for a quality and somewhat healthy dinner. I think we are all suffering from a lack of vegetables (moms would be proud to hear) so we went to the market and brought our own supply to the grill. Tim was in charge of the prep as the cook wasn't sure what to do with them. Last night we were treated to a real feast.

In terms of international cuisine, Lebanese has been the best find so far. They are two good restaurants we believe run by the same family. Last night we when to the more up-scale of the two that is a private dining establishment -- you have to be invited or 'connected' to get served. The owner also wouldn't let us order off the menu as we weren't familiar with his offerings, so he prepared a buffet of his top items and filled the table with them. He definitely takes his food seriously. For the cost of a traditional dinner meal in the states, we had prawns, the best hummus ever, falafel, fish, and an assortment other items I can't pronounce or spell. Even better he gave us a dessert sampler, our first desserts since arriving as sweets aren't common here, and a couple meals to-go. We will be back ...

Things I miss... more on the drink side than food. I can't wait for a big glass of milk and my daily iced teas. I don't see myself launching into meats when I get back. After each venture to the market, I lose my appetite for a bit (skip a meal or two) and go-veggie for a few days. Seeing the meat stalls quickly ends any motivation to order meat -- I am sparing the blogs from the photos. It isn't the site of the actual meat, but more the recognition of the lack of refrigeration and general cleanliness.