Fishing @ Banana Island

 

A Work week can get really hectic here, and all you can do when you get back home is get some grub in, watch some TV, Touch base with friends and family on Facebook and Skype and hit the sack. Wake up in the morning and head back to work. The week runs by so quick here, much faster than normal. It's a good thing we have great food when we get back home. A nice residence to go back to, and television without advertisements.

Ruben, Kenjie, Andreas and I head out to this jetty at Banana Island to fish. Fishing is something I have taken too. Quiet and very relaxing with country music playing in the background from my Nokia E71. After a few times there and a few catches of Cat Fish and Tilapia, we made Saturday mornings our picnic day.

 

One day we marinated Pork chops, barbequed them at 5 in the morning and headed of to our fishing spot. We are the only ones at the spot always which gives us all the quietness we need. Concentrate on the Fish and nothing else says, Ruben. He is having a field day and is extremely excited about fishing. We start planning right from Monday morning J. We pack Soda, Kenjie brings in Hot Coffee and fried fish as well. Egg's and Bagun (Philipino delicacy made of shrimp paste). Ruben's bringing us a lot more when he comes back from Christmas.

 

With our stomach full and fish in the ice box, we head home. We have not gotten to eating the fish we caught yet, but have given it a great deal of thought. Some day we might.

First Day at Work

First day at work was eventful in its own way. My Boss gave me a tour of the place. Our CTO was warm, welcoming and shared his insights into living in Nigeria. I was then introduced to the team and shown to my desk. Computer in place, we dove right into understanding existing processes and procedures. Oby, was of great helping me understand the setup.

Drove back to the residence for lunch with Ruben & Kenjie. Both of whom I now know, are as mischievous as can be.

Damien, our cook has lunch hot and ready on the table. Salad, chicken and rice was a welcoming sight. However I eventually found out, It was going to be a daily affair.

After lunch, we stopped at Goodies for Coffee and Cake. A neat Lebanese supermarket with a bakery attached to it. The coffee and chocolate cake has also become a affair now. J Keeps us awake!

Headed back to work, thereafter and right into a Monday afternoon meeting. It was an enlightening meeting on the company's quality driven mode of operations. Headed downstairs for some fresh air and conversation with Ruben & Chuck who kept feeding me on their experiences at Lagos thus far.

Thankfully I am in good hands here at Lagos. God has been good!

It was good to head back home, get into shorts and chill. Excited and looking to the morrow, I went to bed. Thankfully my phone has an alarm, without which It would be impossible to wake up on time.

I will have to stop here, or my alarm for tomorrow morning would be futile. I have a lot of catching up to do on this blog, will write more as soon as I can.

Arrival in Lagos

 

It has been a long time since I have written, my apologies!

I reached Lagos on the 23^rd of August 2009. The view from the plane while landing was lush green with a lot of rivers during our entrance to Lagos. I eventually found out, the airport does not have a ATC. A few folks stand outside on the tarmac and look up into the sky and advise if a plane is free to land or not. Not very comforting. The Airport had Bose speakers for a PA system, impressive! They could have been fake, but one could never tell.

 

The company sent me contacts of an Airport Protocol officer to get me through immigrations and the hassles of arriving. He got me to the front of the line, answered a few questions for me, had my passport stamped and walked me past the line into Nigerian country. He then took me thorough to the driver, Duru. This guy drove like a maniac, worse thank back in India.

 

I was surprised to see foreign cars from all over Europe, the Americas, and of course the Japanese were there. The drive to our residence was enlightening. The traffic was chaotic, the driver was aggressive and so was every one else on the road which offered me an acute amount of calm. I had a fair idea of where I was heading after spending a lot of time looking at the map at home: courtesy: Google Maps.

 

I reached the residence, our home away from home. It was a beautiful place, right on the river which was not too clean but still looked nice. I walked in not knowing what to expect and met Chuck. I was given a tour of the house and taken to my room. Tired, yet excited I tapped into chuck's experiences in Lagos so far. Assured that it was safe, and the place we lived in was close to an ex governor's place I went in for a shower, got some grub into the system and all I can remember is hitting the sack.

 

I about to hit the sack right now as well, got a long day of fishing lined up tomorrow. Will write more soon.

 

Attestation by the Ministry of External Affairs

The Ministry of external affairs setup shop in Nungambakkam a few months ago, which helped save the hassle of sending my documents to Delhi and having it wait through the queue of numerous others before having it attested. 

The Chennai arm of the MEA were simply fantastic! I walked in at 11:30 AM to submit my application and had it done right away. Received my attested copy at 12:30. They were very prompt and quick. 

STR Visa Application to Lagos, Nigeria

I am impressed with the speed at which the company i was joining worked. Couple of days after announcing results of the interview, i receive expedited copies of my offer letter along with documents to support my Visa application to the Nigerian Embassy in New Delhi.

Part of the process to apply for the visa is to have your educational documents attested by the HRD of the state government and then the Ministry of External Affairs from the central government. The state government attestation takes about 2 week. I got mine done at the secreteriat and just receicved my docuements today.

In the mean time, i got the yellow fever vaccination. This is a necessity and is for at the airport in Lagos.

Madras has a branch of the Ministry Of External Affairs operating out of some where in Nungambakkam. Saving that for Monday and hoping that goes well, after which i intend to submit the application for my Visa.