I heard quite a lot of things about Nigeria and mostly the negative comments with a lot of warnings. Then it'd be meaningful to come here and see from my own eyes before deciding.
Everybody including my manager was so nervous and she was calling me in every 5 minutes to say that there could be a waiting line in the passport control or I should not worry if I cannot see the driver (yeah everybody has a driver here, no taxi or public transportation yaaayyy :)) immediately as outside of the airport can be pretty crowded. I think Lagos wanted to show me the bright sight in this first visit and everything went very smoothly: there was no waiting line at the passport and they almost treated me like VIP. Secondly I found my driver at the moment I left the airport. :) Things were quite smooth; I arrived at the hotel with little traffic (especially when compared to Istanbul) although I was a bit shock with constant horning from the escort car following us to open the road, met my manager during a lovely dinner and met the General Manager with whom I was going to work directly.
Everybody was so warm and friendly: the hotel staff, people at work. Although I was a bit embarassed when I could not catch what the keeper at the hotel meant by "how was you di??", later I captured that he meant "how was your day?", things were all positive. :)
There was one more challenge ahead of me: finding an apartment for me within a certain range the company determined for me. As for all the other subjects, everybody was so pessimistic about house hunting as it was not easy to find a decent place among the few available and within a certain price range. We were allowed to live on an island called Ikoyi and the rents here were skyrocketed, namely a decent house would cost around $70K per year and there is also the service fee ($15-20K). I talked to many expacts and made a list of things to check: electric generator, water treatment, outdoor facilities (as I need to spend quite some time in the compound), availability of white goods, availability of service quarter (sometimes it is attached to the house sometime separate in the garden of the compound), sattelite and wifi networks. These could seem as basics as first glance, but nothing is a standard in Nigeria even the basics (I learned later with a first hand experience :)).
It was so easy and I was so happy about it. With all these positive feelings, I went back to Istanbul to pack my stuff. :))
Everybody including my manager was so nervous and she was calling me in every 5 minutes to say that there could be a waiting line in the passport control or I should not worry if I cannot see the driver (yeah everybody has a driver here, no taxi or public transportation yaaayyy :)) immediately as outside of the airport can be pretty crowded. I think Lagos wanted to show me the bright sight in this first visit and everything went very smoothly: there was no waiting line at the passport and they almost treated me like VIP. Secondly I found my driver at the moment I left the airport. :) Things were quite smooth; I arrived at the hotel with little traffic (especially when compared to Istanbul) although I was a bit shock with constant horning from the escort car following us to open the road, met my manager during a lovely dinner and met the General Manager with whom I was going to work directly.
Everybody was so warm and friendly: the hotel staff, people at work. Although I was a bit embarassed when I could not catch what the keeper at the hotel meant by "how was you di??", later I captured that he meant "how was your day?", things were all positive. :)
There was one more challenge ahead of me: finding an apartment for me within a certain range the company determined for me. As for all the other subjects, everybody was so pessimistic about house hunting as it was not easy to find a decent place among the few available and within a certain price range. We were allowed to live on an island called Ikoyi and the rents here were skyrocketed, namely a decent house would cost around $70K per year and there is also the service fee ($15-20K). I talked to many expacts and made a list of things to check: electric generator, water treatment, outdoor facilities (as I need to spend quite some time in the compound), availability of white goods, availability of service quarter (sometimes it is attached to the house sometime separate in the garden of the compound), sattelite and wifi networks. These could seem as basics as first glance, but nothing is a standard in Nigeria even the basics (I learned later with a first hand experience :)).
Unbelievable, I have found two nice places at my first try and everybody was shocked (literally :)) They were both nice, light with high ceiling, brand new with all white goods in a decent compound with security. Especially one of them within my price range had another major advantage: the next door neighbor was a girl from P&G and she was just moving there from Cincinnati. I was shocked (what would an American do in Nigeria :)) and clearly very happy as we could have got used to all the challenges here (below is the nice house I mentioned).
After two days of house hunting, I clearly liked this nice house with a P&G neighbor and accepted the offer as West Africa Consumer & Market Research manager located in Nigeria. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment