After battling our way through customs, we headed out into the warm and sticky but wet evening to be met by our guide Adi who brought us for our very first Nigerian meal, chicken and chips (!). On we went to the 'City View Hotel' where we were happy to see a bed after a long day of traveling.
Following our night's sleep, we were back on the road again and en route to Ibadan where the head office of EIL's partner organization, SYTO (Student Youth Travel Organisation) is located. On arrival at the office, we were welcomed by Dupe, our Nigerian placement coordinator and the other girls working there, Ester and Katie. Ester was to look after us during week long orientation and first task on the list was getting Nigerian sim-cards for our phones.
Having been warned to expect a lot of attention, we made our way through the local market to friendly and curious greetings of 'oyinbo' (white person), 'you are welcome' & 'How are you?'. Many just wanted to shake hands and just ask where we were from, we are literally one in a million over here!
It did unfortunately take about four hours to unlock our phones and get a Nigerian sim, we're still not sure exactly why, but luckily it wasn't too hot and we had the locals to chat to and keep us entertained. In fact we were spoiled by them buying us monkey nuts, bread and a much needed coke to keep us going.
Orientation began today and will continue for the rest of the week. We'll have a little language session, a culture session, a city tour and a chance to sample some local food (to figure out what we do and don't like!) before leaving for Ilesa to meet our host family and begin work with 'Living Hope Care'.
