We made it. We arrived in Yola on Wednesday afternoon after traveling through Frankfurt and Abuja. A long, but smooth trip. We are settling in as best we can. We are currently staying in the cottage at the AUN President's former residence, which is quite nice, but a little isolated. We are still working on getting a permanent residence, but we are comfortable here in the meantime. I am starting to meet some people and I am getting setup slowly. I have managed to get our mobile phones up an running and we will pass on the number via email. The girls are doing great and are dealing with the transition nicely. All in all everything is well, sometimes I need to remind myself of how work goes in Africa, as the swahili saying goes "Pole' Pole' utafika," slowly slowly we go together. To sum up we are doing well and we feel quite safe and secure. I will try and give a brief recap of our travels. I apologize that I do not have photos yet, but will upload them tonight and make an attempt to post them soon.
August 3 & 4
A rough day as we left friends and family from Philadelphia. The flights were uneventful and our time in Frankfurt was shy of 4 hours. We arrived in Abuja an hour late on the fourth. Contrary to the stories that I have heard about Nigeria and it airport, immigration, and customs our arrival was very quick and easy. I think having two little cuties smiling and laughing gets you very far. Immediately upon be recognized as traveling with family an immigration officer took us to an open line and we passed through immigration easily to find our baggage 0n the belt. Customs welcomed us, and I did not receive any request for a "dash" or bribe. The only hiccup was that our driver was not waiting for us. With no phone or niara (nigerian currency) we were pretty helpless, but fortunately the driver phoned one of the baggage carriers who found us and informed us of his coming (on time is a relative thing in Africa). We were relieved upon his arrival and were taken into Abuja.
Abuja... I was comforted and pleased to find the surroundings very familiar. It did not seem foreign to me. Harouna, our driver, was pleasant and knowledgeable. He drove us to our hotel with a brief stop to exchange some money. We exchanged money at a rate of 150 Naira to the dollar and were dropped at Top View Hotel. The hotel was fine. For those of you who have traveled to Zambia and stayed at the Ndeke hotel, it was very similar. We had a suite, which made it nice as we could separate the girls and get a decent nights sleep, though Jess spent it on the love seat with Addie who woke up around midnight. Aside from some noise in the hall and noises from the AC the place was okay. We ate dinner here which was:
For the Girls:
-Roasted Chicken and Chips (french fries)
Mom and I:
-Pounded yams, ogbono soup, and goat
Not a bad dinner except they brought Jess and I the wrong dish at first, which was bitter leaf and some sort of offal, which was...awful. The ogbono soup was much better though neither of us cared for the goat.
August 5th
Harouna called early and asked that we be ready early (8:30a) as opposed to 9. This is unusual in Africa, but was understandable once we saw the jam on the way to the airport. We woke the girls from their jetlag induced comas and got the whole clan to the domestic airport (across the street from the international airport). We were met by chaos. The scene in the check in area is hard to described. Poorly painted haphazard signs for the flights and no directions at all. Hot, hot, hot, my best description would be a hot, dirty, stock market floor with crazy trading in multiple languages (sorry the best I could think of for now). On top of this we stood out for one reason (you guess), but Harouna and a "guide" took good care of us and got us booked in and through security to the "lobby". Our flight was late by about an hour. We were worried we missed it because we could not understand the fuzzy, crackling, and popping loud speaker, but we made it, and an hour later we arrived at Yola International Airport. We were met by human resources and the president of AUN. We were then taken to the university club for lunch and then to our housing.
Cheers, Harvey
Jess is taking over....
August 6
Addie's 3rd birthday!!! Wow, I can't believe 3 years ago....
We stayed at the club while Harv did paperwork at AUN. The girls were pretty restless, but took a nap in the afternoon. We came back for pizza night at the club.
We even found a piece of cake and sang to Addie.
August 7
We went to the outdoor market today. The girls were a bit overwhelmed, but we did find some dhal and vegetables to make for dinner.
August 8
Lazy Sunday. We are at the Club now.
Love to all!
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