Day 0: Lagos to Ibadan

It's been a dream of mine to travel to Africa. Not sure if this is from looking at pictures in National Geographic growing up or some desire to see how exactly people live in the developing world. I had been trying to somewhere as part of my residency training so that I could try to live as Africans lived as opposed to being purely a tourist. After many failed leads, University of Chicago signed a memorandum of understanding with two major institutions in Nigeria which presented as a viable opportunity. Thus, now, I am the first UofC resident to travel to Nigeria to do a clinical rotation.

I had no clear expectations from this experience except not to get #1 malaria and #2 yellow fever. I'm taking malaria prophylaxis which I hope helps me NOT get malaria as the medication (mefloquine) is really disturbing my quality of sleep (sleeping use to be very easy for me; now even post call in exhaustion, I can't fall asleep). For #2, I paid $158 to get a yellow fever vaccine that's good for 10 years.

Originally, I was suppose to do a rotation in two different locations in southwest Nigeria - Ibadan and Lagos. Ibadan is a major city more inland, home to one of the best (if not best) teaching tertiary hospital in Nigeria. Lagos is the former capital of Nigeria (before they moved the capital to the center of the country, Abuja, in the late 1990s) that is fast paced, expensive, more culturally diverse and home to the major international airport. The original plan was for me to arrive and spend 2 wks in Lagos and then 2 wks in Ibadan which is more inland. Unfortunately, the hospital in Lagos is on "strike" and therefore there are no workers/physicians/nurses and the hospital is entirely shut down. (I put "strike" to mean that even Nigerians aren't sure what's going on there or when it will resolve). So after landing at about 5 PM in the airport, I was suppose to meet my coordinator/babysitter/companion/chaperon Dayo and our driver to head out on an estimated 1-1.5 hr drive to Ibadan.

Before I left, my UofC contact gave me a picture of a profile of Dayo wearing traditional Nigerian clothing. I was hoping this would help me identify him at the airport because I had read extensively about how foreigners can get scammed at the airport and I didn't want to end up leaving with someone who was going to call Eddy for ransom. Thus, it's very recommended to have someone prearranged to pick you up. Thankfully (and obviously) that didn't happen. Dayo called me about 3 times and my contact at UofC called me twice and texted me 5 times (more on this later) while I got off the plane when it landed in Lagos (we had to exit the plane Mr. President style and then walk to the terminal), went through customs (there were only 3 ppl on the plane that had non-Nigerian passports including me and one of them was half Nigerian) and then rent a cart for my luggage with Naira ((Nigerian currency) that a stranger-turned-friend exchanged with me for USD on the plane). After somewhat sketchy interaction with the rental ppl (who all stared at me and asked me questions about if I traveling alone and where I was from), I loaded my luggage and headed out of the airport which everyone had prepped me to be intense with lots of Nigerians asking if you want transportation, etc, etc. Luckily, I came on an off day, there weren't many ppl and Dayo was there. He was great in calling my contact of UofC (Sope) to confirm his identity and he showed me emails from UofC with a copy of my picture. Ahh... to say the least, I was relieved.

However, once I got into the van with Dayo and our driver, I learned quickly how Nigerian traffic operates. In short, it's a little bit crazy.

My observations:
* No one drives in between lines because there are no lanes or lines. Cars/motorcycles/pediatrians drive/walk anywhere and everywhere.
* There aren't many traffic lights and even if they exist, everyone ignores them.
* Police don't enforce any traffic rules and noone got any tickets.
* People walk in between the cars and tap on your window to see if you want to buy snacks, Coke, phone cards.
* Average speed for the major of my trip was 15 mph.
* Scooters/motorcycles had on average 3 people on them (aren't only 2 ppl suppose to ride them?)
* Everyone honks liberally and flashes their lights to pass (makes me look like I have pleasant road rage)
* There are frequent "security checkpoints" where Nigerian police officers (who are poorly paid and accept bribes frequently and openly) shine flashlights in your vehicle
* People drive on the median and gravel to pass each other with honking and flashing of lights.
* People walk across the major highway in this traffic.
* Public buses that look like they should only seat about 8 ppl but I think I saw one with 14 ppl in it.
* On occasion, cars drive on the other side of the road to bypass traffic and then cross over to the other side (my driver did this...)

Basically, a drive that was suppose to take 1-1.5 hrs took 3 hrs and 4 security check points while we drove on the other side of the road after crossing the medium for about 5 minutes and a couple of times when I almost slid off my seat while the driver was passing cars. Later on, I learned that a major cause of significant mortality and morbidity in Nigeria is motor vehicle accidents (buses over turning, passengers falling off scooters, pedestrians getting hit crossing the street) so I'm thankful I made it in one piece. A local Nigerian physician was telling me today how he will alter his travel plans to strictly avoid this trip from Lagos to Ibadan and potential risk for an accident. I understand his point very clearly.

Here's some pictures on our trip from Lagos to Ibadan. Dayo took them for me and a man started yelling at him to stop. After that, I thought it was probably best no not take more pictures esp after it became dark and we were crossing "security checkpoints" with police officers carrying machine guns....