jefel

i came. i saw. i conquered… nigeria!

When it comes to business trips, I must say I am a little unlucky. Back in Citibank, I was all ready to fly to Korea and in the same week, P&G called to offer me a job. BT or P&G? Well, that time, it wasn’t a hard decision as I really wanted to work in P&G. Bye Korea, Hello P&G. I wasn’t able to use my Korean Visa at all. Sayang. When I was in P&G, I was assigned another migration for a new market, this time mas bongga because it was in Europe! Oh well papel, I will not dwell into details na - basta short story - di na naman natuloy. And after more than 3 years in the company, akalain mo na sa lahat ng markets ng P&G, sa Nigeria pa natuloy ang aking first ever bustrip. Akalain mo. Di ko inakala.

So un natuloy nga. Went there for more than a week with my boss. Stayed the whole time in Lagos City. The whole experience was not as bad as I expected it would be. Motto ko non: Expect the unexpected! It was indeed a milestone in my life - I survived NG! I wouldn’t really mind at all not going back there. OK na un. :p

We were not able to go around the city for security reasons. So basically it was hotel-office-hotel and a couple of days na hotel-office-mall-hotel.

Here goes my photodiary.

Our home for more than a week- Protea Hotel. Naloka ako ng walang bidet (or tabo though this is expected) sa toilet! #alamna

With the tax manager. O di ba parang si Eddie Murphy lang ang kasama ko. Choz.

Us three - Me, TM and Caloy, my boss.

O eto na ang mga foodang! Buti na lang hindi ako maselan sa food so I was willing to try the local dishes.

Jollof rice - mas common dito ang jollof rice vs the plain rice. Parang java rice but with curry and tomatoes. Usually spicy din. Nagustuhan ko naman sya. I even bought a jar of spices for jollof rice which I used to make my own version paguwi ko sa Pinas.

Pepper soup - Nigerians are fond of spicy food. Tumagaktak ng bongga ang pawis ko dito. Like ko sya since I love pepper.

Pounded yam with veggie soup (ang soup na hindi soup). I don’t know why they call the side dish soup. Di rin knows ng contact namin. Ung veggie soup, parang laing lang. Spicy din ito.

One of their local beers. Their regular bottle is actually bigger than ours here in the Phils.

And here are the pictures ng aming pag-laffang!

First dinner out. I forgot the name of the restobar pero ang di ko makakalimutan, soooooobrang tagal magserve ng food. Actually, napansin talaga namin na in most of the restos we ate in, minimum 20 mins bago iserve ang food. Kaya siguro marami lagi nakakain ng mga tao, sobrang gutom sa kakahintay. Hahaha.

At Yellow Chili - this is a popular resto in NG serving local dishes. We had to google this one. OK ang food dito.

At Bar Campione. Brazilian-Italian restobar. Oh look at tiny milkshake - considering how big their servings are.

At Jade Palace. Chinese naman. The manager here is Pinoy. Akala nya Chinese kami ni Caloy but when I asked for spoon, he knew we are Kabayans.

See? Hindi uso ang spoon.

Around the city

And that’s it folks. If anyone asks about my life, my NG experience is def one of the milestones. I came, I saw, I conquered. :D