Diary of a panafrican mom: Week-end in Lagos for glam event

*** Part 1 ***

FRIDAY

This past week-end has been quite eventful for me. I have to say that I have travelled quite a lot lately. I suppose, as a LOA believer, the old say is true "Be careful what you ask for as it might just happen!"

I'm not complaining, though. So far, it has been great, challenging, and my thirst for discovering new cultures and meeting amazing people has been greatly satisfied. But I want more..... :-)

Have you every noticed how hard it is for us women to pack for travel? My goal on this trip is to pack everything in ONE and only suitcase. Mission accomplished (though, I don't feel comfortable as I may not be ready for improvisation :(

This is me falling deeply asleep on the plane. Even though I was in a very comfortable seat, the plane to Lagos did not have any TV on. I worked on my computer for a while, with some relaxation music on; no need to explain what happened next.

"Please, wake me up when we get there!"

* * *

SATURDAY

We arrived yesterday in Nigeria, the second greatest country in Sub-saharan Africa, after South Africa.

My first impressions were so-so. At first glance from our encounters with airport people is that there is a certain degree of rudeness or harshness in the choice of words that people use to speak to you. Secondly, the airport itself was not so different from any other airport of the country. We waited what seemed like an eternity for our luggage to appear; yet none of the airport workers seemed surprised or even dignified our concerns with answers other than “It’s coming!” When we finally got our bags, I couldn’t help but notice how rudimentary the place itself looked. Not a great start for my Lagos-week-end extravaganza L

But all that was nothing compared to my surprise at the way the drivers get around. Our own driver probably hunked the horn a dozen times for a 20-minute ride to our hotel. Our car as well as the other ones seemed to follow their own driving rules, from a manual only Nigerian certainly own! Imagine in a city of more than a dozen million people, how it can be to drive around. And as cherry on the cake, the pollution: from the ambient smell of gasoline to all the dust. Let’s just say that my first hour in Lagos was not the most exciting one!

We arrived at the hotel, feeling (and maybe) looking like wet mops (one of my grandma’s favourite made-up expressions). We picked the Meridien Eko Hotel, because that’s where the event we are attending tonight is taking place.

I’m going to skip my impressions on the service at the hotel, quite nonchalant. Noone will take the extra-step to make your life (as a customer) easier. I had to call three times just to have a set of towels in our suite and the mini-bar had no drinks and was barely working.

Despite such as modest beginning, I finally perked myself to thinking positively and be excited about every single thing that would happen to me. Which is what I did. This morning, I gathered myself, put light make-up on and got a driver to make me visit the city.

I got up early as usual, to have time for myself to meditate, pray, do a bit of yoga and work a little bit. My honey had a few meetings to go to before the event. We're going to meet right before heading to the awards ceremony. Thankfully, I already planned my travel to the very detail. I'm starting the day with a yoga class.

Previous to taking my flight, I had contacted the first yoga instructor I found on google. I was pleasantly surprised as I emailed him very very early, at around 5:30 AM to ask him for information and see whether there was still space for one more person, he replied to me withing 5 or 10 minutes from his blackberry phone. A reactivity I certainly did not expect. Luckily, he told me that was giving a class on Saturday morning. Perfect for me! It was in a wellness institute and he was using a room for the class.

Those pics were taken after the yoga class. For my article on the yoga class itself, check out the post on: http://myayurvedabeauty.blogspot.com/2013/02/yoga-class-dayogastudio-in-lagos.html