Tuesday 27th July 2010 - The journey to Yola

We left our hotel in Abuja for the airport at 9 am. Our flight was due to take off at 11.15 and arrive in Yola at 12.15 according to the tickets with which we had been issued. We made it to the airport in time despite some hairy moments in heavy traffic. Fortunately the traffic was not as heavy as that coming from the airport and, after checking in with all the processing being hand written, paying for our excess baggage and going through security, we had just sat down in the departure lounge when our flight was called.

The plane we boarded was going to Maiduguri as well as Yola but we did not realise until we were on board that it would be stopping in Maiduguri before going to Yola. I assumed that it would go to Yola first because Maiduguri is almost as far North as you can go in Nigeria.

On board we noticed the Nollywood film star Aki of 'Aki and Popo' and he graciously allowed himself to be photographed with some members of the team. In this photo he is with Olufunke Osinake who was the first to recognise him.

The flight to Maiduguri took about 90 minutes and from Maiduguri to Yola was about 45 minutes. We left Abuja at 11.30 and must have spent about 45 minutes in Maiduguri while passengers got on and off and the plane was refueled.

This must have been the regular route because when we got to Yola, Agnes (the ADSUBEB Staff Officer) and Abubakar (the ADSUBEB Driver who had driven us during the Diaspora Volunteering Placement in January 2010) met us at the airport at 2.30 and Agnes told us that this was the time that flights from Abuja usually arrived. It was certainly a relief to see them because we had been worried that as our flight was arriving much later than specified on our tickets, there might not be anybody to meet us, or that they might have been hanging around the airport for a long time.

It was raining when we left our hotel in Abuja and all the way to the airport. At the airport, we made a dash for the terminal because of the rainfall. Inside the terminal, some of the staff handing luggage were clad in bright yellow cover all rain coats and there were plenty of umbrellas passing around. When the time came to board we regretted that our airline IRS had not supplied umbrellas for its passengers the way that some other airlines had. We ran to the aircraft and tried to huddle under the umbrella of the crew member checking boarding passes at the bottom of the plane's staircase before running up the aircraft stairs and into the plane out of the rain. Fortunately, we were not expected to identify our luggage on the tarmac before boarding as is the usual practice in Nigeria. The photograph shows the mirror image of the plane on the wet tarmac.

It was also raining heavily when we got to Maiduguri and we watch anxiously as a passenger who had difficulty walking was driven to the stairs of the aircraft in a private care and, while his companion looked on and got absolutely drenched, the crew and ground staff struggled to find a way to get him out of the car and up the aircraft's stairs. Eventually two of the ground staff carried the man onto the aircraft and helped him into a seat. All were greatly relieved and good humoured despite being absolutely drenched.

From Yola airport Agnes drove us to the ADSUBEB Guest House where we would be staying and gave us a chance to get acquainted with our accommodation and get some rest.

Later that evening we went to Tasty Menu for our evening meal, but the other volunteers were not impressed with the food there and it was definitely not as 'tasty' as I remembered from the January placement.

Margaret Leneke, ADSUBEB's Chief Education Officer, who has been responsible for the logistics of this placement, came to visit us and give us the programme they had devised for our placement. She said that we would not be doing workshops in Song as had been intended because it was too far to travel and that they had planned for all the participants from across the State to come to Yola for the workshops which would be streamed and take place at three locations. The Education Secretaries, Supervisors and Head Teachers workshop would be in the conference room at ADSUBEB offices. The Integrated Early Childhood Development (IECD) Teachers would meet at the Central Model School in Yola North while the ICT Teachers would meet at the Computer Centre at the Aliu Mustapha Model School in Yola South. Wednesday the 28th of July would begin with the formal opening of the workshop.