If you have been checking in with us you know from our previous post that we are now home, ...safe and sound and filled with memories of our amazing journey overflowing with adventures, surprises, new learning opportunities, frustrations, a few “lows” (very few!) but many, many “highs”.
We promised to fill you in on our jam packed last day in Abuja so here goes, it’s time to play catch-up.
We began the day by walking to the U.S. Embassy for a 9:00am meeting. Walking was its own adventure because we had to cross a VERY busy highway and in Nigeria, pedestrians do not have the right of way!!!
When we arrived at the embassy, we had to go through two separate sets of security screenings and basically were only permitted to take in paper and pencil. When we finally entered the embassy, we met Major Price. Major Price is one of the people that Mrs. Jones had been communicating with about our trip to Abuja and he set up our meeting with the embassy staff. When we chatted with him we discovered that he is a middle school science and math teacher at a middle school outside of Sacramento. No wonder he was so very knowledgeable, helpful and reassuring about our decision to come to Nigeria to participate in the SAGE World Cup event.
During our visit we met with the Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) Ms. Lisa Piascik, the Counselor for Public Affairs Ms. Atim George and Information Specialist Sani Mohammed.
If you go to the link below, it will take you to the newsletter for the United States Diplomatic Mission to Nigeria. The top article and photograph is about our visit to the embassy. How wonderful to find us featured so prominently! The text of the article is copied below but if you go to the link you can also see the photograph since we were not permitted to take cameras inside.
SAGE Students Visit U.S. Mission Nigeria, Observe Foreign Policy at WorkAfter participating in this year’s Students for the Advancement for Global Entrepreneurship (SAGE) competition, the team from Santa Monica- who represented the United States made a special visit to the U.S. Embassy in order to experience the work of their government abroad. The seven students and their four adult supervisors keenly entered the Embassy gates, so as to walk on American soil in a foreign country. Meeting in the Rosa Parks Education and Information Center, the high school team discussed U.S./Nigeria bilateral relations with the Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) Ms. Lisa Piascik, Counselor for Public Affairs Ms. Atim George and Information Specialist Sani Mohammed.
Ms. George opened the event by sharing an African folktale reminding the SAGE delegation not to take short cuts, another important tool for the students to use as they develop their practice as entrepreneurs. Next, Sani Mohammed provided a brief history of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. To honor the visiting US delegation, DCM Lisa Piascik listened as the team explained their experiences and successes. She commended the delegation as admirable Citizen Ambassadors for the United States. Excerpt from the newsletter for the United States Diplomatic Mission to Nigeria.
Ms. George opened the event by sharing an African folktale reminding the SAGE delegation not to take short cuts, another important tool for the students to use as they develop their practice as entrepreneurs. Next, Sani Mohammed provided a brief history of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. To honor the visiting US delegation, DCM Lisa Piascik listened as the team explained their experiences and successes. She commended the delegation as admirable Citizen Ambassadors for the United States. Excerpt from the newsletter for the United States Diplomatic Mission to Nigeria.
Before leaving the embassy, Major Price got approval for us to have a photograph taken outside the embassy. The conditions for taking the photograph were that it had to be taken outside the first set of security walls, only an embassy aide who was accompanying us could take one picture and that Major Price had to look at it to be sure none of the embassy buildings appeared in the photo. Major Price gave us all lapel pins that have both the Nigerian and U.S. flags on the pin. The photo is above and you can see Major Price on the far left.
We walked back to the hotel and met Amaka Udojele, the SAGE team advisor for the Government Secondary School, Jibi-Abuja, who had arranged for us to join her SAGE team students and her school principal, Mrs. B.K. Amuga at the business of an active member of her Business Advisory Board (BAB). He runs a large printing facility (REGENT Printing and Publishing LTD) and has been very active working with her school’s SAGE team. His company also printed their team's annual reports. At his printing business we were joined by the SAGE team from Amaka’s school and by her principal school administrator. We started by meeting in his office and he shared how he had started his business from one very small printing press and how it has grown over the years. We then all toured his facility including the graphic design center (they use the same software as us; PhotoShop, InDesign, QuarkXPress, etc.) While we were touring the actual print shop, we discovered that one of the publications being printed had an article on Barack Obama. Back in Abuja, we had observed signs and posters advertising an event August 4th in honor of Obama's birthday.After our visit and tour, both schools loaded back into their respective buses and headed out to the village school where Amaka teaches and coaches the SAGE team.
When we arrived at Jibi Secondary School we met the Vice Principal of Administration, Mrs. T. Ogbonna and the Vice Principal of Academics, Mr. Sule Mohammed Alhaji. The school is on a six-week holiday but the students and staff had come back for the day just to meet with us. Jibi Government School is a co-ed school. During the school year, students wear school uniforms so many of the students who came to meet us had their school uniforms on. The school colors for Jibi School are pink and white for both male and female students.
We took a group photo outside the administration building and then the students took us on a tour of the principal’s office, the school’s computer lab, science lab and woodshop. We discovered that classroom signs in Nigeria look just like signs in our classrooms at Samohi. The school presented us with a wooden bowl that contained bracelets and necklaces as a gift for each of us.
We then went back to the Principal’s office to spend time talking together to brainstorm ways the two teams could work together on social and global entrepreneurial projects. We came up with a number of ideas for consideration but will need to continue to work collaboratively to research and work out the viability and practicality of our intitial ideas.
Then it was time to say good-bye to our new team partners and return to the hotel to pick up our luggage and leave for the airport. Just like in Los Angeles, 5:00pm is major rush hour traffic and we wanted to be sure to be at the airport with time to spare since we knew the KLM flight was overbooked. The Abuja airport is not exactly an exciting bustling airport when you have to wait several hours for your flight to be called. Absolutely no cameras or photos are allowed in the airport but if you can picture in your mind, gray, gray, and more gray with institutionally bare, sparse furnishings (mostly gray), you won’t need a photograph.
When we passed through the Amsterdam airport the first time on our way to Nigeria from the U.S. we simply exited the plane and went directly to our next gate. When we arrived back in Amsterdam from Nigeria, we were met with passport control immediately as we emerged from the plane's exit passageway. Personnel seemed to be vigorously grilling many of the passengers but fortunately we were allowed to continue on with only minimal questioning which was good for us because we were on a mission to find chocolate before our next flight!!! Also, we stopped to sing Happy Birthday to Ms. Kemp since it was July 29th in Amsterdam even though it was still July 28th in the U.S. She had a birthday that lasted many more than 24 hours.
After shopping and filling up on chocolate we boarded our flight for Detroit. Though we weren’t looking forward to another long flight, we were definitely all looking forward to touching down in the United States.
After we went through customs in Detroit and re-checked our luggage, we still had two hours before our next flight. Our terminal was right next to a food court! We all immediately filled up on Taco Bell, Chili’s, McDonald's, Iced Mochas and our cell phones. It was great.
The last 4-½ flight home seemed to take forever but then we were back in LA, collecting luggage, calling friends, hugging each other good bye and hugging our families hello. There were lots of tears mixed with all the hugs.
This is now almost the end of our story but stay tuned for one last posting when we will all post a short reflection on our 10 day adventure. 
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| Yea Golden Arches! |
