Landing in Lagos

I landed in Lagos at about 6 pm. As the plane approached the airport it passed by innumerable muddy lanes flanked by infinite brown rooftops. I couldn't make out any tall buildings. It seemed like we were going past a sea of corrugated sheets. As the plane landed a thought crossed my mind, where have I come?   The image of the never ending brown sea underneath is something that has always caught my attention during takeoffs and landings. As I got out of the plane, the first thing that caught my eye was the dark blue carpet. I had never seen such a thick carpet at any airport and I would get to know later that it was from one of the sister companies of the group.  I took my first steps on Naijaland, I was a bit nervous. I had the address of the Office but the plan was to reach Lagos at mid-noon. I could only hope that someone had come to the Airport to pick me up.

I reached the immigration desk in the midst of the crowd from the plane.  It was taking a lot of time to clear the passengers through the formalities. And then suddenly someone was calling out for “Mr. Battu Venkata” I have never been called that so I probably recognized the call on the 3^rd or 4^th attempt. I made my way ahead and met Mr. Sheyi who was still calling out my name.  He took me towards the desk and the formalities were quickly completed.  Then Mr.Sheyi asked me to pick my bags and meet him at the exit.

Now I had two big burly bags and one had to pay to use trolled. I was flummoxed, not just by that fact but because I had Indian Rupees and I couldn't see a Foreign Exchange booth. Luckily there was an Indian lady waiting for the baggage beside me and I decided that she would be person to give me the solution. She quickly flushed out a Naira 200 note for me to use and waved away the 50 rupee note that I had quickly calculated to be just compensation.

And so I got out of the airport intact and got into the car that had been borrowed to pick me up. In the car, I got my phone and the IOU money in Naira for expenses. I wanted to see the city, but it was already dark and I was tired. We had to go to the office to pick up the person who had lent the car. Same scenario at the office, it was dark and everyone had left. I got dropped off at the place where we would spend a couple of days before shifting to our apartment. What struck me as odd as I entered the compound were the high walls with barbed wire and the strong gate at the entrance. I could finally meet my batch mates here and after exchanging notes spent the night in the house of the nice couple upstairs. This area was Pelewura near Apapa Port, Lagos. I slept that night in a bit of excitement. I was finally in Nigeria and had no clue what the future would hold.