ktravula – a travelogue!

Browsing the archives for the adventures category.

What a Day!

I have just returned from the US Consulate in Lagos for the pre-departure orientation of the new departing scholars of the several dozen Fulbright programmes in Nigeria. All of them have been chosen after keen scrutiny and fierce competition, and will now be spending varying number of weeks in the United States in the coming weeks. The shortest of the programmes end in two weeks while the longest lasts up to ten months. All fully funded, with health insurance, travel allowance, monthly stipend, transportation and a lifetime of networking opportunity. There were a total of 53 Nigerian grantees this year, and they were chosen from nineteen partner Universities in Nigeria. We’re told that there are also about 11 American Fulbrighters in Nigeria for this year. But they weren’t at the Nigerian pre-departure orientation, for obvious reasons.

It felt good to be back in that compound after one year. It was also of some pleasure to find that half of the departing FLTAs were those that were turned down last year when we all made the shortlist. Their persistence has paid off, and they are now heading out in a few weeks.  A happy reunion. I had about forty-five minutes to talk with them about my experience and answer all their questions. The questions were some of the same I had last year: Do I need to take plenty Nigerian food along? Will I be able to use my Nigerian phone while abroad? Just how many Nigerian type clothes do I need to take along? Will I be able to survive on the stipend and still make some savings? Among several other questions. There were some other fun ones too: Should I date a white person? How do I go about it? How cold is a cold weather? How will I live without my Nigerian telephone for one year etc. It was a fun gathering. I have asked them to keep in touch while they’re abroad. I won’t tell them about this blog just yet.

I also made a very wonderful discovery: I have become the second president of the Union of Campus Journalists of my old University to become a Fulbrighter. I was surprised. I was happy. I was warmly intimated with an almost forgotten past when I found out that the other Fulbright Alumni brought to speak to the departing folks was none other than Sheriff Folarin, the president of UCJ from 1994-1996. I knew him while I was the president of the student club between 2002-2004. He was a lecturer in the department of History. Now he’s a PhD holder, lecturing at a University in Ota. A sign of progress, and the leadership building capabilities of that then-just-a-minor-University Journalism club. I also discovered today that another past president of the club (1993-1994) Laolu Akande is the New York bureau chief of the Nigerian Guardian. Now I have to find him when next I find myself in the Big Apple. The point here is that before the Fulbright, there was the UCJ – that now-not-so-little University club of young student journalists that provided an early intimation for me and for its many products now all over the country in different professional capabilities for a life of service and adventure.

The press was then eventually invited into the meeting, and they got to ask questions of the departing travellers, and us the returning ones. One question that the guy from Radio Lagos Mititi (who made me speak unadulterated Yoruba for the first time in months) and the woman from Radio Nigeria both asked me at different times, without seeing each other, was “Since you have been back, what have you done to positively impact the country?” Good question, right? Not really. I’ve only been back for two weeks. And I’m not the Messiah. But now I know that there is an unwritten expectation to become something positive, immediately.

And so it begins.

Cheers to the new guys.

What a Day! was published on June 3rd, 2010, with the tags , , , , , , , , under the adventures, Observations category. There are currently 8 comments on this article so far.

A Visit to the Old School

No return visit to the old hall of residence would be complete without a visit to the old rooms that played host to my errant self during those five gruelling years.

So when I went there during the week, I stopped by room A41 where I spent my first year, meeting new people, learning to play chess, and discovering Don Williams.

Then I went to room A52 where I met even more people, ate more food, listened to more music and read more books. The walls of that room is witness to so much history. My last room was D20, and I went there too. I did not go in because the current occupants do not know me and I was not in the mood for introductions.

I also visited the reading rooms, the toilets, the cafeteria and the new basketball court behind the warden’s office. In some way, it was as if I never left. In other ways, it looked like an old prison cell housing a bunch of inmates just waiting to burst loose. There are no monuments to my stay in the hall, fortunately, and I slipped out just as I slipped in, anonymously, taking the memory again with me as I left.

A Visit to the Old School was published on May 29th, 2010, with the tags , , , , under the Academic, adventures category. There are currently 9 comments on this article so far.

The Best Small Library in America

A few days ago, I visited ‘the best small library in America 2010′, as selected by vote and inspection by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It is none other than the Glen Carbon Centennial Library located a few miles away from the Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville. The village of Glen Carbon itself is 19.3km square out of which 0.1km square is water. It has a population of about 12,000 people, was voted by CNNMoney.com in 2009 as the No. 91 on its “Best Places to Live” list, and is located 30 minutes by car across the Mississippi River.

Location

Surrounded by oriental artworks and located in a lush area of the quiet residential area, the library, which is actually quite small, stands formidable; and what strikes first as one makes an entrance is the warm glow of lights, and the aesthetics of the structure. At the entrance is a bronze cast of two little children reading a book. A little further in is a fireplace in front of which are two comfortable sofas and a coffee table. Then there is the warm smile of the members of staff at the help desk who are ready to give all necessary assistance to the visitor. “I am from Nigeria,” I said, in response to her almost curious look. “Nice to have you here,” She responded, and proceeded to attend to my co-visitor who had brought me to check out a few books and movies.

For a small library, the Glen Carbon Centennial is in a class of its own. If we do not wrongly assume that the current state of the art design of its interior is because of the cash prize it got from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for being the best small library of 2010, it is easy to see why it would be deserving of such recognition. With a warm staff, a conducive environment, organised shelves and a well-stocked store of books, a children’s playground, nice and spacious reading spaces, and a fireplace, it effortlessly lends itself to inspiration expected from such a reading and studying space. The materials in this small building will run into tens of thousands, but there is no one source of verifying such information immediately. There was however a recently published feature of the library in the Library Journal issue of February 2010. Although meant to be purchased for $2.00 at the desk, the woman at the desk made free colour copies for me.

Humble beginnings

The library started in 1975 as The Glen Carbon Reading Center in the “Hex Building”, and is now housed in a 15,000 square foot facility opened in October 2004, located adjacent to the town’s historic covered bridge. The doorway to the children’s area of the library resembles an entrance to a coal mine, with rough-hewn timbers holding up a corrugated tin roof overhanging the door. Lighting fixtures and other accents, such as exposed wood beams and rafters throughout the building incorporate this theme in a state-of-the art facility that includes glassed-in study rooms, a community room, children’s program room, wireless access, teen area and twenty-three patron access computer workstations.

After less than 30 minutes looking through the facilities and the warm services of its workers, it is easy to see why it was voted the best small library (a distinction that comes with $15,000 cash prize) by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. I recommend it any day for anyone who ever finds themselves in Edwardsville, or for writers and researchers looking for where to donate their books, research materials and papers. With a motto of “More than you expect,” the small library has grown in leaps and bounds over the years although the community hasn’t grown much. In the past two years, according to an article in the Library Journal, 2,313 new borrowers have registered, more than 35 percent of the patron total of 6430. Even the door count has risen from 33 percent from 2007. And for a library that runs on only fifteen librarians out of which only five on the management team are full time, it is an impressive feat. The place is open seven days a week for a total of 64 hours.

“Glenn Carbon seems to be doing everything right,” said one of the Best Small Library in America judges. “Glen Carbon has the most going on in every criterion,” said another. “I really tried to keep creativity, replication by other libraries, and innovation foremost. Glen Carbon got the most points,” said a third. The only other libraries in the places surrounding Edwardsville are the Edwardsville Public Library and the Lovejoy Library. The former is one of the oldest libraries in the state (“dedicated” in 1906) located in downtown Edwardsville, while the latter is located on the campus of the Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, established in 1965, and named after the abolitionist newspaper editor, Elijah Lovejoy, who was shot and killed while defending his press from a pro-slavery mob in Alton, Illinois in 1837.

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First Published on 234NEXT on May 1, 2010. Reprinted here for archival purposes. Pictures can be found here.

The Best Small Library in America was published on May 20th, 2010, with the tags , , , , , under the Academic, adventures, Observations category. There are currently 1 comment on this article so far.

Adventures in Paris

So I was in France, but only for a few hours as well. No, I didn’t visit the Eiffel Tower. (I at least said “Bonjour” and “Au revoir” to some woman, and she smiled back if only for a second. That should count for something.) Commuting from one part of the Charles De Gaulle airport to another, I couldn’t help but notice a very wide range of African clothings worn by the Africans and non-Africans moving through the airport. It gave a beautiful view of a colourful town. It was the first airport I’d been that had such array of cultural attires. American airports have everyone in jeans, tops and sneakers, or in jackets, ties and boots. No variety. Go to France and see a real multicultural environment. Well, not totally: everyone there spoke French. But in dressing, they all seemed to assert their identity, and I felt a little out of place wearing my SIUE sweat shirt.

Buying at airports have never always been my thing, but I saw a couple of nice “I was in France” t-shirts in the lounge and I tried to buy them. The conversation that ensued went somewhat like this:

Me (approaching the empty counter. It was about 5.40am, French time): Hellooo. Who’s here?

About two people who were already (window) shopping in the open shop looked at me for a brief second, and looked away.

Me: I’d like to buy a few of these. Who’s in charge?

Some young woman then came forward from the corner. She spoke some French that I couldn’t comprehend.

Me: Bonjour.

She speaks some more French.

Me: Erm, sorry. I don’t speak that much French. Do you speak English?

She: Yes.

There is something innately beautiful in a French person speaking the English language. I was mesmerized.

Me: Good. I’d like to take this, and this. How much are they?

She: So-and-so euros.

Me: Euros?

She: Yes.

Me: Do you accept dollars?

She: Yes.

Me: Alright, here is a hundred.

She: Oh, I’m sorry, we don’t have change for this.

Sigh.

She: If you’d go down that hall, you could get it changed.

I was too tired from the previous trip, and I didn’t want to make any more efforts so I said no.

Me: Do you take cards?

She: Yes.

Me: Good. Have this.

She collects it and swipes it on the machine.

She: It doesn’t work.

I gave up. I know I shouldn’t have expected an American card to work in a European country without first having directed it to by the issuing bank. The disappointment from the encounter was not only that I couldn’t buy some fancy French clothes and perfumes as gifts, but that I couldn’t stay long enough to hear much of that French English of hers. Super, I tell you.

Adventures in Paris was published on May 18th, 2010, with the tags , , , , , , under the adventures, Fun, Observations category. There are currently 1 comment on this article so far.

From the E to the L

The journey back home started with a short trip to St. Louis in company of a friend, and a Professor from my University who had graciously volunteered to give me a ride. Not having slept at all throughout the previous night, I succumbed to sleep many times before I found myself – quite in time – at the Lambert Airport, again. After removing my shoes and jacket, and after checking in the two big bags that I was permitted to check in, I hopped on the plane to discover that I had got a window-side seat once more.

I’ve never understood this, and right now I know that it’s more than just a mere coincidence that EVERY time I have travelled by plane throughout the last ten months, I got a window-side seat. The flight was booked for me by the Fulbright people so I believe that someone must have delighted in placing me at the best spot for action on flight. I thank him/her. By the time I got on the next plane from NY to France as well, I was on the window-side again, although on a different side of the plane. And needless to say, I slept off before take-off in those two instances. There goes the hope of the Fulbright flight arrangement officer for a detailed report of a plane take-off from St. Louis and New York City. Sorry pal :). I however got a good shot of the landings. I’m thinking of making a Youtube video of them, but don’t bet on seeing them soon. My internet here doesn’t even do well with uploading pictures, so videos are out of it.

I was in New York long enough to have a decent meal of the day in good company of a friend and fellow Fulbright teacher in NY who had agreed to meet me, and then I headed out. No thanks again to the special arrangement of my flight officer, I didn’t have enough time to visit the supposed charming city of lights. Come on, was an eight-hour layover too much to ask for? 🙁 In any case, now you have your wish, I’m now at home thinking of how much fun I could have had visiting Time’s Square, checking out Ground Zero, The Empire State Building and the United Nations’ Building. What about the Statue of Liberty, the Metropolitan Museums and Long Island? Well, you can have your New York City. I’ll keep my Chicago memories.

We at least have Oprah and Obama! Who do you have? And don’t tell me Letterman.

From the E to the L was published on May 18th, 2010, with the tags , , , , , , , under the adventures, Observations, Travelling category. There are currently no comments on this article so far.