Day 1 “TID – This is Delta”

Leslie: Our initial flight to Lagos got off to a somewhat bumpy start. We got four hours out into the middle of the Atlantic before the pilot declared that a problem had been found with the satellite communications systems, and the plane had to turn back to Atlanta. Those of us on the ill-fated flight decided later that the real reason was far more exciting: as we deplaned, there were six or so cops standing outside – was there a fugitive on board?

After a short night in Atlanta, some harried attempts, via Twitter, to get Delta to care about the mistake, and another flight across the Atlantic, a few of the delirious Delta crew joined those who’d already been in Lagos for a day to visit the Ibese cement factory.

Impressions between bouts of sleep: first, it was stiflingly hot. You stepped out of the bus and immediately began to sweat. The countryside was green, neither desert nor jungle-like, and the roads were clear. Second, the Ibese cement factory, when it emerged out of the landscape, was shockingly large. Its bright blue industrial scale was striking amid the surrounding bright orange rock and greenery. Third, we Stanford students can feel out of place amongst people who make things for a living. In the control room in my borrowed hard hat and orange vest and posing beside a large mixer as our tour guides explained how market monopolist Dangote cement had built this immense, profitable billion-dollar machine of a place, I couldn’t help but think of how small some of the start-up ideas I’d seen in the US were. Finally, the workers, many of whom were Indian or Chinese rather than Nigerian, seemed rather fond of Ting and Summer. Merp thought they’d gotten kidnapped and turned around to find it was just their attention that had been captured J.

At dinner, we talked with Lagos Business School students. All of them were impeccably dressed, and most seemed incredibly energetic and excited about their futures. I was struck by how not different their aspirations seemed from some of our own classmates’, despite their very different surroundings; some wanted to go into consulting, some into media, and some into finance.

Andrew:  I slept only 3 hours the night before our flight to Lagos because I was planning on sleeping the whole flight.  My plan worked well and I woke up six hours into the Atlanta to Lagos flight.  I looked at the in-flight map that was display on the screen in front of me, and I was shocked to see that that we were headed west.  Was I just groggy from lack of sleep?  I made my way to the back of the plane and found a flight attendant.  The flight attendant and the (rather drunk) American passenger in the back of the plane laughed at my confusion and explained that the pilot had announced we were turning around due to the satellite problem mention.  Here’s a picture you never want to see – miles to destination and miles to origin being exactly the same…